What are Dollywagglers? A dismissive name that
some puppeteers call others. Once upon a time I was the voice and puppet of
'Cosmo' in BBC TV's 'You and Me' programme. My own children were young enough
then to give me expert advice on what to put in the scripts. Dollywagglers owes
a lot to the seascapes, fields and woods of Suffolk, where I lived for many
years; NUTMEG PUPPET COMPANY appeared regularly on Southwold Beach, and I was
lucky enough to play a pirate, a female knight and Queen Boudicca in our puppet
and actor beach shows.
DANCING ON BONES reflects my recent connection
with Wales, a country I have come to know and love through friends and family
who belong there.
MICKA, published in 2010, was the runner-up for
the Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize in 2011, and featured on BBC Radio 4:
A GOOD READ with Mavis Cheek and Chris Smith - click on this link.
Please come and read my blog:
franceskaywriter.wordpress.com
Until 'Micka' was published, my writing was all
for theatre and mostly for children. My most recent play, 'A FEAST OF BONES'
will be part of the Imaginate Festival of children's theatre, Edinburgh, in May
2018.
Writing gives me a chance to explore my
obsessions - bones, early twentieth century Antarctic expeditions, dystopias,
Ancient Rome and the secret lives of children, amongst others.
'Micka' was partly inspired by children I met on
adventure playgrounds in Birmingham, Edinburgh and Tyneside, as well as Walsall
and Perth, where I worked on two projects with travelling families. The boys
who tell the story are composites of many children I knew growing up in the
toughest part of Notting Hill, together with elements of myself. The challenge
was to speak in the voices of two very different boys, and to create a
fictional world where empathy and compassion were, for both of them, almost
completely absent.
It's not a happy read, I know, but I believe
there is a possibility of redemption at the end.
Thank you for being a reader!
Author links:
Thank you for being a reader!
Author Questions
So,
this story you’ve written. What’s it about? Why should I interrupt my nap-time
to read it?
After I’d finished ‘Dollywagglers’, I
realised there was still a lot of story to tell. The events cascaded out of my
brain and onto the page. The first book was pure dystopia, with the evil
power-crazed rulers very much getting their own way. ‘Dancing on Bones’ has
dystopian elements, but I’ve allowed a little utopia to creep in too. As a
writer, I find I can’t just keep destroying bad ideas and people – we need
light as well as shade. Though the odds are, of course, stacked impossibly high
against our protagonist, who represents a force for potential good, even as she
denies it vigorously.
Where
do you get inspiration? Where did the ideas for your latest novel come from?
Ever since I read ‘1984’ and ‘A Brave
New World’ I’ve been fascinated by dystopias, and the idea of writing my own
has long haunted me. I needed to know what it was I wanted to say, though,
which is why it’s taken me so long… nearly seventy years!
Who’s
your favourite imaginary friend? Is there anyone you don’t like?
I have a couple of real friends who
died far too soon and I still feel they are out there somewhere – does that
count as imaginary? Nicci was passionate about children and literature and made
brilliant television dramas – one was about a girls’ football team. I see her
looking at what I write and prodding me sternly with questions like ‘Is this
the best it can be?’ ‘Have you done all the research you need for this?’ and
finally - ‘Never stop, never say your
work is finished.’
My other friend, Jude, who died last
month, was my best friend at school and in a very formative time for me she
showed me funny writers like Stella Gibbons ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ and I realised
that pastiche is a perfectly respectable and very flexible tool – metaphors are
what we need to lift our work into another dimension.
What
are your plans to conquer the world?
Simple – I trust in our youth to make
the changes we all need. I’ve spent my life and my writing career giving a
voice to those who are never heard, and working for a fairer society where
everything is shared and power is not given to those who abuse it – the very
reverse of our current political reality. The fact that we are all now living
in a dystopia has made me shift away from that view of the world – any future
books I write will get away from the increasing sense I have that the world is
out of control.
What
research rabbit-holes have you been down while writing? What was the most
interesting, or the most tedious?
Very hard for me – the geography of
the novel, where it takes place. I had to research the Elan Valley dams, the
history of Machynlleth town, some engineering stuff about siphoning petrol out
of cars. I have to fight the feeling that this is school homework and needs to
be done if the book is to have any cred at all. And I can’t compare my work on
this one with Dollywagglers, where I didn’t have to do any research at all, it
just romped along.
How
often do you provide a cat sleeping spot- I mean, write? Do you have a comfy
chair and a routine, or do you freelance cat-nap style?
First off, I have to make sure Jasper
is comfy. He loves being stretched out on my lap, which means I have to have
the pc squeezed into one side. He will occasionally swat a cup of tea out my
hand, so I have to be on the alert. I write lying on a day bed – it was not
always thus, I used to have a cramped little space in our other house, but I
loved it. I wrote all my scripts for ‘The Morbegs’ up in that room, and plays
for Team Theatre and Theatre Lovett. When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2012,
it suddenly became ok to lounge and laze as I write. Handy for naps too,
Jasper’s and mine. Today I’m on the upstairs daybed, where he is not allowed.
My writing routine would not make the grade. I’m not methodical, I write when
inspired, otherwise put it off. When I feel I have been too lazy for too long,
I deprive myself of news [no papers, no radio, TV or internet new] for a week and this invariably gets me
writing. This is one of those weeks.
When
you’re not writing, what do you spend your time doing? Besides looking at cat
pictures on the internet, obviously.
Politics. I belong to Welsh Labour,
which is recent, since Jeremy Corbyn was elected. I also belong to an Irish
campaign group, formed to stop the Irish government from selling off all the
kelp around the Irish coast to the highest bidder. The most recent atrocity was
a licence to one man to mechanically cut 1800 acres of kelp in Bantry Bay, with
no environmental impact study and no preliminary scientific surveys. The
government was so desperate to make a profit that they cut all kinds of corners
and made it impossible for local residents to know about these plans until too
late. Happily, the campaign has just been granted a judicial review, which
means a judge considers we have a case the government must answer. So, fighting
dystopia continues in my non-writing life too. I also spend happy days playing
with my two granddaughters, Nancy and Bess. They remind me what fun life can
be, and how easy it is to embrace life and all its wonders when you come from a
secure and happy home. Other activities in season – making elderflower
champagne, planting stuff in the polytunnel, swimming in the sea [not until the
end of May, I’d say, this year] and having bonfires.
Is
there anything you’ve read/seen recently that would be worthy of my attention?
[aka. what book or film recommendations would you make?]
I have recently seen Three Billboards
outside Ebbing Missouri and celebrate that fantastic woman Frances McDormand.
She won the Oscar and accepted it wearing a long-sleeved dress and no makeup –
just what I would do if it ever happened to me. I’m currently reading anything
by Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell. Thrillers are a better option for me as a reader
these days because, unlike dystopias, thrillers assume a framework where
justice can be applied to put a bad thing right.
Kitty Questions
If
you kindly brought your human a present, and they scream and tell you that they
don’t like dead mice - that’s just rude, isn’t it?
It’s all about training. If your
human catches on, they will respond by playing with the dead mouse, obv, and
then Jasper would, I know, begin a graduated series of lessons at the end of
which I would be able to stalk and catch my very own mice [and rats]. Alas, I
always fall at the very first hurdle by sweeping mouse up with the rubbish. He
doesn’t have a high opinion of my intelligence.
Cats.
Fabulous, or completely fabulous?
Wonderful creatures. No house is
complete without them.
What’s
your second-favourite food? Because obviously you are a human of taste and
discretion, and therefore your favourite is tuna.
Pork figures largely in my dream
menus – with crunchy crackling. Or bacon, crispy and hot. I am also somewhat
obsessed with apples, notable English varieties like Discovery, Worcester
Pearmain, Beauty of Bath, Granny Smith, Cox’s Orange and its Kerry cousin, the
Kerry Pippin, and Egremont Russets. In our orchard in Ireland we have planted
all these, which means we have fresh exquisite apples from early August through
till October.
Bold’s
bow tie: excellently stylish, or rather dashing?
Bow tie a rather daring choice, might
lead to confusion of identity with, for example, Jacob Rees-Mogg or Robin Day
of recent memory? In cat terms, this could be a good thing, for all I know.
On
a scale of ‘excellent’ to ‘needs more practise’, how good are you at giving ear
scritches?
I’d say I am rather good, as I can
imagine it being done to me. The high level of purring and [rolling over so I
can stroke the fluffy tummy] trust thereby engendered is a good sign, I think.
By
the way, I left you a present behind the chair. I hope you like hairballs.
So very kind. Hairballs are my
favourite. And I am impressed by your dexterity with the keyboard.
Author links:
Blogs sporadically at https://franceskaywriter.wordpress.com/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dollywagglers-Frances-Kay-ebook/dp/B00JYGG58W/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dancing-Bones-Frances-Kay/dp/1911497960/
(blurbs on the Amazon links)
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