FAQs
    
      

Have you always wanted to write?

Where did the idea for The Glass Table come from?

You dedicated The Glass Table to your nephews, Jack and Jordan, and there are two characters in the book with the same name. Are the characters based on your nephews?

You also dedicated The Glass Table to Daniel Morcombe. Who is he, and why did you dedicate the book to him?

There is an environmental theme in The Glass Table. Was this intentional?

I read your bio. You talk a lot about death - your brothers, grandfather, and the Mackay sisters. How have these moments affected you and your writing?

Who are your favorite authors or books and how have they influenced your writing?

You don't have children, but you write children's books. How come?

You met and married your husband when you were quite young. What is the secret to staying happily married?

What does the "K" stand for in your name? Did you add this to sound like JK Rowling? Do you have any nicknames?

I did a search for the other books you mentioned in your bio, but have not been able to find them anywhere. Have they been published?

 

Have you always wanted to write?

English was my best and preferred subject at school, and as my husband, Steve, will attest, I am a bit of a storyteller. I favor a harmless embroidery of the facts to make a story more interesting for the listener. In the early years of our marriage, Steve would correct these 'paddings', ruining what was otherwise a perfectly good story. Consequently, he became known as Captain Boring.  

At school, in Year 11, I was relaying events from my weekend to a group of girls. The audience grew larger and larger, as did my story. At the end, one girl asked rhetorically, "For real?" To which I foolishly replied, "Well, no ..." and my moment of fame ended sans the glory and reverence as the 'crowd' dissolved faster than an ice cube in Cloncurry. I learnt from this, that one should never let the facts get in the way of a good story—it is to everyone's detriment. 

So, after reading any, part or all of my current and future works, you find yourself wondering if a storyline is autobiographical, the answer is, "no". It may be based on a skerrick of reality, but will be embellished beyond recognition.

 

 

Where did the idea for The Glass Table come from?

From a dream Steve had while we were on a sailing holiday in the Whitsundays. We were lying in our bunk staring up at the stars, when Steve told me about his dream ie the mere two seconds he could recall—people were swimming in a lake and then they were seated at a glass table. Since he did not mention that in the dream, the swimmers were adults and the glass table was in a boardroom, I assumed the glass table was in the lake, and so the story emerged this way. This is quite typical of spousal communications ie incomplete information (from male) = assumptions (by woman) = man and woman in different orbits.

 

 

You dedicated The Glass Table to your nephews, Jack and Jordan, and there are two characters in the book with the same name. Are the characters based on your nephews?

Yes, Jack and Jordan in The Glass Table are based on my nephews in looks and personality. Jack is the mature, wise one (I often go to him for advice), and Jordan is the king of one-liners. He will not let matters rest until he is satisfied with the outcome, eg the carp sub-plot in The Glass Table. Jack and Jordan are not brothers in the book, and live entirely different lives to the real Jack and Jordan, and of course, as far as I know, the real Jack and Jordan have never lived in a river as child spirits, although Jordan does like to swim in their pool in summer.

 

 

You also dedicated The Glass Table to Daniel Morcombe. Who is he, and why did you dedicate the book to him?

Daniel Morcombe is a thirteen-year-old Australian boy who was abducted on 7 December 2003, and has not been seen since, or found. Daniel was meant to catch the 1:35 pm bus to a shopping centre for a haircut and to buy Christmas presents for his family. The bus he was supposed to catch had broken down a few miles before his stop. The replacement bus did not stop because the spot where Daniel waited was an unofficial bus stop. However, the driver of the bus did call the depot for another bus to go for Daniel. Eyewitnesses and the bus driver saw Daniel at the stop at 2:10pm with a man standing close by him. When the second bus came a few minutes later, Daniel and the man were gone. 

In The Glass Table, the police chief and others in the community believe the children have been abducted, just as Daniel was abducted. This is intended as a subliminal message to children to be aware of the risk. 

 

 

There is an environmental theme in The Glass Table. Was this intentional?

I'm not a "stand-on-the-box and dispense a lecture" kinda girl/woman (I have a problem with heights and people throwing things at me), but I really, really like water. I like to drink it, shower in it, swim in it. I like to look at it and to bask in its serenity. As a kid, I loved to play in it—like the watering holes up north in Queensland, and the creeks in our hometown that used to flood in the summer school holidays. I've also been surrounded by water for all of my years, having lived my entire life on two islands: Australia and Singapore. So I can't imagine life without it, especially fresh, clean water. Here's what I know: only 3% of the water on Earth is freshwater, and about 2/3 of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. Most of the rest is underground and only 0.3% is surface water. Freshwater lakes contain 7/8 of this fresh surface water. There are six billion people living on our planet and we all need clean, drinkable water. It is the most important nutrient for the human body, besides oxygen. There are already 80 countries with serious water shortages. Now, I've never been a star when it comes to math/maths, even with excel, but the sums don't seem to be working out. So, I'm afraid of being a little, old lady forced to drink red wine all day and every day because there is no water ... hang on, change that scene ... The point is, there is already a shortage of fresh, clean, drinkable water, and if we pollute and destroy our freshwater lakes and rivers, we're in trouble (and possibly drunk all the time as well, which leads to more trouble). 

In The Glass Table the children are cast into a spell to live in the river Kai as spirits. They learn that what humans do above, beside and near the river, affects their living conditions, and upsets the greenie witch who cast the spell. I hope it is an interesting and fun way to convey a message, and all done in a fantasy setting to make it much less of a lecture (which is not intended—kids don't like lectures and nor do I), and more of a suggestion which may or may not influence later thoughts and attitudes.

 

 

I read your bio. You talk a lot about death—your brothers, grandfather, and the Mackay sisters. How have these moments affected you and your writing?

Death affects you in a profound way, and since writers tend to write about what they know, death does feature in all of my books. 

In The Glass Table, Jack hikes to Lake Como after running away from home because he thinks his parents no longer care about him after the tragic death of his little brother. As a child, when a sibling dies (speaking from my experience), there is no way to understand your parent's grieving, but as an adult, you can see the experience with an entirely different perspective, and this is why in the book Jack comes to realize that in fact his parents were not abandoning him, as he thought, they were suffering a great loss. 

Obviously, the deaths of my brothers were significant moments in my life. What I learned from John's death is that regret can and will destroy you, so wherever possible, as best you can, avoid actions and words that will spawn regrettable moments that will torture you infinitum. 

Judith and Susan Mackay—that was 40 years ago and I have not forgotten them, just as I will not forget Daniel Morcombe, Madeleine McCann, or the Beaumont children. This surely would be the absolute worst for a parent as if it is not horrendous enough for a parent to lose a child, but to never know what happened or where the child is ... I cannot imagine. 

 

 

Who are your favorite authors or books and how have they influenced your writing?

I wish I could say that I am an avid reader of the literary greats eg Faulkner, BeckettConrad  and Joyce however, I rather enjoy more irreverent, modern, non-literary works that make me laugh, such as Who Moved My Blackberry? 

I am a huge fan of Oscar Wilde—his wit and sarcasm is the standard to which I aspire. As a tribute, Oscar features in my novel, Being Anti-Social since the main character similarly believes the words of Oscar Wilde are almost biblical in their value. I also like Mark Twain for the same reasons. 

Of past greats, I like John Steinbeck and JD Salinger. I love Animal Farm by George Orwell, and since it is only 120 pages, can be read while cooking dinner or doing ab curls. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is also an all-time favorite, and is featured in my novel, Rain.

 

 

You don't have children, but you write children's books. How come?

I write both children and adult books. Basically, I write whatever germinates. The Glass Table is the second book I wrote, but the first to be published, and even though the idea for the book (see earlier FAQ) is from a dream Steve had about adults at a glass table, the idea spoke to me as a children's story set in a fantasy world. I don't feel compelled to write a particular genre and stay there without distraction.

My two adult novels: Rain and Being Anti-Social, are poles apart although people die in both—sorry. 

PS: we do have 15 nephews and nieces between us, plus four sponsored children: Oscar, Dolon, John Paul, and Sarita-maya.

 

 

You met and married your husband when you were very young. What is the secret to staying happily married?

#1 criterion for a happy marriage, in my opinion, is mutual respect—everything flows from it eg trust flows from respect, not the other way around, in my opinion. 

#2 criterion is to have fun. Laugh a lot,  be ridiculous, and don't take yourself too seriously. That way you won't take offence when none was intended, or sweat the little stuff, or even the big stuff.

 

 

What does the "K" stand for in your name? Did you add this to sound like JK Rowling? Do you have any nicknames? 

"K" is the legitimate first initial of my middle name, Kayrene. I did not want to use my middle initial as I do not like my middle name however, my preferred website address, without the K, was already taken. 

Kayrene is a name my mother created. Her name is Catherine although she was called Kay for many years, and my aunty was Irene = Kayrene. 

As I understand it, the K in JK Rowling, stands for Kathleen, which is not in fact JK Rowling's middle name—she does not have a middle name but had to choose an initial, and since Kathleen was her beloved grandmother, K was it, and what a legendry initial it has turned out to be.

I have several nicknames that have been with me forever. To my brother, parents, nephews, sister-in-law, friends etc, I am Leighzie or Aunty Leighzie. When we were young kids, we all had an "ie" ending to our names eg Johnnie, Paulie, Leighzie, Markie. When we were older, it turned into an "o" eg Johnno, Paulo, and Marko, however I remained Leighzie. 

Steve has two nicknames for me, not including Schmoopy Poopy (adapted from the genius, Seinfeld episode, the Soup Nazi). Mostly, he calls me Leo. Now you may think that this might logically follow from that childhood era when "o" was added to our first names, but not so. It comes from a character created by Paul Hogan on his TV show, The Paul Hogan Show, which aired in Australia in the 70s-80s. Children please look away at this point while I explain ... 

Leo Wanker, played by Hogan, was an inept daredevil stuntman. You can watch Leo's stunts on YouTube. I have no idea how this nickname became associated with my good self however it stuck, and has been with me nigh on thirty years now. 

Steve also calls me Baldrick, Balderico or Balders for short. This originates from a British sitcom series, Blackadder, starring Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder (me Lord), and Tony Robinson as his dogsbody, Baldrick. Since I am now a fulltime writer, and unemployed/unemployable, Baldrick/Balders legitimately reflects my current station in life.

This nickname was recently expanded to Baldrick Blowtorch. When sending an email from his Blackberry, Steve typed in "Balderico". The Blackberry suggested "Blowtorch" as the correct spelling, so now I am Baldrick Blowtorch (BBT). It has a super-hero ring to it. 

Some favorite lines from Lord Blackadder: 

"Baldrick, if a hungry cannibal cracked open your brain there wouldn't be enough inside to cover a small water biscuit!" 

"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognize a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on a harpsichord singing 'subtle plans are here again'." 

"I fear the words "I have a cunning plan" are rapidly marching towards this conversation with ill-deserved confidence." 

"As a reward, Baldrick, take a short holiday ... did you enjoy it?"

 

 

I did a search for the other books you mentioned in your bio, but have not been able to find them anywhere. Have they been published? 

Not as yet. Being Anti-Social and Shards, which continues the story from The Glass Table, will be published early 2010. Rain and A River Somewhere are planned for 2011.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
          

 

 


Rockhampton Girls' Grammar School

 


Steve, aka Captain Boring on his beloved boat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Whitsundays

 

 

 

 

 

   
Jordan (left), Jack (right)


Jack and Jordan

 

 

 

 

 

  

  


Daniel Morcombe

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 



 Children playing in heavily polluted river in the slums near Bombay, India.

Flooded forest along Murray river near Tocumwal New South Wales, Australia.
Murray-Darling, at risk



Photos courtesy, WWF 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


John (7) and Paul (6)

 
Judith and Susan Mackay, disappeared 26 August, 1970


The Beaumont children disappeared 26 January, 1966. 


 

  

 

 


Oscar Wilde 1854-1900

 
George Orwell's brilliant dystopian novel,
Animal Farm, 1945

 

 

 

  

 

  
The Glass Table
Children 8-12

 
Rain, adult fiction

 

 

 

 

 

   

The Parthenon, Athens,
August 2007 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's in a name?

  

Leigh: 

(Hebrew) gazelle, antelope, cow; tired, weary

(Old English) meadow

Kay: Pure
Irene: Peace
Named after: Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind

 

  
Paul Hogan Show
1973-1984 

 


Lord Blackadder with his dogsbody, Balderick