Ask the Author: Gordon Reid
Answered Questions (9)
Gordon Reid
Hi there, Josh!
I am in Australia, where are you?
Gordon Reid
I am in Australia, where are you?
Gordon Reid
Gordon Reid
Hello, Shona! I don't think I can help you, I did the research for From Dusk Till Dawn so long ago. All I can say is that, judging by the CRS number, I found that letter from Scadden at the Commonwealth Archives in Canberra. I went to their repository in a northern Canberra suburb, not to the main office near the old Parliament house. If I took a copy of Sadden's letter and attachment, I do not made it now. I destroyed all my notes for that book many years ago. Good luck with your own project.
Gordon Reid
Thank you for your inquiry, Anari. Back in 1979 I was looking for an MA history topic. I read in Russell Ward's book, The Australian Legend (1958), that the British occupation of Australia was relatively free of conflict. I think he said something like, " a man could travel on the frontier with little fear of attack by the Aborigines". I thought this can't be right, because I'd happened to spot a newspaper article on the Hornet Bank massacre in 1857 in Queensland. So, I decided to research it and found that although the article was very wrong in many ways, it had been a truly horrible disaster. Not just for the eleven killed at Hornet bank, but for the Aborigines, of whom about 300 died in the aftermath. I don't think I had any object in mind other than finding out what happened to set the record straight. I had not intended to revise any existing discussion of the frontier conflicts. I'm not sure that there had been much discussion at all. That is, before Henry Reynolds raised the question with his book, The Other Side of the Frontier. I hope you enjoyed A Nest of Hornets.
Gordon Reid.
Gordon Reid.
Gordon Reid
Years ago I was daydreaming about a retired New York policeman who returned a stolen handbag to a rich woman. She was so pleased that she asked him to find the daughter she had given up for adoption seventeen years ago. He did find the girl. The lady (who at that stage had no name) then asked him to find out who was blackmailing her. This seemed a good idea for a story, but I soon saw that it was a foolish fancy. I had never been to New York, so I transferred the location to Canberra, where I was living at the time. And so the story developed, along with the characters.
Gordon Reid
Usually by day dreaming and sometimes by dreaming while asleep or just coming out of sleep.
Gordon Reid
A piece of non-fiction, the ontological status of fictional characters.
Gordon Reid
Just keep going. Of course, it helps to read the great writers to see how they did it, but don't copy them. Instead, write in the style which is natural to you. Also, avoid formulaic writing, otherwise you will become a flesh and blood robot churning out one shallow story after another.
Gordon Reid
The best thing about being a writer is the act of writing -- that is, telling a story which may or may not entertain someone else. It does not matter in the long run if no one likes the story. It is fun telling stories, if only to yourself.
Gordon Reid
I've never suffered writer's block. When I began writing many hears ago, my problem was the reverse -- as soon as I had an idea for a story, I'd sit at a typewriter and start, although I did not know where the story would lead. Now, it takes a bit longer. I tend to go over and over a story, drafting and redrafting, so that the story and the people in it become clearer and clearer.
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