This is the life...sat on the "perfect" beach, with an ice-cream in hand - the sea is so blue and so calm. Perfect! This exotic location is the perfect spot to interview contemporary fiction author,
Jessica Norrie.
So while we eat our ice-creams, why don't you take a quick look at Jessica's latest book.
The Infinity Pool
In this thoughtful novel set on a sun-baked island, Adrian Hartman, the
charismatic director of the Serendipity holiday community, is
responsible for ensuring the perfect mindful break, with personal growth
and inner peace guaranteed. People return year after year to bare their
souls. For some, Adrian IS Serendipity.
But Adrian disappears, and with him goes the serenity of his staff and guests, who are bewildered without their leader. The hostility of the local villagers is beginning to boil over. Is their anger justified or are the visitors, each in a different way, just paranoid?
As romance turns sour and conflict threatens the stability of both communities, everyone has to find their own way to survive. This evocative story explores the decisions of adults who still need to come of age, the effect of well-intentioned tourism on a traditional community the real meaning of getting away from it all.
But Adrian disappears, and with him goes the serenity of his staff and guests, who are bewildered without their leader. The hostility of the local villagers is beginning to boil over. Is their anger justified or are the visitors, each in a different way, just paranoid?
As romance turns sour and conflict threatens the stability of both communities, everyone has to find their own way to survive. This evocative story explores the decisions of adults who still need to come of age, the effect of well-intentioned tourism on a traditional community the real meaning of getting away from it all.
***
Ice-cream finished - let's crack on with the interview.
JN: I was suddenly inspired by a
holiday I went on – both the setting and the way the holiday was run which
encouraged people to be creative. The more I wrote the quicker my ideas came
along. It took about three years to write a quarter of “The Infinity Pool” but
the fourth year I wrote 60,000 words – whoosh! I was lucky to be accepted by
the first agent I asked. After 17 polite, helpful near misses when publishers
liked it but “not quite enough”, I got fed up and the agent published it for me.
MY: Good for you! What does the 'average' writing day look like for you?
JN: On a bad day I can fit in a
nail bar, a hairdresser, Facebook… On a good day, at my desk by 9am to look
over what I did the previous session, chucking out about half and rephrasing a
lot. Then I may write another 2-3500 words, and stop for very late lunch. I
have an instinct for when the day’s freshness has gone and I’ve started using
words in a routine way. Then it’s time to go outdoors or to stop
completely. Sometimes I do a little more
late at night just before bed.
MY:
Are
there any authors that you particularly admire? And if so, why?
JN: Well written children’s books
– I still enjoy Laura Ingalls Wilder and Joan Aiken. They write of very
different things but share a really clear detailed style. You can imagine
exactly what they’re describing. They’re very good on mood and character and
much more grown up than people realise. I like clever, funny writers – Dorothy
Parker and more recently AL Kennedy, and sad writing because it’s often so
beautiful: Jean Rhys or Helen Dunmore. They mirror feelings I’ve had myself which
helps me get over them. There are brilliant male writers too but women come to
mind first.
Could you tell us what you are currently working on?
JN: I’m trying a sequel to “The
Infinity Pool” but the story’s gone down a dark depressing alley, which I’m not
sure I wanted. So I’m writing shorter articles instead for blogs. I’ve been a
teacher most of my working life and I have a good collection of stories from
that which can make their way into fiction once I’m not identified with a
particular school anymore and can’t upset the parents!
MY: If
you could give advice to an aspiring author, what would it be?
JN: Stay off social media if you
want to focus on your writing. Notice little details as well as thinking about
big plot lines. On the other hand, build up your online presence so readers
will know about you. But the writing must always come first. Before the nail
bar anyway, although the nail bar’s a good place for noticing how people
behave!
MY: Or stop writing blog posts - that would be another one! Authors
are often portrayed as being cat owners who drink a lot of coffee. Is this true
for you?
JN: Cats are beautiful but I’m
allergic to their fur so I can’t have them. More than one good coffee a day
would make my plots go crazy – I’d buzz too much to focus. But my family
nickname used to be “teapot” so that tells its own story.
MY:
What
does your ‘perfect’ day look like?
JN: Lie in or go out in early sunshine,
write well for two hours, late lunch in the garden, a hour’s successful clothes
shopping, play the piano, learn to sing a new song, drinks and dinner with
friends and partner, long bath…have I run out of hours yet?
MY: I think you just described my week! What
is your biggest vice?
JN: Not getting down to writing
because I’m faffing about on Facebook.
MY: I think that is the biggest vice of every author! It is so easy to get sucked into the world of social media! If
you could meet anyone from the past, who would it be and why?
JN: Any of the great feminists –
the Pankhursts and Millicent Fawcett who campaigned for the women’s vote, Marie
Stopes who campaigned for the right to contraception, Virginia Woolf who pointed out the barriers
to women becoming artists, writers, and musicians as easily as men could,
Simone de Beauvoir who showed why women sometimes build those barriers
themselves and how to avoid them.
MY: Last question then I think a dip in that beautiful sea. It looks so tempting! Where do you see yourself in five years?
JN: No longer teaching (both I and the pupils
need a break!) I hope I’ll be well into writing my third novel, having
published the second sometime between then and now. That could be at home in
London or in a place I haven’t thought about visiting yet. I’ll let you know!
MY: Thank you so much Jessica, for taking the time out of your day to answer my questions. Do you think you could share a excerpt of your book for us?
JN: Of course.
Book Except
In this extract from chapter 3, Maria, a nineteen year
old local girl who works in her parents’ village café, has just met Adrian, who
directs the peculiar holiday settlement nearby. He’s offered her a tour of the
facilities:
Maria was utterly
dazzled and excited. The only older men she usually spoke to were in her
family, or they were village characters known and taken for granted by
everyone. But whatever their status, they never treated her like this. They
expected work or obligations from her, good manners and decoration; they joked
a little and admired a little but they were stern men and any feelings they
presumably had were a closed book to her. Whereas this man, he talked about
happiness! About wanting to be happy! As though it were an ambition in itself, worth
pursuing above all others, more than a job, marriage, children, home and
family. And he looked at her in a different way too. The idea that people from
northern Europe could be attractive had never occurred to her before, but this
man - she couldn’t quite get a handle on his name - had beautiful deep set eyes
and he seemed to listen to her when she spoke. They were talking with each
other, not to each other - she had not realised the difference before. He made
her glow, and she was aware of it, and glowed more.
(…)
And what he was
showing her here! The cabins were so basic; why did all the rich people - for
they must be fairly rich - choose to put up with such discomfort in the middle
of the summer heat? At home she had heard her father sneer that they were
paying for a taste of the simple life, but it all seemed rather complicated now
that she was seeing it for herself. What if you needed the WC in the middle of
the night, or you wanted light or warmth or to cool down? She was a country
girl, so bats and owls didn’t worry her, but what about putting your feet down
onto a mouse, or a snake? Didn’t they ever worry about their things being
stolen - there was no serious crime that she knew of on the island, but she had
no illusions about how some of the locals might feel if they knew all these
rich people’s things were unsecured, either from dishonesty or from plain
childish curiosity.
(...)
Adrian gestured they
should move on. “What do you think of the cabins now you’ve seen inside?” he
asked.
“I think hot, and no
space, but nice smell. But why two beds?”
“People share.”
She stopped in
disbelief. They were so tiny! And the beds were small, too. “Husband wife?”
“No, mostly people
come on their own. Then we put them two in a cabin. Friends can ask to be
together but lots of people don’t meet until they get here.” Madder and madder!
Why would anyone want to share with a stranger? And these mad people had money!
There was a hotel in the next bay where they could have space, air
conditioning, comfort, bathrooms… He laughed at her consternation. “I know,” he
said. “That’s why I’ve stayed in the hotel the last few times. I need the space
and the time to myself. But then I do have a job to do while I’m here.”
“You stay in hotel?”
Maria said. “I never go in there. Is hotel nice?”
“Sure. I’ll take you
there for a drink if you like.”
But he had moved too
fast.
Constraint came
quick and cold between them. The image of the hotel, with a double room that
locked and a private bathroom, hung in the air. Maria didn’t understand how her
thoughts had arrived at that point. If she had been asked that morning whether
she would consider making love with a man before she married him, she would
have been adamant in her denial. Yet here she was, propelled into thinking, as she
knew he was thinking, about how it might be….with a man she’d met twice, her
father’s age, who didn’t live on the island, who didn’t speak her language or
know anything of her life, and whose eyes were suggesting so much, when even
just a drink in the hotel bar would be stepping way beyond familiar territory.
It was too sudden a blow to the values she and her family had built solidly
around her all her life.
Her eyes went cold.
She shivered. “Oh no. No, I must go back soon. Thank you. You show me – everything
very interesting, but I go now. Thank you.”
She turned,
bewildered – the paths were so rambling. Then she heard the sound of a car
engine on the road below and it helped her to orientate herself. Refusing his
offer to show her the way, she stumbled away, half running. She needed to get
out of there.
© Jessica Norrie
2015
Where can I buy this fabulous book?
About the author
Jessica
Norrie was born in London and studied French Literature at the University of
Sussex and Education at the University of Sheffield. She studied and taught in France,
and in the UK has taught English, French and Spanish. Her youngest pupil was 3
and the oldest was at least 85! She’s always tried to make language learning
approachable and fun even for the most nervous students, a bit like being a
kind dentist or driving instructor. She’s also been a freelance translator,
published occasional journalism and collaborated on a Primary French textbook
(“Célébrons les Fêtes”, with Jan Lewandowski, Scholastic 2009).
Jessica
lives in London with her grown up daughter - a translator, and son - a teaching
assistant. In her spare time she sings soprano with the Hackney Singers and plays
the piano – slow pieces suit her best as she needs lots of time to figure out
the chords.
Soon she
will leave teaching to concentrate on writing. “The Infinity Pool” is her first
novel, drawing on lots of travel and encounters, and she already has ideas for several
more.
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