It gives me great pleasure to welcome Adam Byatt and Jodi Cleghorn to my blog, to discuss their new project Post Marked: Piper's Reach.
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| Jodi Cleghorn |
Hi Jodi and Adam,
welcome to Ramblings of a Rusty Writer
Firstly could you tell
us a little bit about your backgrounds and your writing? (Max 50 words each)
(AB) I am an English teacher and emerging
writer. In this project I am the n00b to Jodi’s sensei. I write contemporary
fiction. It’s the everyday situations, emotions and minutiae that interest me
as subjects for writing.
(JC) I am a writer, editor and publisher... and
definitely no sensei. I write predominantly dark speculative-fiction, exploring
themes of power, love, loss, the intersection of technology and humanity, and
yes, I have a penchant for time travel.
What is Post Marked: Pipers Reach?
(AB) It is an organic narrative, collaborative
writing project traversing an odd path between old and new forms of
communication, differing modalities of storytelling and mixed media, all played
out in real and suspended time.
(JC) Or the short version... a collection of
fictional letters shared weekly on a Tuesday as handwritten and digital
missives. I like the pretentious sounding version - Adam.
Who came up with the
idea and how?
(AB) It was Jodi’s idea *points the finger of
blame in her direction*. She pitched it to me in January while I was on a
camping holiday, waist deep in the surf. After that, we brainstormed via text
message. Jodi - I’ve now called my black bikinis... “the pitch bikinis”
though possibly inappropriate attire later down the track for trying to secure
an agent or publisher!
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| Adam Byatt |
(JC) The concept came to me late 2009 but took
meeting Adam in person late last year to shift it from idea to potential
project. The original concept focused on two colleagues who start writing
letters to each other as an experiment. I wanted to explore the impact of the
slower medium of letters and the faster medium of email/phone/text messaging on
a relationship.
What Adam and I have pursued is a much simpler
version of the original and connects two old friends across the void of 20
years of silence. It is us, not the characters living the original concept—an
existence in two very different time streams.
Did you write a lot of
letters when you were younger?
(AB) Throughout high school I wrote probably
hundreds of letters. I’ve always been a bit of a thinker and it found an
expression in writing. It was a natural extension of who I was and the relationships
I had with people, especially those friends who lived interstate. . A friend
and me once wrote a letter, put it in a bottle and sent it down a river. We
hoped for a reply and it was some months later I received a letter in the post
from someone who found it.
(JC) I started writing letters in primary
school—originally to my cousin and the people I met on holidays, then later to
my friends when I moved interstate. It was where my heart, hopes, thoughts and
fears all went, committed to ink and sent two states away for safekeeping. It
was also where my writing skills were honed.
(AB) I
would cringe if I read what I wrote when I was 13 or so, and certainly into the
later years of high school. In the moment I was so serious, intense, earnest
and focused on the recipient. I’m not sure I would want to revisit them, That
kid with the mullet haircut has a lot to answer for. If anyone I know is
reading this, please don’t tell me if you still have my letters.
(JC) In 1989 (Year 10) I
wrote between 20-30 A4 pages a week. In Year 12 I wrote weekly to my friend Ty
in Geelong and almost 30 years on we are still friends (this Easter we
celebrated 27 years of friendship). I’d love to see what I was writing to Ty
back in 1992 given my letters weren’t epic dissertation on my latest crush
(because for quite while it was Ty!) When I repatriated all my friends letters
earlier this year I knew for every letter in the massive pile, I had written
one in return!
What are the advantages
and disadvantages of working with another writer on a project?
(JC) Writing collaboratively has always been a
bigger and better experience than going solo for me. I find it almost
intoxicating (but without the accompanying headache): the thrill of wowing your
writing partner (as a prequel to wowing your readers); sharing the
responsibility of building a narrative; riding the joint momentum.
Most of all I love watching my characters come
alive through another writer. Watching Ella-Louise grow and evolve through the
eyes of Jude is as beautiful as it is intimate.
(AB) This is a unique situation. We write
independently of each other but the narratives are intrinsically tied to the
other. We weave in and out of each other’s stories. The advantage of
collaboration is the perspectives and insights another person provides. The
downside to this project is the ‘no spoilers’ clause. Jodi and I do not talk
about the usual things: characterisation, plot, motivation. We have to wait to
read the letter and glean it all from there. It makes it very immediate and
thrilling, but can be frustrating when you’re yearning to talk about what has
happened and what might happen.
(JC) To be hermetically sealed away from the
world, with just my character, was tough--especially for the first three
months, when I could talk to no one. Now I just can’t talk to Adam about it,
which is kind of an antithesis of working together, but in this instance, it’s
absolutely appropriate. Working with Adam is manna for a troubled creative
soul.
(AB) There are no disadvantages to working with
Jodi. She is absolutely brilliant to work with. We are very aware of
contributing equally to the project: writing the letters, maintaining the site,
admin, etc. Jodi - endeavouring to never be the social loafer! We each
have strengths and play to those.
If you are thinking of
collaborating choose your partner wisely. They need to be your foil, nemesis,
partner, spouse and confidante in the creation, development and completion of a
project.
Have you written one
character each or has it been entirely collaborative?
(AB) We have written one character each: Jodi
created Ella-Louise, and I created Jude, although Jodi named Jude (after the
patron saint of hopeless causes). I suggested the name of the town and the
initial history of Piper’s Reach.
(JC) While we write letters from the perspective
of one character, we both influence and shape the teenager versions of each
other’s character. I’ll drop in a reference to something in the past and it’s
up to Adam to fill in the details... or as is often the case... not fill in the
details. That’s Jude’s fault, not mine - Adam
How will people be able
to read Post Marked: Pipers Reach?
Postmarked: Piper’s Reach launches on April 10
at the following site: http://postmarkedpipersreach.wordpress.com
Each Tuesday a new letter will be posted (no pun
intended). You can download the handwritten letter or read the text version on
the site. Each story also comes with a music clip.
What are your future plans
both writing together and individually?
(AB) There are many more letters to be written
by Jude and Ella-Louise. We have no plans to work together in the future (Jodi
was my editor for the Literary Mix Tapes: Nothing But Flowers and Eighty-Nine
anthologies) and I wouldn’t rule out another collaborative project should the
right one present itself.
I am about to live the cliche: take long service
leave to write my first novel. It’s the chance to extend and expand my skills
from short fiction into long fiction. I have a long list of projects stuck to
the wall beside my desk including a multimedia novella, a YA novel, a
collection of short stories and there are another two novels (one YA, one
adult) composting in my head.
(JC) I hope there are more opportunities to work
with Adam. For now I’m just not thinking about the ride ending.
I’m preparing to start
work on my debut novel via The Year of the Novel online course, fitting writing
around my editing and publishing responsibilities at eMergent. I’m also working
toward completing all 52 of the Form and Genre Challenges at Write Anything
with the view to bundle them into a collection entitled “52 Degrees of
Madness”.
Thank you both so much for taking the time to answer my questions.
Further information on Post Marked: Piper's Reach can be found below:
BLOG LINK
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Post Marked:
Piper’s Reach is an ambitious organic
narrative collaborative project between Jodi Cleghorn
and Adam Byatt traversing an odd path between old and new forms of
communication, differing modalities of storytelling and mixed media, all played
out in real and suspended time.
THE
BLURB
In December 1992 Ella-Louise Wilson boarded the Greyhound Coach
for Sydney leaving behind the small coastal town of Piper’s Reach and her best
friend and soulmate, Jude Smith. After twenty years of silence, a letter
arrives at Piper’s Reach reopening wounds that never really healed. When the
past reaches into the future, is it worth risking a second chance?
