Australian author Myke Bartlett speaks to Hypable about his award-winning debut Fire in the Sea, writing an anti-Twilight novel, and more.
Fire in the Sea is a wonderful debut, with supernatural elements that will appeal to fans of Percy Jackson, and a totally kick-ass female protagonist in Sadie.
The novel is set in Australia, in a town where according to all appearance, nothing exciting could ever happen. But that is before strange creatures start emerging from out of the sea, and Sadie gets caught up in it all.
On top of everything else, she has to deal with her overprotective grandparents, annoying cousins, and her friend Tom who is becoming increasingly frustrating. And then there’s Jake.
We asked Bartlett, who is also a journalist, how it felt to be sitting on the other side of the table. He admitted to some nervousness, but assured us that he enjoys answering questions just as much as asking them. “It is sort of focused conversation, isn’t it? It’s a chance to talk about things, rather than just talking about the weather.”
As with most authors, dealing with reviews is the greater challenge. “The reviews are very stressful. In some ways it has probably changed the way that I review, in that I don’t go easier now, but I am warier of making flip judgements.”
Exclusive interview: Myke Bartlett
Tell us 5 interesting facts about yourself
1. The first prize I ever won for writing anything I received when I was 11.
2. I once recorded an EP with a guitarist friend of mine.
3. I have a Boston Terrier called Moxy.
4. Really, I’m only up to four? I thought this would be easier. I suppose it’s interesting that the first book I ever wrote was made available as a podcast via www.podiobooks.com.
5. Actually, I’ve just realised four is a bit of a lie. The first book I ever wrote was a story about Sherlock Holmes fighting Jack the Ripper in the 21st Century (the future!!!).
Tell us about your inspiration for ‘Fire in the Sea.’ Did you create a system of mythology for the book before you started writing it?
That story didn’t really start with the mythology in place. The idea for the story came from a couple of things – one was the idea for the character. I had this idea for the character of Sadie.
I was teaching at a girls school at the time, and I was looking at the book that they were reading, and at the time they were all obsessed with those Twilight books. I read a bit of one of them to try and understand the appeal, it wasn’t for me, and I didn’t particularly like the female character in that and what she represented.
I thought it was a shame that they weren’t reading stories that were more about people like them, I suppose. Teenagers are fairly strong, incredibile characters. They have a lot of things that they are dealing with, and I didn’t feel that the character in that series reflected that.
What really clicked that character for me was hearing this song by Tegan and Sara called “You Wouldn’t Like Me,” and I really liked the duality of the song. Of being strong and fierce, but being aware that that made you a bit prickly and a bit awkward. And perhaps your strengths might at the same time be a weakness, or be something that you wouldn’t appreciate in other people.
Then I started thinking about what else was appealing about these Twilight books, or what was appealing about this sudden explosion of paranormal romance. I guess the appeal of a vampire is that they have lived a very long time, they have seen exciting things, historical events, they have secrets – and they are slightly dangerous.
They look like us, but are monsters, and I thought that was quite appealing. I didn’t want to do a vampire story, so I was trying to think of how you could do the idea of immortality without resorting to the tropes that are out there, and that led me back towards the gods.
So then I was thinking, where does the immortality come from – and I had also been reading about the myth of Atlantis, and having grown up next to the beach, the myth of Atlantis seemed quite relevant. I was determined to set it in Perth, because no story like that had ever been set in Perth. Growing up in Perth, like Sadie, I was very determined to leave. I felt that life was happening elsewhere.
There’s a very claustrophobic sense of place in the book.
Well it probably was a bit claustrophobic growing up, but I appreciate it a lot more now. But I think I probably worked the mythology out on the hop a little, and it was really to do with what was going to be the best story for the characters.
I firmly had the idea of the Atlantian creatures, and that meant I was drawing on the Greek mythology – and once I stumbled into that then I had the Minotaur who I thought was fantastic. There’s something very real about that creature, something tangible and tactile, unlike other monsters.
But I was aware that I didn’t want to be beholden to the mythology. I didn’t go back and read over it – I had obviously read it a lot when I was younger, but I drew on the way I remembered the mythology. I drew on the way that it served the story, rather than trying to build a story about a preexisting mythology.
You said at Reading Matters that you didn’t consider that boys might not read the book, simply because it had a female protagonist. Has it been difficult to find a male audience for ‘Fire in the Sea’?
Obviously I wanted to write a female protagonist who I thought was realistic, but I didn’t feel that because I was using a female protagonist that it would exclude male readers – it didn’t even occur to me. And really, I was writing a story that I wanted to read.
I am a male reader, I have always been a male reader, and this is a story I would have loved to read when I was a teenage boy. In some ways, it is, to use a term than I’m not entirely happy with, it is a “boys book” – there’s a lot of action, adventure stuff. I think the cover in some ways reflects the difficulty of deciding what the market for this book is.
What are your thoughts on the cover for ‘Fire on the Sea’?
I think it’s probably not quite the right cover for that book. It’s a really distinctive cover, but on reflection and taking into account the reaction I have had from teenagers and YA professionals, it is probably a bit young for the book.
It could be difficult to get an idea of what the book is about based off this cover.
Well what the cover is trying to say is, that if you’re a boy, yes there’s a female character in it but it is okay to read it. And it didn’t occur to me that there would be that kind of split.
When we were doing the editing, my editor did say, “Well you know a lot of girls are going to read this book.” Later on she talked about how maybe I should try writing a book for boys, and I was thinking, “but isn’t this also for boys?” So I wasn’t thinking of it in binary terms. Ideally, you want to write a book for everyone.
For people.
Yeah, for human beings. It was really interesting, the reaction at the conference. There was that statement that came up, which was something I heard a lot when I was a teacher, that boys like war books and girls like feeling books. As if. I refute the idea that they need to be mutually exclusively.
There’s no reason why a story can’t be exciting and have an action element or be set in the middle of a war, and still be be about the character’s emotional reactions to that. That is the job of fiction.
How have things changed for you since winning the Text Prize?
Well, I get to go to a lot more of the festivals which is great, I really enjoy that. I started doing a lot of school visits, which I really enjoy. That’s probably one of the most rewarding things about writing for young adults is actually meeting young adults.
It is really nice to know that this thing that I spent all this time with, on my own, and struggled with and felt miserable about, was something that other people really enjoyed. The Text Prize has made me realise that I possibly do have an audience, and possibly this thing that I have spent years honing has been worth it.
Have you finished the sequel to ‘Fire in the Sea’?
Sort of. The first draft is done and I’m adjusting it, and tweaking it. What I’m doing with it now is that stuff we were talking about before. When I sat down and wrote this is was just a good story, and I was focusing on the exciting stuff and where were the action sequences.
And then I had this niggling feeling of what does it actually mean? What does it mean for the characters? So I really had to go back and think, what is the story really about for Sadie. For her, I think this story is about belonging, or not belonging, and it is sometimes better not to belong. Is it sometimes a strength to be a misfit?
So it’s about, is it a strength to be a misfit, and what is the cost of that, and what is the worth of that. Once I realised that that was the meaning of her story, I can adjust the plot around that. To me, that is when the story is working – there are high stakes, there are monsters, but this stuff is nothing unless there’s a deeper resonance.
Do you have an approximate date for when we could expect it, or is it too early too tell?
We don’t have a publication date yet. I was hoping to get it out this year, I thought one book a year would be really nice.
One book a year? So how many books are you planning on writing in this series?
Having now done the second book, there’s probably two more in this series. There’s a comfort in a series, isn’t there? But we’ll see. Certainly there is going to be two, but probably more.
More about ‘Fire in the Sea’:
Sadie is sixteen and bored with life in Perth. It’s summer, and lazing on the beach in the stifling heat with her cousins and Tom is a drag. Then something comes out of the sea.
Dark menacing forms attack an old man, leaving him for dead and Sadie wracking her brains to understand what she saw. Then there’s a mysterious inheritance, a strange young man called Jake and a horned beast trampling the back yard.
Sadie finds herself caught in the middle of an ancient conflict that is nearing its final battle, a showdown that threatens to engulf Perth and all those she loves in a furious tsunami.
More about Myke Bartlett:
You can find Myke on Facebook and on Twitter at @mykebartlett. For more about Myke and his work, visit his website.
Fire in the Sea can be purchased online through assorted retailers.
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