August, 2011

NovelSpot: Naomi thank you for taking the time to talk with us. AIRMAIL is your first novella. Can you give us a brief description?
Naomi Bulger: Sure, thanks for having me!
AIRMAIL is about letters exchanged between two total strangers. One is a solitary old man, living in Sydney, Australia. The other is a young and, shall we say, ‘mentally delicate’ woman in New York, who believes she is being stalked by a lady who only ever wears a pink tracksuit. The letters become increasingly strange and, eventually, the old man is compelled to act on them. AIRMAIL is a little bit about magic, a little bit about philosophy, and a lot about the power and importance of storytelling in our lives.

NS: How did you come up with that idea?

NB: You know, that’s a funny story. I had originally intended to write a different kind of tale. It was supposed to be ‘the adventures of a young woman as she travels,’ seen from letters she was writing to an old man. There was no magic in the first premise, no stalkers, no marbles. These all basically developed because I had a bad bout of insomnia, coupled with writing under a flickering, fluorescent light. I guess that messed with my brain a bit because from there, things just went a little bit… strange. I had to decide whether to ditch the ‘new’ story or run with it. I found I quite liked where it was going so I regrouped.

NS: On your website, you promise to write a letter – an actual letter! – to everyone who buys your book. We live in such a digital age why not just tweet a thank you…what is it about letters?

NB: AIRMAIL is all about letters connecting strangers across oceans, so I love that fiction has crossed over into reality in my own life. There’s nothing wrong with a good tweet (I’m mildly addicted to Twitter I confess), but I think there is something so personal about a letter. There’s almost a theatre about receiving and reading a letter, like an old tea ceremony versus takeout from Starbucks. It’s so lovely to receive something in the mail these days that is hand-written, personal, and just for fun (not a bill). You probably read it sitting down, you give it more time than you would a quick email or tweet. Certainly, it has taken the person longer to write. They think you are worth their time.

NS: AIRMAIL is travelling around the world. Copies, marked with a special bookplate, are being shared between friends, travelers and everyday people who like the book and pass it on. I love that idea. How did you come up with it?

NB: Thanks, that was my husband’s idea. It came from a comment I received on my blog one day. A woman had received a copy of AIRMAIL from one of her friends, along with a hand-written letter. She loved the book, and told me she planned to now pass it on to another friend, also with a hand-written letter. It was the best comment I’d ever received on my blog. Life imitating fiction. I loved that my book was not only being read and enjoyed, but also inspiring people to write letters and reconnect with one another. So I hand-painted a bookplate and pasted it into about 10 books. I sent some to bloggers I enjoy reading, left a couple at the airport, and have a couple more yet to send.

NS: Have you learned anything unexpected from it?

NB: Not yet, I only sent the books out a few weeks ago. I haven’t made a big song and dance about it on my website, but I really hope that one day, news will come back to me about where my little books have travelled. I put a forum on my website, just in case anyone who comes across a copy wants to share.

NS: Anouk lives in New York; Mr. Solomon lives in Sydney. You’ve lived in both cities. Did you pair city to character for any special reason?

NB: Not really. Sydney is my home town, so that’s where I grounded the character of the old man. He had a secret desire to travel but had never gone anywhere or done anything much, so I settled him in his little community.

New York is my favourite city in the world, and was my adopted home for a while. It is still the place where I feel most like I belong. I started Anouk’s story there because I love NYC so much, but I had originally planned for the city to just be one of many stopovers in her journey around the world. Then the Pink Tracksuit stalker appeared, and everything changed.

NS: Ha, ha! I guess Pink Tracksuit stalkers tend to do that. So, who was your favorite character to write?

NB: The old man. I loved crafting his character so that you see his emotions through his actions (like a shaking hand, a broken routine), rather than his words or even an explanation of his thoughts.

NS: Who was the hardest character to write?

NB: Again, the old man. It’s hard to get inside the head of a 70+ year old man when you are a 30 year old woman. An actor-friend of mine helped me. I briefed him on the basic character of the old man, then wrote and posted him letters in the character of Anouk. Together, we work-shopped the old man’s reactions, and mapped his inner life.

NS: Wow, both favorite and the hardest! That’s so interesting how you work-shopped it.
As a writer, who do you like to read?

NB: Gosh, how long have you got? I’m a big fan of Ernest Hemingway, I think his writing is so spare, it is beautiful like a desert landscape. I really enjoy a lot of early-to-mid 20th century writers, especially JD Salinger, Truman Capote, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee and Jack Kerouac. I love most of the classics: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, all the Brontes, Virginia Woolf (if I’ve had a good night’s sleep – if not, I’m stumped by Ms Woolf). In my own genre (magic realism), I enjoy Jeanette Winterson, Paul Auster, Laura Esquivel and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. At the airport, I love a bit of pulp as much as the next person. I’ve lately been getting into Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels, and of course you can’t go past Janet Evanovich for a sassy Stephanie Plum hit. I’ll stop now, but I could go on and on.

NS: I’d love to get a glimpse of the writer at work. Computer or pen and paper? What’s your ideal writing day? Mood music?

NB: Ideally, I take paper and pen to a café, buy lunch (and I’m not averse to a glass of wine), and write and write until I get hand cramps. Later, I type my notes into the story on my laptop, and often continue on from there. I find writing by hand does different things in my head as opposed to typing (perhaps because it slows me down?). I get different results from each approach, so I try to mix things up.
I don’t often listen to music while I write fiction, because I find the lyrics distract me. But there are three artists I do like to listen to when I write, and I find they really help open up the creative process: Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman, and Lamb. I don’t know why.

A couple of years ago I did a fiction writing workshop in the summer in Aspen, Colorado. We’d write and workshop our pieces in the morning. After lunch, I’d do a couple more hours’ work alone in my cabin. Then I’d take myself out for a walk, or go horse-riding, maybe meet some of my colleagues for dinner and a glass of wine, then write for a few more hours before bed. That’d be my ideal writing day every day, if only it were possible.

NS: What are you working on right now?

NB I’m working on a really fun, full-length novel. It’s a kind of black comedy with a hint of magic, about a sommelier who finds ‘real magic’ in certain wines. He is on a quest for the ultimate wine, an ancient bottle that’s 2000 years old and may or may not actually exist. His quest takes him all over the world, and he will probably do some dastardly deeds in order to be the first one to get to that wine.

NS: Ah, more world travel! Sounds like another fun read! Naomi, thanks again for talking to us.

NB: Thank you for having me, it’s been a real pleasure!

NS: If you’re interested in picking up AIRMAIL, visit Naomi’s site for a list of retailers…and you can even hear her read the first chapter! That sparks one more question, if you don’t mind. How was reading the book aloud? I know many authors have to give public readings, but I’d imagine that recording your voice would be a little different.

NB: I used to work in radio broadcasting, and I’m used to the fact that my voice sounds like a 12 year old who’s had a rough night out. So recording the chapter wasn’t that bad, except that I did it at home rather than in a studio, and there were all kinds of audio interruptions. First, the cat kept coming up and talking to me. I then took the recording outside, but I lived under the flight path in Sydney, so it sounded like machinery was starting up mid-chapter. It took me about four goes to get a (relatively) clean recording.