Shivaun Plozza is an award-winning children’s and YA writer. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Frankie, was a CBCA Notable Book, shortlisted for the Inky Awards, Highly Commended at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and won the YA category of the Davitt Awards. Her second novel, Tin Heart, was released in March 2018, and her latest novel is a middle grade fantasy called The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars. When she’s not writing she works as an editor and manuscript assessor.
Today, Shivaun Plozza is on the blog to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions – read on …
Shivaun Plozza (Photo by Peta Twisk).
1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I grew up outside a small town in South-west Victoria on a sheep farm. I went to the local public school and later moved to Melbourne for university where I studied Creative Arts.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
At twelve I wanted to be an architect—I was obsessed with drawing house plans—but then I learned you needed maths to study architecture so I gave up on that dream pretty quickly. From aged fourteen onwards I wanted to be a writer. I’d always enjoyed making up stories—writing and performing plays at school, short stories, poetry—but after I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy I was caught by the idea of one day creating worlds and characters and stories that people would fall in love with the way I fell deeply in love with that book.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
I used to believe in the inherent goodness of everyone. Now I’m not so sure. I think you have to work to be good.
4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy first sparked my interest in being a writer, but Douglas Adams was brilliant in many ways and I see his influence in my writing when it comes to humour and my love of the absurd. Tove Jansson, who wrote the Moomintroll books, had a massive influence on the cadence of my sentence structure—I absorbed her rhythm by reading her stories over and over again as a child. I’m also a big Raymond Chandler fan. I love how hard his writing works, every description not only paints a clear picture but also furthers your understanding of plot, character, setting, tone, etc. So when I write I’m always asking myself: is this sentence working hard enough?
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?
I also like to paint but I find that writing is the way I am able to express myself best. I’m a character-focused writer and no other artform allows me to dive so fully into another person’s head.
6. Please tell us about your latest novel!
The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars is a middle grade fantasy about a boy and his pet fox on a quest to find the wolf who ate the stars so they can stop a mysterious dark force attempting to remove good magic from the world forever.
I was initially inspired by Ragnarok. It made me wonder: what would a world without stars be like? That thought tied in with some themes I wanted to explore: fear and anxiety. I have an anxiety disorder and I wanted to look at that through the lens of one of my worst childhood fears, which was a fear of the dark. So in writing this story, I created a world where night time was something truly to fear—complete darkness filled with evil creatures that are shadows come to life. I put a boy, Bo, in the middle of this world and challenged him to find a way to end the night-time curse. So it’s more about overcoming fear than anything else.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
I guess I’d like readers to feel some comfort—it’s not about removing fear from your life but more about how to face it in ways that give you back your agency.
And it doesn’t just tackle individual fears, it looks at what happens when a whole community is affected by fear. In the book a magical plague swarms across the land, destroying everything in its wake and chasing people from their homes. Not everyone behaves well when their life is disrupted by this plague—it brings out the worst in a lot of the characters. They spread misinformation and refuse to engage critically with what they’re being told and that quickly turns into blame and hatred. So there’s a lot to take away from that—how to cope against wide-spread fears and still be good to each other.
8. Who do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
I have so many writing idols but it seems fitting to answer with Diana Wynne Jones, as she is my favourite middle grade fantasy writer. She always wrote with such inventiveness and humour and heart. I admire how she never wrote down to her audience; in fact, she did the opposite—she wrote to lift her audience up.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
My goal has always been to create stories that move people, to create an immersive and enjoyable experience. I’m not sure if that’s an ambitious goal but it’s what drives me. I want to bring lots of people joy and to create worlds and characters that they love.
10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?
Keep going. Talent is great but I’m not sure it means much without determination.
Thank you for playing!
—The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars by Shivaun Plozza (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.
The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars
The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars is a sweeping, timeless adventure, an introduction to a brilliant new world with the feel of an instant classic.
Every night Ulv is cloaked in total Darkness. Twelve hours ruled by the ravenous, clawing Shadow Creatures, beasts made of shadow and evil. Young Bo is charged with a monumental task: freeing the land of its curse by returning the Stars to the sky. He must find three magical keys spread across the land – keys that will unlock the cage holding the wolf who ate the Stars. But there’s another motive . . .
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