Lynette Noni grew up on a farm in outback Australia until she moved to the beautiful Sunshine Coast and swapped her mud-stained boots for sand-splashed flip-flops. She has always been an avid reader and most of her childhood was spent lost in daydreams of far-off places and magical worlds. She was devastated when her Hogwarts letter didn’t arrive, but she consoled herself by looking inside every wardrobe she could find, and she’s still determined to find her way to Narnia one day. While waiting for that to happen, she creates her own fantasy worlds and enjoys spending time with the characters she meets along the way.
Today, Lynette Noni is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions in honour of her new book, The Prison Healer, which is out today. Read on!
Lynette Noni
1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born in Dubbo, NSW, and I lived on a sheep and wheat farm in the middle of nowhere until I was 7. (I say that with affection, but seriously, the closest “town” had a population of like 50.) My dad got sick around then and when it became too difficult for him to keep up with all the farm work, my family moved to the Sunshine Coast in QLD. My mum was a teacher so it was easy enough for her to find work, and my brother and I settled into a new school while Dad recovered. I was kind of the teacher’s pet in my classes (I think having a teacher for a mother made me have a healthy respect for authority figures, which is still true to this day), and I was fortunate to have an affable enough personality that I made friends quickly. Of course, there were a few times that I was bullied, but I was a bit like Teflon—I didn’t let anything too horrible stick to me.
Overall, my younger years were full of love and friendship and a wonderfully supportive family. I can say with one hundred percent certainty that I wouldn’t be where—or who—I am without them.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
Oh, gosh. This is going to be embarrassing. *Hides face*
Okay, so when I was 12, I was obsessed—and I mean, obsessed—with horses. I read anything and everything that had a horse on the cover: fiction, non-fiction, magazines, you name it. I also started horse riding lessons around then (funnily enough, I fell off a horse when I was 12 and had to have my first ever surgery for a broken hand—in case you’re wondering, it didn’t diminish my obsession at all). So at 12, I vacillated between wanting to be an equine vet, wanting to compete in the Olympics (for equestrian eventing, of course!), or really, wanting to be and do anything that meant I could be around horses all day, every day.
At 18 … hmm, this one is trickier. I was a bit lost at 18. I was never one of those kids who knew what they wanted to do “when they grew up,” and the more our high school teachers told us that we had to know, the more anxious that made me. Because I was so unsure of my path, I enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts at the University of QLD in the hope that I’d be able to try out a range of subjects and maybe find my niche. So at 18, I was studying everything from journalism to psychology to philosophy to sociology. I also attempted academic writing, and had a brief foray into learning Spanish and French (both at the same time, which is why that was brief, but I did manage to learn all the words to La Cucaracha and I’ve retained the entire first verse to this day). Ultimately, however, at 18, I genuinely had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
But 30—this one is much easier for me to answer, since my first book, Akarnae, came out when I was 28, and that was it for me. I started writing when I was 24, got my first publishing deal when I was 27, and somewhere in there, I fell in love with being an author. I honestly can’t imagine doing anything else!
So the moral of this for any younger readers (and even older readers) is: it’s okay if you don’t know what you’re doing. Truly, none of us do, and anyone who tells you differently is probably lying. I had no idea I wanted to be an author when I was growing up—I didn’t even like English class in school. But we change, we adapt, we grow … and we find our way.
3. What strongly held belief did you have when you were younger that you do not have now?
When I was really young, I didn’t like going to sleep at night (think Anna from Frozen—“The sky’s awake, so I’m awake!”), so my dad used to tell me that I had to lie in bed and stare at the ceiling to make sure it wouldn’t fall in on me. In hindsight, that was So Very Mean and also counterproductive since I became too afraid to close my eyes in case the whole house fell down.
Side-note: I also thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger deal than it really is. (Not that it’s not a big deal to those caught in it—but to me personally, it’s probably not the concern I once feared it would be.)
4. What are three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – that you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
Like many writers of my generation, the Harry Potter series was something I grew up with, eagerly anticipating the releases of the next books, and therefore I have a lot of nostalgic feelings towards the world that J.K. Rowling created. Given her recent controversial opinions, it’s tough to separate the art from the artist, but Hogwarts got me through some of the hardest times in my life, and because of that, the world and characters will always hold a special place in my heart. The same is also true for C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, which will always mean a great deal me.
As for music, there are so many songs that can inspire scenes I write, but I particularly love classical and instrumental music. Artists like Yiruma, Ludovico Einaudi, the Piano Guys … anything that doesn’t have lyrics, because if it has lyrics, I’ll start to sing along to them, and no one wants that.
Lastly, I’m not sure if this counts as a work of art, but Disney has greatly influenced me over the course of my life. Their storytelling is phenomenal, their worlds are spectacular, and their characters stay with you long after you’ve finished watching. That’s something I want to give to my readers with every book I write—that immersive, evocative, relational, comforting and wonder-inducing feeling.
‘The world of Zalindov is dark and gritty and desperate. But despite that, Kiva’s story is filled with courage and strength and a determination that I hope every reader can relate to, in some way.’
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a young adult novel?
The YA genre is often harshly critiqued, with people saying it’s “not serious writing” or that “real authors don’t write YA,” and if that’s true, then I’m okay with not being a “real author.” I love young adult books—writing them and reading them. The pace is fast, the characters are memorable, and, as coming-of-age stories, there is always so much emotional depth to accompany the action. On top of that, because they’re written primarily for teenagers who have a short attention span, the best books are easy to read and so much is happening that they’re unputdownable. What’s not to love about any of that? So naturally, as a YA reader first and foremost, there was never any question about what I would write when I first decided to try drafting my own book. I didn’t even consider other possibilities!
6. Please tell us about your latest book …
The Prison Healer is about seventeen-year-old Kiva who has been locked in a death prison called Zalindov for the last ten years, working as the prison healer. Normally people die within months of arrival, but Kiva has managed to survive by using her wits, keeping her head down—and spying on the other prisoners for the Warden.
When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is tasked with keeping the deathly ill woman alive long enough for her to undertake the Trial by Ordeal: four elemental tasks sentenced to only the most dangerous of criminals. But given how sick the queen is, Kiva has no choice but to volunteer in her place, despite knowing that no one has ever survived all four Ordeals.
Throw in a lovable young assistant, an intriguing (and distracting) new prisoner vying for Kiva’s heart, a reserved yet protective guard, and an incurable plague killing the inmates, and you have a vague idea of what to expect in The Prison Healer.
7. What do you hope readers will take away with them after reading your book?
The world of Zalindov is dark and gritty and desperate. But despite that, Kiva’s story is filled with courage and strength and a determination that I hope every reader can relate to, in some way. A determination to never give up, no matter how trapped you might feel in circumstances beyond your control. And a reminder that, no matter how dark your world, there can always be moments of light, if you’re willing to look for them; if you’re willing to let them in.
8. Who do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
The authors I most admire are the ones who keep writing no matter what, the ones who keep getting back up again after every setback and every rejection, the ones who never give up. They’re true artists, unwilling to abandon their dreams even if the rest of the world might tell them not to bother any more. That takes a special kind of courage, and in my mind, it therefore deserves a special kind of respect.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
When I was first offered a publishing deal, I made myself sit down and consider my own personal definition of “success.” It was challenging, because success is often thought of as going hand-in-hand with fame or fortune, and even as an unpublished baby author, I knew the chances of either happening for me were slim. So I wanted to have realistic, even humble goals. I decided then and there that if my book could inspire just one person, help just one person, make the life of just one person better, even in the smallest of ways, then that, to me, would make it a “success.” So that was—and always will be—my most ambitious goal.
10. What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
There are so many pieces of advice that I could offer, but I’m going to stick to two, the first of which I hope is obvious: read—a lot. You can’t know what you like (and don’t like) to write about without having read a wide variety of books, all of which will influence your craft in one way or another.
The second piece of advice is to write because you love to write. This might sound obvious, but a lot of people tell me they want to write a book so that they can get rich or famous, and it takes a great deal of effort for me not to laugh. There is a very—very—small percentage of authors who manage to become one or both of those things, and sadly, some of the most deserving writers of the most magical books I’ve ever read are in neither category. So if you’re only seeking fame or fortune, it’s probably not the industry for you, because there is never a guarantee of either. In fact, it’s an extreme rarity, and while talent does play a role, so does, frustratingly, a lot of luck. The market shifts and moves, and what publishers (and readers) want one day, they don’t want the next. Therefore, the most important thing is for you to write what you want to write, because you want to write it—because you have to write it—and for no other reason. Anything that comes after that will just be a nice bonus.
Thank you for playing!
—The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.
The Prison Healer
Prison Healer: Book 1
Seventeen-year-old Kiva Meridan has spent the last ten years fighting for survival in the notorious death prison, Zalindov, working as the prison healer. When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal- a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals.
Then a coded message from Kiva's family arrives, containing a single order - Don't let her die. We are coming...
Ten Terrifying Questions with Jared Thomas 
Warm up your winter with these upcoming YA novels! 
The best books we read in May 2022!
Comments
No comments