Big 4 with Bec: Sue Bursztynski

Sue Bursztynski lives in Melbourne, where she has a full-time day job. She has written ten books for children and young adults, but this is the first full-scale novel – there are seven non-fiction books on subjects ranging from monsters to spies, archaeologists to women scientists (she got a Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable for that one), plus two children’s fiction chapter books. She has done articles for the NSW School Magazine and short stories for Pearson’s Spinouts series, plus some adult speculative fiction.

1. 1. Our reviewer adored Wolfborn and found herself becoming very emotionally involved with your characters. Could you tell us a bit about the experience of creating characters? Do you also feel this level of connectedness when you’re creating them?

Yes, my characters are very dear to me. I created them to answer questions I needed to ask about the story. I don’t think I could have told my story from the viewpoint of Lord Geraint, the werewolf knight, although I do give him one scene to himself, so I told it from the viewpoint of someone from outside. That’s Etienne, a boy from a coastal area who has a family secret of his own that worries him, but helps him sympathise with his lord’s troubles. I gave him a friend who could help him in time of trouble – one very different from himself – and I decided that Geraint had to have a background that would give him more depth than the knight had in the original mediaeval romance that inspired the story. That brought in two more characters, the wise-woman Sylvie and her daughter Jeanne. As the book was being edited, I could say, “No, that character doesn’t talk like that” or “No way would he do this!” Even the King, who appears briefly near the end, had a voice I heard as clearly as those of the main characters. In fact, I got so interested in him that I went back to play around with a prequel in which he appears as one of the protagonists, in his teens. I’m still working on that one.

2. I’ve read that you have a great interest in ancient history (particularly Roman, Greek, and Egyptian). If you could transport yourself back to any historical period and place, which would you choose and why? Which historical figure fascinates you the most?

May I confess something? I do still love ancient history and when I was a child, I dreamed of becoming an archaeologist and following in the footsteps of Heinrich Schliemann. I’d still like to be an archaeologist, but recently I have found myself most fascinated by local history, wherever I am. You don’t have to dig up Egyptian tombs to do real archaeology.

I work in Sunshine, Victoria, a working-class suburb with a proud industrial relations history. It was the scene of the Sunshine Harvester Decision, which was the first of its kind in the world to give wage justice to workers. I wouldn’t mind being around to see that happen. But in the other kind of history I’d like to see one of Shakespeare’s plays from the galleries at its first performance. Or – assuming I could speak the language – one of the classes of Hypatia, the mathematician of Alexandria.

3. Among other things, you’re a librarian and get to spend a lot of time around young people. How important is it, as a writer, to see what kids are reading and what’s current? Do you think reading appetites have changed much since you were a child?

Yes, things are different. That’s not altogether a bad thing, because when I was growing up, we were mostly reading overseas writers and there wasn’t a lot being written for teens anyway – children’s and adult books and not much in between. Now young adult fiction is huge – and we’ve got plenty of terrific Aussie YA writers. That said, some of the classics are coming back with fresh new covers and I’m pleased to say that one of my Year 8 students has discovered Rosemary Sutcliff, whose books were languishing on the library’s shelves, through a nifty new-cover Sutcliff book – not a nerdy kid, either. It is important to know what they’re reading. The best place to see that is from the coalface. I suspect if I wasn’t working in the school system I might not know much more than that they like paranormal fiction. As a teacher-librarian I know that they also love non-fiction, the more over-the-top the better. My non-fiction book on crime in Australia is rarely on the shelves for more than five minutes at a time – and there are five copies in the library alone, more in the literacy collection. Kids come and ask for it because they heard it was good. Some are actually surprised when they find out I wrote it.

4. Which of your fictional characters Burns Brightest in your mind, and why?

You mean who’s my favourite character? That would have to be Armand, the hero’s best friend. He’s one of a long tradition of comic sidekicks. Armand isn’t dumb, though. He’s the one who knows when it’s time to go look for help and insists on doing it. He’s poor as aristocrats go – his family has only one manor, and if you realise how expensive horses and armour were in the Middle Ages, that means he’s going to have a hard time getting the equipment he needs to become a knight one day. But he has his dreams, of breeding bigger horses he can ride and raise the money for his sisters’ dowries – even if the only horse he can ride at the moment is a mountain pony which turns out to be a disguised unicorn, much to his embarrassment! Etienne drives him nuts at times, but he’s a loyal friend all the same.

Head on over to Sue’s blog and read what she has to say.