| The InSide Story: Alison Croggon and The Naming: The First Book of Pellinor |
Interview by Tracy Taylor
 TT: I see that The Naming is the first of a quartet (and let me just say how excited I was to read that, and I can't wait to read the rest!) and that they were written in response to your son's reading habits as well as your childhood ambition. What were the fantasies you most loved reading as a child, other than Tolkien?
AC: Thanks so much, Tracy! I was a most greedy reader as a child; I devoured every book in the house (including a medical encyclopaedia) and was always hungry for more. I couldn't imagine owning a book and not reading it. And I read a lot of fantasy of various kinds. Some of my first favourites were Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass; I still have the rather nice Folio editions that I stole from my parents (and defaced). It has various signatures in it, the first must be when I was about five. I think I thought that, since it was about Alice, the book _must_ be mine! I loved Ursula le Guin, Alan Garner, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Rudyard Kipling, and C.S. Lewis; and I was very keen on myths of all kinds, and had lots of books about mythologies from different cultures--Greek, Aboriginal, Norse, Celtic, and so on.
TT: Can you explain your decision to present the book as a "true story" translated from ancient documents?
AC: It actually stemmed from a suggestion by my editor, Suzanne Wilson. She wondered if there ought to be footnotes in the book, to explain some things about the magic. And then I thought about reading a story by Borges, when I was around 16, which had footnotes, and how--even though the story was absolutely fantastical--it had given it this feeling of verisimilitude that was most disconcerting, as if it ripped a little tear in the fabric of reality. I really enjoyed writing the introduction and the appendices, it was enormous fun and allowed me, among other things, to make some private jokes.
TT: Did you have the entire backstory thought out before you began? Or are pieces still coming together that need to be carefully put into place as you write?
AC: I wrote The Naming completely by the seat of my pants. Most of the time, aside from a general idea of the arc of the story and when it would end up, I had no idea what would happen next; the world kind of evolved as I wrote it. It was a very interesting experience, because it kind of seemed to be there already. I've worked out outlines for the next books, which I use like rails to hang on to, in a way; but The Riddle and The Crow ended up bearing only a very general resemblance to what I imagined before I started.
TT: What do you think about having your book produced in audio? Would you want to try reading them yourself? Whom do you hear reading them? Do you listen to audiobooks yourself? Which types? How have they affected your life?
AC: I have a dreadful confession: I don't listen to audio books, though I enjoy hearing books read on the radio. And I love reading to my children; I am half way through the fourth Harry Potter with my youngest son at the moment. Reading aloud seems to me a real test of a book: you have to be able to hold the language in your mouth (maybe that's the poet in me, but it seems to me true of all prose!) If someone were to read it--well, Alan Rickman has a wonderful voice, and it would be great to hear him!
TT: If a movie were to be made of your story, whom would you see playing Maerad? Cadvan?
AC: It's fun trying to think of an ideal cast. It's been the subject of much discussion among some of my fans, with some fierce disagreement! Generally, we all agree that Maerad would have to be a wonderfully talented unknown. My husband, in a mood of levity, suggested Kylie Minogue, but I don't think so! The candidates for Cadvan have included Sean Bean (I rather like Sean Bean!), Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, and even Fabrizio Moretti, the drummer from The Strokes! I rather think there is a rock star element to Cadvan...
TT: What is your next project?
AC: I have several...too many, really. The first is to finish the last book of the Pellinor series. I'm sure that will be a challenge in itself! I feel like the stakes rise with every book, and I'm very conscious that I want each book to be at least as good as the last one, if not better. Aside from that, I've started a stand alone book called The Stone Heart, for slightly younger readers, and have another idea for an adult fantasy, which would be a kind of very dark, Brontesque romance. I'm also getting together another book of poems, and have just finished a radio piece for ABC Radio Arts here in Australia, which is a collaboration with a composer.
TT: If you had magical powers, what would they be?
AC: Hmmm...that's a hard one! I think I would want magical powers like the Bards--that kind of word-based mind power. Though maybe I already have them! When my children were very small, and they went through a stage of having nightmares, I used to write little rhyming charms to put beneath their pillows, to keep their nightmares away. It worked! But subsequently my daughter told everyone at her primary school that her mummy was a witch. I did wonder why I got funny looks from the other parents...
TT: This publication goes exclusively to our library customers. Do you have a favorite 'library moment' from any point in your life that you would like to share with our readers?
AC: I was a fixture in the school library, and objected mightily because the books were arranged by age, and younger students were supposed to stick to younger books. But the librarian was very nice and let me take out what I wanted, so I read things like Kafka's Metamorphosis at an impressionable age--it had a huge impact on me. Our German teacher kept reptiles, and once two carpet snakes escaped in the library. They were there for years, legends that were occasionally glimpsed by thrilled students behind the books. I suppose they must have lived on flies! I also remember my first time in the library at Cambridge University, in England, where I was writer in residence a few years ago. It's one of the largest (if not the largest) research libraries in the world, and I was just awed . . . so awed that I couldn't take out any books at all, and just walked around the shelves in a daze. Luckily, I got over that.
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