This week we talk to Susi Fox about ‘road to gundagai ‘ which appears in Landmarks, the latest anthology curated by Spineless Wonders. During this interview, Susi talks about her favourite landmark, who inspires her writing and what inspired her micro-lit piece.
Tell us about a landmark that is significant to you.
My most significant landmark is a clifftop near my home, accessible by an unmarked bush trail. Standing on the path, you can observe a sharp bend in the creek below, the water stretching into the trees in both directions. There’s an enormous moss-covered rock where I like to sit to watch the eucalypts bending in the wind and the ducks paddling upstream. It’s a delightfully tranquil place.
What inspired you to write ‘road to gundagai’ ?
I was inspired to write road to gundagai by some patients I’ve seen over my years as a doctor. They are people who have struggled with complex childhood trauma, and whose life ambitions have been challenging for them to attain through no fault of their own.
How do you find the experience of writing to a theme?
I enjoy writing to a theme, as a single word often gives me a flickering visual image that enables me to tap into my subconscious, dredging up dreams, nightmares and experiences that would have remained otherwise inaccessible. The darker the material, the more I embrace it.
Describe your writing space.
My writing space is a spare room overlooking the Daylesford bush. From time to time, red-tailed black cockatoos swoop between treetops, sulphur-crested cockatoos waddle across the deck and kangaroos munch on the front lawn. Every time I look up, I’m inspired and energised by what I see in nature through the glass.
Tell us about a writer or work that has inspired you as a writer
Gweneth Wisewould, a rural medical practitioner in the first half of the twentieth century, worked as a GP in my local area. She combined medicine and writing in a beautiful symbiosis to which I aspire.
Susi Fox’s short fiction has been published widely. Her first novel, Mine, is a psychological thriller and will be published with Penguin Australia and internationally in March 2018.
Feature image via Flickr.com
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