MARLISH’S TOP WRITING TIP: My top tip for aspiring authors is to — read, read, read, read anything and everything. Novels, plays, poems, newspapers etc. And to be curious about the world, observe, watch, and reflect. Better still, engage with the world. Do voluntary work. Do anything which sees you interacting with people, animals, and situations. Your writing will be infinitely better for it. To reword Stephen King – “If you don’t read, you won’t have the tools to be able to write.” I also think that having a love of reading puts you in good stead when reading and or editing your own work.
Marlish Glorie was born in Western Australia and has juggled a number of occupations throughout her life. She has worked as a nurse, environmentalist, art dealer and all-round handywoman. Since the publication of The Bookshop on Jacaranda Street she has had a second novel published — Sea Dog Hotel — and is currently working on a third novel. Marlish is married to Western Australian artist Lindsay Pow. They have two children and live in Palmyra.
https://www.facebook.com/public/Marlish–Glorie
AUTHOR INSIGHT
Why do you write? I love the solitary nature of writing; the chance to wind down and to reflect and to create is pure bliss. It’s sort of like mediation, only more fun!
And of course I love the art of storytelling. The ability to build up a story from scratch is quite a satisfying pursuit. But the thing that got me onto writing, is reading. Reading and falling in love with the written word and the worlds they revealed, be it in children’s books, novels, plays, poems, or the daily newspaper.
What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer? I’d be a nurse. It’s what I initially trained be after leaving school .I loved nursing and would go back in a heartbeat, given the chance.
What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? My toughest obstacle was myself. Getting over all my insecurities and doubts over my ability to write, then getting over my impatience to get published. I think my first book really suffered because of my impatience to get it out there. I sold the story short. When instead I should have taken my time, developed the story more fully, and which of course as I now appreciate takes years and years and years!
What’s the best aspect of your writing life? Reading.
—the worst? The solitude, which actually has taken me a long time to get accustomed to, and which I now love. And of course another worst thing about my writing life is dealing with the constant niggling doubts of insecurity, not being a good enough writer. But I think all writers have to deal with that “inner critic”.
What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? Don’t sell my stories short. Try and be a heck of lot more patient, to understand that crafting a novel takes time, a great deal of time.
What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? That being an author can be a very lonely life. But a very wonderful one too.
What’s the best advice you were ever given? To persevere. As a writer, having the ability to persevere is so very important. I do feel fortunate in that I tend to be quite bloody-minded. However I certainly feel the knocks and rejections when they come, and they do. As a writer it certainly helps to have “Nerves of Steel”.
BOOK BYTE
Sea Dog Hotel is a symbolic look into tiny town life in the marginal scrub of Western Australia. It poses the questions, what is happiness, and how is it found by the strange and cursed Ruth and her beautiful but sour seed, Grace, who wash up in the equally cursed Nyacoppin. The town is as far from the ocean as it is from the capital. Ruth, searching for happiness, buys the local pub, The Sea Dog, over the internet. The denizens who at first glance appear bizarre are slowly revealed to be warm and unique strugglers with lives as blighted as the newcomers.
Available from http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=156633011
In Their Own Write 