It’s not very long ago that I reviewed Ron Elliott’s debut novel, Spinner, and here he is again in my Meet an Aussie Author series. He looks quite serious in this photo but as you can tell if you’ve read his book, he has a subversive sense of humour!
Elliott has been a scriptwriter and director, and currently lectures in Film and Television at Curtin University. To get to know Ron better, (and to read hints about new novels in the pipeline) visit Fremantle Press News to see an interview about the genesis of Spinner. There’s a nice article here too, featuring a most appropriate celeb endorsement: cricket legend Justin Langer liked the book too! (Yes, my perspicacious readers, you are right, I didn’t know who Langer was, but now I do, ok?)
Here are Ron’s responses to my questions:
1. I was born at Cottesloe, WA and seem to have ended up not far from the tree.
2. When I was a child I tortured my sisters whenever I thought I could get away with it and read books when I was being punished.
3. The person who encouraged me to write was my mum in the beginning, but since I was about 10 I think I have been my biggest and often only fan.
4. I write in my home office in Perth, but intend to write more in my caravan, when it arrives.
5. I write creatively in the morning; 8-1300.
6. Research is like a long semi discriminate smorgasbord which lasts years – and then can only work if I forget I ever ate all that stuff while I’m writing.
7. I keep my published work, all one copy of it, in a wooden structure with shelving that has other published works on it, and I still like to happen past and come across it as if by accident.
8. On the day Fremantle Press rang me to tell me they would publish my book, I thought it had been rejected and the hour phone call about why they liked it was one of the best days of my life.
9. At the moment, I’m adapting five of my unproduced screenplays as a short story collection while researching a thriller.
10. When I’m stuck for a phrase I walk around the room and ask the dog; when stuck for a word I reach for the Thesaurus; but I am not usually stuck for ideas about stories, just about all the rest of things in life.
Thanks for participating, Ron! We look forward to seeing that shelving of yours fill up with more of your own books soon.
Author: Ron Elliott
Title: Spinner
Publisher: Fremantle Press 2010
ISBN: 9781921361937
Source: Review copy courtesy of Fremantle Press.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Oh, I do love this series of yours Lisa and there are some very interesting quotes in this one. Now that I have read his responses, I think I will always picture Ron Elliott, frozen in the middle of his room with his eyebrows arched in surprise, having come across the wonderful surprise of his own published work wedged between the books of other authors on a bookshelf.
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By: Karen lee Thompson on February 6, 2011
at 4:44 pm
I love the idea of chatting with the dog…I do that too, of course, but I never thought of asking Chifley or Sapphire for inpsiration for a novel…
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By: Lisa Hill on February 6, 2011
at 8:17 pm
Another wonderful insight Lisa ,he has a great sense of humour ,all the best stu
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By: winstonsdad on February 7, 2011
at 5:10 am
By the way, readers, I didn’t know, when last week I scheduled this post for today, that Perth this week would be surrounded by bushfires which have claimed at least 60 homes. Today (February 7th) is the anniversary of the Black Saturday fires which claimed 173 lives here in Victoria, and tough as it must be for you all, it is at least some consolation that there has been no loss of life in WA.
Still, we in Melbourne know what it is like to have our city swathed in smoke and to feel as if a malevolent force is only just being held at bay, and so I hope that any Perth readers who come across this post will realise that while you may be a very long way away from us here on the East Coast, firefighters from here are on their way over to help. Our hearts are with you and we are hoping that rains soon come to help in the battle against the fires.
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By: Lisa Hill on February 7, 2011
at 7:28 pm
Just reading Ron’s debut novel Spinner at the moment. Love a good sports story fictitious or not.
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By: Lachlan Waterman on October 26, 2016
at 12:45 pm
Hello Lachlan, it’s been a good while since I read Spinner, but I remember it quite well. I think that some of the ingredients of sport – ambition and money- can make for a great story about the people involved in it (not necessarily the person playing the sport).
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By: Lisa Hill on October 26, 2016
at 1:06 pm