ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

It is with great pleasure that I introduce Alastair Sarre as the subject of this Meet an Aussie Author.  Alastair is the talented young author of the outback thriller, Prohibited Zone which I reviewed a little while ago.  (If you haven’t already bought something for Father’s Day,  this book would make a great gift!)

Alastair is busy working on a sequel, but he took time out to answer my questions, and here they are:

1. I was born in Leigh Creek, surviving an absent doctor, a drunken midwife and placenta praevia.

2. When I was a child I co-wrote a comedy with two friends, on a typewriter we found in a secondhand store.

3. The person who encouraged me to write is several people, including early teachers, my parents and my wife.

4. I write in coffee shops and pubs, and at home. Pubs are best; I like the characters that inhabit them, the snatches of dialogue I hear – and the beer.

5. I write whenever I run out of paid work and also when I’m away. I travel a fair bit for work and on many lonely evenings I’ve taken my laptop to a bar, ordered a pint and started tapping away.

6. Research is a hell of a lot of fun. Sitting in a pub is research; so is talking to people, reading books and stomping around in the bush.

7. I keep my published work on a bookshelf in my study, with other Australian novels.

8. On the day my first book was published, I was overseas, where people didn’t seem to care too much. It was good to get home and open the box.

9. At the  moment, I’m writing a second novel featuring Westie, the  protagonist of Prohibited Zone.

10. When  I’m stuck for an idea/word/phrase, I mark the spot with an X and come back to it later. If I’m home I’ll take the dog for a run because blood-flow helps the word-flow and I enjoy it anyway.

How awful to be overseas and not able to see your first novel hit the shelves –  I hope you have a big party with all your friends when No 2 is published, Alastair!

Author: Alastair Sarre
Title: Prohibited Zone
Publisher: Wakefield Press 2011
ISBN: 9781862549432
Source: Review copy courtesy of Wakefield Press.

Availability:
Fishpond: Prohibited Zone: A Thriller in the Desert