BALLAN author and artist Tor Roxburgh remembers a point in time when writing became purely work for her.
Many aspiring writers would be envious of Ms Roxburgh’s career.
Her non-fiction book Taking Control was one of the first successful Australian titles about family violence and she was a senior researcher on the National Inquiry into Youth Homelessness.
Ms Roxburgh had a string of teenage romance novels published under various pseudonyms, but remembers a defining moment.
“It was an accidental career,” she laughs. “But I began to wonder what a feminist with a passion for speculative fiction was doing writing fast fiction about teenagers falling in and out of love.
“I realised I wasn’t inspired and I should be writing on something I love rather than writing for money.”
She stopped writing the lucrative teen tales and poured herself into material she was passionate about.
Her latest novel, The Light Heart of Stone, explores the connections between “slow culture” and the indigenous population but twists the subject into an ethereal, fantasy world.
“It is set in the world of the Stone Body, a continent on which plants and animals need human companions in order to thrive.
“In an arrangement where the world’s indigenous people own the land and the newcomers control the talent for growing plants and breeding animals, trouble appears.
“Crops begin to fail, animals cease to breed and the desperate search for solutions exposes a murderous ambition”
This will be her first fantasy book and her 15th published book.
So, what is speculative fiction?
“It’s fiction that is not about the real world. It also includes science fiction; generally it’s an umbrella over fantasy and science fiction. My book is about an imagined world.”
Ms Roxburgh will launch her book at her gallery, the Omnibus Art Gallery, on Saturday at 2.30pm.
The launch will include a collection of whimsical artworks by residents including Anuradha Patel, Brian Munn and Lou Callow.
Poets Victoria Wardlaw and Joshua Buckle, and Triple J award-winning eight-piece folk band The Bon Scotts will perform.
Details: phone 0487 895 441 or send an email to publisher@lightheartofstone.com
