Just So Stories

Well folks, I promised you a Q&A with Lisa and wowzers! I reckon it’s one of the best I’ve ever had in the 10+ years of JSS!!

Lisa, welcome to Just So Stories and thank you so much for taking time to share with my readers. I’m especially glad to have you visit as 30 years ago, my first teaching post as a mature-age graduate was Nanango State School. We lived in Kingaroy, and really it was there that my two younger girls really began to get more interested in knowing about their own [Wiradjuri] culture. Living in the Burnett region was a great experience and I still have two adult grandsons living and working there. So I feel al little ‘Burnett’ connection there!

Thanks for having me, fellow Queenslander! We drive the backroads close to there every time we go home.

So, let’s start at your early years in Eidsvold.
Can you tell us a little about your childhood and family life growing up a fairly small Queensland rural town? How do you think that has shaped your life?

That’s a big question. I was born in Eidsvold to a strong, single mother and one big sister. We lived there for a few years, but Mum moved us around for a while. We were in Roma, Rockhampton and Toowoomba for a while. She moved us back when I was reaching high school because she was worried I didn’t have the connection to community, culture and Country that my big sister had. Also, I suspect she was homesick. It’s a decision I will always thank her for. I was a little lost before that, because I was fair-skinned kid facing all kinds of microaggressions and racism in those different places that I didn’t understand or have the words to explain. Being home let me grow into who I was with a strong community to support me. Small town country Queensland is in some ways a time warp, the racial tensions and all the isms are still going strong. But also, there are all kinds of really good people there. I love my home. I love my family. And I’m damn proud of my community and where I come from. All of that informs my writing and who I am today. I think if you want to know about what it was like to grow up there in the 90s it might be faster to read my novel, Ghost Bird lol.

What or who did you read as a child? And what are the favourites now?

Mum would read to us every night. I remember The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Charlotte’s Web the most. Charlotte’s Web was the first book I read by myself that was (mostly) writing. I was 5 and Mum made a deal with me – save up all my questions about words and meanings, and ask her while she was making dinner. Those are special memories. Later on there are so many. No Flying in the House by Betty Brock was a special favourite. But I’d read anything I could get my hands on. There’s still too many to name, but my recent reads that I’ve adored include The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen, Euphoria Kids by Alison Evans, Dragon Skin by Karen Foxlee, Ubby’s Underdogs by Brenton E. McKenna and Bindi by Kirli Saunders.

What was your ambition growing up? Where did you see your place?

Being a writer was always my dearest and most closely guarded secret dream. Mum and probably some of the other family knew but I never discussed it. I’d never met a writer of any persuasion, let alone a Blak one. In my brain being a writer meant ‘starving artist’ and I didn’t want that. I wanted to get out and see the world, meet different people, explore the world. Really I had no idea what I wanted in a job. So I went to university where I learned I love to learn, wound up in the public service and I did get to travel and help my family. But I had to learn some hard lessons about leaning too much into mainstream Australian culture and the damage that comes with ‘climbing the ladder’. The entire time I was studying in some form, and it always related to writing. I ended up in publishing which I loved so hard that I learned a job can’t love you back. When I finally went to Mum and told her I wanted to give up my great job and benefits to chase this writing dream, her words were something like: ‘It’s about bloody time’.

Did those goals lead to work initially? Or did you work in other areas?

Aside from the above, I recently got a job as a lecturer at the University of Canberra. So you could say I’m currently starting my third career, while trying to balance it with family and my writing ambitions. Most writers need work to get things done. I was also lucky enough to get a Creative Australia grant to write my next YA book as well. I’ve also recently become a literary agent myself and I’ve got a couple of grants to help me be mentored by Alex Adsett and her amazing team, as well as some travel funds from Creative Australia and the Neilma Sidney Travel Fund to go to events and meet authors, editors and people across the publishing industry. There’s a lot happening. I think my next lesson is going to be in balance.

When did you start writing? And when did you think that writing could become a career for you?

According to my mum, I’ve always written stories. But also because of who we are, we’ve always told each other stories. Before I even knew my alphabet, I’d scribble little symbols that I thought looked like letters, and then I’d sit in her lap and explain the whole story. I was encouraged by a number of teachers through the years, and I still have a story I wrote in Year 4 or 5 called ‘Felicia the Pink Panda’ and another from Year 12 that I wrote for an English assignment which is basically a fairytale. As I said though, I never saw writing as an option or understood what a ‘career’ in writing would look like. Not until 2017 when I resigned from my job and decided to chase the dream while also doing my PhD.

Tell us a little about your academic career. What does that look like?

You tell me lol. No seriously, I’m still learning so much. I’ve only been in the job since June or July last year, so 6 or 7 months. I’m still finding my feet and the cyclical nature of the university means I haven’t experienced the full cycle yet. At the moment, it’s a lot of balancing classes, students, and workload as we’re in the thick of semester one. Thanks to the Creative Australia grant I’ve been able to take it to part-time and do some writing as well. Out of semester seems to be more focussed time for research and writing/research ambitions but I haven’t really experienced that yet. I can’t wait; I’ve got a lot of projects in mind. I’m already part of an amazing collective of researchers at UC’s First Nations Collaborative Research Web and a cross-institutional research group, we call ourselves Kind Regards. Working with such passionate, supportive and committed people makes anything feel possible. We have big goals for ourselves as a group and as individuals.

You’ve now lived in Canberra for quite a long time. I also worked and lived there for a couple of years a decade ago. I loved the place a lot but I didn’t like the cold! What do you enjoy most about living there?

Ngunnawal Country sings to my smalltown country-girl soul. All the convenience of a city, but none of the traffic. Surrounded by beautiful bush and rivers, filled with diverse, interesting and open peoples. And there’s always something going on, some cultural event, experience or just plain fun. I hear you about winter! For a long time, I would cry and swear I was moving home. But I’m totally acclimatised now. I’ve become a total wuss about heat and I can’t take being back home without aircon lol. What I love most though is that there are four seasons here. Autumn is my absolute favourite. The chill in the air, the colours of the leaves. It feels magical. I hope to someday write stories set here, but I need to do proper cultural consultations first.

Last year I reviewed Big Big Love which is just delightful. That was quite a departure for your writing style, what inspired it?

Thank you so much, I’ll check out your review! My niblings were the reason for this one too. And it wasn’t so much a departure, as it was a ‘never meant to be’. I wrote it back in my publishing days (2011-2017), around the same time I was writing Ghost Bird for my Masters. I intended to pay an illustrator so I could print some copies and give it to them one Christmas as a fun family thing. But I couldn’t get any illustrators to reply to my emails. I ran into the amazing Rachel bin Salleh at a publishing event and asked her what I was doing wrong. She told me to email it to her and she’d ask some illustrators she thought might be interested. Rachel and I are both insanely busy person, so it languished for a while. Then suddenly I got an email from Rachel asking if she could have it. I was flattered, said yes and it sat again for a bit, COVID hit and it took a backseat. By the time Samantha Campbell came on as illustrator (which was a dream choice for me!), I was a mum myself. Samantha had also recently become a mum, and her work added this amazing element to it that I can’t explain, but it makes me tear up every time. And I’ve seen the same reaction in other mums who pick it up. I am so in love with that book. But it was released at a really intense time for me as a new mum trying to finish my PhD and work out what I was going to do post-study. I feel really guilty about how little I’ve promoted it. I do want to fix that, but I’m not quite sure how. I realised last year that so far all my books have come from love for my niblings and my community.

Tell us about your working day and how you manage to fit in writing with everything else.

Right now, I am fighting to find balance. I have a new book, a new job, a toddler and a budding agenting career. Somehow, I am sane. Mostly because I have an amazing partner and mother who back me up constantly. I could not cope without them, and we work at trying to support each other every day. I also have brilliant colleagues who are supportive and understanding when I have to say no to things. I am learning to say no to things lol. I have set aside Thursdays specifically for my writing thanks to the Creative Australia grant. I’m currently testing different spaces I can go to make the most of those days. I’m playing with my hours at work to try to balance workload with the other commitments. I’m on a steep learning curve with this one. It’s really hard a lot of the time, but I keep coming back to my priorities. I want to model passionate pursuit of dreams to my daughter. But I also don’t want to miss out on time with her. She is teaching me a lot about patience and the importance of time.

We [that’s me really!] love to know what your writing space looks like (photos are always welcome!).

Oh mate, that changes daily. My partner and I joke about getting me an office on wheels so I can roll it somewhere far away. Right now, I’m sat in a café typing this. And I’ll do some writing here. I wrote most of Ghost Bird at Capital Pancakes (formerly Pancake Parlour), but COVID took them from us. I was devastated. I recently tried writing at my office at UC… that did not go well. It’s too saturated with my work responsibilities, and I really need a place where no one can find me. The last few weeks I’ve tried different cafes, a creative working space where you rent a desk, my work office, my home office. My home office has become a graveyard of paperwork because if my daughter knows I’m in there I have no peace. I’m literally testing new spaces every week. If you or your readers have any recommendations I would LOVE to hear it!

[ok Canberra buddies, what’s a good space to go and create??]

What’s coming up next for you? Do you have a WiP at the moment?

I have about 7 in train. My agent Alex is a very patient, lovely person lol. I’m writing the spiritual sequel to Ghost Bird thanks to Creative Australia, that’ll be done by next year and I am stoked to be back with Tace and the crew. I’ve just sent my PhD novel out for a manuscript assessment / structural edit breakdown, and I’m hoping to see if I can get the exegesis published too. The PhD novel is a new adult horror about a Blak girl surviving university life. I have a junior fantasy about toys coming to life (for my daughter), a middle grade ghost story set in Eidsvold, an urban fantasy set in Canberra and a fantasy about a cursed race that can’t decide if it’s YA or adult, or paranormal romance or just straight epic fantasy. I have thousands of words on all of these projects. My problem is I need to stop taking off to play with the ‘shiny new idea’ and focus on what I’ve got in front me just finish what’s in front of me. This is why deadlines are so crucial to me!

Finally, what would you like your epitaph to be?

Great question! How about: Here lies the body of Lisa Fuller, her soul returned to the ancestors on [a date far far into the future]. Beloved mother, partner, daughter, aunty, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin. She loved, tried, failed, succeeded and learned. She was a writer.

Lisa, thank you so much for taking time out of what must be a very busy schedule and congratulations on Washpool which is outrageously imaginative and gives readers a whole different slant on First Nations family and culture.

Thank you for your lovely review. It was truly wonderful to read and I felt like you got exactly what I was trying to do.