Interview with Ilka Tampke, author of 'Skin'

 'Skin' by Ilka Tampke is going down as one of my favourite books of 2015 – a gripping historical fantasy novel set in Iron Age Britain, when the people of Caer Cad find themselves on the cusp of invasion by Emperor Claudius’ Roman army – and one woman called Ailia finds herself torn between two men, and setting out on a journey she never thought she could travel. 

 Luckily Ilka is in my writer’s group, and was kind enough to let me pick her brain...

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Q: How were you first published – agent or slush pile?

Actually neither. I submitted a few pages of my early manuscript as part of an application for a Glenfern Fellowship in Melbourne. One of the judges was an editor at Text Publishing, and she followed up with a request to see a bit more. It was a great lesson to me to go for as many competitions and residencies I can, because it gets your work under editors’ noses.

Q: Are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’ - that is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

For the writing of Skin I was an unmitigated ‘pantser’; I wrote all kinds of different scenes, characters and events, then I had to wrangle it all into a cohesive whole. I am currently trying to plot my second novel in advance of writing it, so I’ll let you know how that goes. I suspect, in my heart, I will always be a ‘pantser.’

Q: How long did it take you to write ‘Skin', from first idea to final manuscript?

Almost exactly 5 years. But there were big gaps where I did other work.

Q: 'Skin' is set during Iron-Age Britain and you really transport readers there. Exactly how much research did you do for this setting - and was a trip to England part of it?

It began with a trip I took to the southwest of England several years ago, where I fell in love with the mystical world of ancient Britain. Once the novel was underway, I read extensively among the work of archaeologists, historians and scholars of druidism and paganism. In the book’s final stages I went back to England, to walk the site of the township in which ‘Skin’ is set, and see the recreated Iron Age villages that are peppered throughout the UK. It was so wonderful to walk into the actual environments, and breath the atmosphere of the world I had been imagining for so long.

 

Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall?

Mostly they start as fragments of dialogue or interactions between characters that flash through my mind. I’ve learned to trust these intuitive impulses, as my subconscious imagination is far smarter than my conscious mind. I also find the historical research very fruitful and generative of ideas. I might read about an excavation of an Iron Age burial pit and imagine my character being part of that ritual, placing those grave objects in beside her loved one.

Q: What are you working on right now, and when can we expect it to his bookshelves?

The sequel to Skin. It will take the reader more deeply into the fight for Britain to hold onto what is most precious in its culture, and delves into the fascinating stories of the real life British freedom-fighters.

Q: Favourite author(s) of all time?

Eva Hornung, Dorothy Porter, James Cowan, Margo Lanagan, Ursula Le Guin, Helen Garner, Jeanette Winterson, Truman Capote.

Q: Favourite book(s)?

Monkey Grip by Helen Garner. The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson.

Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin.

Q: Do you have any advice for budding young writers?

Two things. Firstly: apply for everything that you can: competitions, residencies, fellowships, grants. I think it’s the best way to start building a profile and make people aware of your work. Be part of the writers’ community and opportunities will present themselves.

Secondly: finish your work. The very best writers I know are not published because they won’t finish their novels. Or even a short story! Your finished novel may get published. Your unfinished one never will.

'Skin' by Ilka Tampke

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Southwest Britain, AD 43.

For the people of Caer Cad, ‘skin’ is their totem, their greeting, their ancestors, their land.

Ailia does not have skin. Abandoned at birth, she serves the Tribequeen of her township. Ailia is not permitted to marry, excluded from tribal ceremonies and, most devastatingly, forbidden to learn. But the Mothers, the tribal ancestors, have chosen her for another path.

Lured by the beautiful and enigmatic Taliesin, Ailia embarks on an unsanctioned journey to attain the knowledge that will protect her people from the most terrifying invaders they have ever faced.

Set in Iron-Age Britain on the cusp of Roman invasion, Skin is a thrilling, full-blooded, mesmerising novel about the collision of two worlds, and a young woman torn between two men.

‘Skin’ is the debut historical fiction/fantasy novel from Australian author (and member of my wonderful writer’s group) Ilka Tampke.

The book is set in AD 43 (Iron Age Britain), and our narrator is ‘skinless’ Ailia of Cad who was found by Cookmother on the doorstep of the Tribequeen. She is raised in the kitchens, and taught the art of healing by Cookmother, but still Ailia longs for what she cannot have and will not be without skin – a journeywoman.  

Born to the skinless, or lost to their families before naming, the unskinned were not claimed by a totem. Their souls were fragmented, unbound to the Singing. If they remained little seen, they were not despised, not usually harmed. The townspeople gave them enough grain, cloaks and work, if they would do it. But they could not live within the town walls because no one could be sure of who they were. 

I quickened my pace and Neha trotted beside me. 

Skin was gifted from mother to child by a song. 

I had no mother. I had no skin. 

But I had been spared. Just.

When she is of age at Beltane, Ailia meets the warrior Ruther who affectionately calls her ‘Daughter of the Doorstep’ and may wish to make her kin. She also meets the mysterious Taliesin one day by the river, not sure if he is bard or magician. And when Ailia starts exhibiting powers the skinless should not possess, her life seems destined for greater things ... 

This book gripped me from the first, with a haunting scene of spirit and sacrifice in the opening pages that left me horrified and intrigued;

The journeymen and women started to sing down the songs of our tribe in powerful harmony. I could sense the expectation in the gathering, the pulsing of hearts and the coursing of blood. This ritual was part of our story, part of our truth, but the terribleness of it was never forgotten.

From there I could barely pull myself away from the book and Ailia’s journey.

Tampke transports readers to an incredible moment in history, to Iron Age Britain when ‘the tendrils of Roman ways had touched Caer Cad’ and Emperor Claudius’s Roman army are preparing to invade. It is a time of druids and tribelands, a reach back into a very real time that Tampke recreates so viscerally with language and these characters.

Isobelle Carmody provides an endorsement quote for the book, which is so fitting because I would recommend ‘Skin’ to anyone who enjoys the ‘Obernewtyn Chronicles’ – for both author’s rich language and world-building, but especially the incredible journeys of their female heroes. While reading I also thought of Margo Lanagan’s short stories and dark fantasy tales, and Melina Marchetta’s ‘Lumatere Chronicles’ fantasy series. Because there is a touch of magic woven throughout ‘Skin’, which works seamlessly with the mystery of the Iron Age – Ailia’s unexpected powers, Taliesin’s mysticism and transformation – and always, the ‘journeypeople’ druids, their religion and sacrificial ways. Indeed, while ‘Skin’ is an adult novel, I found that there’s a lot here young adult readers will love too. There is romance and brutality, but it’s nothing young readers haven’t read before or will be shocked by in the context of history and fantasy.

I loved this book, and our hero Ailia. Tampke carries readers to a most remarkable time of the Iron Age – when druids were revered and the tribal lands of Britain were about to be changed forever, when Skin was everything and magic seemed inevitable. Ilka Tampke's book is already creating buzz in Australia and overseas, and for good reason - we’ve just welcomed a remarkable new voice in Australian literature, and I can’t wait to read what she comes up with next.

5/5