Melbourne Writers Festival recap: 'Hard Lines' with Vikki Wakefield and Julia Lawrinson

One of the reasons I love Melbourne Writers Festival? You can walk out of one session, spy another author you love and decide to follow and let them lead you to another equally enchanting event . . .  that’s what happened to me on Tuesday. I had just finished the ‘Meet Melina Marchetta’ talk and went down to the signing area, where I spied Vikki Wakefield dashing to the Yarra Building for the ‘Hard Lines’ discussion with Julia Lawrinson.

Being a big fan of both Vikki Wakefield and Julia Lawrinson, of course I decided to follow her to ‘Hard Lines’, an interesting event described by MWF as: The teenage characters in novels by Julia Lawrinson and Vikki Wakefield often face hard, sometimes life-changing, decisions. See how two authors find hope in a world that is all too real and where there are no easy answers. The event was chaired by the lovely Adele Walsh, from the Centre for Youth Literature.

•    Julia Lawrinson began by saying that she had the beginnings of the ideas for ‘Losing It’ after reading negative reviews of Melvin Burgess’s ‘Doing It’ – in which teenage boy’s wise-cracked foul about their exploits both imagined and underwhelming. Julia really loved the book, but thought a particularly cruel review of it was completely missing the point. She especially thought about how girls have the same experiences with regards to sex and ‘Losing It’, but people seem to think writing about it is crass or taboo. So in describing what her book is about, Julia funnily admitted that it actually sounds like “a YA version of American Pie” (a few school kids in the audience perked up at this description) but then she promised that it wasn't all about "exploding penises." HA!

•    Vikki Wakefield wasn’t sure how to describe her new book, ‘Friday Brown’ – so enticingly said it’s about street kids who take over a ghost town. Julia Lawrinson chimed in, as a fan of the book, to say it’s about a lot more than that but to even attempt to describe the explosive second-half would be to spoil the story . . . Julia did point out that the cover itself is a spoiler. I love the ‘Friday Brown’ front cover, and I especially loved when Vikki agreed that the cover is an “omen” (YES!) and actually based around events in Chapter 28, which is also the section of the book that Vikki started writing first.

•    Talk of Vikki’s cover moved Adele to mention that around the office she was calling ‘Losing It’ the ‘sperm hearts’ cover – which got many giggles from the school crowd . . . and then a delayed-reaction about five minutes later, when someone (I think it was a teacher?) let out a little “Oooooohhhhh!” when they ‘got’ it. Adele and I were actually talking to Julia about her very distinctive front cover before the session started, and she described how the Penguin design department asked her many questions about what her characters looked like (details right down to their hair colour, eye colour) but they set all that aside to create a very distinctive (and, frankly, quite succinct) front cover instead. But, hey, it works!

•    Vikki spoke a lot about how she likes to write underdog characters. Really, characters only become interesting for her when they are underdogs – when you take away something like wealth, status, beauty and let them struggle with the lack. Friday Brown is really the ultimate underdog though, because Vikki took away her mother, had her living on the streets and at the mercy of a dangerous surrogate street mother. But Vikki really likes underdogs because their transformation to a strong individual by the end of the book is made all the more interesting for the struggles that came before. . .

•    I found it really intriguing that in ‘Losing It’, Julia set out to write about female sexuality and just girls in general, in a new and non-cliché way. She doesn’t like reading about one-dimensional girls who are just there as ‘objects’ on the page.

•    On the subject of romance – Vikki Wakefield admitted to being a ‘tease’ when it comes to writing relationships. She thinks that the moment a couple get together, they stop being interesting – so she tends to write everything leading up to that point, and then veer away.

 

 [left to right] Vikki Wakefield, Adele Walsh and Julia Lawrinson talking 'Hard Lines'

•    There was one really thoughtful question asked towards the end, concerning the TV show ‘Puberty Blues’ and the fact that the book it is based on was released in 1979. Vikki and Julia were asked if they think teenage girls have changed a whole lot between 1979 and now. Vikki made the fantastic comment that the TV show creators have changed the intent (and impact?) of the original novel quite a bit, by making the characters in the TV show 16 when they’re actually 13 in the books. Julia agreed, and said that 13-year-olds are very much doing all those confronting, questionable things and raising the age is maybe a bit sanitizing? But Vikki also said that she truly believes girls today are stronger. She doesn’t know what it is or how it came about, but girls have found a new strength from somewhere that was maybe missing for them in the 70s.

•    One school-boy put his hand up and asked the obvious of Julia – did she have a pact of her own when she was younger, like the girls in ‘Losing It’ do? I think the audience were very surprised that Julia admitted that she did indeed have a pact as a teenager – and, of course, everyone wanted to know more (the boy who asked the question said to be as detailed as possible). Julia recounted a rather hilarious story, much like the opening chapter of ‘Losing It’, which involved her climbing into the backseat of an ugly, small car with a boy . . . but ending up on her knees, praying with him that she wouldn’t get pregnant from their interlude. HA! I think the audience (pupils especially, while their teachers hid smiles behind hands?) were utterly enthralled by the enthusiasm and high hilarity of the ‘Hard Lines’ session. Julia, Vikki and Adele all bounced off one another so beautifully . . . and that wonderful repartee led into the final surreal moment of ‘Hard Lines’. . .

•    Both Julia and Vikki were introduced at the beginning of the seminar as having a small cosmic connection – which was that they had both been check-out chicks at one point in their lives (they mentioned that they both had the opportunity to closely study people and watch the world go by in that job, because customers generally didn’t think of their check-out chicks as ‘people’ they revealed some true colours and quirks around them). However, by the end of the session another connection was uncovered – Julia recently discovered (through an unsuccessful Facebook search) that her first boyfriend had spent 25-years in jail. Vikki found out that an ex of hers had been accused (not convicted?) with attempted murder! I think this was also a little insight into how differently Vikki and Julia’s lives could have been had they continued on the hedonistic paths of their adolescence . . . a path that they now both write about in their very tough, very true books but both seem quite happy to have deviated from.

 Vikki Wakefield, me and Julia Lawrinson (two of the nicest, funniest authors I have met at MWF!)

'Losing It' by Julia Lawrinson

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

To avoid Losing It in the bushes with some random guy in a heavy-metal T-shirt after too many tequila shots, four best friends make a bet: to lose it before schoolies week – and preferably in a romantic, sober way that they won't regret.

What follows is a sometimes funny, sometimes awkward, but always compelling comedy of errors as Abby, Mala, Bree and Zoe each try to find their Mr Right . . . or at least get laid.

Meet Bree, Zoe, Abby and Mala – the GeeGees (aka ‘Geek Girls’). The GeeGees quickly banded together as the outcast scholarship kids at prestigious SMAC (aka ‘St. Michael’s Anglican College), and ever since then they have been inseparable.

Bree is the glamazon of their group – she turns boy’s heads but has a reputation as an ice queen.

Abby is a sweet Christian girl – but don’t be fooled, because it’s the quiet ones you’ve got to look out for.

Mala is the dutiful daughter who is slowly being suffocated by her lovingly over-protective family.

And Zoe is trying to control her insatiable love of men’s muscly arms, and trying to keep her jealousy of Bree in check.

All four girls are currently still in possession of their V-plates (aka ‘virginity’) but all that’s about to change… Schoolies week is, statistically speaking, the time in a young girl’s life when she is most likely to pop her cherry. But losing it on a sandy beach surrounded by boozing teenagers and empty bottles does not sound overly romantic. So the GeeGees have made a pact to lose ‘it’ before Schoolies.

Four girls.
One challenge.
Potential catastrophe.
Game on.

‘Losing It’ is the new YA novel by Australian author Julia Lawrinson.

For some readers, ‘Losing It’ will be a head-nodding, cathartic and hilarious read that will either trigger memories of your own befuddling experience, or act as a ‘what not to do’ as you navigate the treacherous terrain of virginity. And then for a few other readers, ‘Losing It’ will no doubt be a special glimpse into the secret world of girls … and all our neurotically romanticized ways.

When we meet the GeeGees – Bree, Abby, Mala and Zoe – they are formulating a plan to avoid a dreaded Schoolies week cherry-popping;

'Okay,' Zoe said. 'Here's a better idea. Why don't we still have the rules, but also say that nobody's forced to participate if they don't want to.'
'What's the point of that?' Bree said. 'We may as well just leave it to chance.'
'Well, no,' Zoe said. 'It could be a challenge, instead of a bet.'
'What's the difference?' Bree asked.
'A bet is something juvenile, shallow, something you do with no thought. A challenge, on the other hand, is something you rise to, so to speak –' she ignored the giggles '– something that has a moral element, something that implies that you're overcoming the thing that is holding you back, that you're a new and better person by the end of it.' Zoe raised her fist in the air. 'It's about freedom – freedom to become somebody different!'
'You sound like you're talking about a new political movement, not getting laid,' laughed Mala.

From there we follow the girls’ individual journeys through year twelve, on their missions to lose ‘it’.

We meet Zoe – a science geek with an inconvenient penchant for muscle-bound jocks. For a few years now Zoe has been quietly stewing over the fact that her best friend, Bree, seemingly turned into a glamazonian hottie over night … leaving the rest of the GeeGees to pale in comparison. Zoe is especially frustrated at having to watch Bree parading around with her gym buddies – handsome older guys with bulging pectorals and drool-worthy arms. In a fit of frustration Zoe turns to Matty, honorary brother-like GeeGees member and Zoe’s science partner. It’s not love, it’s not even lust… and the back of a Yaris is hardly the place to get amorous. But a girl’s gotta lose what a girl’s gotta lose – and Zoe is hell-bent on losing her V-plates while she’s trying to get her P-plates.

Abby is a good Christian girl whose faith in love was rocked when her Youth Group sweetie got cold feet and chose abstinence over her virginity. Abby is struggling to get close to anyone since her first romantic disaster, and she doubts she’ll even be in the virginity competition. Putting a further dampener on her cherry-popping is the reappearance of her terrible, atheist older brother, Zeke. He’s back from the wheatbelt and he has a few revelations to share with the family…

Mala is a good, dutiful daughter with an impossible crush on her cousin, Mo. From an early age she knew that Mo was the one for her – but what’s acceptable in the old country is considered incest in Australia… and Mala has to put aside her romantic notions about the beautiful and dark-eyed Mo.

Finally, Bree is the St. Michael’s Anglican College resident ice queen. All the girls want to be her, and all the boys want to get in her pants… but nobody knows what really makes Bree tick. The St. Michael’s boys don’t interest her, and she envies her friend’s crushes and flirtations – their enviable lust leaves Bree feeling like a late-bloomer. But all that changes when she has a revelation at the gym one day.

First off, I should say that ‘Losing It’ is not Julia Lawrinson writing a lengthy and raunchy advocacy of promiscuity. The GeeGees are not entering into this ‘competition’ for one-upmanship or to participate in any of those rainbow party type shenanigans that ‘Today Tonight’ so likes to scare parents with. The girls enter into the ‘competition’, rather blindly, simply because they want to get the task of losing their virginity over and done with … and since they are not thrilled with the statistic that predicts they’ll most likely lose it at Schoolies week, they decide to do the deed beforehand. Now, if you’re tut-tutting and shaking your head at this naiveté, then never fear!… Lawrinson explores the myriad of ways that all four girls realize the pitfalls of their plan.

I really liked the fact that Lawrinson didn’t preach in this book. Readers, and the GeeGees, all have to come to the realization that losing your virginity to a competitive timeline is probably not the smartest move. All of the girls have mini-breakthroughs about themselves in the course of ‘Losing It’… but Lawrinson doesn’t shove these life lessons down reader’s throats. She doesn’t make situations too easy on her female characters either. Like Abby, who thought she had her brother all figured out until he shocked her with his reappearance. Or Bree, who everyone else has all figured out until we read her point of view and realize how wrong they are. This really is Lawrinson inviting readers into the secret world of girls (whether to commiserate or learn a little something) and she doesn’t pull punches or write an easy way out for her protagonist’s tricky situations. I liked that, a lot.

Really, all of the girl’s individual stories were juicy enough to warrant a book all to themselves. I really wished some girl’s stories had been longer (or stand alones) in particular, Bree & Abby’s – whose revelations (both personal and familial) really intrigued me, and by the end of the book I was wishing we’d been able to spend more time with those two girls in particular. I would have especially liked to read the fallout and ramifications of their situations…

I also wish the book had focused more on the GeeGees friendship group. We don’t really get many scenes with the foursome – and for that reason it felt like their talked about camaraderie was missing, not really shown. In the beginning I was concerned that the ‘losing it’ competition was made in spite – that these girls weren’t really close friends and the comp was a bit of sabotage by some of the girls in the group. But as the novel progresses and we read each of their perspectives, we do come to understand that the girls do care about each other and value their friendship. I just think that might have been a bit clearer though, if we had more scenes with the GeeGees hanging out together. On the other hand, each of the girls has secondary characters that become big players in their individual stories… science geek, Matty, was a particular favourite!

Funny and endearing, Julia Lawrinson has written an unflinching and hilarious journey through the momentous time in four girl’s lives when they decide to lose ‘it’, on their own terms.

4/5

 
Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge