Interview with Simmone Howell, author of 'Girl Defective'

•

This week my copy of ‘Girl Defective’ arrived and I consumed it in one train trip (this is like an informal rating system for me: read in one train trip = one amazing book). Simmone Howell definitely delivers on the YA benchmarks she set with her debut ‘Notes from the Teenage Underground’ and ‘EverythingBeautiful’.

‘Girl Defective’ is the Something Wild with Street Crazies, and it’s Some Weird Sin how much I loved this book ;)

P.S. – if you want to know what the animal-head pictures are all about . . .  get to the mess and read the book! 

•

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? 

I am a bit of both. I always have an idea of where I want the story to go and I'll have a few key scenes in mind when I start, but if I go off track I don't mind because that's usually where the story gets more interesting - I think of it like a discovery walk where you know the start and finish but how you get there can change because of a road accident or a whim ...

Q: How long did it take you to write ‘Girl, Defective’, from first idea to final manuscript? 

I had started a St Kilda novel (called for a long time St Kilda novel) which was a version of Notes from the Teenage Underground back in 2004 - so some seeds were planted then... but GD has pretty much been at the forefront of my consciousness since 2008 where I wrote the first chapter that featured Sky and Nancy on the rooftop looking at the palm trees and throwing food at passers-by.

 

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? 

Character and situation. But it is a free-fall too. And sometimes the characters you think are going to be important become less so and vice versa. My themes don't change too much from book to book (I think. Generally.) With GD I wanted to try and write a crime novel but it quickly became obvious that my inner writer didn't want to be tied to crime-writing conventions, so there was a battle of wills for a while there. 

  

Q: Why do you choose to write young adult fiction? What is it about this genre that you love? 

I love writing young characters because I feel like they have more dreams and possibilities. I know this isn't actually true, but it's always a starting point. I also think a lot about what makes people the way they are, and my characters are kind of a study of humanity (on a very small scale). I don't think too much about the genre as I'm writing. Labels work when they work. But I do read a lot of YA and my favourite books could easily fit into this genre if you skewed the definition a tad.

Q: So, I see from your bio that among the many casual jobs you’ve worked in your life (portable animal farms among them?!) you also once worked in a record shop. Sky, the protagonist of ‘Girl, Defective’ works in her family record shop. How did you go drawing on your own record shop-girl experiences for this book – and have you had this story fermenting in your mind since your shop days? 

I have worked in lots of record shops -  old fusty ones and shiny desperate ones -  and I have always wanted to write a novel set in one. I love the reverence of vinyl fans and the humour and the strange combination of irritation and fondness you can have for the more challenging regular customer. My first proper job was at a second-hand record shop. I had dropped out of uni but have to say I got a better education at the shop than what the course would have offered me. 

Q: You’re a Melburnian, and ‘Girl, Defective’ is set in St. Kilda (Sky’s record shop being on Blessington Street – one of the best named streets in Australia!). All Melbourne locals know that St. Kilda holds special affection and fascination (with a nefarious) history. When I first read the synopsis for ‘Girl, Defective’ and read about the St. Kilda setting – I was thrilled and totally got the appeal. But can you explain the appeal of St. Kilda for those who don’t know the area – explain why you wanted your story set in this suburb? 

I grew up in the outer east and St Kilda was always this mythical dreamland to me. It is a place that's already full of stories and I guess I wanted to add to the layers. It has a reputation of being a place of edges and art and criminal activity and because it has a transience, the mood is always shifting. It seems to me to be like a place where people come to rather than from ... It has a well-documented history (and I recommend the St Kilda Historical society's walks - they are fascinating) and I love all the metaphors of it beginning as a swamp, then becoming a rich person's playground, then falling into disrepair and then becoming gentrified. Back when I lived there I was in a duplex that had a Sai Baba devotee on one side and  lunatic living in the shed out the back. PLus it's physically beautiful - the sea and the wide streets, the Spanish houses & the eerie canal!

Q: Family is quite a focus in this book – between Sky’s patriarch and her brother – the intense focus is beautifully summarised in the synopsis; ‘Family Rules’. So often in YA books, family units are pushed to the side and are non-existent or cardboard cutouts. In young adult literature it’s usually the friendship family that is the real heart. Why was family an important exploration for you in this book, and for Sky? 

I think the relationships in the book are a mirror of the important people in my life at the time of writing. I wanted to explore the themes of how families can stay together when they are so challenged, so at odds with their environment...

 

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

I am writing a story about a Fitzroy witch. I have no deadline!

  

Q: Favourite author(s) of all time? 

  Carson McCullers, Barry Gifford, Gavin Lambert. 

Q: Favourite book(s)? 

 The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, Wild at Heart by Barry Gifford, The Slide Area by Gavin Lambert

 

Q: What advice do you have for budding young writers?

My best advice is stolen from Ben Okri's poem. he says 'Read the World' ... 

'Girl Defective' by Simmone Howell

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

We, the Martin family, were like inverse superheroes, marked by our defects. Dad was addicted to beer and bootlegs. Gully had "social difficulties" that manifested in his wearing a pig snout mask 24-7. I was surface clean but underneath a weird hormonal stew was simmering...

It's summer in St Kilda. Fifteen-year-old Sky is looking forward to great records and nefarious activities with Nancy, her older, wilder friend. Her brother – Super Agent Gully – is on a mission to unmask the degenerate who bricked the shop window. Bill the Patriarch seems content to drink while the shop slides into bankruptcy. A poster of a mysterious girl and her connection to Luke, the tragi-hot new employee sends Sky on an exploration into the dark heart of the suburb. What begins as a toe-dip into wilder waters will end up changing the frames of Sky's existence. Love is strange. Family Rules. In between there are teenage messes, rock star spawn, violent fangirls, creepy old guys and accidents waiting to happen. If the world truly is going to hell in a hand-basket then at least the soundtrack is kicking. Sky Martin is Girl Defective: funny, real and dark at the edges.

Mia Casey’s graffiti face with blackened tears watches over Bill's Wishing Well record shop. Mia was a real girl who died a few months ago, found face-down in the river and thought to be a ‘party-girl’ – no investigations are underway.

Skylark ‘Sky’ Martin thinks about Mia, even dreams about her. But Sky has enough to worry about without deluding herself into thinking she knew a dead girl . . . 

For one thing, her dad is the Bill who owns Bill's Wishing Well record shop. Her dad can polish off a whole slab in a single sitting and long ago accepted his alcoholism as a permanent character flaw. Then there’s Sky’s little brother, Gully, who never takes off the pig-snout mask their mum sent him for his last birthday. And speaking of Sky’s mum – what’s the point? She changed her name to Galaxy and breezed off to perform installation art in Japan, and now she’s just a voice on the end of the phone.

But life isn’t all bad for soon-to-be-sixteen Sky. There’s Nancy; their failed cleaner turned only best friend Sky has ever known. Nancy is older and wilder; she’s a dream of a girl who can pull of wearing the vintage clothes Sky’s mum left behind and causes eyes to bug out of people’s heads. 

Home is Blessington Street in St. Kilda – where tourists outnumber locals and nobody but Sky and Gully are born and bred St. Kildans. Locals are a colourful bunch and frequent the record shop – there’s the Weird Sisters and The Fugg (a poet), Steve Sharp (once famous, now sober) and Mystery Train.

It’s Mia Casey’s graffiti face that ignites everything – or so it seems. She’s plastered on the wall and suddenly bricks are flying, mysterious white vans are peeling away and a pretty newbie called Luke is hired at Wishing Well. Suddenly Sky’s life becomes full and messy – and glorious. 

‘Girl Defective’ is the new young adult novel from Australian author Simmone Howell. 

It has been too long since we’ve had a Simmone Howell novel. ‘Everything Beautiful’ was her last, and that was 2008. The moment I started reading ‘Girl Defective’ and Howell’s cracking voice rang out from the page – that was when I knew something (or, rather, someone) had been sadly missed on the Aussie YA scene. Howell writes such sharp characters and dark edges with a wry humour that’s wholly unique and breathtaking. Reading her latest offering is like gulping air you didn’t know was cut off – and I hope we never have to go so long between instalments from Ms Howell. 

The novel is set in St. Kilda, Howell’s stomping ground. For those who don’t know, St. Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne and is one of the city’s more colourful areas. It has quite a past – back in the 1880’s the area experienced a land boom and because St. Kilda is overlooking Port Philip Bay, it became a seaside destination. But the depression bought a sharp decline to the area, and for many years it was a place for crooks, prostitutes and general low-lives. It was only in the 1990s that the area experienced a gentrification, and as ‘Girl Defective’ is set in the present, Sky observes that: “These days the red light still glowed but only faintly.” So St. Kilda is a real dichotomy – some areas are still imprints of the suburb’s seedy past, but there are oak-lined streets that are beyond posh and full of million-dollar properties. 

I love the St. Kilda setting; for one thing it becomes a distinct character within Sky’s story, and for another it seems to be a reflection of the Martin family and associates. Father Bill is definitely living in the past (encapsulated in his record shop’s motto – “nothing after 1995”) while Sky’s best friend, Nancy, is determined to look forward and keep her eyes off the rear-view mirror. And as for Sky . . .  well, she seems to be caught between the vibrancy of those around her. With a post-punk father and mother called Galaxy, a brother who is a detective-in-training and constantly snouted, not to mention Nancy’s silver magnetism – Sky constantly feels like the odd one out. She’s mostly friendless at school, prefers masculine clothing and is quietly observant. It’s no wonder that amidst so many fiery characters and temperaments, Sky doesn’t quite know where she fits in, what her ‘thing’ is or who 'her people' are. I love her. Quiet she may be, but Sky is wicked smart and eloquent. She’s such a wonderfully relatable character; constantly feeling like the sidekick or back-up singer is something many, many people can relate to. And Howell has given Sky quite a voice – I adore how she describes her tinging jealousy of Nancy’s shine; 

I don’t know why it had to hurt, the way she dialled the world with her little finger.

Howell’s writing is magnificent – and my copy of ‘Girl Defective’ is peppered with markers to remember all the fine lines that caught me unawares. Howell’s similes alone made my knees weak;  

My heart beating like a bird in a box

Not to mention;

Pheromones fizzing like fireflies around us.

This is, ultimately, a book about relationships. There’s a focus on family – of the parents who vamoose and those who stick around. Little brothers we want to cradle and protect, and the sisters we let slip away. The flimsy friendships we hope to blossom into permanency, and the tentative lust that catches us unawares. And then there’s the relationship we have to music – what Sky calls her ‘valve’ on life. Music is an outlet, a private ceremony and those in the book feel a deep connection to the soundtrack of their lives; 

‘Put something on. Whatever you like.’ 

To some eyes this could look like a test. The first track a newbie played might set the tone for his employment. Luke was right to look uncertain. He wandered around the aisles for ages, coming back with Simon & Garfunkel. 

I snorted. Even Gully shook his head. 

‘What?’ Luke asked. 

‘That record doesn’t tell me anything about your inner emotional landscape,’ I told him. 

Luke stayed poker-faced. ‘Don’t have one of those.’ 

‘Bullshit.’ 

‘Sky – don’t psychoanalyse the new guy.’ Dad turned to Luke. ‘Gully reads faces, Sky reads records. We, the Martins, have superpowers.’

Simmone Howell slays me, every damn time. I didn’t want this book to end, and now that it’s over I just want to climb back into Howell’s world and re-read her words all over again. ‘Girl Defective’ is a book about the moment when everything changes, when you lose some and get some and the world falls into place (if, a little crookedly). Everyone has to read this, it’s good for the soul.

5/5 

'Everything Beautiful' by Simmone Howell

From the BLURB:

Riley Rose, atheist and bad girl, has been tricked into attending Spirit Ranch, a Christian camp. There she meets Dylan Kier, alumni camper and recent paraplegic, who arrives with a chip on his shoulder and a determination to perfect all of his bad habits. United in their personal suffering and in their irritation at their fellow campers, they turn the camp inside out as they question the meaning of belief systems, test their faith in each other, and ultimately settle a debate of the heart.

Sixteen-year-old Riley Rose doesn’t believe in much. Since her mother’s death Riley has been on a ‘downward spiral’, she has become ‘rebellious’ and her behaviour warrants ‘concern’ from her father and his new ‘girlfriend’, Norma. So they’re sending Riley to Spirit Ranch, a Christian camp. Riley will have to leave behind her best friend, Chloe, and any designs she has on cute boy crush, Ben. She has to sleep in a cabin with a prissy Christian bitch called Fleur and a quiet God-fearing doormat called Sarita.

But Spirit Ranch has its up-side, like zealot camp leader Craig of the Adonis good looks. Then there are camp regulars, siblings Olive and Bird, who blossom under Riley’s protective wing.

But best of all is Dylan, the only other person who doesn’t want to be here as bad as Riley. Because Dylan used to be a regular Christ-loving, bible-thumping Spirit Rancher . . . until he lost the use of his legs. Now he lives in a wheelchair, and hates the world. Riley can relate.

‘Everything Beautiful’ was the 2008 young adult novel from award-winning Australian writer, Simmone Howell.

This novel is sublime. It’s a camp/pilgrimage/road-trip novel about a girl who starts out with no questions, but winds up with infinite curiosity.

When we meet her, Riley Rose has a self-diagnosed ‘Mum-shaped hole’ in her life. Ever since her mother’s death Riley has become a little bit wild. She befriended her school’s resident slut, Chloe, and started flouting authority and rules. Riley’s demise into rebelliousness is in direct contrast to her father’s re-discovery of God. Once a lapsed Catholic, her father now attends church on a regular basis and is dating a fellow devout. Their solution to Riley’s hurt and acting out is Spirit Ranch, their church’s yearly camp for all good Christian children . . . Riley goes, begrudgingly, and with a list of unchanging truths in her life;

I believe in Chloe and chocolate.
I believe the best part is always before.
I believe that most girls are shifty and most guys are dumb.
I believe the more you pill, the less you are.
I don’t believe in life after death or diuretics or happy endings.
I don’t believe anything good can come from this.

But Spirit Ranch isn’t exactly accepting. Riley is an instant target, a walking blasphemy whose weight issues (she’s fat, deal with it) make her easy prey and her atheism turns her into a plague amongst the campers. The only people who actually like Riley are Olive and Bird, bullied siblings who find solace in Riley’s easy acceptance and defence. Craig, the hunky camp leader who just wants to get into Riley’s double-D’s . . . and Dylan, the paraplegic boy whose sadness calls to Riley’s own.

I loved this book. Riley is a fast and frenetic teen whose deep sadness is masked by false bravado. She’s a fantastic leading lady, not least because Howell has written a taboo in making her F-A-T. Today Tonight obesity-watch reports remind us every day that Australia is climbing up the tubby ladder, yet so few teens in contemporary YA reflect this physicality.

The Christian camp setting was hilariously sublime. Reminiscent of one of my all-time favourite movies, ‘Saved!’ (2004). Howell reveals that not all Christians are good, but not all atheists are without hope either. Howell isn’t bashing religion in this book; she’s just showing its myriad sides. Sure, the Christian teens in this book aren’t exactly keeping up their ‘love thy neighbour’ teachings, but this is more reflective of a William Golding exploration into pack behaviour than commentary on the decay of worship.

But the real Hail Mary of ‘Everything Beautiful’ is Dylan. Dylan is trapped in a wheelchair after an undisclosed accident that everyone at Spirit Ranch is speculating about. Rumour has it he jumped 16 storeys. Another tale tells of a surfing accident. But only Dylan knows the truth, and he’s not telling. Riley is intrigued . . . both by Dylan’s silence about the accident, and his clear affinity for her and their Spirit Ranch plight. Dylan is one of my new favourite characters – I loved his contrasts and inherent enigma. I loved that he was full of snark and spirit, that he felt cheated in life but still wore a cross around his neck;

I’m glad it was Dylan who laughed first. Once he did I felt myself unravel. I giggled and he giggled. We were the experiment. And then there came a time when we weren’t laughing. When we locked eyes and breathed each other’s breath. Ohmystars! The firmament shakes and then everything settles. In the end everything settles.

‘Everything Beautiful’ is more proof that there’s something in the water for Australian YA. A quirky contemporary that introduces us to a feisty and furious girl called Riley, who is unbelieving and full of hurt. I loved this book, and from now on I will be worshipping at the word altar of Simmone Howell – anything she writes, I do so solemnly swear to devour.

5/5