How I write: Shane Maloney
His barbed, satirical crime novels take a few stressed penguins
Amid journalism and history
Writing a novel takes me anything from three to four years, but at an absolute minimum, 18 months. That time is taken up with quite a lot of work and revisions: re-jigging, blind alleys, red herrings, wind socks, stressed penguins, broken pencils and lacerated cerebellums.
I believe in serendipity, by which I mean occasionally I see examples of something I've just written, or something I'm thinking about writing, and that kind of confirms I'm on the right track. I don't have any magic rituals but sometimes there are little signs, portents and omens that I'm headed in the right direction.
I immerse myself in the subject as much as possible. Rather than thinking up an idea then finding the facts to support it, I like to think about a general time period and setting and then read extensively, everything from historical reports, interviews, oral histories to the TV guide and the classified ads from that period.
I'm interested in the area between journalism and history, where it hasn't quite solidified as a distinct historical moment, where memory blurs. It's a good place for a novelist to work. It means I can mention events and personalities who are still within the public consciousness but can perhaps move precise situations around, for my own purposes.
I talk to people in Canberra - it's a dirty job, someone has to do it. And they talk to me. People within the political sphere have been very helpful to me. When I have particular enquiries about the mechanics of the way a party operates, I find people pretty fair and open. But it's disturbing when I try to satirise people in the political process and they tell me how much they enjoy it. I feel I might be slightly missing the target.
I like to use a pen which was removed from the mummy of Tutankhamun and paper handmade for the Chinese emperor Quan Ling. Apart from that I don't fetishise the objects with which I work.
My objective is always to give the reader the best value for their money particularly those that buy the book. Thirty-five cents of the retail price comes back to me so I like to make sure they do get their 35 cents-worth.