Toni Jordan chats with Jessica Au about her new book,

Tell us about writing

After I finished Fall Girl, I had no idea whatsoever. Nothing. Unlike many writers I know, I find ideas the hardest part of the process. My publisher had this photo in his files; he was in love with it, he’d kept it for years hoping one day he’d publish a book with it on the jacket. He sent it to me in the hope that it’d trigger something. It took about a year, but eventually it did.

Have you ever lied about having read a book?

No, because once I started, I’d never be able to stop. The holes in my reading life are gaping. I’ve never read To Kill a Mockingbird, Cloudstreet, The Man who Loved Children, Voss, Rebecca, Catcher in the Rye, One Hundred Years of Solitude … it goes on and on. What I need is a period of incarceration (for a crime I did not commit) in a prison with a good library.

Tell us about the first time you ever saw one of your books in a bookshop.

In 2008. I wasn’t expecting it right then - it must have been an efficient bookstore that unpacked the boxes early. I hysterically called my husband from the footpath in front of the store and didn’t move until he came home from work and brought the camera.

What’s a question you’d like to be asked in interviews? (And your answer to it?)

Are you sure you’re actually the author and not a model hired to impersonate the author?

(Answer: Oh yes. I’m sure.)

What’s the last book you loved, and why?

Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. Just pure unadulterated genius. Oh man, that’s demoralising.

Nine Days

A book by Booki.sh