The Readings Teen Advisory Board have been reading and loving Desert Tracks by Marly and Linda Wells, so we were pleased to give them the chance to interview the mother-daughter writing duo!
Desert Tracks is a unique and imaginative novel about time travel and Central Australia, about the racial profiling suffered by the First Nations population, and how history is interwoven into the present.
Read the TAB's interview with Marly and Linda Wells below!
From Henry
How long did this book take you to make?
This book started as conversations, about 18 years ago, when Marly was the same age as Millie is in the book. As a young person, Marly was a prolific reader and Desert Tracks probably started with us speculating about what would happen if Marly fell into one of her books. We talked up ideas, started to write them down and over the years, it turned into a book.
We worked hard on it for the last 3 years.
Who is your favourite character and were they inspired by anyone?
Linda: I love many of them but have to confess a special soft spot for Sonny. I like his gentle strength and how he is strongly grounded in his culture, but also curious and open to other ideas. He is inspired by particular friends I spent time with whilst living out bush.
Marly: I don’t have a favourite character, but I love the way the core group interact with each other and the world, and are open to seeing things through each other’s eyes.
From Camryn
What did the process of writing a time slip novel feel like? Was it challenging to interchange between time periods?
It was exciting. But it also felt a bit normal. There is so much history in Alice Springs, and we have both been aware for some time about how the colonial past has completely influenced the present. Linda studied that history for a while, including for a PhD, and discussed it at length with Marly. It wasn’t challenging to interchange between time periods. I guess it’s about using your imagination and being there in any of the sections you are writing. It is no more challenging to slip between time periods than it is to slip between characters or scenes. You just have to imagine yourself into it and channel it through the writing.
Desert Tracks is rich in culture, storytelling and imagination. How much of the novel is based on your own cultural identities and experiences?
The novel is based very much on our experiences and identities. We have channelled them into the characters and events of the book. We have extended our lived experiences, using our imagination and research to create the rest.
From Kai
How did writing the book with another person go? Did it involve conflicts of interest, did you divide the workload, so you were each writing separate chapters, or was the entire things done together?
The entire thing was done together. For the last few years, Linda was living in Melbourne and Marly in Alice Springs. We used to have long phone conversations to develop plot and characters until in the end we both felt like we lived in that book and with those characters, especially Marly who used to imagine she was walking around Alice Springs with them. We had a live document that we both added to and edited as we felt like it. We didn’t really conflict. We talked through ideas and challenged each other, but mostly we listened to each other’s points of view and arrived at solutions that we both agreed with.
When coming up with the concept for the book, did you have an in-depth idea of how the characters were going to be, or did they develop as the story went along, and how did this affect how the story progressed?
The characters developed as the story went along. We had big conversations about the characters and their traits and what would make them unique and that development continued all the way through the writing. It’s the same with the plot points and events of the book too. They developed and showed themselves to us as we went along.
From Ashley
How do you think representation of First Nations people – especially in books like this one – contributes to a better understanding of colonialism and Australian history?
We think it totally does and it’s one of the things we are most passionate about with this book and in our lives in general. For readers to be able to get to know these characters and to gain insights into their lived experiences must surely help with cultural literacy. This book was designed to show how the colonial past is alive and well in contemporary Alice Springs. Colonisation isn’t just something that happened in the past that is over now. Colonisation is a structure and way of thinking that Australia is built on. We hope that our characters and the events of the book help readers to see and feel that. It’s about the power of story-telling – showing people things rather than just telling them.
The premise for this book is very unique. What inspired you to write about this story? Why did you choose to convey the themes and messages of the novel in this way?
Continuing on from our answer in the first question, as a young person Marly was a great reader who sort of used to get lost in her books. That’s where the inspiration began. And then we have this passion for the history of Central Australia and how that lives on in the present. Linda started to study that and share the ideas with Marly. Alice Springs, our home for many years, is a fascinating place. We wanted to share that, to contradict some of the negative press about Alice Springs and also to demonstrate where the troubles come from. It is based on our lived experience, our research and our commitment to justice and truth-telling.
From Esther
One of the key features I enjoyed in this book was the back and forth between Millie’s story and the book she was reading. While writing, did you find yourself taking inspiration in that aspect from another book?
This seemed like a natural and intuitive thing to do. Perhaps without realising it, we were inspired by such works as the Harry Potter series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the TV series Outlander.
While reading Desert Tracks I found that Millie’s character and personality really spoke to me – when creating this book, did you base Millie off a person you knew?
Linda: That is an interesting observation. Millie is a lot like Marly, so I guess her personality shines through.
Marly: I think Millie has lots of relatable and appealing characteristics – she’s inquisitive and accepting, she is open to learning and navigating the world in a respectful and understanding way. They are admirable traits to have!
From Audrey
What experiences or events inspired you to write certain scenes?
As a young schoolteacher, back in the 1980s and 90s, Linda lived out bush on remote Aboriginal communities and worked as a schoolteacher. She drew on some of the people she got to know and things she did out there to write certain scenes.
Sometimes if we wanted to capture the landscape we went for walks and took notes about the details.
Some of it comes from Marly’s time growing up in Alice Springs; things like school, netball, football, shopping, walking around town and interacting with family from the bush.
If you could live as a character in your story, who would it be?
Linda: I think I would be aunty Gem. I like how she lives in the bush on the outskirts of town. She has a sense of freedom about her, and wisdom.
Marly: Aunty Gem’s dogs.
From Lydia
What do you hope readers will take away from your work?
Many things. A passion for reading. That colonisation is strongly present in contemporary Australia. That the events of the past have had a profound effect on Indigenous people and on the present. That Indigenous Australians have a rich way of being that lives on. That solid intercultural relationships are possible and to everyone’s advantage.
What character did you enjoy writing about the most?
Linda: Again, I love them all and feel bad choosing favourites, but I did enjoy writing about Sonny and also Millie because she is a lot like Marly.
Marly: I liked writing the background characters – supporters of the main character who open up the story and set the scene unobtrusively. Mr Parker and Xander are such strong personalities, even though they are condensed down into a couple of lines or paragraphs, and I enjoyed being able to picture them so clearly as we progressed on writing them.
From Freddie
Sometimes I find with books that they begin with a fantastic, gripping opening, and then sadly fizzle out like a poorly made candle. What was the last book you seriously regret reading? I mean, you finished it and put it down thinking bloody hell, what a waste of paper or I could write something much better than this!
Linda: That does happen to me sometimes and it’s annoying. There are so many great books to read. We don’t want to waste our precious reading time. I have heard some authors say they write the book they would like to read. I think that is the case with Desert Tracks – this book needed to be written and I think we were the ideal mother-daughter combo to write it! I have also heard it said that stories are sometimes hard to finish. I guess that’s why they fizzle out sometimes.
I recently read a book that I was sure was nonfiction. It was about someone who is dying of cancer. The book is presented as nonfiction and I read it thinking it was something that really happened. At times when I was reading I was thinking, this is amazing, it’s hard to believe that really happened and I can’t understand how or why it did. My sister recently died of cancer, and it was so different from her experience and seemed unreal. It was only after I had finished the book that I realised it was a novel, entirely made up. I felt ripped off and would have read it differently, or maybe not at all, if I had realised that. The more I think about that book the sillier it becomes.
Marly: It happens to me too – I often find it hard to engage in media and to suspend disbelief in stories. I think life is too short to make yourself finish anything that’s feeling draining – put it down and come back to it or google the ending (that’s what I do!). If you do finish a book and feel frustrated maybe it’s worth imagining what you would do differently or where you think it should have ended up and holding that story inside you too!
