Amra Pajalic

I had the pleasure of reading Omega Park before it was published. Amy is an amazing writer and Omega Park is lyrical and haunting, but most importantly it tells the story of young people living in public housing. Omega Park won the 2008 Queensland Premier’s Awards for an Unpublished Manuscript and it has been receiving rave reviews. For more information about Omega Park and Amy go to her website http://amybarkeronline.com/

I’ve done a mini interview with Amy below.

A CONFRONTING TALE OF HEARTBREAK AND REDEMPTION

Omega Park is a housing commission estate on the fringes of
Queensland’s Gold Coast. Dingo Patterson and Jacob Box are growing
up and trying to survive. Surrounded by broken families, crime and
desperation, they are young men with dreams of a different life.
When a car chase ends in tragedy for one of the boys, relations
with police and within the community reach crisis point.

Amy Barker tells a sobering tale of modern warfare in the suburbs
with confidence and assurance. This striking debut novel explores
how life on society’s margins can mean the end of the road for some,
and offer the possibility of escape for others.

Omega Park is such a beautifully written novel that tells the story not usually depicted in fiction. What is the inspiration behind the book?
It was the fact that public housing estates like Omega Park are for the most part forgotten by society, not to mention fiction, that made me want to tell this story in the first place. In the beginning it was quite a personal story, small in scale, drawing on my own experiences of living in public housing as a child, and the stories I remembered of those around me at the time. Then in 2005 there were riots breaking out on estates in Australia and overseas – Macquarie Fields, Redfern and Paris – where the same set of circumstances repeated, eerily, over and over. Young people from isolated estates died in police pursuits and the outraged communities blamed the police. This seemed like the only time the media, or wider society, took notice of these places. And even then I saw a lack of compassion and understanding for the residents. There was a lot of rhetoric from politicians and the press.I wanted to cut through all that and show what life for young people can really be like on these estates. So writing the police chase, the death of a youth and subsequent riots into my novel gave it a broader social context and purpose.

Was being a writer a childhood ambition, or an adult discovery? What was your journey to discovering your passion for writing?
As a child writing wasn’t exactly an ambition, it’s just what I did, from a very early age. And before I could write, I used to tell my stories to my father, who would transcribe them and distribute them amongst my family. I also loved the magic pen books, where you begin with a blank page and then when you colour in the page with a felt pen writing “magically” appears.
It wasn’t until I was studying English Literature at University that I began to think of writing as something you could pursue as a career. When I became serious about it, I went back and did a creative writing degree and started writing novels and making submissions.

What was your journey to publication?
My journey to publication was quite long and difficult. I’ve written three complete novel manuscripts and a feature film screenplay as well as countless short stories and this is my first real publication. Omega Park went through the Varuna Awards for Manuscript Development (Peter Bishop’s masterclass) in 2005 and then it would be years, a complete redraft, and many rejections later before it won the 2008 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Best Emerging Author. As part of that prize, I was offered a publishing contract with University of Queensland Press (UQP). The book was finally released this month.

What advice do you have for new writers?
The most important advice I would give is to persevere. Also, to tell the story you feel compelled to tell, even if it’s an unpopular choice. You must be absolutely committed to your subject matter. Once you’ve made your work the best it can be, find some readers… sometimes you just need someone else to tell you things you actually already know. Value those family members and friends who support you through the journey to publication. And always be generous and supportive of other writers. I’ve found that even if those particular people don’t return your energies, others (who may turn out to be far more helpful to you) eventually will. Despite rejections, you can’t afford to become bitter.

True Beauty
The brain child of Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher the contestants believe they are competing in a beauty contest, when in actuality they are judged on secret challenges that test their ethics or inner beauty.

Lesson learnt: Don’t judge a book by its over. The people that come across as nice, are the ones that fail the secret challenges. Whereas Chelsea, who was just voted out, is insecure, loud and obnoxious-yet did not fail one of the secret challenges.

What I love: It’s so trashy and the reaction of the eliminated constants who find out the secret twist and then get to view the footage of their bad behaviour is the best reality tv pay off ever.

World’s Strictest Parents
Out of control teens are sent to another country to live for a week with strict parents in an effort to turn them around.

Lesson learnt: Teens need boundaries, affection and engaged parents. It’s amazing and heartbreaking to see the way the teens flower under the loving attention of their temporary parents. In most instances the teens go off the rails because their parents disengage and take their eyes off the ball.

What I love: The way the teens start out resentful at the rules imposed on them, yet when they are spoken to with respect and love they instantly change their tune.

Jon and Kate Plus 8
The documentary charting the challenges of parents raising 5 year old twins and one year old sextuplets makes riveting viewing. This is the first doco and since then the sextuplets are five years old and parents divorced, so watching this and knowing the end result was so sad.

Lesson learnt: Watching the interaction with Jon and Kate and knowing that currently they’re getting divorced you can see the seeds of their relationship breakdown. Jon is resentful because he didn’t want more children, she did and rode over him. She has to keep the house running like an army base with strict schedules and he resents her commanding him like a soldier.
Hubby and I have been debating having a second child and this show highlighted that both parents have to make the decision together, not one drag the other one along, because resentment can kill a relationship in a heartbeat.

What I love: I realise how lucky I am to have an easygoing little bebe and have no right to complain about the effort it takes to get out the door with one baby, because Kate manages it with six.

Just treading water at the moment. Sofia’s sleeping routine has completely gone out the window. She’s been teething and her first tooth has emerged. As a result she’s been unsettled and needing a lot more comfort so her bedtime routine has slowly eroded.

Also feeling a bit blue. Been diagnosed with Carpul tunnel, compressed nerve at the wrist that causes crippling pain in my right hand and is affecting my day to day. The only treatment is an operation so have to go a specialist and be put on a waiting list. It’s slowly been getting to me. I can’t sleep on my right side, have to try to carry Sofia with my left arm, having trouble dressing her because small details like buttons and snaps are really difficult because don’t have the best motor control, having trouble opening things. I have days where I’m in extreme pain and wake up during the night, but can’t take painkillers because they impair my ability to care for Sofia and because of breastfeeding.

I’m also having trouble writing-typing and holding a pen can set it off. Have been slowly transcribing my notes, but some days I can’t do it because my hand hurts and that’s really frustrating. It’s  not as if I don’t have enough challenges finding time to write because of the baby, now I have a whole other thing that’s preventing me getting stuck into it. Some days are better than others, but being in pain on a regular basis is really fraying my nerves.

Otherwise things are good. Have done a few funding applications so hopefully one of them will come through. Been getting regular talks at schools-about 2-3 a month and now I’m getting more comfortable with these so I’m looking forward to my next batch. And feeling better about achieving some sort of progress on the next novel-as minuscule as it is.