Ask the Author: Rosa Fedele
Answered Questions (3)
Rosa Fedele
Once again it's based around an old building in Sydney. This time, The Abbey in the suburb of Annandale. It's an extraordinary Gothic revival mansion built in 1881-1882 with a dominating tower which is a local landmark, and a high enclosing stone wall. It's also rumoured to be haunted! In my book I've picked up the Abbey and moved it to another historical (and now very affluent) Sydney site, Hunters Hill.
If you love Grand Designs or Restoration Home, any of the X Factor or Got Talent shows, you'll love this story. There's television crews, pop stars, creepy towers, drug lords, angst and melodrama ... and yes, some of your favourite characters from The Red Door might even make another appearance ;)
If you love Grand Designs or Restoration Home, any of the X Factor or Got Talent shows, you'll love this story. There's television crews, pop stars, creepy towers, drug lords, angst and melodrama ... and yes, some of your favourite characters from The Red Door might even make another appearance ;)
Rosa Fedele
Besides architectural inspiration (see my previous Goodreads Q&A answer) I tend to observe people and their environments with an artist's eye. We are taught not just to look, but to see. Just as Amsterdam has its own pearly and intimate light, perfectly captured by Vermeer and de Hooch, and the English countryside its own gentle grey-blue drifting clouds, so masterfully interpreted by Constable, Sydney has a particular atmosphere of its own. The sky’s blue is so startling it can burn retinas, the edge of every leaf is knife-sharp, the heat can singe nostril hair and our birds don’t twitter or chirp – they screech!
I suppose having a portraitist’s eye also helps: I watch inter-personal dynamics, mannerisms, the tilt of a head, a finger rubbed nervously across a philtrum. And so, as a character forms in my head, I make initial thumbnail sketches. Eventually these become finished drawings or paintings which I then incorporate into the book.
A peculiar thing I've also noticed: characters will take on a life of their own – just when you’ve got the plot sorted, the little buggers wander off and do anything they bloody please! Halfway through THE RED DOOR, my main girl’s behaviour was infuriating me. So, I tore up my first sketches and re-painted her as I preferred her – a no-nonsense woman with tenacity and resilience – and slowly she started to come around and see it my way ;)
I suppose having a portraitist’s eye also helps: I watch inter-personal dynamics, mannerisms, the tilt of a head, a finger rubbed nervously across a philtrum. And so, as a character forms in my head, I make initial thumbnail sketches. Eventually these become finished drawings or paintings which I then incorporate into the book.
A peculiar thing I've also noticed: characters will take on a life of their own – just when you’ve got the plot sorted, the little buggers wander off and do anything they bloody please! Halfway through THE RED DOOR, my main girl’s behaviour was infuriating me. So, I tore up my first sketches and re-painted her as I preferred her – a no-nonsense woman with tenacity and resilience – and slowly she started to come around and see it my way ;)
Rosa Fedele
Well. the thing is: I love old houses. A lot.
Sometimes my heart aches profoundly at the sheer beauty of a building and I will stop and stare dumbly at the shimmering tarnished Gothic copper roof of a turret, the sun flashing off stained glass windows or the swirling ochres and russets of a Sydney sandstone wall, wishing desperately for the owner to appear at the door, smile and welcome me in for tea and biscuits.
One day, I was strolling through Glebe (one of the oldest suburbs in Sydney), admiring the old mansions, and I happened upon one house in particular. But it was more than a house; the magnificent old building riveted and mesmerised me and in the following weeks I was drawn back to the site over and over. The mansion is fronted by a brightly painted door, a glossy façade, and I imagined what the door might mask and what it could have concealed over the last 150 years: nasty, shameful secrets, possibly a poor family’s misfortune and tragedy, rotten crimes and heaven knows what other unholy messes ... and a story began to form.
I researched the origins of the house. I drafted thumbnail sketches of my main protagonist and her beautiful new home and, slowly, she came to life. Very soon, I was hosting a whole colony of characters in my head.
The same with my current manuscript - this time it's based on an old Abbey in the Sydney suburb of Annandale. It's an extraordinary Gothic revival mansion built in 1881-1882 with a dominating tower which is a local landmark, and a high enclosing stone wall. It's also rumoured to be haunted! In my book I've picked up the Abbey and moved it to another historical (and now very affluent) Sydney site, Hunters Hill.
The book is in final editing stages at the moment. I'm quite excited about it!
Sometimes my heart aches profoundly at the sheer beauty of a building and I will stop and stare dumbly at the shimmering tarnished Gothic copper roof of a turret, the sun flashing off stained glass windows or the swirling ochres and russets of a Sydney sandstone wall, wishing desperately for the owner to appear at the door, smile and welcome me in for tea and biscuits.
One day, I was strolling through Glebe (one of the oldest suburbs in Sydney), admiring the old mansions, and I happened upon one house in particular. But it was more than a house; the magnificent old building riveted and mesmerised me and in the following weeks I was drawn back to the site over and over. The mansion is fronted by a brightly painted door, a glossy façade, and I imagined what the door might mask and what it could have concealed over the last 150 years: nasty, shameful secrets, possibly a poor family’s misfortune and tragedy, rotten crimes and heaven knows what other unholy messes ... and a story began to form.
I researched the origins of the house. I drafted thumbnail sketches of my main protagonist and her beautiful new home and, slowly, she came to life. Very soon, I was hosting a whole colony of characters in my head.
The same with my current manuscript - this time it's based on an old Abbey in the Sydney suburb of Annandale. It's an extraordinary Gothic revival mansion built in 1881-1882 with a dominating tower which is a local landmark, and a high enclosing stone wall. It's also rumoured to be haunted! In my book I've picked up the Abbey and moved it to another historical (and now very affluent) Sydney site, Hunters Hill.
The book is in final editing stages at the moment. I'm quite excited about it!
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