Goodreads asked Chris Pearce:

How do you get inspired to write?

Chris Pearce I’ve always been interested in writing. In grade 1, when we were supposed to be sitting on the floor listening to the teacher read a story, I preferred to be at my desk writing words and numbers. By grade 2, I was writing essays about the holidays or whatever of a few pages and we were only supposed to write a few lines. I started but didn’t finish writing about four novels from about the age of 11 to 14. I said to Mum I wanted to be an author but she said I needed a proper job. I got into accounting, the same as Dad, and lasted four years. But most of my jobs have involved a fair bit of research, writing and editing, so that was good.

These days I get inspired to write when I see an online article on economics, business, statistics, climate, etc., especially when other posts say crazy or incorrect things, so I put in my two bob’s worth. With book writing, I get inspired to write when I find a topic that hasn’t been covered in depth. This happened with the Australian convict book. Pamphlett’s story was in various history books but usually only a few paragraphs. This was really all the inspiration I needed to do the research and come up with a full length book. Same with the novel. There were plenty of historical novels about poor people and plenty about well-off people, but few about a family that made the transition between poverty and wealth, although this led to a whole new set of problems for that family.

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