Video transcript
2019 NSW PRC author interview – Michael Earp

TAMARA RODGERS: Hi. I'm Tamara Rodgers from the Premier's Reading Challenge. We're here at Riverside Theatre Parramatta for the Sydney Writers Festival All Day YA, a celebration of everything that's amazing about YA literature. We've been joined by some fantastic Australian and overseas authors. We're really excited to bring you these chats. We'd really like to thank the Sydney Writers Festival for having us along and also thank our programme sponsors, our media partner news local, and our supporting partner Dymock's Children's Charities. Thank you so much for your support.

Hey, we're backstage at All Day YA at Riverside Theatre in Parramatta for the Sydney Writers Festival with Michael Earp celebrating his book birthday today. So you had the panel this morning to launch 'Kindred.' How did that go?

MICHAEL EARP: It went better than I anticipated. But that's because I catastrophize everything.

TAMARA RODGERS: So [inaudible] think everything is going to go wrong. So could you tell us a little bit about 'Kindred,' about why you thought this was a thing that needs to be out there in the book world.

MICHAEL EARP: Well, it came about because two years ago 'Begin, End, Begin,' the LoveOzYA anthology came out. And at the book launch of that, people were asking me would you do the next one. Is that something are you lined up to do the next one. And I wasn't lined up to do it at all. There was no succession of anthologies. But I thinking, maybe I could do one. But if I did, it would have to be gay. I see something I like, and I want a gay version of it.

TAMARA RODGERS: So a really diverse collection of stories included there. So can you tell us a little bit about the process of putting this thing together, how you found all of these really sensational authors to contribute, what their pitch was, what did you tell them when you said we really want you to write for this?

MICHAEL EARP: So I spent a long time putting together a wish list first. I worked with a few people. Danielle Binks actually gave me a lot of advice at the beginning. And Nicola, who then turn out to be Nicola Santilli, who turned out to be the editor at Walker for 'Kindred,' she helped me a lot in honing a wish list and really paying attention to who was represented and who wasn't.

And so we managed to find that this great list. And everyone on that list just said yes as soon as I approached them. It was a really lovely thing to be able to just say. Basically I'm putting together an own voices collection of short stories for young adults. Would you be interested in doing it? And lots of enthusiasm in return.

TAMARA RODGERS: Awesome. Could you tell us a little bit about your particular story in 'Kindred?'

MICHAEL EARP: My story. So I had already written the story that is an 'Underdog.' And I had intended that to be for 'Kindred.' But then when I got a lot of the authors coming back saying I'm going to be writing contemporary fiction, I thought, oh, there's too much contemporary fiction in this. It needs to be more of a balance.

As the editor, I guess my role is to then write a new story. So I put that story to the side and knew that I wanted to write fantasy. And when I sat down to write fantasy, I thought, well, I want genderqueer. So that was my main sort of starting point.

And then I had just been through a bit of a breakup. So I was also like, yeah, let's put a bit of heartbreak in there as well. And so then that led to these two boys who go on a quest to save one of their sisters by finding the witch. And they get a bit more than they bargained for when the truth comes out.

TAMARA RODGERS: So what we've got in your publication so far is short stories. Is the short story form something that you really find is what's best for you? Or is that just what happens to have been published so far?

MICHAEL EARP: Just what happens-- I mean, I spent nine years working on a novel, just rewriting, rewriting, rewriting. Kept on submitting it to publishers and them being, we really like the idea, we really like where it's going, it's not quite there yet. And so I would constantly go back and rewrite the same thing, trying to get it to a point where it was ready hand in.

But about the time that I started writing short stories was about when I was like, I need to put that one aside and work on something else. And short stories, was the first thing to kind of get me back into it. But I also reworked a middle grade novel that I had in my drawer from years and years and years ago. And so I completely rewrote that.

And when I went to America last year, I met an agent who wanted to read that middle grade novel and signed me because of it. So now I'm editing that for her so that then she can start settling it. So you may see some middle grade from me in the hopefully not too distant future.

TAMARA RODGERS: Awesome. So your whole career has been basically around books in some form or another, right? Not necessarily as a writer. So what are some of the things that your obsession with books and reading has kind of allowed you to find a job to do?

MICHAEL EARP: I had been writing for myself without thinking it would go anywhere, predominantly terrible angsty teenage poetry, since I was 14. So writing has always been a fairly constant almost daily practise for most of my life.

And then when I started working with books again, I was like, well, maybe I can work towards being an author. And I knew that I would want to write for kids, too, kids or YA, because they're the books that I was selling and loving in the shop. And so I decided I could either go study writing and come out a penniless writer. Or I could study teaching and have a career and learn about kids at the same time. So I went and did that, and chose all the creative writing electives that I could and ended up doing my honours-- like I wrote and illustrated a picture book for my honours thesis. And then I realised I didn't want to be a teacher at all.

TAMARA RODGERS: It's probably good to discover that early, rather than after a bit of time in a classroom.

MICHAEL EARP: Yeah. Well, about halfway through, I was like, this is not for me. But I'll finish my studies because I'm enjoying it. And around that time I got a job as a sales rep for a children's publisher, which was wonderful. I just got to drive around to bookshops and talk about children's books all day every day.

TAMARA RODGERS: What a hard life.

MICHAEL EARP: I know. And I was actually in that job for about seven years. And during that time, I did my master's in children's literature. So really just feeding my obsession. And then I only left that job because the driving was too much.

And then I went back to book selling. And now I work in the oldest children's bookshop in the world, a dedicated children's book shop. And I absolutely love it. And it gives me a bit more time for writing. And so since leaving being a rep, I've been able to focus more on my writing career. And I had some fruits of my labour actually come out. It's fantastic.

TAMARA RODGERS: So what were the kinds of things that you were reading when you were a kid?

MICHAEL EARP: When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Emily Rodda. 'Team Power Inc' is like, I reread those so much. In fact. I spent most of my 20s collecting the entire set. I have all 30 'Team Power Inc' now.

TAMARA RODGERS: With the same edition, so they're all the same covers?

MICHAEL EARP: No. They were never published with matching editions.

TAMARA RODGERS: Oh, really? See, that would drive me nut.s

MICHAEL EARP: Yes. The last five in particular, they had changed the covers completely. But then some are just so hard to track down that--

TAMARA RODGERS: You'll take what you can get.

MICHAEL EARP: I'll take what I can get. But like about 25 of them are signed by Emily Rodda. Because I met her once and I'm like, here are two green bags filled with books, please sign them for me. And the other thing that I was obsessed with as a kid was the Usborne Puzzle Adventures, which were just so much fun solving those puzzles before turning the page.

TAMARA RODGERS: So you mentioned earlier that you stopped reading when you were a teenager. What was it that you think that stopped you from enjoying the world of books as much?

MICHAEL EARP: I don't know. I got super into music as a teenager and was much more about reading song lyrics and engaging in that and poetry.

TAMARA RODGERS: So it's really interesting that you said that you weren't writing because, in fact, you were. You were just engaging with stories in a really different way. And I think that's something that we're really interested in the Premier's Reading Challenge. Reading doesn't have to be about, oh, I just read this novel. Like, you can read this magazine or a collection of short stories and some poetry. What's important is the engagement with the story.

MICHAEL EARP: Yeah. Absolutely. These days, my mindset has changed completely. And I love reading graphic novels. I love reading zines. Like I'll feel great after reading a full page zine. But it is that engagement with story. Or even on Instagram when you get those cartoon, like little comics where you swipe a few times and you have a few cells to read.

TAMARA RODGERS: I discovered the other day there's this Instagram account called Ava's Story. Have you seen it?

MICHAEL EARP: No.

TAMARA RODGERS: So it's this Instagram account that's the idea about what would happen if a girl in the Holocaust had Instagram. And she's Instagramming-- that's a really amazing setup where they've recorded Nazis coming to the door and it's fascinating. It's a really great story. I think it's worth having a look at.

MICHAEL EARP: I've actually started what I call my TBR Death Match, where I'll stack up my TBR or a selection from it. Because let's face it, I just can't stack up--

TAMARA RODGERS: That would be a very, very tall tower.

MICHAEL EARP: Ridiculous. I own too many books. And being a bookseller, I'm constantly being [inaudible].

TAMARA RODGERS: I find the same. And books still coming to the PRC office. And I'll go, oh, I want to read that one. Oh, I want to read that one, too. Yeah. It's an occupational hazard.

MICHAEL EARP: Well, the thing is, half of them-- more than half, like 90% of these reading copies, I just leave at the shop. Because I think, I'm never going to get that. And then the ones I want to read, I take home. And they sit there for a very long time.

But my TBR Death Match is basically, I get a selection of those, I sit down, and I read the first 30 pages and then I stop and put it to the side. And then I read the next one. And I just work my way through. And then when I've read a stack of them, I look at the stack and I'm like, well, which would I go back to. And so usually, of a stack of 20, I'll be moving on with maybe three of them. And it's just the only way I can manage my TBR.

TAMARA RODGERS: That's like a really cool idea for those kids who are trying to find a way to engage with some PRC books. Because there are 11,000 books on the Premier's Reading Challenge. You can get together and put together a PRC Death Match. Read the first pages and go, out of these 20 books, which one do I want to battle on with.

MICHAEL EARP: Because some of them hook you, and you're like, maybe I could read more of that. And others like, I get the gist. I don't to do that. And I mean, it makes me sad because some books don't get good until 50 pages in or 100 pages in.

And sometimes I struggle. Like I just read a junior fiction novel that halfway through, I was like, oh, if this doesn't pick up soon. But I wanted to see it to the end. And in the end, like the dramatic reveal just made me spontaneously cry. And I finished loving it. If I didn't struggle through that, then I wouldn't have had that emotional connection to it.

TAMARA RODGERS: Nice. Well I think the PRC Death Match is something I'm going to take away with me from today's show. Thank you so much for coming out. Congratulations again on the launch of your book. I'm glad it was a great panel for you this morning. And I hope you enjoyed the rest of your festival.

MICHAEL EARP: That's the other thing, short story collections. That's a good way to not be too committed and be able to take breaks in between without you needing to go, oh, wait, who's doing what now.

TAMARA RODGERS: Not that you have a vested interest in encouraging people to read short story collections or anything.

MICHAEL EARP: No. Not at all. Not at all. I can think of a few that are worth picking up.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yes. Cool. Thank you so much.

MICHAEL EARP: Thank you.