Video transcript
NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2024 – SWF author interview (primary) – 03. Tasma Walton

[intro music]

MYSHA: Hello. My name is Mysha. And I'm a student from Glenfield Public School. I'm here today on Darug land at Parramatta Riverside Theatre as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival. I'm so excited to interview Tasma Walton today for the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge. Hi, Tasma. How are you today?

TASMA WALTON: I'm very well. Thank you. Good to see you.

MYSHA: Thank you. In your book, 'Nerra is a Deep Time Traveller', Nerra has to go back in time and save the husband and wife of the rainbow who have been separated and captured by the evil Devour'ena.

TASMA WALTON: Yes.

MYSHA: How did you come up with this idea? And did you draw inspiration from dreaming stories?

TASMA WALTON: I did, absolutely. So my nana used to tell me the story of the creation of the rainbow. So she would always talk about rainbows as a really, really important symbol and that they were an important way of describing how people when they are all very different, they're like the colours of the rainbow. But when they come together and they are unified, they make something really beautiful.

And she would say that it was a very good sign to have a rainbow on your wedding day because it, meant you were going to have a lovely, long relationship and that you were both in harmony like the husband and wife of the creation rainbow. And so I thought, 'Hm, what do our villains want?' They want to seize power. They want to take the magic from the dreaming. And what a great way to start by separating 2 powerful creation beings who make this incredible rainbow and then suck the life and the power from them individually.

MYSHA: That's really interesting, Tasma. My second question to you is, what was one of the most difficult parts about writing a character who has to go back in time?

TASMA WALTON: Well, I think the challenge was it's very difficult in our everyday life because we're now in a very big city. And where there once were giant trees, there are now giant buildings and concrete. So the idea was I wanted to really try and create the dreaming as it would have been thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago. So it was trying to imagine what country was like way, way, way back then.

And from all the sort of stories that I've heard and the reports when people sort of were here describing just the size of the trees, and you see those giant trees that are 6 metres in diameter and imagining, wow, how tall must they have been. So the challenge was to really try and get a sense of visually how that world looked and then place an era within that.

MYSHA: Yeah. And you had to use your knowledge of the environment and stuff like that.

TASMA WALTON: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And also knowledge very specific to Boonwurrung country because, obviously, Australia had, and does have, over 200, 250 Aboriginal countries on the continent. And we all have very different plants, and different animals, and different climates, and that sort of stuff. So it was remembering what the Salt Water country of Melbourne, Boonwurrung country, was like back then and trying to get that specifically right.

MYSHA: Yes. To continue, did you draw from any of your own personal life when you were writing the book 'Nerra'?

TASMA WALTON: In many ways, yes. I actually have a daughter who's 10. And when I first started writing the series, I was really trying to write something that she would get excited by because we are both big fans of adventure, and fantasy, and stuff like that. But I was also trying to find a way of helping her get to know the creation beings of her culture and finding ways to make them come alive so that I find, for me anyway, I sometimes learn much better when I can have a story surrounding the idea.

And so that was what I was trying to do for her, but do it in a way that she could relate to because she's living in this time so making that character in her time but going back into the dreaming so that she could understand all the creation beings as well and bring them to life. So in that way, yes, I was drawing on what I thought my daughter Ruby might like.

MYSHA: Nerra and the other characters have a very unique personality. Were these based on people you know of?

TASMA WALTON: I think as a writer you always take little bits and pieces of people that you know. And if you meet an interesting character, you kind go, oh, that little habit that they have or those things that they say are really interesting. And you kind of put them away in the back of your mind for a use on another day and another story.

So in some ways, yes, although, with Nerra, I really wanted to make-- I wanted to find that balance between what it would feel like to just suddenly, out of the blue, fall into a whole other dimension and time and how frightening that might be, but also the balance between confronting that fear and knowing that you have that fear, but also finding your courage in that moment and making sure that she was still able to rise up to the challenge of the adventure and what she was being asked to do. So I was sort of taking character traits from a few different people.

MYSHA: Yes.

TASMA WALTON: Yeah.

MYSHA: I was very surprised to know that you were an actor as well and that 'Nerra' is your second book. What led you from your acting career to being an author?

TASMA WALTON: I think it's because I've always loved books. As a kid, I read a lot of books. And the wonderful thing about a novel, I think, which is different to when you watch a TV show or a film, is that it's your imagination that creates the world.

So the author has done their imagining, and they've put the words on the page. And then they sort hand it over to the reader who then brings all of their experiences and their imagination to the story as well. And it gets bigger, and bigger, and fuller, and fuller. And I really love that element of that relationship between the reader and the writer. And that is a little bit different to when you watch a TV show or you watch a film, kind of all the visuals are already there. So yeah. That's why I'm really attracted by it.

MYSHA: Yes.

TASMA WALTON: Yeah.

MYSHA: What was one of the most amazing things you've experienced whilst being an author as well as the most frustrating?

TASMA WALTON: Well, I think the most frustrating thing is always just actually having to write because sometimes life is just so busy and there's all these other things that you're meant to be doing. So actually getting to the desk, and sitting down, and making sure you actually spend the time to write can sometimes be challenging in the modern world. But on the flip side of that, when you do finish a chapter or you even finish the book, that is one of the most rewarding things. So it's the act of writing and the act of having written are 2 sides of the same thing, both really, really hard, but also really, really rewarding and wonderful.

MYSHA: Yes. What is the process when you are writing a book?

TASMA WALTON: Well, firstly, I take a lot of time in the morning to wake up. So my brain is really slow in the morning. I'm not an early morning person at all. So as an adult, I need a coffee. And then I actually, funnily enough, I play a little bit of Sudoku. I don't know why. It just gives me a chance to-- it's like a little transition from all the things I've just done in the real world, and then my brain kind of transitions into the imaginative world I'm going to try and write about. So I use Sudoku as that little transition. And then I try and sit down for as long as I can, as much time as I have, and get as involved in the story as I can in those moments.

MYSHA: Are you planning on writing more books in the future?

TASMA WALTON: Yes. Well, hopefully. I've got-- I literally just finished 2 weeks ago the third 'Nerra' book. So the second one comes out in a couple of months in August. And then the third one will come out at the beginning of next year. So they're on their way. And when you read 'Nerra', you discover that there are 5 sacred artefacts in her great grandmother's trunk. So there's the possibility of 5 different stories. So fingers crossed we get to do all of those stories.

And I also have something that's more of an adult book that will be coming out next year as well. But that was really, really hard to write. So I'm not sure I'm going to do that again really quickly. [laughs] Give it a few more years. But I do love writing. And as I said, I like it when you've finished it because you do feel like it's a very-- yeah, exactly. It's a big achievement. And it does feel good.

MYSHA: Yes. I'm definitely going to read your books when they come out.

TASMA WALTON: Oh, great. Thank you.

MYSHA: OK. So what do you want to say to all of the children watching this interview today about the power of books?

TASMA WALTON: Well, I think, for me, reading was opening up all these other worlds that, in your everyday life, you don't get to travel to. And I think it's also such a wonderful tool to help strengthen your imagination. And we need people with strong, healthy, enormous imaginations in this world. They are the leaders, I feel, of the world. And so the stronger and healthier your imagination is, and the more you fed it with all that beautiful reading, the more amazing you're going to be.

MYSHA: Tasma, what were the books you enjoyed reading when you were in school?

TASMA WALTON: Oh, wow. There's always so many. But I think the one that really captured my imagination when I was the age that I've sort of written the 'Nerra' stories for was 'The Magic Faraway Tree' and 'The Enchanted Wood'. So I loved the idea that-- I mean, I've always loved nature-- so that there was this beautiful, big old tree that had all of these incredible people, and characters, and creatures living on it.

And the bonus was you get to the top of the tree-- because I loved climbing trees, too. You get to the top of the tree and then, suddenly, you've got this possibility of going into yet another completely amazing and different world. So it was almost like this whole other bonus world that comes around every however long at the top of the tree. So for me, that was 2 books that I would go back to quite a lot when I was growing up.

MYSHA: Thank you so much for letting me interview you today, Tasma. It's been amazing talking to you. I hope that everybody watching out there today enjoys your incredible novels as much as I did while they work to complete the Premier's Reading Challenge. Thank you.

TASMA WALTON: Thank you so much, Mysha. It was wonderful. Thank you.