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Great to have you here, Rowena! Looking forward to learning more about you and your work. Wishing you lots of success and sales :)
Hi there. I’ve honestly
really enjoyed answering your questions. They’ve been great fun! Thanks for the
opportunity to be featured on your blog, I really appreciate it. Please stay in
touch!
Best wishes
Rowena
1 What
was your first job? Did you like or dislike it? Why?
My first job, I hate to say it, was working at
McDonald’s. In my first week I failed a secret shopper visit. Apparently I
didn’t smile or upsell. And so set the tone of my career at McDonald’s; oil
burns on my arms from the chip fryer, smelly armpits, oily pimples from wearing
a hat. It was in the days before they had salads at McDonald’s, where men would
order a Big Mac and a cheeseburger
and customers would abuse you if you forgot to put a serviette in their
takeaway bag. The only upside of working at McDonald’s was the training I got,
I’ve never had such thorough training ever since. They taught me to multitask –
take the order, get the tray out, put the cup under the drinks pourer, grab the
burger, grab the chips, drink now poured, grab the drink … there was a process
for everything.
Do
you have a pet peeve? If so what is it?
The most popular girl in school storyline. I hate my
daughter reading or watching a film about the so called ‘nerd’ rising to the
summit of popularity. I want our kids to celebrate diversity and to know that
being different can be the coolest thing of all.
Would
you describe your style as shabby chic, timeless elegance, eclectic, country or
____?
Mid-century modern. Our house is filled with
mid-century Australian designed furniture. Our latest acquisition was a blue
fibreglass rhino head to hang over our fireplace to match our aqua blue dining
chairs. I love how people used colour so much more in the 1950s-70s; bright
oranges, blues, greens. It feels like everything is so beige these days.
Tell me about your book The Replacement Wife and where you got your inspiration for it?
The Replacement Wife is about Luisa who has
fallen in love with another man, so she tries to find a wife for her husband.
Luisa has an 8-year-old son and she wants to make sure he doesn’t end up with a
wicked stepmother part of the time. I knew a woman some years ago who had begun
a relationship with a man who had a daughter and she wasn’t getting along with
the daughter. She would say some pretty unfair things, I thought, about the
daughter. It was tough for this woman, because she’d never had children of her
own. I guess I started thinking about the daughter and her real mother and then
the idea came, what would happen if a relationship was failing but someone
wanted a say in who would play a part in their child’s life?
Who is your role model? Why?
Amanda Palmer – she wears her heart on her sleeve, she
makes seriously good music and she’s married to Neil Gaiman. Listen to ‘In my
mind’ and be happy to be the person you are.
How much of your book is realistic?
I draw from aspects of my life in all my stories. For
example, Luisa loves mid-century furniture too (see above!).
What are your ambitions for your writing
career?
To keep on developing myself as a writer. I want to
keep on challenging myself and writing different kinds of stories. I want to
write something really courageous.
Share one fact about yourself that would
surprise people.
I worked at a children’s camp at Lake Baikal, in
Siberia, for a month when I was 19.
Replacement Wife
by Rowena Wiseman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Luisa
has fallen madly in love with sculptor Jarvis, so she comes up with a plan to
find a new wife for her husband Luke so she can exit stage left. She wants to
screen potential stepmothers for her 8-year-old son Max and has strict
criteria: the woman must be a single mother; have no more than two children;
she can't be authoritarian; she must be creative, nurturing and not much
prettier than Luisa.
After
a few carefully orchestrated meetings with different women that fail to raise a
spark, Luke finally connects with a potential replacement wife. However, Luisa
isn't prepared for the fact that Luke's interest in the other woman makes him a
better man and a more attractive husband. After suffering for years in a
half-dead marriage, Luisa starts to remember what it was about Luke that she
originally fell in love with. But is it too late?
Excerpt:
It was my brother Chris’s fortieth birthday party, and I was in the
kitchen helping my sister-in-law prepare salads. I was chopping spring onions
when I saw Jarvis walk through the back gate. He’d grown a beard, so at first I
wasn’t sure it was him. I asked Melissa, ‘Is that Jarvis?’
‘Yeah. He’s finally coming along to something,’ she responded. I watched
through the window as Jarvis greeted my brother with a hefty handshake and a
six-pack of ciders. It must have been at least a dozen years since I’d seen
him, but it appeared now that my long-ago crush had left a tiny cavity in my
heart. Distracted, I turned my attention to grating carrots for the Ottolenghi
sweetcorn slaw, but ended up grazing my knuckle.
An hour later, after we’d eaten, I was sitting on the back deck. My best
friend, Hattie, had just left when Jarvis walked up and sat beside me.
‘Hey there,’ he said, cautiously.
‘Hey.’
Greetings dealt with, an awkward silence fell.
‘I always wondered what had happened to you,’ I said at last. ‘I haven’t
seen you for years.’ My voice felt trapped in my throat.
‘I’ve been around. It seems I prefer my own company to most people. I
was curious about you, though. Your brother said you’re married now.’
I pointed out my husband, Luke, and my son, Max, who were over by the
shed. Luke was standing with his arms crossed, watching Max hurl water balloons
at his cousin Thomas.
‘I always took you as a free spirit,’ Jarvis said, smoothing a crease in
his pants. ‘I thought it would’ve been hard for you to settle down.’
Gathering words seemed to be like catching fairy dust in the air.
‘What’s that Coelho quote? “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine.
It is lethal.”’ I had a strange urge to show him that I wasn’t living in
domestic bliss, that my window was open to the fragrance of adventure.
He smiled, his mouth betraying his serious, thoughtful eyes. His plain
blue shirt was buttoned all the way up to his neck, his beard was obsessively
neat, and his chunky black-framed glasses reminded me that he read more than
the sports section of the newspaper. With my nerves expanding in my chest,
making breathing difficult, I cursed myself for being a mouth-breather. My
words came out as though they were colliding with a road train. ‘What are you
doing now?’ I finally managed.
‘I’m a sculptor. Well, working at an abattoir pays the bills. But
sculpting’s my thing. I’m working on a major piece to enter in the McClelland
Sculpture Award. Fourth time lucky, perhaps. I’m thinking maybe it’s my
artist’s statement that’s letting me down: I can get carried away with my
writing sometimes.’
‘I could help you, if you like,’ I said, skidding over my own
enthusiasm. ‘I’m an editor. Words are my thing.’
‘Really? That would be great.’
‘You can email it to me.’ I reached into my handbag to get out my purse,
but pulled out Max’s cricket box instead. ‘Oh, this is Max’s . . . He played
cricket this morning; I don’t always carry dick-protectors in my bag. Joys of
being a mother — you end up with all sorts of crap in your handbag. It used to
be sultanas or Matchbox cars—Ah, now I’m rambling . . .’ Jarvis’s laugh was as
confident as steel.
Eventually, I found my purse and took out my business card. My hands
were trembling just slightly as I handed Jarvis my card.
‘Luisa, let’s go. Max is all wet,’ I looked up to see Luke’s face
staring down at me impatiently.
‘It’s only water, he’ll dry off,’ I said, my neck feeling flushed.
‘He’s soaked,’ Luke said. Then he leaned in and said, ‘Thomas is a
bully. Let’s go, he’s not being nice to Max.’ I knew the real reason Luke
wanted to go was that he expired at social functions somewhere between two and
three hours. He’d make any excuse to get back to the comfort of his own home;
to a TV programme he liked, his feet on the coffee table, and four squares of
Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate at hand.
‘I’ll email you,’ Jarvis said, half waiting to be introduced. But Luke
was in a hurry, and didn’t care to meet whomever I was talking to. No doubt he
was already imagining his feet up on the coffee table.
‘Nice to see you,’ I said to Jarvis, gathering my handbag up off the
ground before trailing after my husband pathetically. I left the party
forgetting my salad bowl, but carrying a new seed of pleasure in my otherwise
routine life.
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Rowena Wiseman
writes contemporary fiction, young adult and children's stories. She was
recently named as one of the 30 most influential writers on Wattpad.
Rowena's blog
Out of Print Writing, about writing and publishing in the digital revolution,
has been selected for the National Library of Australia's archive program
PANDORA http://www.outofprintwriting.blogspot.com.au/.
She works in
the visual arts sector and lives on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria.
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and
RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Rowena will be awarding an
eCopy of Replacement Wife to 3 randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during
the tour.
Comments?? Questions??
Thanks so much for hosting The Replacement Wife on your blog! Really appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes