Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

“The Given Note” by Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) first appeared in the Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet’s second collection, Door into the Dark (1969).  It was the only one of his poems to be read at his funeral. “The Given Note” takes its inspiration from the legend of the fiddler who brought back the Port na bPúcaí (The Fairies’ Tune) from the westernmost of Ireland’s most westernmost islands, the windswept and forbidding Blaskets. This adaptation of the poem into comics was done at the suggestion of Dr. Marco Sonzogni of Victoria University, Wellington.

Interview by Nicole Melanson ~

Valerie Khoo is a multiple award-winning entrepreneur and mentor to businesses and start-ups. She is the founder and national director of the Australian Writers’ Centre, the country’s leading centre for writing courses. It has trained more than 23,000 students from all over the world.

Valerie is also the author of Power Stories: The 8 stories you MUST tell to build an epic business.

Twitter: @valeriekhoo

Valerie Khoo on LinkedIn

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?

I had always loved writing at school but never thought of it as a “real” career for some reason. So I became an accountant, can you believe it? However, I always had a creative itch that I wanted to scratch, so I did some writing courses for fun, outside of work. Finally, after a few years in the corporate world, I woke up one day and realised that I had to…

Fiona McArthur has always loved reading and it’s fed her passion for writing. Her first medical romance novel was published by Harlequin in 2001 and now she’s on her 34th novel. She’s been nominated for the Romantic Book of The Year with Romance Writers of Australia and the US-based Cataromance Readers Choice Award and has sold over 2 million books, in twelve languages. What she loves most is women writing to her and saying, ‘Thank you. Now I understand about my premature baby’s birth and the how’s and why’s of her stay in hospital.’ Or ‘I had no idea I had those choices with my birth.’ As she says, “women are powerful, and I love to write about their amazing journeys”. Read more about Fiona here, or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

Monique: Your novel, The Homestead Girls, has just been released. Can you tell…