Gosh, the first half of 2022 really is just sliding on by, isn’t it? I’ve gotten to the end of my draft, hurrah! It’s the follow-up to A Hunger of Thorns, which has the working title TOADS, because it is about toads (sort of), and I’m delaying the trauma of thinking up a proper title. Right now I’m going through the draft and filling in all the bits where I wrote things like PUT FUNNY BIT HERE or FIGURE THIS OUT LATER. I call this process “toad spackling”.
In other news, I have a TikTok now, where I’m interpreting tarot cards for artists/writers/creatives. You can check it out here. Is this something that people actually want to see? No idea, let’s find out!
So I have seen the cover for A Hunger of Thorns and IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL I CAN’T EVEN. I can’t show you quite yet, but I thought instead I’d show you some of the moodboard images I sent to my publisher. I use Pinterest a lot for writing - I make collections of people’s faces (it’s so much easier to describe someone when you have a picture in front of you), of outfits and costumes, of places, objects and vibes. It’s a great way to procrastinate, frankly. What I like to call “productive procrastination”, because yes, I should be actually writing the thing, but it’s useful nonetheless.
This vibe definitely evolved over the (many) drafts I wrote of Thorns, as I developed the world of Anglyon and of Sicklehurst (the abandoned power plant where my protagonist, Maude, finds herself). Anglyon became this very wholesome, bucolic, country-village kind of place - a cottagecore utopia. But I really wanted to contrast that with Sicklehurst, this crumbling ruin, taken over by an ancient and twisted magical forest. Cottagecore vs goblincore.
Read
My book club book this month was Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire, which I was initially a bit sceptical of as I can get a bit intimidated by hard sci-fi, and also because Banjo and I read this very wholesome series of British animal rescue novels with titles like A Goat Called Willow and A Duckling Called Button, and the similarity in titles was just too much. HOWEVER, I bloody loved it, and am lining up the sequel. If you love political intrigue, then give this one a go, then tell me what you think your Texcalaanli name would be (mine is Sixteen Silverbeet).
Watch
Heartstopper, of course. I inhaled the graphic novels during lockdown, and the TV show did not disappoint. Severance, which I found very slow at first but then loved. And you know, all the other stuff. Bridgerton. Survivor. Queer Eye. Lego Masters. It’s a golden age, forsooth.
Cook
I remain obsessed with congee. At least twice a week at around 10am I chuck half a cup of rice into the rice cooker, along with some ginger and whatever random veg I can find (half an onion, celery, carrot, dried shiitake mushrooms), half a pho stock cube (I realise this is far from traditional, but it tastes real good), and as much water as the rice cooker tells me to put (it has a porridge setting). It’s ready by 12, and finished off with a generous dollop of Lao Gan Ma chilli crisp (if you don’t have this as a pantry staple, you need it, trust me. You can get it at most supermarkets in Australia, or any Asian grocer). If I’m feeling extra cheeky, then I’ll add a fried egg.
Lili Wilkinson is the author of sixteen books, including Green Valentine, The Boundless Sublime and After the Lights Go Out. She established insideadog.com.au and the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Lili has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne, and now spends most of her time reading and writing books for teenagers. Her latest books are The Erasure Initiative and How To Make A Pet Monster: Flummox.
Find her on TikTok, Instagram and at liliwilkinson.com