Not Quite Right features discussions that are unfiltered and uncensored,
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Also, I swear a lot.
Something doesn't seem quite right.
Welcome to not quite right.
My name is Ed and this is the 7th of a series of interviews that Amanda and I
recorded at the Words on the Waves Writers Festival this year.
This time we're speaking with Natasha Rye.
Natasha is the author of An Onslaught of Light, which is her first novel,
and she was at Words on the Waves.
As part of the Power and Privilege panel, we spoke to Natasha about what it was
like to publish her first novel and the role of power and privilege within the
publishing industry.
So please enjoy our conversation with Natasha Rye.
So we hear words on the waves with Natasha Rye.
Hello.
And you're here for your panel discussion called Power and Privilege.
Tell us about that.
So from what I know, we're going to be talking about power,
power dynamics in relationships in my novel and Onslaught of Light.
So I think the focus is going to be the father daughter relationships.
So between Art Sharma, who is the daughter and her father Vijay,
it's quite fraught.
There's a lot of power play between the two of them.
So I anticipate that that's what we'll be talking about.
And this is in your novel, The Onslaught of Light.
An Onslaught of Light, yes.
So tell us a little bit about that novel.
So an Oslaught of Light follows the Sharma family.
They moved from India to Australia in the 90s.
It's told through three viewpoints.
So Art Sharma, who's the daughter, Indu Sharma, the mum and Vijay Sharma,
the dad.
And so the novel starts in the present day when we meet Art,
she's living her perfect life alone and isolated,
and then she's forced into caring for her father.
And when she does, she has to confront a long buried grief
and her cultural and queer identity.
So I'm interested too, because I understand this is a multi POV.
Yes novel.
Yeah.
So what drew you to writing multiple points of view?
So it started with art.
And she came to me very strongly.
And as I was writing it, I realised that with migration stories,
there's more than one perspective, and a child's perspective on their
migration experiences will be quite different to an adult.
And there was no way I could possibly show that through Arch.
So it made sense to me to then bring in her parents.
And even with adults, you know, obviously it's so nuanced and I really
wanted to show just how difficult, but beautiful and challenging and joyful
it can be to move and find a new home.
So that's how that came about.
So you're talking about beauty and joy there,
but we're also talking about power dynamics.
So I guess what's the theme of your book?
Like what, what are you exploring really?
Forgiveness, grief.
Definitely power because, you know, power is held by different people at
different times throughout the lifespan of these characters.
So, you know, as a child, she probably has the least power,
as most children do, whereas and then her parents have
deferring levels of kind of privilege.
Then when they go out into the world in this Australia that they are unfamiliar
with, there are people who hold power that they
can't possibly have, like, you know, the people at the employment office or
people at the immigration service that they have difficulty navigating that.
And you're a podcaster too, right?
You host the Book Deal podcast.
Yeah.
So how have you been following your journey in that podcast as well your
journey towards publication?
And so I love doing that podcast because I get to talk to other writers about,
you know, their journeys.
And the more I speak to writers, the more I realise how varied everyone's
publication journey is.
Mine was as well.
That's one of my favourite things about the podcast.
And also just getting good, really good writing tips.
But I'm a little bit of a hoarder now with writing tips.
Sounds like a good scam you've got going.
I know.
Exactly.
But then you're sharing them.
We're not sharing them.
Yeah.
But as podcasters ourselves, you know, we started writing podcasts with the
intention of improving our writing as well.
But that also takes away so much time from actual writing.
So it's amazing that you've managed to actually, Full disclosure,
I only do 1 episode a month.
So Tina Strawn and Madeleine Cleary, they we, the three of us,
we do their podcasts together.
So yeah, I do 1 episode a month, which for me right now is manageable.
I don't know if I could do anymore because as you say,
it does take a lot of time.
Yeah.
But worth it if you're getting.
Yeah.
The sneaky tips.
How do you, how do you manage it?
Oh, we don't, we don't we, we just, we just do the work and barely write,
I think.
Yeah, that's, that's it.
It has absolutely taken our writing time.
But, you know, we're filling our creative buckets in
other ways, I guess.
So, you know?
So how did you find the experience of actually finishing this novel and getting
it published?
So the publication process, like before I signed my contract with
Pantera Press, was excruciating.
Yeah.
There's no other word for it.
It was very long.
So I wrote a first draught off and on sort of light in 2017.
OK.
And over the years it's just been knocked back and, you know,
as as most publication journeys, you get glimmers of hope, you know,
like it got long listed for some prizes.
And I'm like, OK, this is it.
I've got an agent and I'm like, OK, this is it.
And it was never it.
Yes, But all those moments kept me going that
every time I was long listed, I said, OK, well, there's something here.
Yes.
So I'm hoping that for the next one, it's not going to take eight years again.
I mean, I've got an inmate to log out eight years
if I have to, but I'm hoping no.
And that's, I find that interesting too, following other my friends,
their publication journeys that it's like you keep thinking you've won the battle
kind of thing.
And it's that thing where you get to the top of the mountain and then you look and
there's another mountain kind of situation.
So even becoming published is no guarantee that exactly 2 will be picked
up or what have you.
I think you described it yesterday.
It's like when you get the the publishing deal, you think of it as the end,
but you're just on the ladder.
Like you've just climbed onto the ladder.
And that's when the real.
Yeah.
And then you have a whole new world of not even maybe worries,
but considerations that before it was just to get published.
Now it's like, OK, well, how are sales doing?
Will I have a second book?
What will it be?
Is the pressure to sell a first book is huge because, you know, Yeah.
The you want your next one to be picked up.
And the better you sell the first one, the more chance you have.
Yeah.
All the things you don't have to worry about before you get covered.
And then.
Yeah, No.
Well, it is impressive that you that survived
years and years of the torture of querying.
So what would your advice be to other authors who are in that process now?
What got me going or kept me going was having other writers so I could really.
Like when you talk to people who are not writers and they're like, oh, you know,
that sucks and it'll happen, don't worry.
It feels a little meaningless, even if people mean well.
But having another writer, he goes, oh, my God, that sucks.
And you can really, they really get it.
They really go at how how crushing it can be.
Yeah.
So I think definitely that.
And they're also watching their struggles, too.
And yeah, OK, it's not just me.
And my problem is, yes, it's just universal.
And there's something about as well, like when you have your little community,
your friends getting published.
For me, it was a double edged sword of I'm a
little bit envious, but also this, if I, if someone I know is getting published,
it means it's not just random famous people.
It's like people I know, people whose work I know.
So that helps as well.
Yeah, I find a similar thing with when you pick
up a book on the shelf and you think, like, I could never do this,
and you get so intimidated.
This is like amazing literary work.
Then you pick up another one for Camilo.
This is crap.
I could.
I could do better than this.
Like, I'm somewhere in the middle there, like, you know,
and you think you can fit on the shelf somewhere, right.
Yeah.
I guess you take whatever motivation you can you can get.
But like, it must feel really good to actually,
at the end of the day, have that book done on the bookshelf.
Yeah.
Like the same thing on the shelf is like, obviously the dream come true,
but it's also almost surreal.
Like, it's like, I can't believe that's mine.
I don't believe I wrote that.
Yes.
Especially after so long.
I know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But interesting that you're on a panel.
Power and privilege when that's a huge component of publishing too.
Well, yeah.
If you wanna get traditionally published, yes,
there are many gatekeepers and there are many hoops you've got to jump through.
Definitely.
And certainly for some people, you know, you talked about famous people or
whatever, they have a little leg up in that power
situation, the privileged situation, I suppose, to get their work published.
This is one of Amanda's little bug bears is a celebrity?
Yes.
Every single celebrity has a has a novel or a children's book.
Yeah.
I mean, look, it's to me, it's not every celebrity.
It's the it's when it's like they just slap their name on it, like,
like a sports sponsorship deal.
Kind of.
Yeah.
That's when I get bothered.
I think not so much.
Like, good on them.
If they've written a book and they haven't, they have a platform.
Like, go for it.
That's what we all aspire to.
But I think it's those disingenuous ones.
So.
Well, it it is the the power and privilege
point, right.
Like, there's a fast track to doing it that
some people can just get on.
Exactly.
That's to put in the eight years of work Exactly.
But I what I told myself about that is for every sports biography or the
ghostwritten book that my publisher publishes that will sell millions of
copies, it means they have money in the pot to
publish something like take a refine.
Yeah.
No, it is very.
So that's how I'm framing it to my boss.
Also feel better.
You've got a much better attitude.
I'm.
But that's maybe because you're published now you get to have the better attitude.
If I ever get published, then I'll be like, oh,
I know you can be like magnanimous, like, oh, yeah, I like it so fine.
Exactly.
They asked me two years ago.
I was probably like going.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
Definitely.
The envy comes in.
But yeah, there's plenty of room on the shelves.
There's all these books need to be published in my view.
I mean, I will.
Even before getting published, I always thought that that the more
stories we publish, the more readers we find.
It's not the other way around that the door closes.
It's like, here's a story that has similar themes,
but it's slightly different in this way.
And here's the nuanced thing about this.
And it's like, you'll just find more and more readers
who are like, yeah, that one, that one's the one I connect with.
And I think that's that's a big thing about publishing as well.
That's interesting is that you're not in competition.
No, you're actually, you each feed each other's exactly,
you know, success in a way.
If you're encouraging readers to read your book,
they might read another book in a similar vein.
So yeah, it's nice to have that and not be like,
oh, I've got to directly compete.
Yeah, yeah, 'cause God knows they can read them a lot
faster than they can be written.
Right.
And yeah.
And sometimes publishers create that sense of competition,
but I feel like I know that.
And once again, in Concept of power, we don't have a lot.
But what we can do is not buy into that and feel that, you know, 'cause I,
I hear people say there's like friends of mine who are writers who are trying to
get published, like, well, now there's a story out there,
something that I'm writing.
So therefore I can't.
I'm like, no, this means you definitely can because it
means there's now a marketplace or someone has decided that there is readers
for that, which means getting there.
Like, yeah, do it.
It's such a good point because it can be discouraging when you've taken eight
years or whatever it is to, yeah, to write a book and then someone like
gets in there just before you.
But as you say, like, you know, that doesn't negate.
And in fact, it can be a selling point if that book.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, that's really how they market a lot of
titles, isn't it?
Yeah.
Similar to comparisons.
I mean, that's the thing you have to do when
you're pitching what's your comp titles like?
Yeah, Exactly.
And what are your comp titles?
Well, Apple time Pantera was saying Jessie, too.
OK.
Yep.
So is she just very fitting.
Yeah.
And maybe Zoya Patel.
OK.
Yeah.
Even though she's written memoir and finds fiction.
But I guess it's fiction, but it's realistic fiction.
Yeah.
It's not something way out there.
So.
Yeah.
And it is a thing that's very common for people at the moment,
the immigrant experience.
I'm an immigrant to Australia.
And so I think a a lot of Australians are.
And that story and those struggles, yeah, resonate with a lot of people.
Yeah.
It's that weird place to inhabit, which this is home and not really.
And the place you left is home and not really.
So you're kind of in the middle and.
And you have parents who are in that culture.
Yeah.
You feel like a little bit of a bridge between cultures as well.
So.
Yeah.
So what's next for you on the horizon?
You're kind of loving the fact that this is now published and.
And out there.
Are you working on another?
Oh, yeah.
Well, because it took so long to get Onslaught
published, I'm one of those people that I can't.
It's, it's just too much for me to just put
everything in one basket and hope.
So I just kept writing.
So I've actually got.
Yeah, two other manuscripts.
Amazing.
It was 8 years, so it's not like.
Yeah.
So I'm working on something new at the moment and just, yeah,
seeing how my publisher might feel about submitting something to them.
So.
And is it something in a similar vein?
Is it a no, It's, it's quite different.
So which is exciting for me because publishers hate it.
I mean, I'm telling myself because I write
literary fiction, I've got a bit more room to manoeuvre
because from what I understand, like genre fiction writers can get a bit,
I don't know.
And especially in the early days that you have to write a certain way and then you
can, I don't know, spread your wings, but I'm like, but mowings now,
hopefully you should.
Yeah.
This could be like, famous last words.
Yeah.
Now we're going to get the sequel and the prequel.
Well, thank you, Natasha.
Is there anything you wanted to mention or put forward before we kind of wrap up?
No.
Thanks for having me.
It's been a really nice chat.
Thank you very much for joining us.
This has been a special presentation of the Not Quite Right Podcast in
collaboration with Words on the Ways Riders Festival.
Check the show notes For more information about Words on the Waves and the books
mentioned in this episode.
If you're new to the podcast, please join us again for our regular
episodes where we talk about media, culture, and the art of writing.
Something doesn't seem quite right.