Interview by Belle McQuattie.
Kirilee Barker is a twenty-something writer from Brisbane, Australia. Her first novel, The Book of Days, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. She also received the John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers, and is in no way trying to pad this bio out, no sir.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m backpacking around Europe/Asia with my boyfriend for ten months, which has put a damper on writing time, but inspiration can spark in the strangest places and I was on an overnight train from Munich to Rome when I came up with the idea for my current WIP. It’s an odd epistolary novel about trying to restore the French monarchy, a girl who can grant people’s heart’s desire, and the 1889 Paris World’s Fair. It’s currently called Odd Novel I Can’t Genrify, so we’ll see what comes of it!
You also enjoy cosplay, do you have a go-to character, or do you play someone new each time?
I enjoy the costuming side of cosplay more than anything else, so I tend to care more about whether the character has an awesome look than having a go-to character. That being said, after certain badass events in the last episode of Game of Thrones, I might have to cosplay Cersei again. She is my drunk, evil spirit animal.
You can also check out my cosplay adventures and thoughts on tumblr at gallimaufrygirl.
The Book of Days ended with plenty of wiggle room for a sequel – do you have any plans to write any more of Tuesday’s adventures?
I would love to write a whole series about Tuesday! I’m about 30 000 words into the fully-plotted sequel, but I just wasn’t loving it, so I took a break to work on some new stuff. But if people want to read more about Tuesday and the gang, I’ll always be happy to write it.
What Australian work have you loved recently?
It might not be current, but I recently read Rosamond Siemon’s The Mayne Inheritance and loved it. I’ve been on a true crime kick recently and it definitely scratched the itch.
Which author (living or dead) would you most like to sit next to on a long plane trip and why?
Having just taken some pretty long plane trips, I know that I’m not in the mood to chat to anyone during them, so maybe a long-dead author that I could kick off the seat next to me to get some more leg room? Maybe Shakespeare? I’m sure he’d write a sonnet about it.
Australian SF Snapshot Project 