FIC: From Our Correspondant (Doctor Who)
Title: From Our Correspondant
Author: Jewels (bjewelled)
Web Link: http://www.bjewelled.co.uk/fanfic/twfic.shtml
Fandom: Doctor Who
Disclaimer: Doctor Who is the legal property of the BBC, and has been for a while now.
Summary: Post “Journey’s End”. An interview with up and coming author, Donna Noble.
Notes: I refuse to accept the occasional view that it would have been better if a certain character had died, because that's never a better end to someone's story.
Word Count: ~1,300
Noble Pursuit: An Interview with travelogue author Donna Noble
by Amy Stone, Arts Correspondant
"The first genuine breakout in years" and "disarmingly honest" are just two of the phrases that have been used to describe the work of one of the newest writers on the travelogue scene. Such success and glowing reviews might go to the heads of most people, but Donna Noble still seems remarkably down to earth.
"I'm just a temp deep down." She confides this over a cup of coffee priced decidedly out of a temp's salary range. Rather than falsely modest, though, she appears to genuinely hold this opinion of herself, surprised at her own success. "I guess I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and someone to remember that I'm not this bigshot author."
She may not consider herself to be a "bigshot", but Donna Noble's books line the shelves and are recommended alongside notables such as Michael Palin and Bill Bryson. If she's just a temp from Chiswick, what possessed her to go off on her astounding tour of Asia?
"I'd never have considered it really. I mean, I was all into the latest celebrity gossip and going out with my mates, and one day I just woke up and thought 'hang on, there's a whole world out there, and I'm sitting here, wondering if Chantelle wants to go down the pub Tuesday night'." Donna seems amused, and a little bit embarrassed, as she describes her past self. "It's that stage you're supposed to grow out of when you're a teenager, but I never did, you know? I guess if we haven't had that extraordinary bit of luck, I'd still be there, texting my mates and getting pissed on Fridays."
The 'bit of luck' was winning a "Temp of the Year" award, which came with a substantial cash prize.
"I was amazed," Donna says. She gestures broadly as she says it, and accidentally knocks a teaspoon flying. When we've apologised to irate customers of the coffee shop, she giggles and continues in a more subdued fashion. "Out of the blue I get this Welsh bloke calling me, saying I've won a cash prize. I mean wow! I asked who'd put him up for it, convinced it was some sort of joke, and he just said it wasn't, and my name had been put forward for consideration by someone I'd worked with. I could never get anyone to confess though, they all claimed they hadn't done it.
"I might have just gone shoe shopping with it. I mean, come on, who wouldn't like to take fifteen grand down to Oxford Street? I have to give all credit to my granddad. He said to me, 'Donna, you've got great potential, girl. You take that money and you do something really really special with it.' And something about the way he said it, it made me think.
"I knew, really knew deep down, that I wanted to travel. It's weird, because I tried it before and hated it. I took myself off to Egypt, spent two weeks there, caught food poisoning and came home, swore off travelling altogether. But I thought, why not do it properly? I thought my mum would be most against it. She was always telling me what a waste of time I was, but she surprised me. She was so supportive. Without her and my granddad, I don't think I would have been brave enough to go. I'm just a temp, you know, not some epic explorer."
You can see the development of her personality if you read Donna's first book, Walking In The Dust. The Observer review called it a 'classic coming of age story' with the unusual twist that the 'coming of age arrives long into adulthood, at an age where most of us have given up ever starting over and seeing the world with fresh eyes'. It won her critical and popular acclaim, and kick started her writing career, even winning herself a six part documentary series for the BBC, revisiting some of her favourite stops on her tour of Asia, including Beijing and a town in Banda Aceh, where a giant power generation boat has been washed up on dry land since the tsunami of 2004.
"I can't help but look up at this massive boat and think 'wow, if only the boat could talk, I bet its journey would make a great story'. Imagine waking up one morning to this outside your window. You'd never drink again." - Walking in the DustNot long after her first breakthrough book, she produced two more, one regarding her rather harrowing travels across Africa, and the Human suffering she saw there, tempered by the deep respect she came to develop for the people, and a rather more lighthearted affair entitled The Temp of Oz in which she describes taking a series of temping jobs across Australia and New Zealand, exploring the cities and landscapes she passed through as she got jobs that would only last a few weeks at most, and introduced her to people who have apparently become firm friends.
She didn't only come away from her trip to the land down order with a new book. She came back with a fiancé, Dave Shields, a Doctor at a hospital in Adelaide where Donna worked for a fortnight in the admin department. She blushes when I mention him.
"We haven't quite decided if I'm going to go over there or he's going to come here. I keep telling him, it's boring here, don't bother."
After a series of well received travelogues, you'd be forgiven for being surprised at Donna's next project. Instead of picking some new corner of the globe to explore, she decided to write a science fiction novel. The Seers of Pompeii is a mystery novel that seems heavily influenced by the style of Agatha Christie, and describes the mysterious death of the High Priestess of the Sybilline, a group of seers in ancient Pompeii, and the involvement of the daughter of a noble family, caught up in machinations beyond her control. I ask what prompted such a drastic change in genre.
The Priestess's grip on her wrist was tight, the powder on her face making her seem more ghostly than Human. "Tread carefully, child," the Priestess hissed, "For you dare to offend Gods." - The Seers of Pompeii"It's one of those classic questions that writers get asked, isn't it? How do you get your ideas? I don't know. God, perhaps, or aliens. It was a story that's been bubbling in my brain for a while, and I suddenly got the opportunity to write it, and I couldn't resist."
The question is, though, whether her fans will follow her into this new genre.
"God only knows. I think I've developed a whole new fanbase moving into scifi. They're crazy, scifi fans, but some of the best people in the world. They're so friendly! I remember at one signing I was at, this bloke comes up to me, grinning like a maniac. He's this tall, skinny bloke in a suit, with hair that looked like it had a life of its own, and he's got like four copies of my book. He tells me he's getting one for all of his friends, tells me not to worry about who to make it out to, just put 'love Donna' if I don't mind.
"I teased him that he was gonna sell them on eBay, and he grins that mad, mad grin again and says, 'Nah. Always going to keep a copy on my shelf, right to the end of time. My Donna Noble, a novelist. Who'd have thought?' Right weird bloke, but dead sweet."
So, given that she's established herself as an author who's willing to buck the tendency to stick to one genre, does she have any plans for another shift of theme. Maybe a Regency romance or a horror novel?
"Well, I have this idea for a love story in a virtual world. Watch this space."
'The Seers of Pompeii' by Donna Noble is out now.
N.B. For the curious, the "giant boat" in Panga Village of Banda Aceh is a genuine story. Some colleagues of mine made a documentary on the subject in 2006. It's an astonishing story, so if you ever get your hands on a copy of "My Neighbour the Giant Boat" it's well worth a look.
Author: Jewels (bjewelled)
Web Link: http://www.bjewelled.co.uk/fanfic/twfic.shtml
Fandom: Doctor Who
Disclaimer: Doctor Who is the legal property of the BBC, and has been for a while now.
Summary: Post “Journey’s End”. An interview with up and coming author, Donna Noble.
Notes: I refuse to accept the occasional view that it would have been better if a certain character had died, because that's never a better end to someone's story.
Word Count: ~1,300
Noble Pursuit: An Interview with travelogue author Donna Noble
by Amy Stone, Arts Correspondant
"The first genuine breakout in years" and "disarmingly honest" are just two of the phrases that have been used to describe the work of one of the newest writers on the travelogue scene. Such success and glowing reviews might go to the heads of most people, but Donna Noble still seems remarkably down to earth.
"I'm just a temp deep down." She confides this over a cup of coffee priced decidedly out of a temp's salary range. Rather than falsely modest, though, she appears to genuinely hold this opinion of herself, surprised at her own success. "I guess I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and someone to remember that I'm not this bigshot author."
She may not consider herself to be a "bigshot", but Donna Noble's books line the shelves and are recommended alongside notables such as Michael Palin and Bill Bryson. If she's just a temp from Chiswick, what possessed her to go off on her astounding tour of Asia?
"I'd never have considered it really. I mean, I was all into the latest celebrity gossip and going out with my mates, and one day I just woke up and thought 'hang on, there's a whole world out there, and I'm sitting here, wondering if Chantelle wants to go down the pub Tuesday night'." Donna seems amused, and a little bit embarrassed, as she describes her past self. "It's that stage you're supposed to grow out of when you're a teenager, but I never did, you know? I guess if we haven't had that extraordinary bit of luck, I'd still be there, texting my mates and getting pissed on Fridays."
The 'bit of luck' was winning a "Temp of the Year" award, which came with a substantial cash prize.
"I was amazed," Donna says. She gestures broadly as she says it, and accidentally knocks a teaspoon flying. When we've apologised to irate customers of the coffee shop, she giggles and continues in a more subdued fashion. "Out of the blue I get this Welsh bloke calling me, saying I've won a cash prize. I mean wow! I asked who'd put him up for it, convinced it was some sort of joke, and he just said it wasn't, and my name had been put forward for consideration by someone I'd worked with. I could never get anyone to confess though, they all claimed they hadn't done it.
"I might have just gone shoe shopping with it. I mean, come on, who wouldn't like to take fifteen grand down to Oxford Street? I have to give all credit to my granddad. He said to me, 'Donna, you've got great potential, girl. You take that money and you do something really really special with it.' And something about the way he said it, it made me think.
"I knew, really knew deep down, that I wanted to travel. It's weird, because I tried it before and hated it. I took myself off to Egypt, spent two weeks there, caught food poisoning and came home, swore off travelling altogether. But I thought, why not do it properly? I thought my mum would be most against it. She was always telling me what a waste of time I was, but she surprised me. She was so supportive. Without her and my granddad, I don't think I would have been brave enough to go. I'm just a temp, you know, not some epic explorer."
You can see the development of her personality if you read Donna's first book, Walking In The Dust. The Observer review called it a 'classic coming of age story' with the unusual twist that the 'coming of age arrives long into adulthood, at an age where most of us have given up ever starting over and seeing the world with fresh eyes'. It won her critical and popular acclaim, and kick started her writing career, even winning herself a six part documentary series for the BBC, revisiting some of her favourite stops on her tour of Asia, including Beijing and a town in Banda Aceh, where a giant power generation boat has been washed up on dry land since the tsunami of 2004.
"I can't help but look up at this massive boat and think 'wow, if only the boat could talk, I bet its journey would make a great story'. Imagine waking up one morning to this outside your window. You'd never drink again." - Walking in the DustNot long after her first breakthrough book, she produced two more, one regarding her rather harrowing travels across Africa, and the Human suffering she saw there, tempered by the deep respect she came to develop for the people, and a rather more lighthearted affair entitled The Temp of Oz in which she describes taking a series of temping jobs across Australia and New Zealand, exploring the cities and landscapes she passed through as she got jobs that would only last a few weeks at most, and introduced her to people who have apparently become firm friends.
She didn't only come away from her trip to the land down order with a new book. She came back with a fiancé, Dave Shields, a Doctor at a hospital in Adelaide where Donna worked for a fortnight in the admin department. She blushes when I mention him.
"We haven't quite decided if I'm going to go over there or he's going to come here. I keep telling him, it's boring here, don't bother."
After a series of well received travelogues, you'd be forgiven for being surprised at Donna's next project. Instead of picking some new corner of the globe to explore, she decided to write a science fiction novel. The Seers of Pompeii is a mystery novel that seems heavily influenced by the style of Agatha Christie, and describes the mysterious death of the High Priestess of the Sybilline, a group of seers in ancient Pompeii, and the involvement of the daughter of a noble family, caught up in machinations beyond her control. I ask what prompted such a drastic change in genre.
The Priestess's grip on her wrist was tight, the powder on her face making her seem more ghostly than Human. "Tread carefully, child," the Priestess hissed, "For you dare to offend Gods." - The Seers of Pompeii"It's one of those classic questions that writers get asked, isn't it? How do you get your ideas? I don't know. God, perhaps, or aliens. It was a story that's been bubbling in my brain for a while, and I suddenly got the opportunity to write it, and I couldn't resist."
The question is, though, whether her fans will follow her into this new genre.
"God only knows. I think I've developed a whole new fanbase moving into scifi. They're crazy, scifi fans, but some of the best people in the world. They're so friendly! I remember at one signing I was at, this bloke comes up to me, grinning like a maniac. He's this tall, skinny bloke in a suit, with hair that looked like it had a life of its own, and he's got like four copies of my book. He tells me he's getting one for all of his friends, tells me not to worry about who to make it out to, just put 'love Donna' if I don't mind.
"I teased him that he was gonna sell them on eBay, and he grins that mad, mad grin again and says, 'Nah. Always going to keep a copy on my shelf, right to the end of time. My Donna Noble, a novelist. Who'd have thought?' Right weird bloke, but dead sweet."
So, given that she's established herself as an author who's willing to buck the tendency to stick to one genre, does she have any plans for another shift of theme. Maybe a Regency romance or a horror novel?
"Well, I have this idea for a love story in a virtual world. Watch this space."
'The Seers of Pompeii' by Donna Noble is out now.
N.B. For the curious, the "giant boat" in Panga Village of Banda Aceh is a genuine story. Some colleagues of mine made a documentary on the subject in 2006. It's an astonishing story, so if you ever get your hands on a copy of "My Neighbour the Giant Boat" it's well worth a look.