Wollongong-based author Hayley Scrivenor is set to launch her eagerly anticipated second novel, Girl Falling, on Wednesday, August 21 at Ryan’s Hotel in Thirroul.
After the success of her debut novel and bestseller Dirt Town, Hayley delves into complex friendship dynamics and self-discovery in her latest crime fiction.
“Girl Falling came about because I wanted to write a story in the Blue Mountains. There's a beautiful writing retreat there called Varuna, The National Writers’ House,” Hayley says.
“I was interested in exploring what happens when a complicated, very close friendship goes bad. I was also interested in that classic triangle… when you meet someone new and someone else in your life is like ‘oh, hold on, like you're no longer paying attention to me’.
“It’s a book that’s quite interested in psychology and in the question of how you know that your perceptions of people are the right perceptions. When relationships end or don't go well, how do you know that it’s not your fault?”
Characters to meet
Girl Falling focuses on the story of Finn, who navigates a complicated friendship with her best friend, Daphne, after falling in love with international student Magdu.
“Finn is a character that has a lot of shame. So when she meets a character, like Magdu, she enters a new world of someone who understands her in a way that her closest friend didn’t. I think bisexual women across the world can understand very deeply that experience with a straight high school best friend,” Hayley says.
“I loved exploring the character of Daphne. She's not anybody's favourite character but I actually really love her. She has quite high standards for herself and really needs Finn to help her live up to them and be the person that she wants to be. But she makes some questionable decisions along the way,
“Magdu is probably most like me. She's a reader and she's goofy and she is actually not that much of an outdoor person.”
Wollongong to the world
Hayley grew up in a small country town near Wagga Wagga before moving to Wollongong for high school.
“I've lived in various places but I keep coming back to Wollongong because I really love it here,” Hayley says.
“I think it is such a great place to live as a writer because there’s that feeling of having Mount Keira behind me and the ocean in front of me. I have a real sense of that in my study.”
In 2022, Hayley wrote Dirt Town as part of her PhD in creative writing at the University of Wollongong, where she also taught fiction writing.
“Dirt Town was shortlisted or won 11 awards, it won four big ones and was shortlisted for a range of national and international ones,” Hayley says.
“That was really unexpected for me. It was really lovely. Then I had a contract with my publisher to write a second. Luckily, I started before Dirt Town came out because it meant that I was well underway with writing a story, which I think was less stressful than if I just sat down to a blank page.”
Dirt Town won the Australian Book Industry Awards' General Fiction Book of the Year 2023, as well as the Crime Writers’ Association's ILP John Creasey Dagger Award, The Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Mystery and The Davitt Awards Debut Crime Book 2023.
“I was invited to a festival in the UK to speak about Dirt Town, and I went to an event with Ann Cleeves. She wrote the Shetland series and the Vera series, and she’s this completely lovely woman,” Hayley recalls.
“I’d seen her on the street before the event. She gave me a hug and told me how much she loved the book. Then there was this sold-out event, the biggest of the festival, and towards the end the questioner asked which books she would recommend. And she said she’d read this amazing book called Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor.
“That was really, really cool. There’s been a lot of lovely moments.”
Path to literary success
Despite her success, Hayley says that she didn’t consider becoming a writer until adulthood.
“I think people fall into one of two camps. I think you know you want to be a writer when you're six or like me, you love books and you read books, but it doesn't really occur to you that there are people out there that write books,” Hayley says.
“I just thought only very, very special people must be allowed to do that. It didn't occur to me that just anyone could write.
“When I was in my 20s, I started volunteering for Wollongong Writers Festival and meeting writers. I started realising that one thing all these people have in common is they've given themselves permission to try and write.”
Hayley went on to become director of Wollongong Writers Festival for a couple of years.
Joy of a second novel
As an awarded writer, with the support of her publisher, Macmillan Australia, as well as the local and international literary community, Hayley says that she felt more confident writing a second novel.
“Dirt Town was a hard book to write for a lot of reasons. But I’ve really tried this second time around to enjoy the process more, and to be curious about what I’ll come up with,” Hayley says.
“That’s the joy of writing your second book. You have your first book sitting on a shelf behind you. You kind of go, ‘Well, I’ve got at least an even chance of doing this again.
“I was so nervous with Dirt Town that what I was doing wasn’t interesting. Now I’ve learnt that if you just go toward what compels you, you’re much more likely to interest someone else, instead of trying to guess.”
Hayley says that crime fiction novels like Girl Falling give readers a cathartic experience.
“I think we read crime because a story is a way of helping us feel like we understand the world and the bad things that might happen,” Hayley explains.
“What crime gives you is an answer. We don’t get an answer in life. We don’t get to know why people hurt us or why something bad happened 99% of the time. But in crime, the promise is that at the end, everything will come together.”
The launch of Girl Falling with Hayley Scrivenor in conversation with Sue Turnbull will take place on Wednesday, August 21 at 6.30pm at Ryan’s Hotel Thirroul. Reserve your place by emailing thirroul@collinsbooks.com.au or calling 4267 1408.