The always-interesting Guera (current location: Mexico) tagged me for the 6 Things Meme which I thought I could turn into a bit more background about me with a heavy fiction writing slant. (No, that doesn’t mean I’m going to just make stuff up, although that does sound like an attractive thought.)

Before I start, the rules, of course:

I have to answer 6 questions about myself. At the end of the post, I then tag 6 people and post their names, then go to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read my blog. Then, I must let the person who tagged me know when I’ve posted my answers.

#1: 6 places I have lived

1. Karrinyup, a northern suburb of Perth, Western Australia. This suburb had my childhood home (18 years!) and is somehow just a typical suburban spot. I’ve never written any fiction remotely related to this suburb – I think my life there was very stable and normal, which doesn’t give big inspiration for writing, I guess. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of stability and normality sometimes.
2. West Perth. In my early 20s I was dying to live in the inner city – part of my escape from the suburbs thinking, I guess. What I liked about this spot was I could (and did) walk down to Oxford Street in Leederville, where I could visit one of my favourite bookshops, Oxford Street Books. Long live independent bookstores! I still dream of being able to find my own novel on the shelves at Oxford Street Books.
3. Fuse, Osaka. I taught English in Japan here for two years and this was my first home, in a fairly ugly semi-industrial, semi-suburban corner of the city. I can imagine a few short stories I could set here, but it’s too grim for me to place a novel there.
4. Amagatsuji, Nara. My second home in Japan, and there was a rice paddy next door – although it was still close to civilisation. Although I didn’t set my first novel here exactly, this kind of area was in my mind. I still have really fond memories of Amagatsuji.
5. Bratislava, Slovakia. Now that I think about it, curiously the most inspiring city I’ve ever lived in. I think that mix of post-socialist spirit and being on the corner of half of Europe (I could see into Austria and Hungary from my balcony) is unbeatable. I’m drawing heavily on Bratislavan life for the setting for my second novel. That reminds me, I had a bunch of photos printed out from this time to put up in my study so I can get extra “sense of place” inspiration.
6. Heilbronn, Germany. This was the last place I lived in before returning to Australia, and I learnt a lot there. There will be Heilbronn-ish novels in my future, I’m sure.

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