First-time author, Michael Thomas, never set out to write historical fiction; he was planning to write his memoirs.
Michael was born and raised in WA’s northern town of Carnarvon. It’s a tough, remote part of the world and Michael grew up moving through regional WA as the son of an outback shearer.
After recently retiring from his teaching career he began to look into his family’s history for the purpose of writing a book and it was one of the newspaper articles he uncovered that sparked the story of young William Watson.
Set in 1909, The Map of William, is a gripping and adventurous tale that Michael says literally poured out of him.
Michael’s now lives in Fremantle in WA and he took time out from hosting book launch events to speak with Australian Rural and Regional News contributor, Serena Kirby. They spoke about character voice, language, the adding of female story elements to balance the book and the importance of telling some of lesser known parts of Western Australia’s history.
ARR.News: I know you set out to write your memoir so what led you to change your mind from writing fact to fiction?
Michael Thomas: I was actually finding it quite difficult to write a factual book. Writing a memoir also has the potential to cause some harm and division so pretty quickly I decided I’d change tack and try to write fiction instead. So when I began to do research into my own family history I came across an article about the murder trial of my great great grandfather, Alexander Thomas, and I knew I had the seed for a story.
ARR.News: Your book includes references to the past ill treatment of our First Nations people. I found some of the recounts upsetting and horrific so how did you feel when writing these? How did you feel about uncovering this information?
Michael Thomas: Well, it’s interesting because being a teacher I had a surface knowledge of the indigenous history of Western Australia but I was always sort of struck by the silence in our history books. For me it was important to find out as much as I could about colonisation and our indigenous people.
And you’re right, it was really harrowing to write about these things. I have family memories of being told stories about hearing the rattling of chains outside my grandfather’s house in Roebourne and how he and his brothers would go outside and watch those Aboriginal men – all joined together by neck chains – walk past the house.
For them it was a normal, everyday part of life and they thought nothing of it. Those things really affected me and I thought if I’m going to write a book where my main character is going north in 1909 then these are the things he would’ve seen.
These are parts of Western Australia’s history that are recorded and I think they should be more known and they should be told.
ARR.News: The voices of the characters are deeply linked to the era of the story. Was it hard to find the ‘voice’ that matched the early 1900s?
Michael Thomas: Finding the voice of any character is really tricky. The Map of William was written in the first person so the reader is forced to live inside the head of a 15-year-old boy, William.
In an attempt to find William’s voice I read a large number of newspapers and documents, all available on microfilm at the State Library, just with that sole purpose of discovering the style of writing and language used. Once I found William’s voice, the story came fairly quickly.
ARR.News: Some of the dialogue is extremely crude. How did you feel about writing that and how on earth did you come up with such a vile array of insults? Did your family look at you differently (laughs) when they read the horrible things you had your characters say?
Michael Thomas: You know, my sister was actually really shocked when she read the book and my editors would’ve preferred that I toned down the language just a little. The main character, William, rarely swears and some of the other characters never swear. I consider the language as being in context and in character for those characters in the book that do swear.
My father was a shearer so it’s the kind of language you would’ve heard amongst shearers and also sailors of that era. I think it’s in character with them and maybe it’s a sign of a misspent youth on my behalf (laughing).
ARR.News: The Map of William only took you six months to write – that’s incredibly fast. What was the process and did you have a writing routine?
Michael Thomas: Yes, the story did come quickly. I think the story was always embedded somewhere in my head. I’ve always been a reader but never a writer so I actually found the process quite addictive. I’m an early riser, so I’m up at six and I’d find a little quiet place somewhere in the house and I’d just start scribbling and writing.
But I think the secret for me – when I began to write the book – was that in addition to the writing time that you give yourself, you also need to give yourself thinking time. There was certainly a part of every day where I would sit down and just think so it was not just the writing that was important, but it was also the thinking part.
ARR.News: I particularly liked all the wise words and sage advice that you added from William’s mother Louisa Watson? What was the origin of these bits of information?
Michael Thomas: I’m fortunate to have some incredible women in my family and my grandmother was particularly influential in my own childhood. Many of the book’s standalone quotes have come directly from her. She would say to me, ‘Michael, if you have nothing to say – shut up!’
I also think my mother inherited her kind of habit of having wise sayings and so it’s really a nod to my grandmother.
It’s worth mentioning that it’s a very hyper masculine world that William has entered and I really wanted to have some balance in the book. I think that’s why those little quotes are almost like a breath of fresh air.
Related story: Review – The Map of William
This interview is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
