Australian Jane Rawson took part in her first NaNoWriMo back in 2000, when she was living in Oakland, California. Jane now lives in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, and works as an editor at the cool news site The Conversation. One of her NaNoWriMo manuscripts, A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists, was just published. NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty pestered Jane to find out more about the book and her native land. 

Right now Camp NaNoWriMo participants are wrapping up the second week of their novels. What would you tell a writer going through Week Two of NaNoWriMo for the first time?

Soon it will be Week 4 and this will be nothing but a horrible memory. And then you’ll realise how much you miss it. You know how old parents tell new parents who haven’t slept for six weeks because their horrible baby keeps screaming that they should enjoy this time because “they grow up so fast”? Well, that. But your screaming baby is your implausible plot and interchangeable characters.

What’s the thing that surprised you most about the process of having your book published?

Getting the email saying that Transit Lounge wanted to publish my book. I really had to read it three times because I was thinking “this is a weird way to write a rejection letter." 

So, in one sentence, what is A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists about?

How memories and imaginary futures can be more important than so-called real life. 

Ooh. I like it. What’s the premise of the story?

Caddy lives in a big western city in 2030. It’s hot all the time, and only the wealthy have reliable water, power, housing and work. Caddy has lost her house and husband in an industrial accident, and is struggling to get by. Her friend Ray gets hold of some maps that let him travel into washed-up memories and imaginings.

He and Caddy mess around with them, and meet up with two kids Caddy made up; she wrote a short story set in 2007 where they were set a task to see all of America, 25’ square by 25’ square. When the kids discover that they and their quest are imaginary, they’re understandably pretty pissed off.

If you were to use the time-honored Hollywood formula of "It’s ____ meets ____” to pitch your book, how would you fill in those blanks?

Technically, it was “big glass of wine meets approaching deadline." 

Inspiration-wise, it’s James Gleeson meets travel snobbery. But none of that would fly in a pitch meeting, so let’s say it’s Riddley Walker meets The Golden Compass but with a bit less grimness (have you read Riddley Walker? That thing is grim), more words you can understand, the same amount of drinking, and far fewer armoured bears. 

You are known primarily as an environmental journalist. How did your work covering the environment there in Melbourne, Australia seep into your novel?

It seems logical that my work on climate change would have informed my novel set in a climate-changed Melbourne but I wrote the book before I had this job. Let’s say that my obsession with catastrophe has influenced both my writing and the work I choose to do.

You were one of the 140 people who took part in NaNoWriMo in 2000, and you attended the first-ever Thank God It’s Over party. What are your favorite memories of those prehistoric days?

At the TGIO party, everyone had a section of their story strung up on a washing line so other people could read it. Actually, that might be all I remember. There was dancing! I remember there was some excellent dancing. Other than that, all I can say is that it was way cooler back then that it is now. (Actually, that’s a total lie. I couldn’t be more pleased that NaNo has grown to be a massive success. It’s heartily deserved.)

Have you started on your next book? What’s it about? And is it also a NaNoWriMo novel?

I have. I wrote the first 50,000 words of my ‘current’ novel in NaNo 2011. It’s pretty much the opposite of Unmade Lists. It’s set in Port Adelaide, Australia, in the late 19th century and is based on the life of my great, great grandfather, who was stuck on a shipwreck for 8 days without food or water. He was one of a small handful of survivors. I wanted to explore what it would be like living with post traumatic stress disorder before it had even been invented.

Is it true that every plant in Australia can be fashioned into a weapon?

I just tried to research this, and I cut myself.

[Interviewer’s note: Right after sending me her answers, Jane went on a trip to Tasmania, where she was jabbed by a plant that ended up causing her finger to become infected. She blames the interviewer for this.]