Rachael King

[November 5th, 2008]

You really should read: The Sound of Butterflies

Some writers grow up knowing what they are. Sometimes, authors take a more circuitous route to get to where they’re going. Rachael King is one of the latter. Though her father, the historian Michael King, was a prominent writer in her homeland of New Zealand, Rachael spent most of her teens and 20s playing bass in a series of rock bands before getting serious about writing fiction. Her debut novel, The Sound of Butterflies, which was published two years ago when she was 36, spent three months as one of the top three sellers in her native country. MATT GRAHAM. 3 pm Saturday, Nov. 8. Columbia Sportwear Stage.

What’s your personal writing ritual?
At the moment it’s listening to music on the bus to the office to get me in the mood: Nick Cave, Beirut, The Be Good Tanyas....

What are your favorite themes to write about?
I am fascinated by obsessive collectors and their reasons for their obsessions.

The most beautiful word in the English language is:
Mesmerise. In American it would be mesmerize, but I don’t think that’s quite as lovely.

What authors made you want to pick up a pen in the first place?
I find both the large scale and attention to character detail of Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda illuminating.

Fight Club time: If you could fight one author (or critic), who would it be and why?
Donna Tartt, because she is quite tiny but feisty enough to make it worth the effort. And because I would like to steal The Secret History as my first book.

Name a book you think is highly overrated. Be honest.
I’ll be predictable and say The Da Vinci Code. All that exposition in the first couple of sentences is reason enough.

Dream project:
Any novel where the story excites me beyond belief. Or a film about swing dancing.

Most recent nightmare:
Too gruesome to say. It involved knives.

Your cure for writer’s block:
A good movie on my own or a walk on a beach on a cool day.

Pessimistic question: Will you keep writing even after people stop reading?
Yes. But I am always an optimist.

Optimistic question: Kittens? Discuss.
They sure are cute, but after about 10 years, when they start to wee on the rug, the novelty wears off.

Please paste a short paragraph from a story, poem, article, blog post, etc., you’re currently working on below:
From The Collectors—King’s forthcoming novel:

There were two rumours surrounding my great-great-grandfather Henry Summerfield: one, that his cabinet of curiosities drove him mad; and two, that he murdered his first wife. As far as I know there was no proof—the woman’s body was never found, and the cabinet went missing soon after Henry’s death.