Writing in bed

Renee Liang talks to Rosetta Allan - 27 May 2014

For the last few years, poet and writer Rosetta Allan has nurtured an enviable habit – she stays in bed.  To write, that is.

The world gets to enjoy the fruits of her labours on May 30 when she launches her first novel Purgatory, based on forgotten murders in her own family history.

Renee Liang asked Rosetta about her writing and what seeded the novel.

Why do you write?

I write because it is the best way for me to speak. I have never trusted my tongue to deliver the right message, and I don’t blame it really. My head is simply too full of ideas, thoughts, and imagined scenarios that refuse to behave. The only way I can get them in order is to write them into one neat line at a time.

Do you have a favourite genre, and why?

I enjoy anything that opens a window on human behaviour and experience, especially if it’s wonderfully written. If it captures my imagination, I’m in love and in awe of that writer, that story, and those characters not matter what the genre is.

Tell me about your writing space.

I always had my own office until we moved into Kingsland. Our space is small with no office now so I write from my bed. It’s great because everything’s within arms reach. I have two shelves beside me that harbour all my notebooks, laptop and books of interest, with a bedside cabinet that holds my cups of tea and reading lamp. The view out of my window faces north, toward the greenbelt of Arch Hill, and beside me my dog snores until she decides it’s time for walkies.

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