Note to Self (from Melina Marchetta – Part 2)

I saved this little snippet from an old interview with Melina Marchetta, goddess of everything. It's so old that the link to the source doesn't even exist anymore. In the interview, MM talks a little bit about character origins and development. Fun little bit of trivia if you've read and loved Saving Francesca and The Piper's Son, but also just good to keep in mind – that characters can come up out of seemingly nowhere.

"What I also appreciate about Francesca is that it introduced me to Tom Mackee, another favourite. He was included in the first draft as the bully; someone who was not going to be important. But I taught boys that year who began as bullies or were perceived to be and they really surprised me by the end of the year. The developing of Tom as a character got caught up in all of that. I always think he was a bit of a sneaky little bastard hiding in a part of my creative head waiting for the right moment five years later to spring out and demand a novel of his own." – Melina Marchetta