Pip Drysdale is the author of the new novel The Close-Up. Her other books include The Next Girl. Also a musician and actor, she lives in Sydney, Australia.
Q: What inspired you to write The Close-Up, and how did you create your character Zoe?
A: It's never just one thing that inspires a book for me; it's a multitude. So there are a number of lived experiences that inspired different parts of The Close-Up.
The most benign of these would be my own experience of writer's block after creative disappointment, and wanting to explore how far, as creatives, we might go for our art; how much we'll sacrifice.
In terms of Zoe, there tends to be a piece of me in every character I write and that holds true for her. I take a piece of myself and then expand it into a full, living-breathing-human-being.
Q: The writer Anna Downes said of the novel, “Thoroughly addictive, effortlessly cool and clever as hell, TCU is both a voyeuristic peek into the world of celebrity and a dark Gatsby-esque critique of the modern American Dream.” What do you think of that assessment?
A: I absolutely love it! And it's exactly what I was aiming for. When writing a novel, on one hand I want it to be propulsive and fascinating and entertaining, but I always want to endow the work with deeper layers too. I need to be saying something.
So I love that Anna picked up the Gatsby references; that she understood where I was going with that.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I knew the first part of the ending, but not the second part. But yes, I made multiple changes to the initial plot along the way as I learnt things about Zoe and the world she was inhabiting—there is only so much I can ever know up front. I always leave room for being surprised as that tends to be where the magic happens.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: One of my editors came up with it. And to me it speaks to a line directly out of the book: sometimes when you see your dreams close-up, they look more like nightmares.
It's like when you look at a painting from far away it can be beautiful and alluring and perfect-looking, but up close, you can see the brush strokes, the cracks, and the canvas peeking through.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have just handed in my next thriller, and I have another book due in February.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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