Tessa Lunney – Kiki in Paris

Tessa Lunney’s party girl hero Kiki Button poses for Pablo Picasso in Bohemian Paris in the first book of a mystery series that gently prods at serious questions – like how to be a ‘modern woman.’ Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Tessa talks about  why she’s obsessed with 1920s Paris, how her doctorate on war literature helped shape Kiki’s character, and why Harry Potter saved her in the early days of motherhood. But before we talk to Tessa, just a reminder that the show notes for this episode can be found on the website, the Joys of Binge Reading.com  that’s where you’ll find links to Tessa’s website and  work, as well as details about how to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss future episodes. Where to find Tessa Lunney:  Website: https://tessalunney.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tessa.lunney Twitter: https://twitter.com/tessawynn Instagram:  @misskikibutton  and @tessawynn Six Things You'll Find Out   Why she’s obsessed with Anglophone 1920s Paris Partying with Pablo Picasso and Kiki Button Aussie nurse and hero Kiki Button’s relevance to Me Too How Harry Potter saved her sanity as a young Mother Where to go in Kiki’s Paris How her doctorate on war trauma informed the story What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny: But now here’s Tessa.  Hello there Tessa and welcome to the show it’s great to have you with us . . Tessa Lunney: Paris mysteries Tessa: It's great to be here. Jenny: Beginning at the  beginning - was there a "Once Upon A Time” moment when you decided you wanted to write fiction?  And if there was a catalyst, what was it? Tessa: There was a moment when I decided to write fiction, and that was about two years after I realized I was never going to be an actress. I wanted to be an actress so much from when I was a very little girl. When I was about 21 or 22, I realized that I didn't have the success that my friends who were actors had already had, but also it didn't suit me. It didn't suit my personality and it didn't suit me intellectually. I looked at the decisions I'd made in my life, and I realized none of these were pointing towards an acting life. I told myself  "you have to be honest with yourself, you're not going to do this". A couple of years later, I finished university and I did an honors year, which is an extra year added on to my three year degree. I was surrounded by highly intelligent, passionate, eloquent book readers. And I thought 'these are my people!' I thought, 'you're going to have to go with books. It's you're first love and you're true love, so maybe you can tell a story... maybe you should start to try?' And so I started to try when I enrolled in a graduate diploma of creative writing. I enrolled because my boyfriend at the time was enrolling in his Bachelor of Music, and I was bored and had nothing better to do. I had three or four classes a week, and I thought this is it. This is what I'm going to do. That was like a long moment that ended in a flash of revelation. Jenny: It's great that you had such self awareness at such an early age! Tessa: Well, it was sort of forced upon me because I was quite unhappy trying to do this and trying to do that. It was all failing and not working. It should have worked; it worked in my mind but I just couldn't perform, I couldn't do anything. I tried out the drama schools and hadn't got in and I just thought this is a series of failures. But more than that- I wasn't even enjoying it. I didn't even enjoy being up on stage. I didn't want to do it, so why are you pursuing this if you hate it? So I had to think about it.