Interview: Jacqueline Owens talks about Vividwater

Jacqueline Owens lives in Wellington. Vividwater was longlisted for Grindstone Literary International Novel Prize, and shortlisted twice in the Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize. A screenplay, The Floating World, won the New Zealand Writers Guild (NZWG) Best Unproduced Screenplay Competition and another, Three Gardens, was a quarterfinalist in the Nicholl and Blue Cat competitions. A young adult novel, Bluest Moon, was published by New Women’s Press, in the 90s. Outside writing, she has had mnemopath-like jobs in government and made the most of degrees in Classics and Political Science, as a grand-finalist on Mastermind New Zealand, with subjects The Chronicles of Narnia and Classical Greek Mythology. While doing a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Screen and Television at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, she was a university teaching assistant and assessed screenplays for production companies. Jacqueline talks to NZ Booklovers.

Tell us a little about Vividwater.

Vividwater is set in a near-future world where there’s been constant drought in most countries, except for ‘hydrospheres’ like New Zealand. Water is the new wealth and New Zealand exports most of its water, leaving locals to die of thirst. Alex Pym is a mnemopath, a professional memory machine, living a life of corporate infighting and a constant struggle for enough water. When her great love, Lawrence, returns to her life after 15 years in China, her world is turned on its head for better and for worse.

What inspired you to write this book?

The idea about vividwater itself came from a book I was reading where someone bought a vivid diamond to impress someone – I’d never heard of a vivid diamond, but it is the highest quality of diamond available. That started me thinking about grades and classes of basic things, especially water, and how elemental water is. I was also inspired by some past jobs, and by my experience of memory, from doing quizzes and being on Mastermind NZ in 2016. Before quizzes became such a big thing in the 2010s it had never really occurred to me that I had a good memory – I thought I was normal because most of my family is like that. But the quizzes got me thinking about how people remember and how that affects their lives.

What research was involved?

There was a lot I had to do about climate change and droughts, because I don’t have a scientific background. I learned how common they are, and how there are so many countries where access to clean and safe water is not taken for granted, even places we would think of as prosperous, like the United States, where local authorities can and do turn off peoples’ water if they are behind in payments, or South Africa, where Cape Town had an absolute water shortage after years of drought.

I also researched a lot about the nature of memory and memory training, because that’s a key part of Alex’s job. At first, it was books about how to improve your memory, but I got very interested in people with naturally astonishing memories, like the New Zealand mathematician Alexander Aitken, who could do complex multiplication in his head and who could sharply remember flowers he’d seen in Otago when he was four, forty or fifty years later when he was living in Edinburgh. He was very burdened by his memory, as he’d been head of a troop of men in the trenches in northern France in World War I when he was about 20 or 21, and never got over that experience. He wrote a memoir about his experiences in the war, From Gallipoli to the Somme, and a mathematician at Otago University, P C Fenton, has written about his life and his memory.

What was your routine or process when writing this book?

I write first drafts in longhand, because I can take the draft anywhere, and do little bits. Also, my handwriting is terrible (I know lots of people say that, but mine really is), so it feels a bit secret, since people can’t read my writing. That first draft is usually very rough and has gaping plot holes. Then I do a second draft on my laptop, and start to flesh out the characters’ motivations and fix plot issues. Events still seem to happen their own accord sometimes! After that, it’s ready for a manuscript assessment and beta readers before I do a more polished draft.

If a soundtrack was made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.

Oh, so many! Eighties music is very important to the book, as it’s a passion of one of the main characters, Lawrence Jones. I would go for some standouts from that era, and as a child of the eighties, the music video is an essential part of the experience.

The Proclaimers are best known for ‘500 miles’, but I think ‘Letter from America’ is their best song:

The Proclaimers - Letter From America (Official Video)

‘Cloudbusting’ by Kate Bush, with a great video featuring Donald Sutherland:

Kate Bush - Cloudbusting - Official Music Video

From a movie about the eighties, Pride, one of the best versions of ‘Bread and Roses’:

"Bread and Roses" from the film "Pride"

And lastly, the sublime Pet Shop Boys, ‘Being Boring’:

Being Boring

These were all songs I listened to a lot to get me in a more contemplative mood, as they all have an element of pathos to them.

If your book was made into a movie, who would you like to see playing the lead characters?

Because it’s a very New Zealand movie, I’d like a New Zealand cast: I imagine, Antonia Prebble playing the main character Alex, but looking much less glamorous than she often does, and Kirk Torrance playing Alex’s boyfriend Lawrence. And there are a few interesting parts for Alex’s boss Roger, and a local politico Jamie Arohanui: I imagine Sam Neill and Cliff Curtis.

What did you enjoy the most about writing this novel?

I think developing the world, and making it into something that was logical. I did an early draft where things weren’t quite worked out, and got some really good feedback from Brandi Dixon of Charcoal and Brass, about how the technical elements could work – how the water could be managed and how access to it could be controlled. Brandi’s company is here: Manuscript Editing

However, I also enjoyed doing Ross’s dialogue and his extremely colourful language about people he didn’t like!

What did you do to celebrate finishing Vividwater?

I bought art – one of my extravagances. I already had a lovely kete mixed media print from the Ōpōtiki artist Anna Gedson, whose works are in the wonderful Kura Gallery in Allen Street, off Courtney Place in Wellington, so I bought a silver and red kete and matching poi to complement the print.