Interview with Amanda Geard - Author of 'The Moon Gate'
Paperback release: June 8th, 2023
E-book release: Out Now!
Amanda Geard is passionate about capturing the wilds of County Kerry in her writing and was inspired to pen her first novel, The Midnight House, after a trip to Listowel Writers’ Week in 2019. Her second novel, The Moon Gate is set in three places dear to her: Tasmania, London and County Kerry.
She has written for The Irish Times, The Journal, The Gloss and writing.ie.
In 2022, she was the recipient of an Arts Council Agility Award and a Kerry County Council Arts bursary, as well as being selected for the 2022/23 Evolution Programme with the Irish Writers Centre. She was awarded a teaching internship at the University of Galway BA (Creative Writing), and loves encouraging others to discover and reach their potential.
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INTERVIEW
Please tell us a little about The Moon Gate and what inspired it?
The Moon Gate is the story of three generations of women, starting with Libby who travels from Tasmania to London in 2005 in order to recover a satchel that once belonged to the father she never knew. What she discovers inside leads her to the mystery of an anonymous legacy – that of the mist-shrouded Towerhurst on Tasmania’s remote west coast left to Libby’s mother, Willow – and its links to Grace and Rose, two WW2 evacuees who find themselves flung to the far side of the world. This book is really special to me for two reasons: firstly, it encompasses so many things I love (old houses, family secrets, traditional Australian ballads) and, secondly, it’s set in three places I absolutely adore: Tasmania (where I grew up), London (where I once lived in a houseboat) and County Kerry (my home).
Explain what a moon gate is and why you chose to include one in your story?
I absolutely adore the evocative image of the moon gate, a circular folly with a wonderful meaning: it is said that to step through one is to be reborn. I wanted to write a story about a young woman (Grace) who is taken out of a stifling, loveless environment in Grosvenor Square, London, and transported somewhere exotic (Tasmania) where kindness, new experiences and love await. Grace is reborn, and this is the enduring theme of The Moon Gate.
Was it a difficult task to write in three timelines? Did you write each one separately and then go back and insert those chapters where you wanted them or did you write the chapters consecutively, therefore bouncing back and forth in time as you wrote?
Yes, it was quite challenging! And in truth, the process is a little bit of both the approaches you describe above. I planned the entire novel, bouncing back and forth, then wrote off my long plan, but of course things went awry along the way. For me, it’s important not just to write three ‘stories’ and slot them in chapter by chapter, but rather to weave the themes and events back and forth in time so that the reader feels the connections between each timeline as new characters emerge and new secrets are revealed.
Describe Grace Grey’s and Daniel McGillycuddy’s relationship in The Moon Gate?
*Spoiler alert* It’s difficult to imagine the fate of Grace Grey without the charming Daniel McGillycuddy, as it’s only when she meets him that she really comes alive. He sees something in her that everyone else (with the exception of the lovable Uncle Marcus) misses. As they get to know one another (after a bumpy start) they bond over both their love of ballads, and their shared experience of living in a place that isn’t home. Some of my favourite parts of the novel are the chapters of letters written from Daniel to Grace – that feeling of unrequited love and the sense that if these two young people don’t act soon, something special will be lost forever.
Banjo Paterson’s poetry is featured in The Moon Gate. Why have you chosen his work and how did it help in the telling of your story?
I have always loved Banjo Paterson’s work, and his poems were a huge part of my childhood. I leaned on many of these memories when I wrote The Moon Gate: like Willow, I was read Paterson’s ballads before bed, and like Uncle Marcus, my dad’s favourite poem was The Man from Ironbark. I think, for me, Banjo Paterson’s work helped me see the world in a different way, and I wanted this for Grace – for her to learn from his timeless ballads, and ultimately become a better person for doing so.
Who are your favourite female and male characters in The Moon Gate and why?
I love Grace. In the first draft of the novel she was rather more petulant, more of a Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden, and I didn’t adore her as I now do. But by the time I’d crossed that last t, I finally understood how her loveless childhood squashed her and she needed freedom to find herself. And it would be difficult for me to love a male character more than Uncle Marcus; he has a gentle, patient manner and without him I fear that Grace would never have started on her journey of self-discovery. And, of course, he adores Banjo Paterson, so I think he and I would have got along.
What surprising fact about WW2 and its effect on Australia did you learn while doing research for The Moon Gate and how did you use it in your story?
I think the most surprising ‘fact’ was this: in the novel, I suggest that during WW2 the Germans were interested in Tasmania’s Mount Lyell (Australian’s largest copper mine at the time). During war copper is a highly sought-after commodity, but my storyline was pure fiction … or so I thought. During the final stages of writing The Moon Gate I learned a story that floored me – I spoke to a friend who had been on a boat tour in Macquarie Harbour some years before and a fellow tourist, an elderly man, told the guide he knew all about the geography of the harbour on account of visiting in 1942. The man was German, and his visit was aboard a German submarine.
Name two favourite novels you’ve read this year and why you’d recommend them?
I was very lucky to receive an advance copy of Jenny Ashcroft’s The Echoes of Love primarily set in Crete during WW2. It is stunning, her writing is – as always – transporting, and she had me reaching for the tissues. I also just reread I Capture the Castle, which I highly recommend to anyone who is also a fan of old buildings, quirky characters and bohemian families!
What is the most fun thing you have done that has helped you as a writer?
Late last year I was awarded a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan. It felt very special to be writing words in a gorgeous manor house that had hosted so very many brilliant writers and I felt that a little of their inspiration had been scattered through its halls.
Are you working on a new project and can you give us a few hints about it?
I am, and I’m buzzing with excitement about it! I can’t reveal much yet, suffice to say there will be plenty of secrets and a journey that takes the reader from Occupied Norway to modern day County Kerry and beyond. I do hope fans of The Midnight House and The Moon Gate will love it!
Many thanks to Amanda for being my guest author! We wish her well on the release of her new novel The Moon Gate, a must-read inspiring story that will never leave your heart. Visit Amanda’s website for more information and to connect with her. ☘️
