Anaïs Nin story short-listed for competition

The Slave of Bracelets story about Anaïs Nin, from my novel Nights in Paris, has been shortlisted for The Sunday Star Times writing competition — hooray!

The local paper rang me up for a phone interview while I was at work, luckily on my mobile, so I ran to hide in the photocopier room so no one would hear me! A few hours later, a photographer came to take a picture, something that always embarasses me. I had to pose on the street for him, with people walking by, which made me feel even sillier. The sun was in my eyes, so I was squinting, and it was really windy, so you can imagine how wild my hair was, which is uncontrollable, even at the best of times ….. but despite it all the photographer was very nice so it wasn’t too traumatic. Here is the article:

Storyteller Sarah’s Historic Fascination

A love of books and a fascination with history inspired Mt Victoria writer Sarah Letellier’s short story ‘The Slave of Bracelets’. Letellier is a finalist in the prestigious Sunday Star Times open division short story competition. She says ‘The Slave of Bracelets’ is actually an adapted chapter from the novel she is writing. It is about the French writer Anaïs Nin. “She is one of my favourite writers. I love writing and reading about her life.”

Letellier has already written one novel, which is set in two different times – the present and the 1930s. She says her stories often require a lot of historical research. “My first novel is about identity and history and how history affects us today.”

This is the first year Letellier has entered the competition, but she is no stranger to accolades. A few years ago she won first prize for prose in the Waterstones National Writing Competition in England, again for a short story. Plus her short story, The Taste of Marrah, was published in a New Zealand/Australian short story anthology called ‘Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love’.

At the moment Letellier fits in writing around her day-job as an editorial advisor, but eventually she would like to write full-time. “It’s my dream job,” she says.

(I meant that writing full-time would be my dream job, not editing!) I didn’t think I had answered the journalist’s questions very well, so I was pleasantly relieved by the end result. A friend read the article and rang me up to ask me why I hadn’t mentioned my blog? Oh, er, yeah, good idea… I was so flustered that it went totally out of my head. Maybe if I don’t hide in the photocopier room next time, I’ll be able to focus!

I must admit that I love my title for the short story; it’s taken from one of Anais Nin’s diaries, when she refers to herself as “the slave of bracelets” — she loved her jewellery! She also refers to herself as admiring jewels like “a fascinated savage”. I adore that too, taken in the context of the time, but of course 75 years later the meaning has ugly implications. I have also wondered about using the word “slave”, and have taken myself to task over it, but I decided to go with it, as it does have an emotional meaning as well as its literal one. I don’t like weighty words being used lightly (the way that “holocaust” and “nazi” are used today), but I think it’s important to try not to judge previous eras by our own standards. Colette has a few anti-semitic slip-ups in her early works which I could be horrified by, but that was the attitude of the time. She regretted it later, and I don’t hold it against her — she will always be one of my beloved favourites.

I’m reading her biography now (I’m reading different ones, I think this is the 4th) as research for my current “Colette” story. I am so impatient to start writing, but at the same time I don’t feel quite ready to let go of Anaïs just yet. So I will leave her for now, but the story about the slave of bracelets may yet continue…