December, 2023.

I am an image-maker. I’ve written screenplays, directed short films, made art and devised installations, but now I make images through words and what lies hidden beneath them. I write every minute I can. If I didn’t write, it would feel as if I’ve lost something, as if I’m searching behind doors, in cupboards and in the street to find it again.

The working title of my novel-in-progress is Unspooled. In this contemporary literary novel, the main character, Nat, discovers her mother had a relationship with an Iranian man, Aria, and the timing indicates he could be her biological father. Her preoccupation with the search for Aria creates conflict with partner, Francesca, and Nat fears losing both Francesca and their three-year-old daughter, Elly. Thank you to all those in the Iranian community who’ve read parts of the novel or given me valuable advice.

After five years, I know Nat and Francesca as if I’ve been catching up for coffee every day for years. Nat, is me and not me. Nat and I are both lesbians and artists, but I have never had an Italian lover. Nat’s father is not my father. Her mother is not my mother. I have never had my own child though I have been close to children and know what it is like to lose them.

The settings in the novel range from an old weatherboard house in Coburg, Melbourne, to the canals and winding lanes of Venice, to the beauty and danger of Isfahan, Iran. In May, 2023, I did more research for my novel in Venice as I wandered the Venetian calli; visited the museum Punta Della Dogana; and imagined Elly skipping along a canal, unaware of what is about to happen.