My Interview With…Joyce Efia Harmer

Joyce Efia Harmer

Welcome to my interview with Joyce based on her brilliant book: How far we’ve Come. Thank you so much to Joyce for taking the time to answering my questions. I realised I asked quite a lot!

1: If you could go anywhere in history in a time machine where would you go? If I could go anywhere in history in a time machine I would want to go a hundred years into the future London. Like Obah, in my novel, I’d love to be propelled into a new, futuristic world. I’m curious about the technological advances and I hope there’d be a cure for cancer and people living longer with better health, but I would also want to see how our human relations have developed. Would we have robots as companions instead of each other? How much of an impact would AI be across our lives and our decision-making autonomy?

2: Why did you choose to not really explain how the journey through time worked in the story, were you afraid of the science fiction genre label? This is such a great question! The time-travel in How Far We’ve Come works through the device of a family heirloom that has magical properties, the pomander, it’s a kind of metal ball that women used back in the 18th and 19th centuries and often filled with smelling salts. I liked the idea of this heirloom being inherited and passed down through generations, a physical emblem of the psychological legacy of slavery and how it is hard if not impossible to shake it off. For me, the device was to help propel the story from one sphere to another. I’m not opposed to the science-fiction label at all, but my story is less about the science and more about the emotive substance of how Obah exists in one place to the next.

3: Do you have any writing routines? I do! I like to write in the afternoon after a bit of exercise and strong coffee to get my brain going. I need a quiet place and I use white noise on headphones to place me into a netherworld zone – slightly out of reality. I cannot write if there’s music of any kind in the background. Also, I find if I set myself timers and word targets for the day that helps me stick to the writing even when it’s hard!

4: Do you think humanity will improve its social constructs within your lifetime? Actually, this is a tough one. But I’m an optimist and I hope so. There’s so many wonderful things that we’ve achieved as a human nation that I’m proud of and I know we’re intelligent beings, so it really is possible that we can overcome our differences and move towards a united outlook. I really feel that the more we explore outer space and look back down at the earth from afar, noting that it’s just one planet, the more we’ll begin to see ourselves as one people with more in common than we think.

5: Did you find writing parts of the story hard, as you deal with some very nasty characters? Yes, there are some nasty characters in my story and there were a few scenes that brought me to tears as I was writing them. But that’s a good thing, I want readers to feel that strong sense of injustice so that they can fight against all forms of prejudice and the way to do that is to be true in showing just what humans can do to each other.

6: How do you construct your story arc (are you a planner or a plodder)? I normally start off without an initial plan and just see where the character wants to take the story. This only works for the initial stages though, I find I write much more efficiently when I’ve mapped out an outline of how the story arc develops and then I try to be even more specific with mapping out an important incident for each chapter that I want to happen. Lots will change from draft to draft, but this works well for me as a general rule.

7: How would you like teachers to use your book in the classroom? It would be a dream to see teachers use my book in the classroom as a reader and to discuss and empathise with the main character Obah. I’d love for them to imagine how it might be to be so disenfranchised in her world. Can they imagine life in the future? Can they write stories based on my story as a springboard? I’d love them to use the book as a catalyst for debates and conversations around the legacy of slavery – are we responsible for the actions of our past ancestors? How can we learn from our past and not repeat the mistakes we made? Is economic wealth more important than family connections? What is family? There are so many questions!

8: If you weren’t a writer, what job would you have? Writing is absolutely my dream job. I’m very fortunate to be able to live my dream. My other dream would be to combine my love of writing with food – I’d love to be a food critic – trying food in different restaurants around the world and writing reviews – wow, now that would be incredible!

9: Are there any books already published, that you wish you had written? Goodness me! Where to begin. I loved the adult book Yellowface by RF Kuang which I’ve just finished and I thought was a masterpiece. In terms of children’s literature, I wish I had written The Twits by Roald Dahl which is a long-standing comedy favourite of mine.

10: What was journey like from idea to published book? The journey from idea to printed book took several years and many drafts. I think this is normal. For me there was a spark of an idea in terms of the protagonist who I imagined fully formed, but working out her mission and who would accompany her on her journey took many drafts to establish and be printed.

11: Who inspired you to write? My writing inspirations are numerous. I read English at university and I loved Jane Austen and the Brontes, Chaucer and Shakespeare. I loved Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Ursula K. Le Guin. I just love a great story. For children’s and YA literature, I think that Diana Wynne Jones, Liz Kessler, Louise O’Neil and Marcus Sedgwick are geniuses.

12: Whats next for you as a published author? Right now, I’m working on the edits to my second novel! After that’s finished I’ll keep on writing and I’m hoping to bring many more of the stories in my head to life on the page.