Austinist Interviews Rachel Trezise

Is there a particular story in Fresh Apples that you like most or that you feel features more of your personal experience?

Well, the one I like the most is “The Joneses.” I know it’s not the best story, but it’s the first one I wrote. I’m quite emotional about it.

The frustration on the part of the kid in the story, was it cultural or more just a pent-up teenage boy who wants to get it on with an older woman?

It’s a bit of both. I think teenage angst and frustration of being in the [Rhondda] valley.

I really enjoyed the story “Merry-Go-Rounds.” So much goes unsaid...I guess I really enjoyed the understated quality of it...

It wasn’t meant to be like that. The story was really long when I started and the editor edited it down to basically nothing. To that “understated quality.”

What was it intended to be?

Just really long and egotistical. Because that’s the character I [had], which is me.

Some of the stories feature an intriguingly strange sense of fantasy. Have you or your friends ever fancied Tom Jones to be your father?

Yes. It’s well known in Wales that Tom Jones slept around quite a bit. In about 1978, in the late '70s, so I mean, all my generation of girls fantasize about Tom Jones being their father, because they’d be rich and everything. But, they wouldn’t because Tom Jones has got love-children which he’s admitted to and he won’t give any money to so it wouldn’t matter.

You’ve written a novel, with one on the way, a collection short stories, a rockumentarian memoir...is there a book of poetry in the works?

Unfortunately not, I’d love to write a book of poetry, but I can’t write poetry. I’d love to be able to...it’s my ambition.

Do you prefer a particular form? Novels, short stories...are they just tools in a toolbox, handy for the right job?

Yeah they are tools in a toolbox. I really like memoir writing, but I think short stories are my favorite.

Would you ever consider revisiting any of your stories in Fresh Apples? Beef them up into a novel?

One of the stories in there is the basis for my next novel...it’s the drug dealer one...I can’t remember what it’s called...“The Magician”!

Okay, that one was very cool. I like when the guy cracks his head open, but his friends carry on: go out to lunch; continue to party...

Darran: It was based on a true story, it did happen.

Rachel: Well, kind of, some of it’s based on reality.

D: It was a wild weekend...

R: The head-cracking thing was real.

D: He had to get shipped off to the hospital.

Did everybody continue partying...

R: Yeah!

Could you tell me a little bit about your latest book, Dial M for Merthyr?

It’s just about this Merthyr band, Midasuno, I went on tour with. It’s just basically a tour diary. They come from the same place, from the valleys, so there’s a lot of social commentary about '80s politics and Thatcherism and coal mining.

Did it get crazy?

Yeah. Slightly.

How far did the tour go?

Not very far actually. It was supposed to be a two-week tour and the bus broke down after three days. We’d just been to London and we were on our way to Manchester and the bus broke down.

You got a whole book out of it though...

D: There’s a lot of social comment in there.

R: And history.

D: It’s a tour diary, so it’s a bit more than that, it’s Rachel searching as well.

Do you enjoy any contemporary authors?

Toni Morrison I love...someone had mentioned Mary Karr earlier...I love her as well [and] that’s about it really.

What about old school stuff? Is there anyone you return to consistently?

Kerouac...The Town and the City, actually.

You guys are getting married in Las Vegas. Was there any particular reasoning behind that?

D: We were thinking about getting married back home, but there are so many complications.

R: To be honest it costs about £16,000 to get married in Britain, we paid a quarter of that for a whole month in America... also I wanted to do it on my own, with just me and Darran, because I couldn’t get my family together in one room without somebody stabbing somebody.

I’m glad to hear that it wasn’t because you wanted to be married by Elvis... I know you enjoy the rock music: do you have a preference between Guns N' Roses or Motley Crüe?

I have to say Guns N' Roses, I love Motley Crüe, but Guns N' Roses is my band.

Do you have a favorite member?

Duff McKagan. Duff is the man, I suppose it’s because it’s more punk and Motley Crüe is more glam. I like the punk attitude.

Are you listening to anything particular on your travels?

I mostly listening to Prince to be honest.

If you don’t mind my asking, how did you guys meet?

R: In a night club, about six years ago.

D: ...it was a week after the millennium...I’d seen Rachel before and asked if I could walk her home and she’d said “No.” The week after we met again and I just stood there looking at you...

R: Yeah, he didn’t even try to chat me up. He didn’t have any words, so I just said “aw sit down.”

D & R: And that was it.

When you won the Dylan Thomas Prize was it a phone call kind of moment? A dramatic letter opening?

No, I actually got spend a week before with the other short-listed authors in the same hotel. The whole week doing readings around universities and schools and things. And then at the end on Friday there was a big dinner and an announcement.

So what was that moment like?

Strange. I was just numb. I was numb for about ten minutes... I never thought they’d give it to me... there was a lot of politics around it, because two of the judges were American, one was English and the rest were Welsh. So we never thought they’d give it to a Welsh author and nobody in Wales believed they would give it [to a Welsh author]. We thought they would go for the Zimbabwean or the American.

Do you plan to have your work published in the US?

To be honest, After the prize there was a lot of interest from American companies, but they’re more interested in future work than publishing an American version of what’s already there.

You’ve been writing for over a decade now. What kind of day jobs have you endured? Do you still endure?

I had day jobs up until two years ago, since then I’ve been lucky enough to be just a writer. [But] I was sales and purchase ledger in a seatbelt factory, so a secretary basically.

Would you consider yourself to be a writer or a journalist that’s capable of writing amazing fiction?

Journalism always came first and because I couldn’t get any journalism jobs I started writing books, I suppose.

Copies of Fresh Apples can be purchased online or here in Austin at Intellectual Property, while supplies last.
Photo by Lisa Hocking on MySpace