By Gabriella Vukman
Coming up in February, new local author Kylie Orr will launch her second novel ‘The Eleventh floor’ at the Miller’s Homestead.
Having achieved great success with her first novel, Kylie has chosen to share her work with her local community in her own stomping ground.
This free event, though fully booked out within one week of opening, will surely pose a spectacle for Hills library-goers and bookworms alike.
Author of ‘The Eleventh Floor,’ Orr said, “I want to celebrate my new novel with the people who showed such kind support of me in the Hills and also, Miller’s Homestead is beautiful”.
“I would live there if they let me. It’s such a gorgeous setting.”
Orr described considering multiple book launch options.
“I had lots of different ideas – should I find a bar that’s on the 11th floor and launch the book from there, seeing as a significant portion of the book takes place in a hotel?”
“I really wanted to celebrate and thank local people for supporting my book by having the launch somewhere locally so that we could also celebrate where we live because it’s beautiful.”
The launch at Miller’s Homestead is scheduled to kick off at 2pm on Saturday 3 February.
Orr is a down-to-earth mother of four with a wry sense of humour; albeit her books are not dedicated to the comedy section.
Encompassing a range of trying topics and spinning webs of dark, contemporary fiction, Orr’s new book tackles the challenges of parenthood, the expectations on new mothers, all with a twisted thrill and sprinkle of crime.
The novel’s synopsis focuses on ‘struggling’ first-time-mum, Gracie who books a night away from her family at the Maxwell Hotel.
Awaking in an unfamiliar room, a thrilling turn of events sees Gracie “trapped in a maze of lies”, involved in a crime and gripping onto the threads of her marriage and the safety of her baby.
Oor said her inspiration, whilst “certainly not biographical”, was seeded from her own four children.
“All of them were terrible sleepers and I used to dream of just having one night off, by myself in a hotel where I wasn’t responsible for anyone else and I could just sleep,” she said.
“I took this seed and asked ‘what if something terrible happened to Gracie on that night in the hotel?’
“What if she woke up in another man’s room and she can’t remember how she got there?”
“What if she witnessed a crime, but she can’t report the crime because she’s in someone else’s room?’”
Themes Kylie aimed to tackle in ‘The Eleventh Floor’ also touch on postnatal depression and the social expectations placed on women to, as Orr said, “love every minute of motherhood”.
According to Orr, there is a “pretty strong commentary” on how women are perceived in society in the book.
“Even though I didn’t suffer from postnatal depression, I was around lots of people who did and it’s just a really stressful, dark time for many women and I wanted to write something to show that it’s okay to not enjoy new motherhood because it is a massive shift and identity change,” she said.
“I was always very career-oriented and a nerdy perfectionist, but that didn’t change the fact that my babies would not sleep no matter how hard I tried.
“I found that a massive shock to my system because what I understood was that when you work hard at some things you get a result and that doesn’t work with babies.”
Orr expressed the wholesome and supportive role that the Hills community played in her journey as an author, even for her debut novel, ‘Someone Else’s Child’, which also reflects her commitment to ‘dark’ and ‘twisty’ contemporary fiction.
“I think it’s always nerve-wracking putting out a book. You don’t know how people are going to receive it,” she said.
“I actually loved sharing my first novel with my community and because locals in this area were so supportive of my first book, I have deliberately decided to launch my second at Miller’s Homestead because I just wanted to thank and celebrate the community that we have that are so good at supporting each other.”
Orr noted that the Belgrave Book Barn has been an excellent support to her over the years.
“I actually had some children’s books come out way back in 2017 and had to do that awkward, walk into the bookshop and say “Hi, I’m a local author and here are some books I wrote, would you like to stock them?””
“It’s great to support local authors but also independent book shops when you can because if you don’t buy books from them, they wont exist.”
Describing her first novel as more of a ‘slow burn’, Orr noted that divergently, ‘The Eleventh Floor’ “will hook readers right from the start”.
“I feel like readers will be right in the action for this one so it is a little bit different to my first novel in that sense,” Orr said.
When it comes to writer’s block, Orr reaches to the nature-rich environment of the hills for inspiration and rejuvenation; sometimes leaving her desk to walk among the trees and allow her brain space to wander.
“For me I treat writing like a job because it is a job. As soon as my kids go to school, I sit at my desk and I try to write,” she said.
“If I have days where it’s not flowing I will do something else related to writing that uses a different part of my brain.
“I might go back and edit a chapter which is more structured rather than trying to conjure creativity when it’s not there.”
Orr’s tips for up and coming writers are to join writing groups or complete short courses.
“I went to a writer’s group at Belgrave Library years ago and those women were a huge support for me,” she said.
“They’d read sections of my writing and give feedback and that feedback is really valuable.
“I also did a local competition years ago up here in the hills and I think I came third and I was so excited that someone else thought my writing had merit because otherwise you are just sitting at home at your desktop and maybe you get friends and family to read what you’ve written and they say ‘yeah that’s good,’ but are they going to say that anyway?”
Whilst a novel based in the Hills region is not yet on the plans for Orr, her experience growing up in Monbulk and living in different areas in and around the Dandenongs has influenced her writing.
“My first novel, ‘Someone Else’s Child’ was set in country NSW but it relied heavily on the idea of supportive community and that’s exactly what we have here in the hills so I drew a lot on those traits of the community from my own lived experience here in the hills, and just applied it to my own, fictional destination.
“I think that we have a very unique community up here.
“We really celebrate creatives in all their forms and I think it’s just a really beautiful place to live and when I sit and look out my window, at the trees and the view and listen to the birds, I feel like I am amongst my people.”
“I love living in a community where creative arts are celebrated.”
For some bookish chats and a cover signing, Orr is also celebrating her second book launch with Dymocks at Knox City in a ‘Books in Bars’ style event on Thursday 8 February.
The event commences at 6.30pm at Urban Alley Brewery in Knox.
Orr emphasised the need to support locals.
“All big authors have to start off small somewhere, so those who are looking for new authors, have a chat to local bookshop owners who can often recommend new works by local writers,” she said.
For more information on this and other Knox Library events visit the Your Libraries events page at yourlibrary.com.au/whats-on/
To support local author Kylie Orr’s appearance at Books in Bars, head to eventbrite.com.au/e/books-in-bars-with-kylie-orr-tickets-796482028187
