Paula Xiberras
Jennifer Scoullar recently had a chat with me about her latest book ‘Turtle Reef’. The novel is the story of zoologist Zoe and her new posting at a reef centre in the small town of Kiawa. There’s romantic interest in the form of a local and intrigue on the status of the reef centre’s animal charges.
Jennifer Scoullar’s surname may be of Scandinavian origin but it derives from the German word ‘Schule’ or the English ‘school’ and so ‘Scholar’. It was used as a nickname for a person with the ability to read and write at a time when such abilities were a rarity. One famous ‘Scoullar’ was William Scoullar, ironically a professor of geology, zoology and botany (http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Scoullar).
This is fitting reference as Jennifer says she herself lives and breathes animals and is an amateur naturalist, All of her novels include Australian flora and fauna so much so that she appears (after a brief flirtation with writing a thriller) to have cornered the Australian market in environmental romance, a sub section of the burgeoning rural romance genre. Jennifer says all the authors in this genre (which are mainly women) have formed a supportive group.
That passion for Australian flora and fauna extends to Tasmania which Jennifer has high praise for calling it ‘a magnificent place’, ‘the wildest place’ and tells me that she has two finished manuscripts set in Tasmania, one deals with the historical Tasmania 100 years ago and features the Tasmanian tiger in the Styx Valley. The second book will take up where the first let off and explore the story of Tasmanian devils!
Jennifer wasn’t always a novelist or even a naturalist, Due to her academic skill and to please her mother Jennifer entered law but always at the back of her mind was the little voice telling her not to abandon her desire to be a writer.
In this novel Jennifer ponders a tragic happening that needs to be overcome before a happy ending. Jennifer says her readers are familiar with her happy endings and may not like the inclusion of a tragedy. It’s a growing problem for an author who has established an audience to move away from expectation and create new challenges. The author has obligations to their audience and publishers to continue fitting their niche. If an author does veer off course they may have to resort to a pen name for these outings and such a situation may make the author feel they are being unfaithful to their established audience.
Not only do we get a good story when reading Jennifer’s books but we also learn without realising it, so well does she weave amazing bits of information into her story.
We learn via Zoe that dolphins need to remember to breathe! and that octopuses have been given a not so generous reputation by the famous octopus in ‘20,000 leagues under the sea ‘and Ursula from ‘The Little Mermaid’, when in fact they have amazing abilities such as being able to camouflage and shape shift and the females are devoted to their young to the point of their own sacrifice.
Turtle Reef is out now published by Penguin Australia.
