The Thorn Birds
Page 68
Time for Drogheda to stop. Yes, more than time. Let the cycle renew itself with unknown people. I did it all to myself, I have no one else to blame. And I cannot regret one single moment of it.
The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follow an immunatable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself, and die singing. At the very instant the thron enters there is no awareness in it of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it.
Colleen McCullough on…
Becoming a writer
I was too young to know how to write when I started writing—[that is to say,] in my head. Once I knew how to write with a pencil, nothing could have stopped me. I don’t think I ever thought of it as a talent to write books; I just loved to write.
Writing professionally
First, you have to enjoy writing and, after that, at least in the case of writing novels, I think most people write to supplement their incomes. I certainly started writing professionally to earn some extra money. [In terms of advice on how to become a professional writer,] try to plan your writing career so that what you produce is something a publisher thinks people will want to read. [One way to test that is to actually write the book:] I am one of those writers who writes the book before negotiating with a publisher.
What she’s like when she’s writing
I’m about the same as I always am: obsessive, nitpicking, and oblivious to the outside world.
Seeing one’s book become a film
It feels dreadful.
Where ideas come from
That is not a question I can really answer. I get an idea for a book and I go with it, but I don’t usually get the same [sort of] idea again.
A rule on works in progress
Never show what you write to the people who are closest to you.
Editing
I do most of the editing—that is, the framing of how the book is going to be and how to express it in prose. Once I have the book in late draft an editor at the publishing house takes over and edits it again. [But the editor can’t change much:] The writer of a book has to approve every change an editor suggests. Sometimes an editor has good suggestions to make; at other times the writer may not agree with the editor’s comments. In the case of the latter, then the writer wins.
The book she enjoyed writing the most and why
A Creed for the Third Millennium. I’m very concerned about the world population explosion. (I set A Creed for the Third Millennium in the U.S. because I lived there for fifteen years and I view it very well. It also suited the theme of the book to situate it in the U.S.)
An Indecent Obsession
I wrote An Indecent Obsession because I was interested in exploring a situation wherein one woman was in control of a group of men.
Not being overwhelmed by the success of The Thorn Birds
I didn’t have to “get back to writing": I never stopped writing. The only thing that I did vow was that I would never write Son of Thorn Birds—and I never have.
Research
I love doing the research and I like my facts to be correct. Provided that I am writing fiction, there is still plenty of room for a writer to use her imagination.
War
I am an old war buff. There is very little that I don’t know about the mechanics of war, whether it is war in the time of Julius Caesar or war in the twentieth century.
Identifying with characters
When writing fiction I think the writer always feels close to the main characters. For myself I always love my villains as well.
Who her favorite character is in The Thorn Birds
Father Ralph.
Why she lives where she lives
I moved to Norfolk Island [off Australia’s east coast] twenty years ago from the United States because the very few remaining members of my family were growing old and I wanted to be closer to them. I also was living on my own and wanted to continue living on my own, so I was looking for somewhere safe for a famous woman to live and that’s how I wound up on Norfolk Island.
Adapted from “A Current Affair: Live Chat with Colleen McCullough,” November 5, 1998, on the occasion of the publication of Ms. McCullough’s biography of Roden Cutler, V.C., and posted, at the time of this e-book publication (June 2003), at http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/114.asp.
About the Author
Colleen McCullough enjoys worldwide renown, and her novels are bestsellers in a multitude of languages. She is the author of Tim (1974), The Thorn Bird’s (1977), An Indecent Obsession (1981), A Creed for the Third Millennium (1985), The Ladies of Missalonghi (1987); The First Man in Rome (1990), The Grass Crown (1991), Fortune’s Favorites (1993), Caesar’s Women (1996), Caesar (1997); and Morgan’s Run (2000). She lives with her husband, Ric Robinson, on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific.
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Praise for Colleen McCullough and her beloved classic THE THORN BIRDS
“A perfect read…beautiful…gripping…The kind of book the word blockbuster was made for. It keeps you hanging till the last paragraph.”
Boston Globe
“Refreshing, addictive, infectious, and fast…A rich Proustian potpourri of times, places, and people…an old-fashioned rattling good tale.”
Time
“Exhilarating…bursting with happiness as well as pain. The novel explodes with a powerful sensitivity for human emotions.”
Pittsburgh Press
“Vastly entertaining…It has that certain something that happens only when a natural storyteller is thoroughly enjoying telling her story. It ingratiates, it holds, it lives.”
New Haven Register
“A towering saga…Try this book.”
Chicago Sun Times
“The interweaving of love stories from one generation to the next, the dramatic plotting, the sense of steadily mounting tension, the believable characterizations….are well-night irresistible”
Publishers Weekly
“A fine, long, absorbing book, with the best heart-throb since Rhett Butler.”
Pittsburgh Press
“A superb work of fiction by a born storyteller.”
King Features Syndicate
“[McCullough is] a creative colossus.”
Baltimore Sun
“I loved The Thorn Birds .”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“The Thorn Birds is one of my favorite books.”
Greensboro News & Record
“The story is superbly told. McCullough deals with the vast canvas of characters with assurance. Never for one moment does the pace flag. Never for an instant does her control fail her. There are times when you are left gasping…This is an unselfconscious blockbuster of a book. I read it with immense pleasure, enjoyed every page, and heartily recommend it as a thumping ‘good read.’”
Times of London
“There’s something for everyone in this book. Just jump in and enjoy it.”
United Press International
“A master storyteller.”
Los Angeles Times
“She writes as if to improve on life…Enjoy, Colleen, enjoy. You give pleasure with The Thorn Birds.”
New York Times Book Review
By Colleen McCullough
Tim
The Thorn Birds
An Indecent Obsession
A Creed for the Third Millennium
The Ladies of Missalonghi
Morgan’s Run
The First Man in Rome
The Grass Crown
Fortune’s Favorites
Caesar’s Women
Caesar
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any
resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A portion of this work originally appeared in Family Circle.
Verses from “Clancy of the Overflow” by A.B paterson reprinted by permission of the copyright proprietor and Angus and Robertson Publishers.
THE THORN BIRDS. Copyright © 1977 by Colleen McCullough. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
“Colleen McCullough On…” Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Colleen McCullough
EPub Edition © JUNE 2003 ISBN: 9780061807091
First Avon Books paperback printing: June 1978
06 07 08 09 10
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