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Featured in: Highlighting Australia
As a proudly Australian initiative, we’re excited to showcase a collection of Australian stories, music, tributes and more.n,
Queensland author Tahirih Lemon has penned a new book! I’ve loved hearing from Tahirih over the years about her junior youth series The Independent Investigator, her novel for that same audience about life’s big questions called Aalia’s Guardian Angel, and her children’s book titled Signs of God’s Love.
In this interview, we focus on her latest publication: a novel for young adults featuring a dash of historical fiction, and a protagonist who is coming of age and trying to find herself by becoming a junior youth animator.
I am very much in awe of Tahirih’s writing talent and her dedication to the craft–a dedication that led to her even adopting a dog! Curious? Read on!
Can you please tell us a little bit about Soul Travelling?
The protagonist is a fifteen-year-old girl, Sari, who while negotiating her senior years of high school with her two best friends, discovers she can travel into the past when holding something with a strong connection to that time and place. Together with scientific Raj and open-minded Shingo, she tries to work out what is happening and why.
Sari starts to worry that she doesn’t have “a spark”. What’s her talent? Or life’s purpose? She agrees to join Shingo to train as a junior youth animator as a way of finding her spark.
Encouraged by her friends, Sari confides in her mother about her episodes. A doctor’s appointment leads to further referrals and appointments in search of a diagnosis.
A contemporary coming-of-age fiction YA novel about friendship, grief and loss, and identity. It contains spiritual concepts and scientific facts, blended with some historical fiction and a dash of fantasy.
What inspired you to write this YA novel?
Writing the novella, Aalia’s Guardian Angel, was quite an achievement for me. I never saw myself writing a novel; however, a comment made by a close Baha’i friend’s son, who was around 11-12 at the time always stayed with me and kept niggling away. You see, Soul Travelling, is based on the three characters I wrote about in the short story, Three’s Not a Crowd. I really liked those three characters and their philosophical conversations. My friend was amazed that her son, diagnosed with ADHD, read the short story approximately 10,000 words in one sitting. Afterwards, he commented, “It’s really interesting, but I wish there was more…more happened.” I reworked some of the earlier chapters, added more layers to it, and made Sari and her friends three years older.
I wanted to write a YA novel that young people would want to read. It was a balancing act trying to emulate what is traditionally published, with something that was more than merely Baha’i-inspired, incorporating conversations and situations teenage Baha’is could relate to and may encourage them to share their beliefs with their friends.
Who is its audience?
Young people aged 12 – 16 years.
What’s something you’ve learned in the process of making this book that was different from your other books?
I write a variety of genres and the process of writing each of these has been different. I enrolled in a short online self-paced course through the Australian Writers Centre: Writing Young Adult Fiction, although granted, towards the end of my novel…more to reassure myself I was staying true to the YA fiction genre.
I’m getting better at listening to my intuition, so much so I’d say I was a pantser, “flying by the seat of my pants”, from beginning to end. I had a lot of fun writing the novel. It was like an adventure never knowing what was going to happen next until I sat down at my desk and started typing. Those who aren’t writers don’t understand how you can not know what you are going to write, when you are the one writing it.
I’ve probably learned to be more patient and not “release” the story into the world until I was happy with it. I didn’t like where the story ended, so I didn’t touch it for about six months, hoping for inspiration. Then one day I was reading a library book and noticed the last chapter was titled, Six Months Later. I had a light bulb moment and decided to write an additional chapter, One Year Later. I was much happier and ready to publish after a final edit.
What is some advice you’d give to anyone pursuing Baha’i-inspired creative writing?
Incorporate into your writing practice prayer and meditation before writing. Trust your intuition. If you can try to have a couple of beta readers who are the age of your targeted audience – no easy feat at times, but helpful.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and try something new. Write what you would like to read, or in my case read when I was younger, much younger.
To be honest at the beginning of this year, I told my husband, “Soul Travelling will be the last book I write. I don’t have any new ideas or urges to write anymore. What I have written to date is my contribution to an increasing range of books for not only young Baha’is but their friends, and peers.” Bahaʼu’llah obviously has other plans for me, because at 4:00 am the next morning, I woke up with an idea for a new children’s picture book and a new YA novel.
Side Note: When researching for your novel or writing project try not to “fall down the rabbit’s hole”, or in my case get a dog. The protagonist Sari, volunteers at an animal shelter for rescue dogs, two Saturdays a month. While researching what breed of dog she could adopt, I ended up convincing my husband that we should adopt a dog. However, since we have a lot of young children regularly visiting or staying, we wanted a dog that we could raise ourselves that had the right temperament, so we bought a puppy. It now feels as if we have a two-year old living with us, who is never going to grow up.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Tahirih! Congratulations on publishing this novel and I wish you all the best with your new writing adventures!
You can buy Soul Travelling directly from Bahaibooks.com.au in Australia, Bahaibookstore.com in the United States, and find out more purchasing information from Tahirih’s website.
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