Interview: Stella Duffy, author, playwright, improviser and performer

Stella's blog website

Stella Duffy is the author of seven literary novels including her latest, ‘Theodora, Actress, Empress, Whore’. Two of her other novels, ‘The Room of Lost Things’ and ‘State of Happiness’ were both long-listed for the Orange Prize.

Stella talks to Planet London about the importance of keeping going, Buddhism, getting to grips with social media and support from her mother and partner in the recipe for her success as an author, playwright, improviser and performer. 

Stella has also written the five novels that comprise the Saz Martin crime series; eight plays; and over forty short stories, winning the 2002 CWA Short Story Dagger and Stonewall Writer of the Year in 2008 and 2010 respectively. In addition to her writing work she is an actor and theatre director. She wrote and presented the BBC4 documentary How to Write a Mills and Boon and has reviewed for The Review Show (BBC2) and written articles for most major newspapers in the UK.

Stella began her career writing theatre pieces for performance at school and university, although at the time she did not consider herself a writer. In fact she didn’t feel like someone from her background (the youngest of seven in a working family) could be a writer. 

In 1986 she returned to her native London after growing up in New Zealand and here she learned to write whilst working in improvisation - these days she teaches improvisation for writers as a way into story telling - and out of that experience she wrote and sold her first ‘book’ Calendar Girl (1994). However, Stella warns “it wasn’t as easy as it sounds”. It took years of trying, working extra jobs to pay the bills, and a whole lot of perseverance.  

We asked Stella where she turned to for support, and her first words of advice were to dig down into that inner strength and to “keep going through the rejection, keep going through the dejection, keep going through the early acceptances, and all the whilst you think you have not achieved success”.  Rejections could be for many reasons; lots of great pieces of work do not get published or picked up if they are not fashionable at the time; it could also be because of how you are measuring success. Stella describes herself as a “jobbing writer who gets paid to do what she likes doing” rather than a successful author (and a successful author she is, in our opinion).

Stella’s practice and belief of Buddhism has provided support during some of the major challenges and alongside meditating twice a day, it helps her acknowledge what’s really important and face the challenges freelance work brings. Stella chants twice a day, in the morning and evening, and this gives her the regularity and discipline she misses out on not working in a 9-5 role. She says that it helps her escape the day to day worries and access another part of herself, the creativity; and is a reminder that “we are more than our work”.

The people Stella refers to as giving her emotional and practical support are her mother and long-term partner. Her mother, who passed away 8 years ago, gave emotional support and “understood” why Stella chose the creative path, and that her life was going to take a different direction from that of her six siblings. Her long term partner (now wife) Shelley Silas who is also writer and understands the life, has been a “huge bonus”.

Stella is now in a position where she thoroughly enjoys her career. She works with people she likes (of course, she didn’t know these people twenty years ago). In particular, Stella likes the opportunity to work with a wide range of people of all ages. She sees this as beneficial on both sides; to learn from them all and to give something in return. She thrives on the choices that being freelance offers, and the thrill of not always knowing what’s next. 

It has been challenging at times, especially when Stella had breast cancer a few years ago and didn’t have the luxury of sick pay, so she had to keep working whilst ill. But she “loves work, and working, and doing work” even when she’s not being paid, and she is always in the midst of several projects at any one time. 

Stella is looking forward to what the next decade will bring and the freedom of accepting success isn’t about having to achieve a certain something by a certain age. 

The mantra of “Keeping going” still rings true and is used to overcome new challenges, such as adopting social media which was “scary at first” but working for Stella now as a great way to communicate, campaign and connect with people. Stella’s blog and twitter are great examples of how work, social interest and socialising can come together.

Stella has a large number of successes to be proud of, just take a look at her biography. But success for Stella is about more than the work achievements. Being known and acknowledged as a campaigner and advocate for gay rights, for example, placing high on this year’s Time Out Pride Power list, is just as important. 

Stella is also a fantastic motivator and supporter of writers and gay people, which you can see in her blog responses, as well as being a long-time activist who is proud to have given support to Stonewall and gay-positive campaigns. 

But, she notes that there’s still lots of work to be done there; we still need messages about helping people coming out and helping people who are gay at different stages in their lives, such as care homes that are accessible for older gay people.
And of course, there’s her 21 year relationship which still flowers. And Stella mentions her garden with glee; she is growing lovely things like courgettes. 

The books aren’t all there is, but there is pride as she talks of Theodora – “one of my best, and well received”, and its potential to break the American market for her. The future holds a number of possibilities; the anticipated sequel to Theodora, film projects, theatre projects seeking funding and ideas for more novels. Not too much is set in stone, but there is excitement at all the possibilities. 

Review by Katie

Up and coming interviews: Olivia, My Urban Pad

Olivia, My Urban Pad
website

Olivia Finn established My Urban Pad, which specialises in residential property refurbishments throughout London, in 2008 after working for another London based residential refurbishment company. She had been working in the industry for the previous five years and wanted to try going it alone. 

Olivia says “I didn’t want My Urban Pad to be one of the burley, macho building companies that litter the market as I think there is a huge amount of people that find these intimidating. 

I had noticed when speaking to potential female, gay and elderly clients that they were dubious about letting builders into their homes due to the macho nature that usually surrounds the industry. I had even been told by one previous client that although she was the bread winner and the decision maker in the family the builders originally quoting for her simply ignored her in meetings and spoke to her husband.

Our basic aim is to make the refurbishment process as pain free to the client as possible.

I also want our clients to feel that they and their homes are being treated with the upmost respect.”

Olivia offers some advice to business start ups, “When you are a small company working on a small budget you rally in as many people as you can to help!” and tells us that she was able to draw on the support from her artistic family who helped design logos, brochures and flyers and of course the much needed on-going mental support of family and friends, but that otherwise the business success us due to putting in the hard work required when going it alone. 

She says “Every day is a challenge as you have to be on the ball all the time and on the hunt for new work especially in the economic climate we are currently in. I started the business just before the recession and I won’t lie that it hasn't been hard, it has!” 

Also, "You also have to deal with everyone thinking they are a DIY and building expert, telling the team what to do and how to do it even though they don’t have a clue. You can give advice until you are blue in the face but if a client wants to do it their way you just let them…..and then they ask you to come back and do it your way!! Also finding the perfect team is so tough. Thankfully I have a wonderful site manager that I can fully rely on."

Olivia describes the job satisfaction she gets working for herself, that makes the hard work worth while “I love seeing the client at the end of a successful project. It sounds corny but when you have someone tell you that you have just built their dream bathroom and they just want to shower all day it’s great! All the team get together and have a group photo especially after a big project. They are tiring and sometimes stressful but everybody on site loves it when you know the place looks great. Each project that runs well and finishes with all parties being happy is a success.”

Looking forward, Olivia’s plans for My Urban Pad are clear, "The long term goal is to be solely working on our own portfolio but until that day we are going to keep doing what we do and get more teams out in London."

Up and coming interviews: Debbie, inventor of the Frog BracKit

Britain’s Next Big Thing – Debbie Evershed, BracKit
website

Debbie Evershed, inventor of the Frog BracKit, creative designer and engineer, and contender for Britain’s Next Big Thing, tells us how being a co-parent and patience were crucial factors in the creation of her award winning product which is now sold in Habitat and online.

Debbie says, “The idea of the Frog BracKit came about 11 yrs ago when I worked as a carpenter and was setting up a re-claimed wood centre, and I also had to look my daughter who was about 8 months old at the time. I put her in a baby bouncer that usually hangs from the door frame, but instead, I tied it to rafters and hung loads of toys around. She loved it and soon I was rigging it up in parks and the garden.” This practical solution, alongside Debbie’s love of design and her drive to take things forward, led to the exploration of the multi hanging Frog BracKit. Debbie says “I had to do it. The burning question for me was to know if I could do my dream job in design, risk all in the process just to know, and to live without the regret of never trying!”

It took a few years to get the design and development of the BracKit up and running – as a more versatile garden product eventually, rather than a baby bouncer hanger, and in the meantime Debbie learned about CAD, design, Manufacturing, finance, packaging shipping duty, VAT and a million other things. Then one day, the first delivery of the BracKits arrived. 

Since then The Frog BracKit has won a platinum award at the British Invention show (2008) and been featured on Britain's Next Big Thing on BBC as well as selling successfully despite the current economic climate. Debbie points out “It is a slow and expensive process though, I made tons of mistakes!” What has supported Debbie throughout the process has been “Friends who have invested cash and skills, which I couldn't have done without, and Business Link.”

Debbie really enjoys the design and developing ideas aspect of the business, and can’t wait to do more of that. Once the setting up of the business is fully established, Debbie hopes to be able to hand over the day to day stuff over to her business partner, and concentrate on the designs. She says, “I love working for myself, and paying myself, when we do well!”

The plans for the future of bracket include selling through Homebase who are interested in doing a test run in 50 of their shops next spring, can't wait for that, and getting established in the market so Debbie can start developing all her other designs! The Frog BracKit has also brought out other aspects of Debbie’s creativity, she says “I also love writing and have started some children's stories”.