Harris, Christine 1955-

views updated

HARRIS, Christine 1955-

PERSONAL: Born August 5, 1955, in South Australia, Australia; daughter of Glenn (a carpenter) and Martha (a homemaker; maiden name, Gallacher) Brown; married David William Harris (a writer), July 6, 1989; children: Samuel Reynolds, Jennifer Reynolds. Education: Graduated from Dover Gardens Girls' Technical High School; College of Technical and Further Education, certificate (creative writing). Hobbies and other interests: Cottage gardening, swimming, bush-walking, shi ba shi.

ADDRESSES: Office—P.O. Box 478, Mt. Barker, South Australia 5251, Australia. Agent—Lyn Tranter, Australian Literary Management, 2-A Booth St., Balmain, New South Wales 2041, Australia. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Warooka Community Hall, Warooka, Australia, caretaker, 1985-86; Jenny Piper Promotions, staff member, 1986-87; Myer Bookstore, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, sales assistant, 1990-94; writer, 1995—. Also works occasionally as a photographer, with work published in newspapers including Australian, Herald Sun, and Australian Airways magazine.

MEMBER: Australian Society of Authors, South Australian Writers' Centre, Ekidnas (children's book writers' group), Royal Geographical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Golden Gateway Literary Award; Australia Council Literature Board grant, 1991, for Trees in My Ears, and 2004; Department for Arts and Cultural Development grants, 1993, for Strike!, 1995, for Baptism of Fire; Children Rate Outstanding Writers (CROW) Awards, shortlist, 1993, for Outer Face, and 1994, for Buried Secrets; Notable Book designation, Children's Book Council, for Outer Face, Strike!, Party Animals, Baptism of Fire, and Sleeping In; KROC Award runner-up, 1996; Western Australian Young Readers Book Award shortlist, 1997, for Party Animals; ArtSA grant, 1997, for Foreign Devil; Christian Schools Award nomination, 1998, for Baptism of Fire; Aurealis Award shortlist, 2000, for Omega, and 2002, for Hairy Legs; Children's Peace Literature Award shortlist, Psychologists for the Promotion of World Peace, 2001, for Omega; South Australia Kanga Award Focus Book designation, 2003, for Jamil's Shadow.

WRITINGS:

SHORT-STORY COLLECTIONS

Outer Face, Random House (New York, NY), 1992.

Buried Secrets, Random House (New York, NY), 1993.

Widdershins, Random House (New York, NY), 1995, published as Party Animals, 1997.

(With Clare Carmichael and Margaret Clark) Deadly Friends, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

Fortune Cookies, Random House (New York, NY), 1998.

Warped, Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

NOVELS; FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Strike!, Random House (New York, NY), 1994.

Countdown, Omnibus, 1995.

Baptism of Fire, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

Pitt Man, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

Torture Chamber, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

Slime Time, Hodder (Sydney, Australia), 1997.

Foreign Devil, Random House (New York, NY), 1999.

Omega, Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

Hairy Legs, Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

Halfway 'round the World, Rigby (Orlando, FL), 2001.

Jamil's Shadow, Penguin (New York, NY), 2001.

Headspace, Penguin (New York, NY), 2004.

Author's work has been translated into French and Italian.

"SPY GIRL" SERIES; FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Secrets, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2004.

Fugitive, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2004.

Nighttime, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2005.

Danger, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2005.

"HOTSHOT" SERIES; FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Brain Drain, illustrated by Gus Gordon, Hodder Headline (Sydney, Australia), 2001.

Windbag, Hodder Headline (Sydney, Australia), 2001.

Psycho Gran, Hodder Headline (Sydney, Australia), 2001.

"VIBES" SERIES; SCIENCE-FICTION NOVELS

Suspicion, Hodder Headline (Sydney, Australia), 1998.

Masks, Hodder Headline (Sydney, Australia), 1998.

Jigsaw, Hodder Headline (Sydney, Australia), 1998.

Shadows, Hodder Headline (Sydney, Australia), 1998.

EDITOR; NONFICTION

No Bed of Roses, Wakefield Press, 1993.

Old Yanconian School Daze, Wakefield Press, 1995.

What a Line! ("History of Hills Hoists" series), Hills Industries, 1995.

In Looking-Glass Land, Seaview Press, 1996.

OTHER

Trees in My Ears: Children from around the World Talk to Christine Harris, Wakefield Press, 1992.

A Real Corpse, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

Sleeping In (picture book), illustrated by Craig Smith, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

Odd Balls: Jokes and Funny Stories, illustrated by David Mackintosh, Random House (New York, NY), 1998.

I Don't Want to Go to School (picture book), illustrated by Craig Smith, Random House (New York, NY), 1999.

The Little Book of Elephants (humor and nonfiction), Hodder Headline (Sydney, Australia), 1999.

Also author of play Break a Leg, 2001.

ADAPTATIONS: Several of Harris's short stories were adapted as the dance performance Second Hand, produced by Outlet Dance, for performance at the space theatre and in South Australian schools, 1995.

WORK IN PROGRESS: An adult nonfiction work, titled What the Hell Are We Doing Here?, with husband David William Harris; a book in the "My Story" series, titled Flying Doctor: The Diary of Jimmy Porter.

SIDELIGHTS: Australian author Christine Harris has drawn upon her highly developed imagination, as well as her skills as a writer and her sense of fun, to create a body of short stories and novels that have gained a large following in her native country. Reviewing Harris's collection Outer Face in Magpies, Kevin Steinberger maintained: "While acknowledging the established appeal of bizarre humour and ironic twists, [Harris] is also analytical, descriptive, and reflective. There is something for everyone in her . . . stories." In addition to writing fiction, Harris has also edited several volumes of short fiction, and has served as the compiler of Trees in My Ears, a collection of narrations by children living in a variety of countries. The subjects covered in the book range from family life, friendship, school, and pets to heroes and aging. Trees in My Ears "provides a quite remarkable insight into how young minds and hearts interpret and respond to life as it unfolds around them," stated Magpies contributor Cathryn Crowe.

Born in South Australia in 1955, Harris grew up with a love of books. "As a child I escaped into other worlds via the written page and pretended I was a character in the story," she commented. "I still do this, but now I write down my own versions of what that character does. For many years, it seemed to some of my relatives that I had a book welded to my hands, whatever I was doing: cooking, ironing (yes, I actually used to iron once), in the bath, and even when walking (but keeping half an eye open for potholes and vehicles)."

After graduating from an all-girls technical high school near her home, Harris knew she wanted to advance her writing skills, but living in the country limited her options. So she enrolled in a home-study course with South Australia's College of Technical and Further Education, eventually earning a certificate in their creative writing program. She worked for several years in a bookstore in Adelaide, South Australia, before the success of such short story collections as Outer Face and the young adult novel Strike! gave her the confidence to devote full-time attention to writing.

Outer Face served as a book-buyer's introduction to Harris's work. A collection of fourteen short stories, Outer Face features such selections as "Knocked Out," about a young man who finds his newly acquired ability to read minds is a mixed blessing; "Mirror Door," in which a young woman enters a ghostly dimension through a portal that opens only on Halloween; and "A Bad Year," which showcases a farming family forced to lose its stock of sheep because of a severe drought. Outer Face "announces a new talent that will find a comfortable place" in the children's short story genre, noted Magpies reviewer Steinberger.

The short stories in the collection Buried Secrets help to establish a Harris trademark: each features a likeable teen protagonist, a slightly off-beat problem, and a dash of bizarre humor. Here the author introduces a wide variety of new characters, including a boy who sees through people's clothes, a woman who takes on the personality of the ruthless Black Widow spider, and even a young man who suspects his date of being a horrible monster. Praising the volume as being suitable for even reluctant teen readers, Magpies contributor Alf Mappin called Buried Secrets entertaining and asserted that "Harris's style, with its lightness and, one suspects, tongue-in-cheek attitude to what is being related, works well."

While Harris does write for her young readers with an eye toward entertainment, she occasionally uses her writing to make a point. "Sometimes I feel strongly about something and want to highlight a message through the medium of a story," Harris once explained. "Among the themes I have chosen are freedom of thought (Baptism of Fire), loyalty (Strike!), [and] communication and understanding of other cultures (Fortune Cookies)."

When she is writing, Harris becomes completely absorbed in her fictional world to the point that she even dreams about her characters. "For example, when I was halfway through writing Baptism of Fire, I was about to write a scene involving a fire when I dreamt the fire. I heard the crackle of flames on the thatched Fijian roofs, felt the heat and smelt the smoke. When I woke, I was sure that I could still smell smoke. I went straight to the computer and wrote that scene in one passionate sitting."

Harris frequently suffers from insomnia, so a great deal of her writing is accomplished during sleepless nights, particularly in the quiet hours between midnight and 3 a.m. "But on days when I write in daylight hours, I clean up, get dressed, and switch on the computer by 9 a.m., just as if I was going out to an office to work," Harris explained.

Having become familiar with many of the books available to young readers through her work in a local bookstore, Harris maintains that a great deal of quality writing exists for young readers. "And that's good," she related, "because we compete with television, the Internet, computer games, sport and all the other activities that fill and enrich children's lives. But [writers] have to be good, entertaining, and thought-provoking if we are to keep a place for books."

What is Harris's advice to young students thinking about becoming writers someday? "I would say read, read, and then read some more. Don't give up. It is not always the best writers who are published. Sometimes, it is the most determined. Train yourself to be observant, keep instincts. Keep your eye on market trends and listen to readers when they speak about the kinds of stories they like to read. Make time. Follow your heart. And be prepared to rewrite, take advice and keep polishing until the story is the best it can be. And hope for a bit of luck."