ArtView May 2015 | Page 13

and “unremarkable”, the world doesn‟t necessarily
offer up multiple love triangles of hot boys. I‟m
interested in telling it like it is. And it‟s not pretty,
but it‟s hopefully, real. When I was young, I felt
desperately sad and angry and powerless because I
couldn‟t say or do anything about the terrible things
that happen to women in the world. But writing has
given me a forum to express the kind of “feminism”
I believe in, and to express my outrage at the things
that are done to women, and to take a small stand
against the standard fictional female heroine that
girls are often presented with.
I try to write in such a way that my reader is
almost forced to walk in the heroine‟s shoes. For the
most part I favour the first person, present tense, to
enable the reader to feel a growing sense of unease
exactly when the heroine does; to feel a sense of
empathy and immediacy and solidarity; to hope for
her, and want for her, the things you would want for
yourself: warmth, love, safe harbour.

And why all the “paranormal”? How is that
“real”? Well, my view is that injecting an element
of the paranormal into my storylines sets
ourhumanity in stark relief. Something that Michael
Ende himself does in The Neverending Story. I can
explore what it means to be human: to love, to
grieve, to feel and react, against a backdrop of
unease, or otherworldliness. I can test the
boundaries of my characters‟ humanity and
strengths against the unknown. And we, as readers,
love paranormal storylines. We want to believe in
the extraordinary, and that the extraordinary is
possible, and that magic is still alive and exists in
the world. It makes the act of living bearable to
think that there could be “something else” besides
us out there. It‟s why The Neverending Story spoke
to me so strongly all those years ago: heroes can
make mistakes, slight girls can rule empires, every
single creature in creation — no matter their shape,
colour or species — has a part to play in the story,
making the world that much richer.
©Rebecca Lim March 2015

Rebecca Lim is a writer and illustrator based in
Melbourne, Australia. She worked as a commercial
lawyer for several years before leaving to write full
time. Rebecca is the author of sixteen books for
children and young adult readers, most recently The
Astrologer’s Daughter (Text Publishing). Her
novels have been translated into German, French,
Turkish, Portuguese and Polish.

The Astrologer’s Daughter has just been shortlisted in the YA category of the 2014 Aurealis
Awards and long-listed for the 2015 Gold Inky
Award.
Find out more at:
www.textpublishing.com.au/books/theastrologer-s-daughter
An extract from The Astrologer’s Daughter
follows.