Three Minute Squiz with
Vanessa McCausland
Vanessa is the author of 6 acclaimed novels, including The Last Illusion of Paige White which was named by the New York Times on its list of Best Thrillers last year. She's a former news and arts journo from Sydney who will always have a little bit of The Daily Tele in her heart. Her next novel The Heart Note is coming in February next year.
How and where do you Squiz?
I try not to get into the news or socials until the afternoon if I’ve got a day of fiction writing planned. But sometimes I take a quick Squiz over morning coffee, just to get an overview without falling into doomscrolling.
What’s been keeping you busy?
Words. I’m writing my seventh novel and preparing for my sixth, The Heart Note, a historical fiction set in the south of France, to be released in the US in December and here in February 2027.
What do you like to do in your down time?
Going for dinner with friends and/or my husband, going to the theatre, live music, reading, and going for walks in nature.
What’s something you’ve seen/read/listened to recently that you’d recommend to other Squizers?
I just saw A Room with a View at Belvoir St Theatre (in Sydney), and it was very fun, very funny. I’m loving the audiobook of Mexican Gothic to get into the Halloween spirit, and reading the sleeper hit of the northern hemisphere summer, Fruit Fly.
Give us 4 people (living or dead) at your ultimate dinner party?
Poets from across the ages. The crazier and more absurd the world becomes the more I’m convinced they’re the only ones who can save us. Poetry can express things we can’t quite grasp about our existence, and eschew absolutes, which is something I think we’re losing. So, T.S. Eliot because The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock made me fall in love with literature at high school, Emily Dickinson because it would be cool telling her about email, social media, and texting. Mary Oliver for her beautiful observations about the natural world, and Jane Hirshfield because her contemporary poetry is so poignant.
What’s been in your social feeds lately?
Kittens, medieval inspired couture and French chateaux. The algorithm is so indulgent.
What do you consider to be an overrated virtue?
Obsession with sunny weather and the heat. I have Irish and Scottish ancestry and am all about rainy days and stormy seas.
What would you say is the most overlooked news story Aussies should pay attention to?
The rise of One Nation, and the frequency of fatal shark attacks. Possibly not overlooked, but I cannot look away.
What’s one thing you would tell your younger self?
Travel. Maybe I’m romanticising backpacking in the early 2000s, but I wish I’d taken off for a few years instead of a few months. Little did we know that the kind of freedom where a person could completely disappear and disconnect and not be reliant on a device would become a relic. I probably write books to seek the same sensation.
Give us a question to pass onto the next 3 Minute Squizer…
What was the last thing that gave you tingles and/or shivers?
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