Sticks and Stones Interview

Sticks and Stones

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.

Maddie blinked, fracturing the memories - all the sticks and stones that littered her past. She had thought the women in the support group might help her, but it seemed they were worlds apart. She knew what Jake would say - sad, sorry bunch of females... drowning in bitterness and the inability to move on. And she felt relieved that she didn't belong.

But she had been wrong about so much lately. Wrong to think that everything was over, wrong to think that the law would protect her, and wrong to think that after six long years she could finally drop her guard and enjoy family life free of fear.
Because Jake's found them. And he's taken the children. And he's going to make Maddie pay.

Following the success of Broken; Sticks and Stones is a powerful, eye-opening and thought-provoking drama of the aftermath of a marriage breakdown and one woman's courageous struggle through the family law system.

Why I wrote Sticks & Stones by Ilsa Evans
"Early last year, in a case that shocked the country, a small girl was dropped off the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne by her father. For a brief period of time attention was focused on the flaws within the family law system and a few months later I attended the Melbourne arm of a nationwide rally calling for reform. Where the primary focus of the courts should be the safety of children, rather than 'time-spent' with either parent. During the morning I stood at one end of a makeshift washing line holding an array of little pieces of clothing, each one representing a child's life lost and each one red, to symbolise the blood spilt. And while I stood there, trying not to lose myself amongst the sheer number of little red flags, I listened to a woman, her voice breaking; tell how she fought the courts to retrieve her two toddlers from a violent ex-husband, only to have him smother them when she won. It seemed incredible that that these things could happen, in this place and in this time. And in that moment sticks and stones was born.

But to tell the story I needed a character and, fortunately for me, I had one who had been knocking on my door for the past few years. And, to be honest, annoying the hell out of me. She first appeared in a book I wrote in 2007, Broken, and in retrospect I think I did her a disservice by leaving her fate hanging in the air. So it seemed serendipitous that I simply open the door and invite her back in, so that together we could finish her story. Maddie's story. Embedding it within the one I wanted to tell and giving her closure. It was to be the story of a woman who thought she had left her abusive past behind, only to find it had never really left. A story I know through personal experience as well as through talking to hundreds of women who have trodden the same path. Each of them believing that they are walking alone. But a funny thing happened after I started writing, with my original ideas giving way to something rather different than I intended. Perhaps that was Maddie's influence, insisting that I compromise. Perhaps, after all she'd been through, she needed some control. And she was right. -Ilsa Evans, June 2010.

Ilsa Evans lives in a partially renovated house in the Dandenongs, east of Melbourne. She has completed a PhD at Monash University on the long-term effects of domestic violence and writes fiction on the weekends. Sticks and Stones is her seventh novel.

Sticks and Stones
Pan MacMillan
Author: Ilsa Evans
ISBN: 9781405039925
Price: $32.99

Interview with Ilsa Evans

Question: How did you come up with the idea for Sticks and Stones?

Ilsa Evans: I'd been percolating the idea for this book for some time but then last year, in the wake of several tragedies framed by problematic child custody/access issues, I got involved in a national rally calling for changes in the family court. Women stood up and told the most gut-wrenching stories of their experiences and I thought 'why aren't we hearing more about this? Why isn't the media, for instance, absolutely enraged? Why is this just accepted?' So I thought I'd write about a woman who is in a similar situation, in that she has to protect her children while negotiating an adversarial ex-partner and an adversarial legal system. The frustrations and the fallout, plus all the emotional baggage that comes from the relationship that was. That in itself can be pretty powerful.

Question: Are the characters based on anyone you know?

Ilsa Evans: I think Maddie herself is an amalgamation of all the abused women I've spoken to over the years while Jake is drawn from the pictures they painted of their partners, or ex-partners. And the reason that's possible is that so many of these stories are so similar. Scarily similar.


Question: What research went into Sticks and Stones?

Ilsa Evans: did a PhD a few years ago on the long-term effects of domestic violence and the research that went into that strongly informed Maddie's story here. Then when I had the storyline developed, I spent some time at a family court nearby. And of course the book wouldn't have turned out the way it did without the help of some wonderful women from within the family violence sector who gave me feedback on the finer points.


Question: What advice do you have for aspiring writers or artists

Ilsa Evans: Persistence! And join a writing group - I only wish I'd had the sense to do that back when I started. Far less isolating, plus you get free feedback, and support, and networking, and a sense of 'community'. All invaluable.


Question: Finish this sentence: The best thing about books is . . .

Ilsa Evans: their Tardis-type ability to take you anywhere and everywhere - all from the comfort of your own armchair!