Today I’m asking Lisa Walker 5 questions about her latest book!
1. What’s the name of your latest book – and how hard was it to pick a title?
I started writing The Girl with the Gold Bikini about fifteen years ago. As a result, the title has gone through a few permutations. When I finally sat down in 2018 to try and finish it, the title came to me quite easily. It is connected to my protagonist’s love of Princess Leia, who was forced to wear a gold bikini by a giant slug. It also relates to the Gold Coast meter maids, who wander the streets of Surfers Paradise in gold bikinis. Many people have told me that the girl on the cover of the book is not wearing a gold bikini. No, she is not! The meaning of the title is revealed throughout the story.
2. If you could choose anyone from any time period, who would you cast as the leads in your latest book?
Olivia is an offbeat, feisty girl and I visualise her being played by Jessica Barden, who I loved in The End of the F***ing World. Jessica would have to put on some weight to play the part, as Olivia is curvaceous, but I’m sure she’d be up for it!
3. What five words best describe your story?
Funny, fast-paced, joyful, thoughtful, quirky
4. Who is your favourite fictional team/couple?
Princess Leia and Han Solo. They have such a great banter going on between them and even though they argue all the time, you can feel the sizzling sexual tension beneath that.
5. What song reflects a theme, character, relationship or scene in your book?
‘Rebel Girl’ by Bikini Kill – there is a climactic scene in the book where Olivia and her friends play this song and it’s a cool punk anthem about female power. What’s not to love about that?
About The Girl with the Gold Bikini
Eighteen-year-old Olivia Grace has deferred her law degree and ducked
out of her friends’ gap-year tour of Asia. Instead, she’s fulfilling her
childhood dream of becoming a private investigator, following in the footsteps
of Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars – who taught her everything she knows,
including a solid line in quick-quipping repartee, the importance of a handbag
full of disguises, and a way of mixing business with inconvenient chemistry.
Playing Watson to the Sherlock of her childhood
friend, detective agency owner Rosco (once the Han Solo to her Princess Leia),
Olivia pursues a routine cheating husband case from the glitzy Gold Coast to
Insta-perfect Byron Bay, where she faces yoga wars, dirty whale activism, and a
guru who’s kind of a creep.
Buy The Girl with the Gold Bikini
(Amazon US)About Lisa Walker
Lisa Walker writes novels for adults and young adults. She has also written an ABC Radio National play and been published in the Age, Griffith Review, Big Issue and the Review of Australian Fiction. Her recent novels include a young adult coming-of-age story, Paris Syndrome (HarperCollins, 2018), and a climate change comedy, Melt (Lacuna, 2018).
She has worked in environmental communication and as a wilderness guide, and recently spent six months in a Kmart tent in outback Australia. Lisa lives, surfs and writes on the north coast of New South Wales. The Girl with the Gold Bikini is her sixth novel.
Social media links:
- Website: https://www.lisawalker.com.au/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisawalkerhome/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaWalkerTweet
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisawalkerwriter/?hl=en
- Blog: https://lisawalkerwriter.wordpress.com/
So many book launches and author talks have had to be cancelled, I’ve decided to run as many Quintettes as I can to share some great upcoming work – and let you stock up on things to read while we’re all self-isolating.
Thanks so much for posting this Narrelle!
You’re very welcome! I’m enjoying learning more about my fellow Aussie writers in this series too!