“A Death in Hanoi” by Suzi Garner. Monotone Press, 2011.
The experience of being in the countryside at ComPeung was very nurturing for my creative process. Extremely well fed, blessed by the sun and all the small and large critters around, my mind had ample time to allow my novel’s characters to have their say. ComPeung taught me a lot about myself and about the process of writing – especially doing so in an open air environment, with a diverse group of people. Taking long bike rides on the country roads and wandering knee deep in mysterious grassy thickets put me right into the stream and context of where my characters were living. The quiet atmosphere filled me with a sense of possibilities hiding everywhere. This sparked prolonged periods of dedicated work, contributing a large chunk to the completion of my novel.
Suzi Garner, October 2012
My current project is an illustrated novel entitled The View from Cloud Mountain. The story is about an ethnic minority man in the mountains of Southeast Asia who plays a flute at funerals and has a strong connection to the spirit world. I have worked for several years with ethnic minority communities and became very inspired by the spiritual practices and beliefs of ethnic minority people in Vietnam. At the moment I am working with an editor and literary agent towards revising the novel for publication.