EXPLORE insights into the human condition with Jane Tara and Edgars Books & News as they discuss Ms Tara’s novel ‘Tilda is visible’ this Saturday at Café PreVue.
‘Tilda is visible’ is a departure from what Ms Tara has been writing in recent years and follows the title character, Tilda, being diagnosed with invisibility and grappling with the external and internal experiences of being invisible.
The novel has been 10 years in the making, originally starting out as a short story, taking direct inspiration from the authors life after she went through a divorce and was misdiagnosed with a degenerative eye condition.
“It was at a time when I was starting to feel invisible as a woman in her mid-40s,” she said. “I really considered how I would see the world if I lost my sight.”
Ms Tara said the idea of ‘Tilda is visible’ came out of how we see ourselves and how we can shift that perception.
“One day I looked in the mirror, which had been an exercise of self-loathing up to that point, and just loved my wrinkles and my face,” she said. “I just thought ‘oh my god I’m not going to get to see myself age’ and it just felt like such a loss. I thought if I really wanted to see myself age why would I erase it, why would I hate it.”
Ms Tara said her favourite aspect of writing is delving into a new world while the real one disappears, especially with ‘Tilda is visible’.
“It was a journey of healing for me personally to get out this story that had been sitting in me for around a decade,” she said. “I discovered I put a lot of myself into Tilda’s journey and it turns out my story isn’t that unusual and that is something quite common
with women of a certain age.”
Starting out in writing, Ms Tara initially travelled the world as a playwright until landing an agent when she won an award in New York.
“My first agent sat me down and said, ‘what do you have and have you ever thought about writing a book’ so I wrote my first book
which was a paranormal romance,” she said. “I’ve written three novels and a couple of screen plays when a divorce sidelined me
for a while and I was writing school textbooks and children books for years. Tilda is my first novel back in many years.”
Ms Tara said she is looking forward to visiting Wangaratta to both explore the town and discuss the novel with others.
“Wangaratta is an area I haven’t been to before and I always love visiting new areas,” she said. “It just looks really beautiful so I’m going to spend a few days there just looking around the area and getting a feel for it… you never know I might end up setting something there at some stage. I’m also looking forward to hearing from the readers and them asking questions. I think that women in particular, are really resonating with the themes with the journey that Tilda goes through in the novel.”
Saturday’s event at Café PreVue will include an afternoon tea in the $25 ticket and guests can also purchase additional cold or alcoholic drinks during the afternoon.
‘Tilda is Visible’ is available to pre-purchase at a discounted rate when booking your ticket or for full price on the day.
Purchase your tickets online at https://edgarsbooksandnews.com.au/product-category/event-tickets/ or call/drop into Edgars Books & News, 55 Murphy Street Wangaratta, 57213758.