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Little Helen has been a RedBubbler since July 2007 and is the queen of the RB interview. She’s uncannily good at charming her subjects into revealing all sorts of juicy details about themselves. Bellmusker is an “authoress” extraordinaire who joined RedBubble in April 2007. She has been involved in organising the Melbourne Writers’ Meets for the past 18 months and has made a wonderful contribution to the writing community on RedBubble. So pour yourself a refreshing beverage, sit back and enjoy as the sophisticated misfit interviews the one who’s afraid of crumpets.

Little Helen: Bell … how much life has changed for you since you first joined RedBubble?

Bellmusker: My two years on RB have brought so many changes – I can barely imagine my life without it! I’d never put my writing out into the world before posting my first piece, ‘Fire’, and I can see such a progression between that and my present writing. Having a close community of writers to workshop with has been invaluable for my craft and my confidence, and I became brave enough to actually send my work to publishers. Since I joined I’ve had nine stories accepted for publication, I’m now working on a novel, and I’ve been asked to speak at the Melbourne Emerging Writers’ Festival I’ll be discussing writers’ groups and their magic, so RB will definitely get mentioned!

On a personal level it’s been invaluable – it’s brought several people into my life that I now consider my closest friends. I went through a particularly dark period of agoraphobia in my twenties and when I joined, I was still living in its shadow: I wasn’t the most social of creatures. Having the inspiration and support of these amazing artists has really helped me to step back into the world with my head held high. The Melbourne group in particular is extremely vibrant, and not a week goes by that I don’t catch up with someone for drinks and laughter. I’ve just returned from Canberra to visit the glorious Holly Ringland, and you and I are headed to the States in a few weeks to strut through the streets of New York with the divine MsTrace – cannot wait! Joining RB has opened my life up in ways I’d never envisioned when I clicked that first upload button.


LH: You began organising Writers’ Meets for Melbourne RedBubblers (and should be credited for that) a while ago now. How are they going and have they been successful for you?

B: The meetings are wonderful! The Melbourne Writers’ Group meets on the first Sunday of each month at a pub in Northcote, and we all look forward to it. It’s open to all writers and we’ve even been host to several interstate visitors, your fine self included. It’s a fabulous opportunity to read your work aloud, ask for advice and critique, pass on recommendations of writers (both on RB and off) and generally swill an indulgent amount of mulled wine and laugh to the high heavens.

I love these meetings and have been hosting them for 18 months now. Some are intimate little gatherings of half a dozen scribes; the largest was 21 writers gathered around a huge table in the beer garden with cameras flashing and notebooks filling. So much fun! If you’ve ever been tempted to come along, take a look at the Writers’ Forum in the Melbourne and Victoria group for details, and accounts of previous meetings. Feel free to mail me with any questions, and I’ll make sure that your glass is always full and everyone knows your name. What are you waiting for?!


LH: How did you feel meeting a RedBubbler for the first time and who was it?

B: My first meeting was on the steps of Flinders Street Station almost two years ago. I lingered at Fed Square, watching the red balloons held by Jo O’Brien and trying to decide if I would cross over. I did, and the rest is history. So I actually think Jo was my first ever bubbler, which is fitting considering how much she’s helped lured me out of my shell. I also recall Paul Louis Villani’s beaming grin (and I just realised that was also his first RB meeting). That day introduced me to two of my best friends: Jessica Tremp, who spoke German with me and leapt in the air for photos, and LisaG, who lingered up the back and hid from the cameras with me. In the early days I scowled at everyone who pointed a lens my way, but have since loosened up considerably and even done some RB modelling – amazing for me.


LH: Where does Bell’s heart dwell?

B: With one foot firmly planted on the cobblestones of Brussels, and the other on the bank of the Yarra in Melbourne. I’ve always been torn between these two incredible cities, and I think I’ll always be going back and forth between them, as I’ve done for years. That said, next year I’m moving to Berlin for a stretch, as she has her hooks well and truly in me. And I loooooove the German language.


LH: Memories … we all hold them close. What is one of your happiest?

BM: Every time I step onto the Grote Markt, the stunning medieval market square in Brussels that’s my favourite place in the world, my eyes well with joyful tears. However, I’d have to say that first email from an editor telling me that amongst one thousand submissions, they’d accepted my work for publication in “Going Down Swinging”, will never fade from my memory. There was clutching, there was squealing, and there might have even been a happy dance! Having my writing validated by professional editors is not something I’ll forget; it was the first time I thought hell, maybe I can actually do this.


LH: Name two things you could not live without?

B: The glorious sunlight at dusk, when it falls golden on the bricks and makes my red hair look as though it’s caught fire. When I feel low, I take a walk at this time of night and feel suddenly able to breathe again. Never fails. Second, I’m going to have to say a pen in my bag, behind my ear, between my fingers: I’m always writing, scribbling down overheard conversations and titles for stories. And then there’s the quotes – you’ve seen my little red book of quotes come out at bubble meetings!! I always need a red moleskin and pen nearby, and can’t leave the house without them. Because no matter how much I say “I’m sure I’ll remember that later”, I rarely do without pinning it down in ink.


LH: A song that will forever be ‘your song’?

B: Oh lord, that’s a big ask. I want to speak of the amazing Lunachicks, Supersuckers or Mahalia Jackson, but I’m a blues woman at heart and I have to say that I listen to “Crawling King Snake” by Etta James at least once a day. It’s an intense, dark, and immensely seductive song that holds rich memories for me.


LH: What are your plans for the future, professionally and personally?

B: Professionally, I want to make my name as a writer. I first told my parents at seven that I was going to be “an authoress” when I grew up, hehe, and I’ve been a devoted ink spiller since then. I got my start writing for punk zines, and now with a degree in Linguistics behind me and a novel in progress, as long as I can weave words between my fingertips I’m happy.

Personally? Well, that’s a little harder to say. I have an illness that I struggle with and though I thought I had it under control, it flared up this year and knocked me back underground for a while. I tend to write of snakes quite often and for me they symbolise both my illness and the potential for regeneration, so when I write of my snakes hissing it’s a general indication that I’m not doing well. My relapse has taught me I can never get cocky about it, so keeping my demons down is a constant aim for me. Also, the resolution was given to me to make this ‘the year of the duck’, namely, let things roll off my back a bit more; I tend to fire up easily. I’m not quite sure how I’m going with that! And I absolutely intend to move to Berlin next year, if only for six months, to get my dose of that beautiful language and sit in Bebelplatz with gingerbread and coffee and pour words out.

_{Bellmusker, Little Helen and a number of martinis …}

If you’d like to read more of Little Helen’s interviews, her RedBubble Hottest 100 series isn’t a bad place to start. If you’d like to find out more about the Melbourne Writers’ Meet, visit the Melbourne and Victoria group’s Writers’ Forum for more info.