Get ready to learn more about the book The Piano in the Tree in this discussion with sapphic author Jo Havens.
Join us for an exclusive peek behind the scenes as we quiz Jo Havens about The Piano in the Tree, writing, reading, and more.
This book is part of the Dual Timeline category in the 2024 IHS Reading Challenge.
Why did you write The Piano in the Tree?
There aren’t too many sweeping sapphic romances set in my part of the world and I felt it was about time. I want you all to fall in love with the landscape here — the towering cliffs of the escarpment, the blue haze that rises from the eucalypt forest, the perfect curve of the endless beaches.
When I was a kid, there was an old, tumble-down abandoned house on our property that was out of bounds. Naturally, I loved exploring it. In one room, an old piano had half crashed through the floorboards, and mice had made little nests on the keys with all the red felts. Australia has a unique relationship with ruined pianos — remnants of colonial sophistication, their refinement never surviving the harshness of our country. They can be found in the oddest places once you leave the cities. And yet, they are still beautiful, still capable of art. I’m as obsessed with them as Polly is.
Who is your favorite character in the book?
I should say Polly or Toks, but actually it’s… Magpie. Magpie is based on a real-life Australian artist I met forever ago in Fiji. She was supposed to be leading an art retreat but I think she found most of her group a little tiresome. So instead, she lazed with me by the pool for a week and sketched my three-year-old daughter. We drank a lot of rum, and she taught my kid some utterly inappropriate songs.
What inspired the idea for The Piano in the Tree?
Aside from my obsession with pianos? I once worked with a guy who was … broken … in a way I didn’t quite understand. He was in his 20s, white, blond and fit — a big dose of privilege that should have placed him on top of the world — but he was curiously quiet and seemed bitter about something. I was in my early 20s too, in a new job, slightly nervous and immature, and to my limited world experience, this guy was puzzling. Later, as our team got to know each other, he shared something appalling, something so far beyond the middle-class comfort we all enjoyed that none of us knew what to do with it. It made me realise how much of life is sheer luck — good and bad — and how we’re all powerless before it.
How much research did you need to do for The Piano in the Tree?
Strangely, my piano needed tuning THREE times as I was writing this book.
What is your writing process like?
I am a plotter. Five different colours of post-it notes is not enough. Gel pens (preferably those gorgeous Japanese ones in shades of fuschia, aqua, bronze and royal purple) are definitely required. I leave hot pink post-it notes for myself all over the house — whenever a thought occurs to me. My daughter has a tendency to screech when she sees ‘seggsy times notes’ stuck to the fridge. ‘Omg, mum! Embarrassment! I just want the milk, for crying out loud. I don’t need your sordid imaginings in my head before breakfast!’
If you could spend a day with another popular author, whom would you choose?
JE Leak — obviously! We have multiple google docs full of online chat that are longer than the rest of google. Co-writing from opposite sides of the planet is a tricky business and things would be so much easier if we could actually be drinking those gin and tonics together in person! My lime tree is full of limes. Just sayin’.
What has helped or hindered you most when writing a book?
I am my own most judgemental critic. The black dog who sits on my shoulder can be very cruel. What has helped most is receiving a kind of ‘stamp of approval’ from an alpha reader in the very early stages of planning — Fern, JE, babes, I’m looking at youse! Having someone say, ‘yep, sounds good, go for it’ is a bit like handing in your work early and getting a big red tick from the teacher in advance. I can use it to put that black dog in the back seat. He can bark all he likes then, head out the window, but the course has already been plotted.
When you’re writing an emotional or difficult scene, how do you set the mood?
Oh, there’s none of that! It just has to be done. Admittedly, I tend to leave the trickiest scenes until last, leaving whole starfields of asterisks-es-es scattered throughout the doc. Then I give myself a stern talking to, plant the bum in the seat, and just plough on. I was always one of those people who left assignments to the last minute, so despite my best efforts and all my post-it notes, I seem to be stuck with this technique.
Describe your favorite reading spot.
Now it’s winter down this way, my favourite reading spot is amongst the pile of cushions in front of the fireplace. I have to fight off three cats for the best position these days, but it is rather nice when they all settle around me and purr. If I could just train them to pop another log on the fire and possibly refresh my tea, that would grand.
