Grace Notes by Karen Comer
(Lothian Children’s Books, Hachette Australia)
Grace Notes by Karen Comer is the outstanding WINNER of the CBCA 2024 Book of the Year: Older Readers category.
“This song has a grace note,
a tiny note that’s there for embellishment
but can easily be ignored,
not played.
Tonight, I add it in –
just because.
We can all do with an extra note
of grace.” (Grace Notes)
Author Interview: Karen Comer
Congratulations on Grace Notes being announced as the very deserving winner of the 2024 CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers, Karen.
Thank you for speaking to Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog.
How did you react when you heard the exciting news, particularly because Grace Notes is your first published novel, and how are you celebrating your win?
When my publisher Jeanmarie shared this exciting news, I was working at my kitchen table, surrounded by stacks of coloured papers, prepping for a school art journal and poetry workshop. I kept staring at all those colours until her words made sense. The book which had kept me company during Covid was honoured by the CBCA as a contribution to Australian children’s literature! I’m going to celebrate soon at a dinner with my family.
Your title Grace Notes exquisitely sets the tone for your story. Could you briefly explain what grace notes are and how this title is significant?
A grace note is an extra note of music – it’s up to the musician whether to play it or not. In a time when so many of our choices were taken away during the lockdowns, it felt significant to have a choice, even a musical one. As Grace is also the name of one of the protagonists, this seemed even more significant!
How do you think the cover of Grace Notes invites the reader into your tale?
Karen Farmer, a talented artist, created the image of Grace on the front cover. She made the stencil, sprayed it on a legal Sydney wall and took a photo of it. Astred Hicks, an amazing book designer, turned the photo into the cover. The contrast between the black and white street art mural and the coloured splashes of spray paint invite the reader to consider the intersection of art and music.
Please introduce us to your protagonists and their passion for music and art.
Grace and Crux are fifteen years old, and passionate about their respective arts. Grace wants to play contemporary violin in bars, study music at university and become a professional violinist – but her parents, especially her mother, want her to have a more academic career and keep the violin as a hobby. Crux wants to be a street artist – but it’s illegal to carry spray cans if you’re under eighteen so he’s promised his dad he’ll stick to painting the family’s garage until he’s finished school. Grace and Crux only meet halfway through the novel when Grace discovers it is Crux who has painted her portrait on a city wall, just before Melbourne’s first lockdown.
How have you used the covid pandemic as a framing device?
I didn’t intend to write a book about the pandemic! I started writing Grace Notes in February 2020. I realised by April that I was writing the characters as if they were experiencing Melbourne’s lockdown, too. Even though this was not part of my plan, I allowed myself a little detour to play with this idea. The detour ended up being the main route! So I wrote Grace Notes in real time, as if Grace and Crux faced the same restrictions that we did. Much later, when I worked on the structural aspect of the book, I spent a lot of time checking the statistics and dates to try and match the plot points of the story with Covid data.
Please tell us about your own experiences during covid of learning the violin, taking a street art workshop and making an art journal.
My first violin lesson was through Zoom – I couldn’t even tune my violin properly! I had never played the violin before, but wanted to understand Grace a little more. As for street art, I signed up to a tour as soon as we were out of Melbourne’s second lockdown, and then did a workshop a few months later. I didn’t know that the way you hold your elbows is important as a violinist – and I didn’t know that you used your whole arm and shoulder to create fluid lines with a spray can. I didn’t realise that the arts were so physical! And let’s just say that unlike my protagonists, I have no talent for playing the violin or creating street art!
I made an art journal before I wrote the first draft. The art journal is made of coloured and patterned papers sewn together, with a recycled children’s picture book cover. I decorated it with pictures of violinists and street artists, stickers and stamps. This art journal is a place for all my fragments, ideas, research, mullings, questions and to-do lists. Because I work as a freelance editor, I need to be organised, rational and linear. My art journal allows me to be creative, playful and non-linear.
What are some of the themes or issues that you explore in this verse novel?
Creativity for Grace and Crux is one of the main themes, as well as its importance in the closed world of the pandemic where science and data were essential. Family expectations are closely connected to Grace and Crux’s creativity – there is a clash sometimes between following their passion and respecting their parents.
Why does the verse novel form suit or enhance your story?
Poetry can hold song and movement, so it seemed the perfect form to tell the story of a violinist and a street artist. A verse novel can tell a story in fragments, with a lot of white space to allow room for the reader – in the same way, music and art tell stories which invite readers to respond in their own way.
What are some symbols or images that you use in Grace Notes?
I love using symbols and imagery! The cyanometer is an important symbol for Crux – it’s an old-fashioned device that was used to measure the blueness of the sky. Crux often paints birds, so the various shades of a blue sky are important to him. Grace is also intrigued by the cyanometer, and sees it as a way to measure her emotions.
What word or words do you love to use?
My favourite words are ‘possibilities’ and ‘imagine’! They’re even more inspirational together – imagine the possibilities!
You’re a freelance editor who also runs writing workshops for children and adults. What is something you teach or encourage people to do in their writing that you find difficult to incorporate into your own work?
I find dialogue difficult to write – but I often teach it to adults and students!
The easiest?
Symbols – I can teach you how to find meaning in a glass of water or a discarded tea-towel!
Which books (if any), music and art have influenced Grace Notes?
I watched and listened to David Garrett’s recording of ‘Viva la Vida’ over and over – that combination of colour and music seemed to bring together everything I was trying to do with my book. I also found Cath Crowley’s Graffiti Moon and Jandy Nelson’s I’ll give you the sun inspirational, as well as the many verse novels I read.
You have had two verse novels released in 2023 and both are now receiving award acclaim. The second book is Sunshine on Vinegar Street (Allen & Unwin), which is a 2024 CBCA Book of the Year: Younger Readers Notable book and (at the time of writing) is also shortlisted for the Children’s Book Award in the Queensland Literary Awards. How is this novel different from Grace Notes?
Sunshine on Vinegar Street is a middle-grade verse novel about Freya, who is passionate about basketball. The rhythm of this book was important to me – I wanted it to sometimes sound like a languid, fluid pass from one side of the basketball court to the other, and sometimes sound like short, sharp dribbles under the net. I shortened and lengthened poems, as well as individual lines and stanzas, to reflect the rhythm.
What are you writing or working on now or next?
I’ve just finished a decent draft of my next YA book, and it’s with my publisher at Hachette now. And I want to write a first draft of a MG book by the end of the year. Both manuscripts are verse novels, and I’m delighted by these new characters.
What have you been reading that you would like to recommend?
I’d love to recommend some of my favourite Australian verse novelists – anything by Sally Murphy, Sharon Kernot, Pip Harry, Kirli Saunders, Zana Fraillon, Lorraine Marwood and Sherryl Clark.
How can your readers contact you?
My website is www.karencomer.com and my Instagram is karen__comer
Congratulations again Karen. I’m sure that everyone wants to celebrate with you, your publisher Lothian Books/Hachette and all who are involved in the creation of such a stunning book.
Joy Lawn, in association with Dmcprmedia
paperbarkwords.blog 
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