Of course we have Queen Elizabeth as head of state, but in many ways we are a kind of republic. We don't have royals in Australia, so it was kind of unusual to run into those kind of people. But aside from that it was quite ordinary. ↗
Australian SF book publishing has undergone a boom recently, and sometimes it's easier for new writers to sell a book to a local publisher first, which then makes a US edition more likely. ↗
Australia was great. I would advise anybody to go there. In fact, if you couldn't live here, Australia would be the place to live. It's the most Americanized country that I've ever seen in the world. ↗
On the same line of reasoning, if Australians were to be Australians, or rather if Australians were as separate from any other nation as Australia from any other land, there would be no jealousy between them on England's account. ↗
All the arts are predominantly national, and therefore the Australian Film Commission should be funding us. The battle gets more and more vicious each year. ↗
We discovered that there was a great deal of keen interest in America for the kinds of products that we thought could be produced here. Also there was an interest in Britain for Australian material generally. ↗
And the reason for that I think is that in Australia our films don't get the exposure, so the process is foremost. But anyway, I love being part of the team and hate being stuck in a corner somewhere. ↗
