Violet Budd
https://amzn.to/3FBIQa1
This week it is my pleasure to interview Violet Budd.
Hello, my name is Violet Budd, and I am a retired English Teacher who lives on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. In 2025 I self-published Being My Own Witness: Speaking out to be heard to coincide with an ambitious draft Australian National Plan to end violence against women and children in ten years and break down intergenerational trauma through targeted programs. Currently, I am writing my second fictocritical, memoir The Mists of Violet, a continuation of my contribution to women’s writing, that ‘15-24 year old girls and women are the highest risk group of coercive control. There is little in the way of education about healthy relationships and warning signs.’ The Mists of Violet is trying to change that. When did you write your first book and how did it come about? When I moved to the Sunshine Coast in 2018 to retire, I was not bound by long work hours and mother duties and decided to write my memoir. The retelling of child and sexual abuse, was my way of contributing to the prevention, intervention and response by society and its institutions, and to the recovery and support of child sexual abuse victims and survivors. Do you always write in the same genre, or do you mix it up?
I prefer to write in the same genre fictocritical feminist memoir. I do, however, like to experiment in writing different types of representation of the female psyche. Being My Own Witness, I had to overcome the question, how does one articulate child abuse 50 years after it has happened? “Haven’t you forgotten about it?” Many would ask. I thought I was buried so deep it could never be spoken. It was my journey of letting go of my fears, and speaking out about the abuse to be heard, from my first memory until I was ten years old. It is written for other victims and survivors of child abuse who are looking for their own voice. There is no fixed answer about how to speak because the child narrative of abuse rarely exists. I wrote this book in first person as a close attempt to discern why I did not feel safe in this world. I In my new book, The Mists of Violet I write in third person. It tells of the life of Violet Black from the ages of fifteen to twenty, during the 1970s in the small Victorian town of Shallow Water. This is a subtle book that conveys the psychological and social complexity of severe family abuse and Violet’s initial moves to liberate herself. It is original, darkly humorous, but realistically facing the hard stuff and pointing towards the way out. It could be called Australian Gothic.
When you write, do you start with an idea and sit down and let it evolve, or do you make notes and plot the chapters beforehand?
I write both ways. Generally, I have an overview of the story and rough chapter outlines. I then start writing, make notes and plot chapters as I go forward. My writing evolves. I pause and think how I can best show the reader the inner voice of my main character, young Violet – her lived experience as a survivor and how she copes with the violation of her human rights. When she has not yet learned to speak out about her abuse.
Would you like to give us a short excerpt from one of your books?
I have created an intricate tapestry of fact and fiction, woven together with mythology and history to offer authenticity of life experience, narrative voice, and the strength and resilience of women and the female archetype. The following is an excerpt from Being My Own Witness.
Thunder – crash – falling away – helpless to stop – my story – my flowers fell from the vase and ran away – I chased them – they found a new home – another flower bed – find my writing. ****The flower bed was filled with annuals and perennials. The pink and pale blue butterflies fluttered between a blooming equestrian of flowers. I dug soft loamy soil between the zinnias and hollyhocks with fluttery hand movements, barely able to hold the spade. My eyes darted between the entangled flower stems and roots in an effort to find my writing. It had to be here because it was nowhere else to be found. I dragged my nails through the dirt and let go as I espied a shimmering emerald light in the distance. A beautiful young woman came toward me. She was dressed in a forest-green velvet dress. The hem dragged on the floor; it was low in the waist with a scooped neckline. The sleeves ended at her elbows, and she reached inside her dress to a fitchett pocket. She swept back the head veil that covered her beautifully braided golden hair, coiled over each ear. She fossicked in her fitchett until she revealed a quill pen in one hand and a small piece of parchment in the other. “Hello, I am Christine de Pizan,” she said. “I have been advised by Rectitude to take my pen and go with her, to go ahead, and mix the mortar of my ink bottle so that I can fortify the City of Ladies with my tempered pen.” She looked straight at me. “I see that you are troubled. Would you like to come with me?” “I would love to come with you and learn from you,” I grabbed my Pilot Frixion pen and notebook and followed her to the City. I hoped they would allow me entry with my daggy jeans and sloppy pink tee-shirt. “You see,” she said, “The auctors are getting away with hell. They are speaking ill of women, and I believe this could cause people to do harmful acts. In my City of Ladies such writing is not permitted.”
Who is your favourite character and why?
My favourite character is the protagonist, the author, myself. To overcome the terror of her childhood and speak out about the abuse is a highly challenging project. The healing agenda for writing her trauma is to bring to life her deadened capacity to feel alive and dig deep within herself to write those visceral feelings which are tragically blocked and frozen by trauma many years ago.
Through the layers of self-discovery, she is able to write the fine details of her own ‘madness’ without outside intervention, in a private feminine space, and bring her story to the outside world. She leans on her intellect and writes imagined goddess encounters through centuries of patriarchal discourse. This way she returns to the goddess aspects of the feminine, bringing them forward to speak for change. Combined with her imagination, her intellect is her safe space, to cope with and understand the trauma.
Which of your books gave you the most pleasure to write? It has given me pleasure to write both books for a specific target audience. For men and women who have experienced domestic and societal abuse. People, groups, and institutions involved in feminist activism to end violence. Another potential target audience is therapists wanting to better understand the lived experience of child abuse and generational trauma.
What is the best marketing tip you have received?
It is no point thinking about marketing when your book is not ready for publication. The most important point is to tighten your writing, which can take rewriting and self-editing many drafts. My writing mentors encourage me to have a go at refining my style and language usage at the sentence level. Yes, you are unlikely to pick up all the errors, but that’s okay, it’s more about taking the time to develop your writing voice and deepening your understanding of how that voice is expressed on the page. It’s part of the process of developing your craft.
What do you do when you are not writing or reading?
I love walking and swimming at the beach, most often with my grandsons on their school holidays. I am retired and work casually at the local swimming pool as a coach, swim teacher, and team leader. It’s a nice break from the rigorous psychological and emotional demands of writing trauma.
If you could holiday anywhere in the world, where would you choose and why?
I would travel to Italy. I love all aspects of the place; its culture, history, villages, towns, cities, countryside and seasides, little cafes, and restaurants. The people are direct and kind, and their lifestyle is not as fast-paced as in Australia.
What is the biggest factor for you when selecting a book to read?
I read books like Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale. She advocates that her dystopian fiction, is rooted in historical precedent, warning humanity is capable of repeating past atrocities. Therefore I select books which are a “weathervane” rather than a guide for disaster, urging vigilance against the erosion of rights and the dangers of complacency.
Do you have your own website?
Link to Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3FBIQa1
Link to my Website (It is in the making):
https://wordpress.com/reader/users/violetbuddauthor
Are you working on a new book at the moment?
My first Book, Being My Own Witness, is self-published and available on Amazon and all good bookstores worldwide.
My second book, The Mists of Violet, I am currently copyediting, and aim to line edit by the end of the year (2026). I hope to find a traditional publisher! Most would say, ‘good luck with that!’
I have written 10 chapters of my third book, The Metamorphoses of Violet (working title). It tells of the life of Violet Black from the ages of twenty five to thirty five, during the 1980s in the ocean side town of Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, South East Queensland. The story is both subtle and jarring, conveying the psychological and social complexity of the experienced neglect and irregularity that Violet is seeking in her new partner, and her attempts at rebellion of her attachment style. It also could be called an Australian Gothic/fictocritical/memoir/ noir/ feminist writing.
Hello, my name is Violet Budd, and I am a retired English Teacher who lives on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. In 2025 I self-published Being My Own Witness: Speaking out to be heard to coincide with an ambitious draft Australian National Plan to end violence against women and children in ten years and break down intergenerational trauma through targeted programs. Currently, I am writing my second fictocritical, memoir The Mists of Violet, a continuation of my contribution to women’s writing, that ‘15-24 year old girls and women are the highest risk group of coercive control. There is little in the way of education about healthy relationships and warning signs.’ The Mists of Violet is trying to change that. When did you write your first book and how did it come about? When I moved to the Sunshine Coast in 2018 to retire, I was not bound by long work hours and mother duties and decided to write my memoir. The retelling of child and sexual abuse, was my way of contributing to the prevention, intervention and response by society and its institutions, and to the recovery and support of child sexual abuse victims and survivors. Do you always write in the same genre, or do you mix it up?
I prefer to write in the same genre fictocritical feminist memoir. I do, however, like to experiment in writing different types of representation of the female psyche. Being My Own Witness, I had to overcome the question, how does one articulate child abuse 50 years after it has happened? “Haven’t you forgotten about it?” Many would ask. I thought I was buried so deep it could never be spoken. It was my journey of letting go of my fears, and speaking out about the abuse to be heard, from my first memory until I was ten years old. It is written for other victims and survivors of child abuse who are looking for their own voice. There is no fixed answer about how to speak because the child narrative of abuse rarely exists. I wrote this book in first person as a close attempt to discern why I did not feel safe in this world. I In my new book, The Mists of Violet I write in third person. It tells of the life of Violet Black from the ages of fifteen to twenty, during the 1970s in the small Victorian town of Shallow Water. This is a subtle book that conveys the psychological and social complexity of severe family abuse and Violet’s initial moves to liberate herself. It is original, darkly humorous, but realistically facing the hard stuff and pointing towards the way out. It could be called Australian Gothic.
When you write, do you start with an idea and sit down and let it evolve, or do you make notes and plot the chapters beforehand?
I write both ways. Generally, I have an overview of the story and rough chapter outlines. I then start writing, make notes and plot chapters as I go forward. My writing evolves. I pause and think how I can best show the reader the inner voice of my main character, young Violet – her lived experience as a survivor and how she copes with the violation of her human rights. When she has not yet learned to speak out about her abuse.
Would you like to give us a short excerpt from one of your books?
I have created an intricate tapestry of fact and fiction, woven together with mythology and history to offer authenticity of life experience, narrative voice, and the strength and resilience of women and the female archetype. The following is an excerpt from Being My Own Witness.
Thunder – crash – falling away – helpless to stop – my story – my flowers fell from the vase and ran away – I chased them – they found a new home – another flower bed – find my writing. ****The flower bed was filled with annuals and perennials. The pink and pale blue butterflies fluttered between a blooming equestrian of flowers. I dug soft loamy soil between the zinnias and hollyhocks with fluttery hand movements, barely able to hold the spade. My eyes darted between the entangled flower stems and roots in an effort to find my writing. It had to be here because it was nowhere else to be found. I dragged my nails through the dirt and let go as I espied a shimmering emerald light in the distance. A beautiful young woman came toward me. She was dressed in a forest-green velvet dress. The hem dragged on the floor; it was low in the waist with a scooped neckline. The sleeves ended at her elbows, and she reached inside her dress to a fitchett pocket. She swept back the head veil that covered her beautifully braided golden hair, coiled over each ear. She fossicked in her fitchett until she revealed a quill pen in one hand and a small piece of parchment in the other. “Hello, I am Christine de Pizan,” she said. “I have been advised by Rectitude to take my pen and go with her, to go ahead, and mix the mortar of my ink bottle so that I can fortify the City of Ladies with my tempered pen.” She looked straight at me. “I see that you are troubled. Would you like to come with me?” “I would love to come with you and learn from you,” I grabbed my Pilot Frixion pen and notebook and followed her to the City. I hoped they would allow me entry with my daggy jeans and sloppy pink tee-shirt. “You see,” she said, “The auctors are getting away with hell. They are speaking ill of women, and I believe this could cause people to do harmful acts. In my City of Ladies such writing is not permitted.”
Who is your favourite character and why?
My favourite character is the protagonist, the author, myself. To overcome the terror of her childhood and speak out about the abuse is a highly challenging project. The healing agenda for writing her trauma is to bring to life her deadened capacity to feel alive and dig deep within herself to write those visceral feelings which are tragically blocked and frozen by trauma many years ago.
Through the layers of self-discovery, she is able to write the fine details of her own ‘madness’ without outside intervention, in a private feminine space, and bring her story to the outside world. She leans on her intellect and writes imagined goddess encounters through centuries of patriarchal discourse. This way she returns to the goddess aspects of the feminine, bringing them forward to speak for change. Combined with her imagination, her intellect is her safe space, to cope with and understand the trauma.
Which of your books gave you the most pleasure to write? It has given me pleasure to write both books for a specific target audience. For men and women who have experienced domestic and societal abuse. People, groups, and institutions involved in feminist activism to end violence. Another potential target audience is therapists wanting to better understand the lived experience of child abuse and generational trauma.
What is the best marketing tip you have received?
It is no point thinking about marketing when your book is not ready for publication. The most important point is to tighten your writing, which can take rewriting and self-editing many drafts. My writing mentors encourage me to have a go at refining my style and language usage at the sentence level. Yes, you are unlikely to pick up all the errors, but that’s okay, it’s more about taking the time to develop your writing voice and deepening your understanding of how that voice is expressed on the page. It’s part of the process of developing your craft.
What do you do when you are not writing or reading?
I love walking and swimming at the beach, most often with my grandsons on their school holidays. I am retired and work casually at the local swimming pool as a coach, swim teacher, and team leader. It’s a nice break from the rigorous psychological and emotional demands of writing trauma.
If you could holiday anywhere in the world, where would you choose and why?
I would travel to Italy. I love all aspects of the place; its culture, history, villages, towns, cities, countryside and seasides, little cafes, and restaurants. The people are direct and kind, and their lifestyle is not as fast-paced as in Australia.
What is the biggest factor for you when selecting a book to read?
I read books like Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale. She advocates that her dystopian fiction, is rooted in historical precedent, warning humanity is capable of repeating past atrocities. Therefore I select books which are a “weathervane” rather than a guide for disaster, urging vigilance against the erosion of rights and the dangers of complacency.
Do you have your own website?
Link to Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3FBIQa1
Link to my Website (It is in the making):
https://wordpress.com/reader/users/violetbuddauthor
Are you working on a new book at the moment?
My first Book, Being My Own Witness, is self-published and available on Amazon and all good bookstores worldwide.
My second book, The Mists of Violet, I am currently copyediting, and aim to line edit by the end of the year (2026). I hope to find a traditional publisher! Most would say, ‘good luck with that!’
I have written 10 chapters of my third book, The Metamorphoses of Violet (working title). It tells of the life of Violet Black from the ages of twenty five to thirty five, during the 1980s in the ocean side town of Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, South East Queensland. The story is both subtle and jarring, conveying the psychological and social complexity of the experienced neglect and irregularity that Violet is seeking in her new partner, and her attempts at rebellion of her attachment style. It also could be called an Australian Gothic/fictocritical/memoir/ noir/ feminist writing.