An Online Interview

Blogger: The Main Features...

Cecelia performed well in her tertiary assignments, moving on from her first degree with unique excellence before initiating post graduate investigation. She finished two Masters Degrees, one from the University of New South Wales, including a research project on H.P. Lovecraft, and furthermore from the University of New England with a proposition on fairy-tale themes in Nineteenth Century writing.

During her profession she created mechanized databases, served in libraries, volunteered for Lifeline, ran youngsters' sport, and provided language help at universities, schools and kindergartens. Without even intending, she turned into her own one of a kind business, offering literacy and numeracy support. She likewise committed a ton of vitality to her creative composition.

Blogger: Presently we ask Cecelia a few questions:

Right off the bat, have you won any awards or prizes?

Hmm. It’s not an everyday occurrence. In 2001 I was staggered to discover that something I wrote for a Christian periodical, The Record, earned a "Hindson Award" for highlight article.  A couple of verses on Poetry Soup have accomplished positions in peer organised competitions. In 2019, an anthology in which I was involved, Monsters (Edited by Dean Kershaw, Black Hare Press), received a reader recommendation. 

In 2020 my novel Faith and Love was entered into the Author Shout "Reader Ready Awards", a modest event that simply measures how suited a book is for its target audience, and achieved an "Honorable Mention".  

Blogger: You have referenced Christian and horror as two classifications that you write. Isn't this bizarre?

It does sound like an inconsistency. As indicated by Philippians 4:8, the Christian should center their thoughts upon the good. As an author and deep thinker, however I can't avoid investigating the contention between the good and malevolence.

In the Bible, from the fall in Genesis, to the guarantee of salvation found in the New Testament, we see the impacts of wrongdoing on the planet, and man's aching for divine intercession. The best guarantees are obviously to be found in the Bible, and that is the only fair ground for forming belief.

The parables Jesus told were designed to teach, and most of them focused on the kingdom of heaven.  However in Luke 16:19-27, Jesus told a more cautionary tale, using imagery that bordered on the horrific. This is the tale of “The Rich Man and Lazarus”. During life, Lazarus was so underprivileged “the dogs came and licked his sores”. Gross! After death, however, Lazarus was transported to the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man suffered “torments in Hades”. Moreover, Abraham refused to send a warning to the rich man’s brothers because “they do not hear Moses and the prophets”.

According to Bibleodyssey.com, this tale reflects Plato’s story of “Er” and a growing body of binary afterlife mythology. (See: Meghan Henning, "Views on the Afterlife in the Time of Jesus", n.p. [cited 24 Nov 2019]. Online: https://www.bibleodyssey.org:443/en/people/related-articles/views-on-the-afterlife-in-the-time-of-jesus) The Theology of the story would seem to be contradicted by 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, which proposes a resurrection at Jesus second coming, indicating it is likely intended to be taken as fiction.

Interestingly, the disciples were familiar with superstitious tales and cried out, “It is a ghost!” when they saw Jesus walking on water. (Matthew 14:26, Mark 6:49) The reality of Jesus saving power turned out to be much better than fiction, and fiction ought never to be mistaken for truth. I once endeavoured to defend the entire procedure of fiction writing in an article entitled "Christians and Creativity". (The Record, February 3 2007, pp.10-11). In the event that you might want to peruse the article, it is available online in the Library of Andrews University. (See: https://www.andrews.edu/library/vehicle/cardigital/Periodicals/Record_SPD/2007/2007_02_03.pdf)

Blogger: Is the entirety of your composing fiction?

I love acting. A nativity play I penned was performed by members of the congregation of Holy Trinity Hampstead Lutheran Church in 2010. I have another nativity play half composed, which I plan to finish one day and discharge for congregational use.

(See the bulletin of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield. "What's on", in Pen2Paper, Dec/Jan/Feb 2011, Volume 16, Issue 6: http://www.cityofpae.sa.gov.au/webdata/assets/documents/P2P_DecJanFeb_issue6.pdf)

Blogger: Do you have any pursuits other than writing?

Yes. I love animals, especially cats. I enjoy photography. I also enjoy home renovation and decorating. It is one of my goals to learn oil painting and improve my art.  I used to love to sew, and at one stage had ambitions towards fashion design.  If it an activity is creative, I usually enjoy doing it!

Blogger: What comes next for your composition?

Well – at the beginning of 2019, I made the resolution to write poetry and appear in magazines and anthologies. The reality was poetry is very challenging and hard to write, then even harder to place. I did however, get into writing "drabbles" or “microfiction”. I appeared in a number of anthologies this way. I will keep up to date with the anthology publishers next year, and also try to fulfil my aim regarding poetry.

I also have a soft science-fiction novel that I had planned to edit and release to increase my range of speculative writing outside of anthologies. And the final volume in my Silver Springs Christian University Series “A Prayer for Understanding” is due for a mid-year release. Life looks good on the writing front!

Brief Biography

Cecelia grew up in the Barossa Valley, an area of South Australia predominantly settled by German immigrants. She loved school and learning. School plays, school picnics and events. Despite that, she remembers the struggle to learn to read – painfully stringing three letter words together - until one birthday, she sat down with my gift, a Famous Five book by Enid Blyton. The mystery story was so exciting, she finished it in one session and was a fast reader from that moment onwards.

Cecelia loved Enid Blyton, her Wishing Chair stories, Magic Faraway Tree stories, fairy-land and toy-land stories as well as the mysteries. A couple of years later, she discovered The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. It was so amazing, she read it seven times in a row! Eventually, she discovered there was a whole series… and she survived on this sort of fair until she was sixteen and read The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. That gave her a taste for adult fantasy. In search of more riveting reading, she discovered Stephen King and James Herbert. Stephen King’s Danse Macabre led her to H.P. Lovecraft.

Cecelia learned to sew when she was ten and fashion design was a creative passion. She dressed herself throughout high-school and university in her own designs. She tried putting seams where seams traditionally did not go, or had not gone for a decade or two. She also put zippers in unusual places and added flounces and uneven hem lines. In the mid-1990’s fashions available in the stores began to catch up to her originals.

Cecelia enjoyed writing poetry and short stories, although she was discouraged she had no success in competitions. (Competitions do work for some writers and give a limited few their start.) In 1988, she wrote her first full length manuscript, often scribbling on the train as she travelled from Newcastle to Sydney to attend post graduate study at university. In the year 2000, she brought my second full length manuscript into being, and 2004 saw her third full length manuscript. None was published at, that point, but she still keep writing.

In the year 2001, she explored another creative passion, which was dance. Cecelia spent five years learning Ballroom dance and participating in dance school showcases. She also learned Belly-dance and had a go at most other types of folk dance. She spent a year with a performing group, the Matinee Entertainers, before moving onto coaching after school sports, circus and gymnastics.

Cecelia loved fun and games and spreading the enjoyment among others. Always keen to find a dramatic outlet, she joined the production committee for a community Nativity performance and in 2010, a Nativity Play she wrote was produced by a local church.

Cecelia also tutors English and has been doing so under her own ABN since 2007 – trying to create that “aha” moment when reading becomes pleasure instead of pain for children struggling to read and write.   

https://www.blackharepress.com/cecelia-hopkins-drewer/