Q&A with Jasmin McGaughey

Allen & Unwin
5 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

We chat with author of Moonlight and Dust, Jasmin McGaughey.

A&U: Hey Jasmin! Thanks so much for chatting with us. First up, can you tell us a little bit about Moonlight and Dust?

JM: Moonlight and Dust is a young adult fantasy book set in Cairns, Far North Queensland. It follows Zillah, a sixteen-year-old Torres Strait Islander girl who is returning home to Cairns after a few years in a Brisbane boarding school. She’s meant to be completing year twelve with her sister, Nik, but an accident has left Nik hospital bound. So, with the aim of having a ‘fun’ final year of school, Zillah enters the party scene and discovers her classmates have access to this magical potion called Moondust. Every weekend they get literal superpowers. It isn’t long before things start to take a turn though, and Zillah takes charge to figure out if Moondust is all it's cracked up to be…

A&U: What inspired you to write Moonlight and Dust?

JM: Okay, so I first began writing a short story for Unlimited Futures: Speculative, Visionary Blak+Black Fiction (edited by Rafeif IsmailEllen van Neerven). This story was called ‘The Breakup’ and was written in answer to my question: ‘What might an Island girl do if she found out her boyfriend was a vampire or had superpowers?’. In the short story, she breaks up with him because she doesn’t think she can keep the secret from her close-knit, wide-reaching family (because this would be me – I’d be telling someone).

The novel Moonlight and Dust is very different to this short story, and I managed to get around the whole ‘I can’t keep a secret’ issue, but using magic. But I won’t spoil how it ends!

A&U: The magic in your book (or ‘Moondust’) is really cool! How did you go about developing it?

JM: So much trial and error! Because there were SO many iterations of the novel (from short story to novella to a novel that changed many times), the magic of the story also evolved. At one point it was a man-made machine that gave the characters powers and closer to publication it was meteor rocks (think Smallville) that gave them all these gifts. I’m happy with how it ended up – in that the magic doesn’t necessarily come with a clear explanation.

A&U: Zillah is such a wonderful character with such a strong voice. How did you go about shaping her character?

JM: Of all the versions of this story, Zillah remained the same throughout. She’s always been the slightly reserved, fiercely protective younger sister in her family. To be honest, I don’t know how I came up with her voice – only that I wanted her personality and her decision making to be strongly influenced by her family and culture.

A&U: What would you like readers to take away from Moonlight and Dust?

JM: This is a good question. Part of me hopes readers just take away a moment of entertainment and adventure. And another part of me hopes readers who are Torres Strait Islander (and young readers especially) can use this book to confirm that our people have a place in traditional publishing if we want it. And then, of course, I hope to have a small part in raising awareness for the Torres Strait Islands and – even though it’s not a huge feature in the book – the fast-acting and disastrous effects of the climate crisis on islands and communities there.

A&U: And lastly, do you have any advice for writers out there who might be reading this Q&A?

JM: Write what you enjoy or what you like to read. Write for yourself first, and then (if publication is what you’re after) edit with your target audience in mind. Though I have to say, thinking about the readership early is stressful but sometimes necessary (especially when work included underrepresented groups).