Interview about my short story, The Value of a Sapphire

In 2025, Mirror World Publishing released Against All Odds, an anthology featuring seven short stories about love against the odds. My story, The Value of a Sapphire, is one of them. Check out this interview I did with Mirror World Publishing talking about my inspiration for the story and more. The original blog is no longer available.

Note, sadly, they are closing down at the end of 2025, so if you’d like to get a copy, you’ll need to get in soon.

The Value of a Sapphire: Over the course of a century, sentient sapphire Nil Manel witnesses the lives and loves of its owners, but when it discovers devastating information about its history, it must ultimately learn the importance of self-love.

1. The Against All Odds anthology tells stories about love against the odds. Without spoiling anything, can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration for your story and how it fits into the theme?

When my mother died a couple of years ago, I inherited my grandmother’s sapphire wedding ring. My grandmother died when I was about three, so I have no memories of her. I wondered what the ring had witnessed of her life and wished I could interrogate it, which led me to the idea of writing about the life of a sapphire. My son Matthew suggested telling the story from the sapphire’s point of view.

I established rules of engagement: the sapphire, Nil Manel, could be aware of everything around it and have emotional responses, but it couldn’t interact with the world. It experienced love for its owners and craved love in return but had no way to express that need. Over time, it builds self-worth based on its size and monetary value.

Against all odds, can it discover love? And can it come to understand the importance of self-love, and that character and experience count for more than carats?

2. The stories in Against All Odds are all short stories or small novellas. What are your tips and tricks for successfully writing short-form content? Does your approach to writing a short story differ compared to how you would approach something like a novel?

In a short story, you need to maintain a very sharp focus, whereas in a novel, you have time to explore multiple themes and subplots.

For this story, while the plot covers a lot of ground, my emphasis was always on Nil Manel’s emotional response to his current situation. Its big frustration – and my challenge in writing a story with this construct – was that it couldn’t influence externally what happened, it could only control its reaction to its changing circumstances. As I drafted and edited, I kept returning to that premise.

My approach to writing a short story is more experimental than my novel writing because it takes less time, so if it doesn’t get published, I have less at stake. If the idea takes off, I can always expand it.

3. What is one of the most surprising things you’ve learned about writing? How has this informed your writing process?

Writing is mostly a solitary pursuit – nobody else can put words on the page for you – but I have met incredible authors who have kept me company on this journey. We critique each other’s work and offer emotional support through the inevitable ups and downs of the writing/publication process. I never expected to meet so many wonderful people and to form so many close friendships.

This has informed my writing process in every way: from learning about craft through discussions and beta reads, to motivation.

One fun tip for writers having trouble staying focussed is to arrange a writing ‘sprint’ with a friend. Agree on a start time, set a timer (we typically choose 45 minutes) and press Go. For that duration, there are no distractions, no interruptions, just write or edit. Usually by the time I’ve finished, I’m so into it that I keep going.

4. What do you think makes a good story?

All the writing elements must work together: setting, plot, and character. My preference is for fast-paced tales with plenty of plot. Having said that, the story must also pack an emotional punch, whether that’s unrequited love, loss, or the joy of attaining a near-impossible goal.

An editor I work with, Nadine Davidoff, says she reads a story then sits on it for a day or two to see what ‘emotional residue’ remains. If a story has a lasting impact like this, then it’s a great story.

5. Can you share a fun personal fact about yourself that you think readers might like to know?

I am Australian, but my mother was born in Sri Lanka when it was still called Ceylon. This, coupled with Sri Lanka’s prominence in the sapphire market, influenced my choice for the opening setting of my story.

My family visited Sri Lanka when I was about thirteen, and my parents bought me a sapphire, my birthstone. I didn’t get around to having it set until I was living in Qatar more than thirty years later. It’s now one of my favorite pieces of jewellery.

6. Do you have anything else to add?

I also write the Jade Riley mysteries. The protagonist, Jade, is an everyday hero, a rookie journalist with more ambition than experience, more passion than finesse. She’s from Melbourne, Australia, but her travels take her far from home.

Book 1, The Godfather of Dance, is set in Houston, Texas. The unsolved murder of a ballroom dancer sets rookie journalist Jade Riley on a hunt for the killer.

Book 2, A Killer Among Friends, is set in Melbourne, Australia. When Jade’s friend Nick is murdered, she turns to their tight-knit circle for answers, only to uncover a web of lies.

Book 3 will be out in 2026, and is set in Mansfield, an Australian country town. Journalist Jade Riley wakes the morning after a dinner party to find one of her guests dead in a dam and must figure out who killed him.