This interview is with Abi_Kirk86; writer of Tatoo of the Black Angel, the sequel Mark of the Water Nymph, the Watty Award-winning Realm, Being, Soul Bearers, www.Is-It-Love.com, and her Avatar fan fics, Avatar, Daily Life of the Avatar, and Pippa's First Day of School. She also has some short stories written, just in case you get through all of her novels too fast and need a fix.
Abi is currently running a Mythology Competition so be sure to check out www.abi-kirk.webs.com for more information on that.
This is a really interesting interview to read and I hope you like it as much as I did.
Enjoy!
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1. How old were you when you knew you wanted to be an archaeologist and what made you choose that? How hard was it to actually make that your career?
I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was 10. I had the chance to go on this "dig" when my small school of 20 (and that's excluding kids from 5 under) went to Wembworthy in North Devon on this residential trip in 1996. Unfortunately on the last day where everyone had the chance to dig up an old Mott and Bailey and an old Roman Fort, (though it was just clearing the top soil) I was whisked away to start rehearsals for Babbacombe Theatre for the summer.
I heard how everyone found all these interesting artefacts and I kept thinking, "What would I have found if I had the chance?"
Of course during those days, my teachers never helped me to aspire to be anything useful as I was never attending out of school activities that they approved of.
I was at ballet school up until I was 16. Tap, modern, ballet, character, mime- I hardly had a chance to breathe and chill out- not to mention I had singing lessons, piano lessons, Aikido and keyboard on top of that.
After getting into college/6th form from the age of 17-18, I took classes which could help me be an archaeologist- so geology, classical civilisation, history and philosophy. Needless to say philosophy sucked and I took drama instead. After getting my grades, I ended up at Lampeter University in Wales.
I felt like such an odd ball when I talked to the other people who were in the same class, they only wanted to be archaeologists because of Time Team!
After a year, I found out that Time Team isn't archaeology and with that knowledge a few people dropped out, but I stuck to it. I always found myself taking modules that were based within my interests, Egypt, Crete, Cyprus Bronze Age and also Archaeology in Oceania.
During the 3 year course, we went out excavating at Strata Florida in Wales and though I found it interesting, I kept asking my trench supervisors what I had found and it was like "I want to theorise. I want to create ideas about the past." I mean after all, no one is certain about pre-history; everything that everyone knows about old civilizations where their native scripture has no Rosetta Stone, or was written on perishable substances, can be contested. There has even been recent evidence that Ape's walked upright! Something that people found impossible 30 years ago. So I found it much more interesting coming up with ideas and formulating reasons that wouldn't contradict the evidence but enhance it to a degree where there would be another way of understanding the past from a different point of view.
At the moment, it's very hard for people to go out on excavations; there are few at the moment because of the economic slump. You need to have at least a Master's degree or PhD to get paid a sufficient amount to survive. It's not a well-paid job; everyone knows that. You don't earn millions, but you do earn respect by contributing ideas and assumptions about the earth's history. For those who want to be an archaeologist, by all means go for it. It's an interesting job, but it's very hard work; more so than you would imagine. It's not all about excavating; usually a degree constitutes as 70% theory and 30% excavation!
