The talented Bec Kavanagh recently interviewed Meg Mundell for the A Thousand Words newsletter. We’ve taken a snippet of the Q&A below and the full interview can be read here.

A Thousand Words has a competition for readers under 18 years of age to win a free copy of Meg’s debut novel Black Glass. To enter email bec@athousandwordsfestival.com.au and describe what smell brings back the strongest memories for you and why.

The ‘moodies’ (characters who control the atmosphere of a room by altering peoples sensory experience) are fascinating. Where did the idea for these artists come from?

Partly that came from my past experience working as a DJ, watching how different sounds would affect the behaviour of a crowd. Also I’m interested in space and the senses, and how we experience different places through sound, colour, touch, smell. And I wanted the Moodie to be a creative character who has to face some tricky moral questions – is it ethical to secretly control people in this way? Where does art stop and greed take over?

What kind of research did you do to be able to describe so well the kinds of scents and sounds that the majority of readers would respond to in the same way as the characters?

Well, I did a lot of sniffing! Strange, but true. I looked into the effects of certain smells, colours and sounds on human behaviour. There are all sorts of theories and experiments circling around out there. For example, about half of the casinos in Las Vegas pump special smells through their air-conditioning systems to encourage people to stay longer and spend more money. Apparently fast-food restaurants often use the colours red and yellow, which stimulate your appetite, so you eat fast and move on, leaving your table free for another customer. And at some train stations overseas they play dodgy, uncool “muzak” through the speakers to discourage teenagers from hanging around. Those sorts of ideas found their way into the book.

A Thousand Words is an Australian literature festival that celebrates children’s stories, brings books out of the classroom and helps to develop a wide-reaching network for readers and writers. The [missing asset] festival runs September 23-24, 2011.