MY WRITING LIFE

My father was a printer and typographer in Auckland, and our home was a meeting place for artist and poets and writers during the forties and fifties, an exciting time in the history of literature in New Zealand. My mother was a frustrated poet with very little money, a husband who drank too much, and four strapping daughters. She was too busy trying to make ends meet to write but she did all that she could to nourish creativity. Books and writing were always important in our house.

My first publication was at the age of ten, when my father printed a book of two of my poems, which we sold to unsuspecting aunties for two and sixpence. At school I enjoyed writing but it was not seen a career option: nurse, teacher, secretary or marriage were the standard choices then. My first job was working in a library. Next I was a waitress and a bookshop assistant, before becoming a primary school teacher, for which I lacked the necessary patience. Life took some interesting twists and turns, and at the age of thirty five I re-evalued what I wanted to do. I had spent seven years living in a Buddhist Community and was now a mother and second-time around wife. I knew I loved books and writing so I did a BA at Curtin University, majoring in Creative Writing. The atmosphere was stimulating and supportive, and soon I was writing and publishing short fiction and poetry, mainly autobiographical.

Two writers I knew had written teenage novels for the Dolly Fiction series, for which they had been paid the handsome sum of three thousand dollars. I decided to have a go. The brief was to move the plot along using fifty-percent dialogue, so I learned some technical skills as well as enjoying the nice cheque. I also learned how to sit down and write every day even if I didn't feel like it. Bruce Courtney says this is a very necessary ingredient for a writer, he calls it "bum glue." After the publication of Fizz & Max & Me I knew wanted to write a more substantial book for young adults, and was lucky enough to get a Category B Fellowship from the Australia Council. This meant I could sit for hours in my blue dressing gown looking out the window, trying to produce five hundred good words a day.

I never had a formal plan for Guitar Highway Rose. The first line reads, I can't get started, and that was pretty much the truth of it. I just followed my instincts along a dreamy road, led by a girl name Rosie who wanted a nose ring, and a boy named Asher who was dealing with a parental break-up. The collage format happened organically as well. The book just seemed to unfold, to write itself in that way. It gave me the freedom to begin wherever I felt like each day and to weave the story back and forth between characters and events, like a quilt, like life itself, which is never linear. Writing organically is a mystery journey, a process of joy and terror, and it doesn't always lead to a novel with a satisfactory structure, but with Guitar Highway Rose I was lucky.

The girl lurking in my imagination was Rosie Moon. I liked her immensely. She wasn't based on myself at that age, in fact she was loosely based on a delightful girl who came to one of my writing classes. Asher was inspired by my own son. I stole some of his attributes and characteristics, with his consent, and I added others. The mothers are the two sides of me, for inside my own psyche are both a hedonistic hippy and an uptight control freak in need of a good therapist. Because I was once an unruly teenager who got a tattoo, and I was now the mother of a boy who pierced his own nose and ear against my wishes, I enjoyed showing what it feel like for both parent and child. Star, Leo and Angel are pure invention, but they are based on a certain type of person whom you may recognise.

I write in the middle of the day for about three or four hours, on a very basic word processor. The writing time is intense and focussed, but involves tiny breaks for tea and for obsessive looking in the letterbox. Later in the day I go out, to buy vegetables or walk or meet a friend for coffee, because living inside your own head is a lonely business. Like most writers I carry a notebook with me to jot down frisky ideas that come while I am on the train or in a bank queue. I write a journal, which is both a personal process and a writerly collection of inspiring quotes and stuff that might turn into something one day. I read a lot, novels and poetry and books about writing and writers. I should read more young adult fiction, and I will, I will.

Being a writer is a curse and a blessing. Sometimes it seems the most pleasurable job in the world, sometimes it seems the most difficult. At times the work comes easily, at times it is like reaching into the depths of nowhere and finding nothing. I often wish I worked in a cafe and produced easy things, like soup or cake. The lesson I am learning right now about writing is to take my time and to enjoy myself more. Writing from a tight place will not produce good work. You need discipline but you also need joy and ease and playfulness.

My third book for young adults was “Follow the Blue”, published by Allen & Unwin in May 2001. It’s a light-hearted summery book about what happened to fifteen year old Marion the summer her parents went away. In it you will meet a daggy housekeeper, a runaway guinea-pig, two skateboarding princes and possibly part of yourself.

This part is really exciting. I have just finished writing a new book with my son. His name is Sam, and he’s twenty one years old. His star sign is Capricorn. He is also witty, smart and devilishly handsome, and currently studying Film and Television at Curtin University.

Our book is called “Space Camp,” and it’s a funny sci-fi one aimed at 12-14 year olds. We think it is absolutely brilliant. It is mildly ecological, and a whole lot of fun. It will be published in November 2002 by Allen & Unwin.

My advice to anyone who wants to be a writer is to go for it. You don’t make heaps of money but it is a wonderful creative thing to do, and it never gets boring. Read lots of books, including books about writing. Long walks are a good idea, as is sitting in cafés jotting down little notes to yourself as you watch the world go by. Trust that your thoughts, ideas and feelings are worth recording. You will need courage and determination, a keen sense of observation, and a big stick of bum glue! Enjoy!!!!!