I’m wondering about a sequel to Harbouring. Sequels are fun because your characters – or some of them – are already alive in your mind. And with so much interest – and controversy – these days in our early colonial history, it seems important to explore ideas around that time. What were the big issues... Continue Reading →
By Publication Date, the next novel should be at least half written. That is a mantra that most writers will expect of themselves. I know many writers who have more than one thing on the go. Not me. But in the past I have tried to keep to that pattern. When you send a finished... Continue Reading →
The Harbouring adaptation has hit a roadblock. My sister is ill and needs help. Certain things are not negotiable and looking after family or friends are - in my book – more important. So here I am in my sister’s house caring for her and trying to write at an uncomfortable table, peering at the... Continue Reading →
I’m about to embark on a difficult task - cutting my novel Harbouring down from eighty-five thousand words to twenty-four thousand, while still keeping the story driving forward sensibly and the words lively and interesting. More or less reducing the whole by three quarters. ‘Throw away your darlings’ as we are encouraged to do in... Continue Reading →
When is the right time to stop writing? It’s a thought that often invades my thinking. Am I too old? Are my instincts and word-knowledge waning? Maurice Gee announced he was stopping at eighty years old, after a full life-time of writing. Then he went on to write at least two more books, one of... Continue Reading →
Last week my husband Laughton would have turned ninety had he lived. Living without him has been something I’ve had to learn how to do, as many of my women friends of similar age also face. I’ve been living on my own for three years now. Some of the things I’ve had to work on... Continue Reading →
I am struggling at the moment trying to write an ending that feels exactly right, properly balanced, emotionally satisfying. One writer I know always writes her last chapter first. Others like to say that they let their characters develop a will of their own; the writer just follows them to wherever they’re going. I think... Continue Reading →
I thought Harbouring was going to be my last novel. As retiring broadcaster Kim Hill has said recently said: it’s better to leave before you’re pushed. But it seems the habit of writing is too ingrained in me. New stories keep clamouring to be written. Now that a new novel is in the third draft... Continue Reading →
Some of you may have noticed an opinion piece I had in the Listener this week. My editor of twenty years has been made redundant by Penguin Random House. In my opinion a real mistake. Harriet Allan has been publishing editor for all my ten novels and also for many other senior New Zealand authors.... Continue Reading →
At a funeral recently (a common event for someone my age) a woman I wasn’t aware of meeting before came up and spoke to me. ‘When you and I were children,’ she said, ‘you used to holiday at your aunt’s bach in Paekākāriki, and I holidayed across the road at my grandmother’s. Do you remember... Continue Reading →
Jenny Pattrick 