Susan Brocker works from home as a writer. PHOTO/RUTH KEBER
Susan Brocker works from home as a writer. PHOTO/RUTH KEBER
Tauranga author Susan Brocker writes fiction and non-fiction for older children and teenagers. She has lived in Pyes Pa for 15 years in a gorgeous turn-of-the-century villa set on a hill.
My room, I call it my study, is where I write all of my children's books and do alot of other writing work.
As soon as we moved in, I claimed it as my own. We fostered children for some years and the kids had the run of the upstairs, so the study was always my space. Isolated from the rest of the house, I could shut myself away when I needed to.
You need a place where you can get away from everything. When I walk in there, it's my work place and, when I walk out, the rest of the house is my home where I can relax. I treat it like other people would treat an office, I guess.
Susan Brocker with Yogi in her beloved study. PHOTO/RUTH KEBER
I start work at 9ish and work through to 5.30, unless it's a beautiful day when I go horse riding. It's nice to have that freedom when you work for yourself.
My long-haired German shepherd, Yogi, keeps me company in the study. He's not allowed the run of the house but he's my constant companion as I write, as well as our two cats.
It's a lovely place to work. I can pop outside and sit in the sun and read or research, and have a break from the computer.
It's interesting: I started writing professionally 30 years ago and it's hard to imagine now how I could have ever written a whole novel just by hand. I rely on the computer so much.
Back then, it was all by hand and if you needed to change something it wasn't so easy. You get the pluses and the minuses from any technology.
Some of Susan Brocker's published books. PHOTO/RUTH KEBER
I do find the isolation of working from home hard sometimes. I used to work in-house for a publisher alongside other writers and we had a lot of fun. You don't have that interaction with people. It's my biggest battle: writing can be a lonely existence!
My very first trade book with HarperCollins was about our wild Kaimanawa horses, so I have a poster of the cover on the wall of my room.
Prior to writing novels, I wrote educational books for schools, mostly for the American market. It's wonderful now to be able to write for Kiwi kids about the things that I love, especially our own history and animals. I can go into "my place and my space" and let my imagination run wild.
