Vicky Adin’s latest novel Elinor set in wider Manawatū region

Orewa author Vicky Adin was in Palmerston North to promote her latest novel, Elinor. Tracing a family tree suddenly becomes a dangerous occupation for one of her characters. Photo / Judith Lacy

Vicky Adin was raised in a family of two but married into a crowd. Instead of being overwhelmed, she became the Adin family researcher, which led to her writing books.

Adin, who lives at Orewa, is an avid genealogist and was in Palmerston North this month to launch her eighth novel, Elinor.

Elinor is billed as a gripping tale of love, loss and loyalty with a distraught friend, a mysterious stalker and generations of secrets.

It is set in 1920s and ‘30s Horowhenua, Tararua and Manawatū and covers the Depression, Napier earthquake, and floods.

Adin’s first book The Disenchanted Soldier, published in 2011 as Daniel: A Tale of Courage and Determination, is the most biographical of her books. In 1863, Daniel Adin embarks on an adventure of a lifetime in pursuit of a new life and land to farm. Adin says it took her five years to mould the book into something readable.

All her books are inspired by immigrants.

Adin lived in Shannon for about three years in the early 1970s while her husband, Bruce, was a teacher at the school. Her son was born in Palmerston North and she used to visit her husband’s grandmother in the city.

Adin is Welsh-born, Cornish-raised and came to New Zealand when she was 12.

Her link to Palmerston North now is Adrienne Charlton, owner of AM Publishing New Zealand and who now lives in Palmy.

Charlton is her editor, designer, publisher and friend.

“She’s the boss, I write the words and that is where it stops.”

From a family of two - her and her mother - more than 50 years ago she married into a crowd. Bruce is one of six, his father one of nine, and a grandfather one of seven.

Adin was in her late 40s, with her children aged 23 and 21, when she decided to go to university for learning rather than for a career.

She graduated with a Master of Arts in English. Her tutors considered her a pretty good essay writer and encouraged her to publish.

She loves the written word and enjoys discovering the juicy bits that make people real. She will get to the end of a book and think she will not write another but does.

Characters do talk to authors; they get into her psyche and keep nattering away until she tells them she will write their story.

Adin tries to write every day but often finds herself doing a lot of research and running out of time to write.

Papers Past is open on her computer all day. “Papers Past gives me so much information, it’s quite scary.”

Researching and writing is pretty much a full-time job and there are days when she sits down and forgets to get up. Then when she does her back and hips protest.

Adin encouraged her audience at Palmerston North Central Library to write their stories down, even if they are not to be read until after they are dead. If you have trouble writing your story because it is personal, turn I into the third person. This immediately puts some distance between you and what you are writing about.

“Are you writing your story? Please write your story.”

Your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will want to know, she says. They might not know they want to know, but they will.

• Elinor is available at City Library, Bruce McKenzie Booksellers and Paper Plus. First chapter teases of her books are at vickyadin.co.nz.