Normally, I’ll start in October. I’ll wake up everyday around 8am and have breakfast, then write from 8.30am to 10.30am, then ring up someone to meet for morning tea or a coffee.
Then I write again from 11am to 1pm, then ring up other friends and say, ‘I’m starving, let’s go out for lunch’. Then I’ll write again from 2pm to 5pm. After that, usually I like to go out and have a good steak and a late swim. Then from 8pm to 11pm I’ll write, and then I’m in bed.
Do you often come up with ideas when you’re swimming?
There’s something about going to swim in the waves and just floating there - possibly it’s all of the energising elements that make my brain fizz. I can lie on my back and just look up into the sun. There have been occasions where I’ve been joined by a seagull, or a dolphin. I wish that a whale would come, because that would be a wonderful companion.
How do you deal with criticism?
I take a deep breath - I read it all. I have a dart board and I throw darts at the board, and I go out and I go for a walk. The best way to get over criticism is to keep on writing. Don’t let it get you down.
You’ve got to love what you’re doing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a writer or an office worker, a farmer, or someone who works on the river or at McDonald’s, as long as you continue to do the best in what you’re doing.
I never thought I’d be a writer. I thought I’d be absolutely hopeless at life. You have to keep on holding on to whatever the dream is that you’re dreaming.
How do you feel about going back to school to learn te reo Māori?
I’m stopping writing for an entire year to learn how to speak and write in te reo Māori, and at my advanced age I’ll be attending a school in Auckland. I think I’ll be the oldest student that te reo class has ever, ever had. After this long career of 50 years of writing in English, I think I owe it to write at least one book in te reo Māori. Wish me luck.
Are you nervous?
I’ve never been a clever student. When I was at school it took me three years to get my university entrance, and my parents kept me at school until I was 18. When I finally graduated from university after nine years, my father sent me a telegram saying: ‘Congratulations. About time. Even the tortoise didn’t take this long.’
For a tortoise, I haven’t done too bad, and I seem to have picked up some speed along the way.
You’re coming to Whanganui to celebrate Ngā Kupu Wero - a double-volume anthology of stories by Māori writers. Could you talk about how this book came about?
It took three years to get it going, and it was really Vaughan Rapatahana’s idea to make it as comprehensive as possible. It will have one kaupapa and two sets of knowledge - the first volume is Ngā Kupu Wero and the second is Te Awa o Kupu.
There are 140 Māori writers in both novels and 800 pages in total, and so I think us four editors can be excused for being totally exhausted by the process, but really, really thrilled.
What are you currently working on?
I have written a sequel to The Whale Rider, and so I’m hopeful that I will be able to put that out in 2025 after a tremendous amount of revision. I’m also working on two feature films, and I hope both of those will go into production next year.
Do you think the New Zealand literary scene gives enough opportunities to young Māori writers?
That is the main reason why the four of us decided to create these two anthologies, because they were an opportunity for us to show who is currently on the landscape, from well-known authors like Patricia Grace to school students.
We wanted to make sure a new generation of writers also have opportunities to tell people what they hope will happen. In a world that is facing climate change and autocratic leadership, it seems to be a world we will have to try to put right.
We’ve got so many talented writers and they’re all writing about the condition of being Māori, of being a New Zealander, or a school student, and feeling as if they’re disempowered. But it’s also exciting to see all the energy, hope and optimism.
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
