Graeme Foster, author of 'Single Men's Rd'. Photo / Bevan Conley
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A single writer's life
By Paul Brooks
Graeme Foster is a writer. He is other things too, like a member of the Community Choir, but this is about his writing.
Some years ago he wrote a series of books — published by Wilson and Horton — on walking tracks in and around Auckland and further afield. He has also had poetry books published, and lately, he has produced a collection of short stories, entitled, 'Single Men's Rd'.
Short stories are not an easy art form to master, but Graeme has done it. He is a storyteller.
His book is about people. Some single men, often written in first person, but other people too. Their personalities and circumstances are varied, but Graeme talks about them all with empathy and sensitivity, as if he knows them personally — and he does.
They are rough and ready, or more sophisticated; capable of deep self-awareness or just skipping across the surface, seeing things at face value. Graeme's language changes to suit the character or the moment, and even his punctuation reflects the personality he writes about.
There's a quaint Kiwi innocence in some, a chunk of another time, when the individual could keep to himself — or herself — and let their thoughts spend time in a land of plenty, if you put in the hard work. The past is an important place in this book. And it is definitely in a New Zealand setting, even if you only "kind of" recognise the invented place names, but you'll get the dialogue and every shaky isles inflexion. He says they are stories of New Zealand life.
Graeme writes knowingly, with a knowledge of things gained from experience. As well as being able to look into his characters' souls, he understands how they spend their time and what they do to make a living or keep comfortable.
"I wanted to be a writer from when I was about 11, but I didn't start till I was 30," says Graeme. "I was dairy farming for eight years, then quit that and went to university with an idea of practising social work, or something like that."
He started at Massey, studying by correspondence. "I did one year with them and did quite well." But then he moved to Auckland and resumed his studies on campus up there. "I did a double major in History and Education, came away with a BA and didn't do anything with it.
"At the end of that I started doing a bit of writing." That was about 1973. "I wrote a lot of poetry then."
He has had a varied career, working backstage with an amateur theatre group — Theatre Corporate — that turned professional, did a bit of driving in various places, then took up lawnmowing which morphed into gardening. "I returned to Pirongia in 1989 and my sister and I took turns looking after our parents. We did that for five years." Graeme stayed there for a few years after his parents died then moved to Whanganui. He belongs to Eckankar, a spiritual group and they needed him here.
Now he writes. He is presently working on what could be a novella ... or perhaps a novel. He says it has a spiritual base, but not as you would expect, and it contains a lot of psychological drama — completely unlike Single Men's Rd, which is a book of good yarns, written with knowledge and understanding.
Single Men's Rd is available from Paige's Book Gallery in Guyton St, Paper Plus in Trafalgar Square, The Book Hunter in Ridgway St and from the author.