Does it Matter?
I was struck by something said by celebrated NZ author Sir James McNeish in the annual Janet Frame Memorial lecture at the Wellington City Gallery: “Writer’s lives seldom measure up to what they write about...” (NZ Author Issue 292 April/May 2013).
I doubt that matters.
I’ve written contemporary novels about criminals and abductions in France (mainly because I’m a Francophile) and in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand (because of family connections there dating from 1864) and one about the taking of hostages in the West Indies (on account of some of my forebears coming to New Zealand from there). But that’s all they have to do with my personal life.
Next I wrote a book, set in New Zealand, with suicides, a murder and an abortion – none of which I have first-hand experience of.
Following that was a story, with crime involved, of a treasure hunt on Sub Antarctic Campbell Island. Now I’ve been lucky enough to make a short visit to Campbell Island by ship but the only treasure I was seeking was the experience of nature in a protected place.
My latest book (“Green Expectations” https://www.createspace.com/4153773 ) does have a little to do with my former career but has, as characters, a radical conservationist (when I’ve always been a conservative one) and a villainous businessperson (when I’ve only known public service).
Interestingly, all my books except the first have had a character who commits suicide. And, even in the first, a character gives up her life to save another.
Now, in times of extreme stress or distress, I’ve a number of times been tempted by suicide, as probably many of us are. (I was a one-time poet, so it’s probably not surprising.) In my teens, in a misguided attempt to change someone’s mind, I’ve even taken a prescription drug overdose with a half-hearted resolve to end it all. I guess that’s where my subconscious fascination with the subject springs from.
Anyhow, in balance, you may agree that my life does not exactly measure up to what I write about. It’s certainly less thrilling than the lives of some of my characters, even of other writers. The latter is a theme I’ll explore further in a future blog post.
I doubt that matters.
I’ve written contemporary novels about criminals and abductions in France (mainly because I’m a Francophile) and in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand (because of family connections there dating from 1864) and one about the taking of hostages in the West Indies (on account of some of my forebears coming to New Zealand from there). But that’s all they have to do with my personal life.
Next I wrote a book, set in New Zealand, with suicides, a murder and an abortion – none of which I have first-hand experience of.
Following that was a story, with crime involved, of a treasure hunt on Sub Antarctic Campbell Island. Now I’ve been lucky enough to make a short visit to Campbell Island by ship but the only treasure I was seeking was the experience of nature in a protected place.
My latest book (“Green Expectations” https://www.createspace.com/4153773 ) does have a little to do with my former career but has, as characters, a radical conservationist (when I’ve always been a conservative one) and a villainous businessperson (when I’ve only known public service).
Interestingly, all my books except the first have had a character who commits suicide. And, even in the first, a character gives up her life to save another.
Now, in times of extreme stress or distress, I’ve a number of times been tempted by suicide, as probably many of us are. (I was a one-time poet, so it’s probably not surprising.) In my teens, in a misguided attempt to change someone’s mind, I’ve even taken a prescription drug overdose with a half-hearted resolve to end it all. I guess that’s where my subconscious fascination with the subject springs from.
Anyhow, in balance, you may agree that my life does not exactly measure up to what I write about. It’s certainly less thrilling than the lives of some of my characters, even of other writers. The latter is a theme I’ll explore further in a future blog post.
No comments have been added yet.
