Novel Natterings: One Hour to Midnight

Today, I have the incredible, Shirley Wine visiting. Inspiring, clever, full of heart and generous, she is also an amazing writer. I started reading One Hour to Midnight this morning and I'm already a third of the way through. Just like that, I've become a girl-fan of hers and I'm excited to say I've got two more of her stories waiting on my kindle! Woohoo!!

But I'll let you get to know her yourself if you don't already. Hi Shirley, and welcome! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Firstly LaVerne, thank you for hosting me.

You know, I hate talking about myself… I think that comes from my mother's English genes. The Irish genes inherited from my father are flamboyant, if more morose. This has given me a curious mix of temperament. Practical and organised on one side, in your face, creative and given to periods of melancholy on the other.

Growing up, our family were the poor whites. I can vividly remember being told as a six year old I was "poor white trash and would amount to nothing." And brother, has that ever been a spur in my side to achieve. Then a new head master was appointed and school became a fun place.

We had no money for books and I devised a homework ring. A page of long division got me to read Black Beauty, a page of fractions, Lassie Come Home. This worked real well until I made the same mistake in eight lots of arithmetic homework! What can I say? I loved maths as much as I loved to read. The Country Library Service started and books were renewed every six months. I was the only child in the school who read every book issued twice in the six months, from infants to the then Standard Six.

At college I saw my first library and I was in hog heaven. And being methodical I started reading alphabetically. By midway through my second year I was reading P.G. Wodehouse. And I never once incurred a fine for being late returning a book. I read every book in that library, my favourites, Scott's Waverly Novels. My English teacher told me to skip the boring descriptions and they're rollicking great stories. Sage advice for a writer.

I've been married to the same man for very near fifty years…and been sweethearts a decade longer. We have been both blessed and cursed with children…blessed to have had them in our lives and grieved when we've buried them, three in infancy, twin sons as young men of almost thirty. We have two daughters, the eldest has suffered through surgery and rehabilitation from a brain tumour, the younger recently spent time recovering from a stroke… and our surviving son has a severe alcohol problem with all its related stresses.

Writing, gardening and reading and my very own hero at home, are what have kept me sane. But life is what it is. It's the only life I have and to me every day is precious because I know how fragile the thread of life is and how easily it can be broken.

*Shakes head* Knowing tragedy as intimately as you have, it is no wonder you write with such power. I've been blown away by the depth you bring to your characters. When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I can never remember a time when I didn't write. As a young farmer's wife, I had a regular column Country Comment in the NZ Herald where I commented on anything and everything that affected rural women, and often polarised people with acerbic comments. Once a column on the plague of German wasps provoked such a storm the Herald consulted experts on the subjects. The experts sided with me and I won that debate by a country mile!

Later, I worked as a free-lance journalist for the Bay Of Plenty Times and the KatiKati Advertiser, our local newspaper. But a writer? That's still very much a work in progress, there is such a huge amount to learn.

*Fist-pump* on winning the debate! What a good feeling! Do you remember what inspired you to write your first book?

Yeah! I read The Thorn Birds and was inspired by Colleen McCullough's wonderful simplicity and her way with words. And I thought, I can do that…insert maniacal laughter here…I will write the next Great New Zealand novel.

Well that's still a little way off. Maybe…

Ooo - yes! I adored The Thorn Birds too. I love call stories. Can you tell us about yours and your reaction?

I was so excited when my first book Catriona/Kate was chosen to be one of the inaugural books for the NZ's Kiwigold Publishing Company launch.

Not nearly so excited when the firm went belly-up and I saw my books being sold in bargain bins for a dollar a book…or seeing them offered for $35 now as collectibles and knowing I never received a cent in royalties. I've since republished this book as Yesterday's Sins.

The decision to self-publish was taken when I received my last rejection letter… I decided that I could well be dead and ashes scattered on the wind before I penetrated the glass ceiling of trad publishing. It's a decision I've not regretted, especially when royalty cheques arrive every month. I'll probably never get rich…but the satisfaction is enormous.

What drew you to write your chosen genre?

I love romance. Life can be far too grim. When I read, I want to lose myself in the story, safe in the knowledge the people I'm reading about and care about, are going to reach a happy ending. I don't want to read about death, dying, torture or rape or politics. I know it happens but do I want to take that to bed with me? No way!

So I write what I like to read, contemporary romance. I do sometimes read historical but the disadvantage of being a voracious reader is that I have difficulty entering the fantasy when I've read so much about the grim reality of history. And while some authors have achieved fame and fortune creating fantastic other worlds, I just don't get it.

I'm a firm believer everyone would benefit from a bit of romance in their lives too - even if its only through a good book! What’s the most challenging part of the writing process for you?

Research.

Research is vital. One thing I've learned is that out there in the big wide world… someone always knows. I remember being jolted out of a story when I read that the heroine's baby needed a blood transfusion because its father was Rh negative and the mother was Rh positive… and this was the crucial plot point of the story.

Uh oh! It ain't gonna happen. Having lost infants with Rh incompatibility, I know the mother had to be Rh negative, the father Rh positive and furthermore that there are three different types of Rh positives, the positives who never throw a positive blood group, the one who has a 50/50 chance and then the D type… like my DH who always throw a positive blood group… not because I'm a medico but because experience taught me.

This author didn't do her homework. And once a reader finds an error like this the author loses credibility and a reader.

Sigh...research. I'm with you on that! Has anything coincidental happened in the real world while writing one of your books in terms of the characters, scenes or world you’ve created?

Oh yeah! "Return To Totara Park" is one book that gives me the willies. The central theme of the book is the death of a child buried at Hautapu cemetery, near Cambridge. I'd written the first draft aeon's ago. After being let down on a publishing contract, I got my knickers in a twist, hauled an old file out of my electronic bottom drawer and Return To Totara Park was the result. This was published by Treble Heart Books in 2002.

What spooked me was when I wrote the original, I didn't know two of our sons would be buried in that cemetery. Even thinking about it now sends the hairs up on my spine. Did I, writing that book, cause those tragic deaths? Did I somehow have a foreshadowing knowledge of events that would come to pass? The twins' deaths were spooky enough, but this still gives me the shivers. Justin died in a coma after a virus attacked his heart. Twelve weeks later, Nolan went to bed and just never woke up. They could determine no cause of death. Medical science doesn't recognise a broken heart as a cause of death.

That certainly gave me the heebie-jeebies too, Shirley. Which one of your books is your ‘baby’ and why?

One Hour To Midnight. Why?

This is the book that finally, after fifty years, has given me a sense of closure.

I have blogged about this book and the defining event in my life that led me to write it. The entire blog is on my website…the blog title: BLOG HOP: The Book Challenge From NaNoWriMo if your readers want to read it.

I'm going to pop on over and have a read of that - especially since I'm so engrossed in this book at the moment. Thanks for the heads-up. What are you working on right now?

At the moment, I'm in the throes of finishing Sarah's Baby, working with a freelance editor on the final edits.

This is the third book in the series, The Mulleins of Katherine Bay, a fictitious town on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsular. I've really grown to love this family as they all face up to the challenges brought on my growing up in a dysfunctional family. I didn't realise until well into this book that the underlying thread in the three books is domestic violence. It took the youngest sibling to heal the wounds of their childhood.

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Monday, February 4, 2013

Indulge Yourself With Shirley Wine

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