Kete questionnaire: Gary Venn on writing his debut novel The Singing Stone - and the vital role the Coromandel plays in it
Gary Venn
Author:
Gary Venn
Publisher:
David Bateman Ltd
ISBN:
9781776890552
Date published:
01 March 2023
Pages:
144
Format:
Paperback
RRP:
$19.99
Author and illustrator Gary Vern grew up in the Coromandel and developed a deep love and respect for the region. He has been interested in storytelling and visual art from an early age. He has been a freelance illustrator, working for many clients around the globe, including Jamie Oliver Magazine, Wall Street Journal and Cambridge University Press. He has produced illustrations for magazines, books, advertising, websites and animation, and illustrated Ben and the Icky-Ooky-Sticky-Smick with fellow Aotearoa author Sally Sutton. The Singing Stone is his first book and he wanted to write a story set in his hometown — with its beaches, rocky coastlines, rivers and bush-covered hills — in which the place itself would become a character.
The Coromandel plays a prominent role in The Singing Stone and it’s where you grew up so can you tell me how important this landscape was to the story and is to you in general?
I enjoy nature and I love the landscapes of Aotearoa, and so it is very natural for that to show itself in my writing. Also, I like to be able to picture a scene in my mind’s eye as I write and so when I came to write The Singing Stone it was my vivid and fond memories of my time growing up in the Coromandel that supplied the setting.
In what ways does growing up somewhere like Coromandel inspire creativity?
I think the combination of beautiful surroundings (beaches, rivers, bush) combined with a sense of ruggedness and isolation is a potent one.
The Singing Stone is described as a supernatural coming-of-age story about coming in contact with something unknown - perhaps unknowable. It is also about transformations, within and without. What lead you to pick supernatural themes – are they ones you’ve always enjoyed?
There is something about the unknown or the alien that fascinates me and I think it is a powerful way to explore our strengths and weaknesses as humans. The supernatural is interesting because it can hold up a mirror to ourselves - in the case of my novel the main character, Miles, is at an age where he is trying to face the challenges of life on his own terms and become more independent but the supernatural things he encounters ratchets these things up to much more exciting and dramatic level.
What is it that you enjoy about the supernatural – and were these the kinds of books you read as a young reader?
I was certainly drawn to genre fiction early on, perhaps due to having a very strong imagination, and like many people my world was changed by encountering things like Tolkien and Watership Down, Maurice Gee and Margaret Mahy at the right age. I wanted to find more reading experiences like that which expanded my mind, and in that my reading habits have not really changed much!
The Netflix series Stranger Things certainly means you’ve hit the zeitgeist – how much of this was good timing or do you think there’s always a hankering for the eerie and otherworldly?
The eerie and otherworldly is absolutely my sweet spot - perhaps the result of growing up in the 1980s on a steady diet of science fiction/horror/fantasy books and movies, many of which seem to be making a revival in the form of 80s retro stuff like Stranger Things. I like the fact that people are looking back to this stuff and enjoying it but for me it was a case of actually being there the first time!
You came to writing after a career as an illustrator so how did the change in direction come about?
I had always wanted to write - I started trying to write my own fantasy novels not very long after discovering them at about age 10… I focused on illustration for some time as I also love the visual arts but kept being drawn back into writing. I guess the urge never really went away. But like all creative practices, it takes some time to gain confidence. Becoming a published author is a long standing dream that has finally come about.
What’s more important: plot, setting or characters – and why?
They are all important, and I feel they should grow out of each other - for example, characters without a setting would lack context, and the same goes for plot or story. But, of course, the characters are what we relate to - they are our representatives within the story. Setting in particular is important to me as I like to be able to visualise the things I read about.
What is your writing process – and what do you when the going gets tough and you have to confront things like writer’s block? Where do you write?
I write a lot when I am not sitting at the computer - which sounds strange but I tend to do the hard work of writing when I am busy doing other things. Then my subconscious is able to do its work and when I can finally snatch a few hours typing at the laptop that is when I can just try to put it all down on the page.
It’s the school holidays so if you were a budding young writer with some downtime, how would you spend it to help you on your ‘writing journey?’ Reading, writing, going out and having life experiences?
Yes, all of those things. Also, think a lot about what you like in the things you read. Finally, become a good observer: take note of what is going on around you, what people are doing and saying, events that are happening that could be interesting to other people. Take it all in, you need lots of raw material when it comes to the tough part of actually trying to create something on a blank page.
Finally, can you recommend a New Zealand’s children book that you would always suggest others read?
Memory by Margaret Mahy. I won this book as a prize for English from my school when I was about 12 (and really getting into reading) and I remember finding it unlike anything else I had ever read - it was one of those discoveries that changes your idea of what a book or a story can be. In particular, there is a section early on which describes the main character Johnny wandering around an apparently deserted city at night and his first encounter with the other main character, Sophie, is wonderfully odd and eerie. I enjoyed finding a book which was set in New Zealand and had a character I could recognise and relate to but I also realised I just could not predict where the story was going, and that was a thrill. Mahy’s other books seemed to be talked about more than this one, I’m not sure why, but for me this is a favourite. I still haven’t really come across anything quite like it.
