'The women were absent': Lauren Roche
Lauren Roche was born in Wellington and is a retired medical doctor. A graduate of the Otago School of Medicine, she has also completed a Northtec Creative Writing course and holds a Master's of Creative Writing from AUT. Her published works are Bent Not Broken, Life on the Line, Mila and the Bone Man and a few short pieces, including The Graverobber's Apprentice which in 2020 was highly commended in the Lilian Ida Smith Award. In June 2022 her micro-fiction piece Arise won 1st prize in the Whangārei Library Flash and Micro Fiction competition. Julia Eichardt is her second novel, and first venture into historical fiction. Kete caught up with Lauren to find out more about Julia Eichardt, a story 'of Queenstown’s past seen through the eyes of a woman who helped build its future.'
What’s been the best part of writing and releasing Julia Eichardt?
Writing this book taught me how to access resources that helped with historical accuracy.
Archives, old newspapers, government records, early photographs are more accessible than I imagined, and archivists are so happy to help. I have promised a couple of archivists that I will name future (nice) characters after them.
How did the book come to be?
The book came about when the publisher, Sam Paardekooper, noticed that many of Queenstown early men were memorialised in street names and with statues, but the women were absent. He set out to publish books that tell the stories of some of the early European women who also built the town from a shanty to a tourist destination.
Who is your ideal reader for this book? Who needs to read it?
My ideal reader loves human stories and wants to learn something while enjoying a story. While this story is set in Otago the history is relevant to other towns who reinvented themselves when the gold ran out.
Tell us what inspires you? An author, a book, a place, or whatever you like...
Walking in the bush inspires and regenerates me. Writing is sedentary and the physicality of getting out into nature is my medicine, my church and my learning place. I have some physical limitations now, but as often as I am able I walk a few hours in the bush. That’s once a week or so. Most days I walk my dog, but that is more of an exercise in patience. She is a great sniffer. The North inspires me too. It’s a place of huge beauty.
What Aotearoa New Zealand book do you wish you’d written?
Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey.
What’s been your best read this year so far?
The Sea by John Banville. I am doing annual re-reads of Possession (AS Byatt) and The Bee Sting (Paul Murray). The latter is great training in how to foreshadow.
And last, but definitely not least, what are you writing next? Are you inspired to take on a new historical project?
I am working on a novel that’s been about twenty years in the making. Harriet Allen is editing it with me. It tells the story of the writing and illustration of Gray’s Anatomy in London, 1860s. Same era as my Julia book, with some interesting historical cross overs. So another historical fiction is underway. I am also polishing my masters thesis which is about death and dying. Julia Eichardt is available in bookstores now.
