What book(s) are you reading?
I went to Vanda Symon's book launch recently, so of course I'm running around Dunners trying to catch a murderer with Sam Shephard in The Ringmaster.
What's good about it?
I love the Dunedin references.
If we don't write about ourselves who will, so well done Vanda.
When do you read?
I try to get half an hour in before I go to sleep, but it often depends on how late I've worked writing.
I have a day job, so writing is usually done in the evenings, juggled with children's homework and answering emails.
Do you ever abandon a book you don't like? Why?
I do, and it is happening more often.
Most of the time it is because I just don't get the story, or the mood of it. I feel story is really important.
It's nice to get to know characters, but if all they do is go to the dairy to buy milk then probably I'm not going to finish the book.
What book do you think everyone should read and why?
Lloyd Jones' Mr Pip because it is refreshing and hopeful and short as well, Jane Mander's The Story of A New Zealand River because it is about early New Zealand and is written by a New Zealander living in the time it is set, and Peter Hawes' The Dream of Nikau Jam because it is about Westport, where I used to live and still miss.
Is there a book you've been meaning to get around to?
How big a list do you want? I need to read the finalists from this year's New Zealand Post Book Awards to keep in touch with what's happening.
How do you choose what you are going to read next?
Because a lot of my reading is somehow related to my writing I don't feel like I get a lot of choice.
For example, this year, because I've started to write for film, Syd Field's The Screenwriter's Workbook and Robert McKee's Story have been musts.
What is your most recently published book or do you have one coming out soon?
Anywhere But Here, published by Longacre Press, was published last month.
It's the sequel to Thieves, which was published two years ago and hopefully will give teens another fix of Nicky and the other travellers.
- Ella West (Karen Trebilcock) is the author of young-adult novels Thieves and Anywhere But Here.
