But its birth is proving to be a popular read.
The seeds for the book — a tale uniting Julia and Julian in the discovery that age is no barrier to experience, or to love — were first sown in the mind of the Rangiora›based author, as a teen, then living in Invercargill.
While browsing in the library he spotted an article in a journal about a Paraguayan tribe of Guarani Indians, which no longer existed.
The memory faded and it was not until many years later, it was reignited following a newspaper article about two Indian women spotted wandering aimlessly in an agitated state deep in a South American forest. When they realised they had been seen, they ran away.
‘‘Recalling my earlier memory, I felt I might be able to weave the two threads together somehow to make a good story, suitable for both young and adult readers,’’ Mr Holcroft says.
After much research he learnt that the Guarani have a deep relationship with the forest and a holistic perception of the world in which every medicinal herb used for treating physical or spiritual illness is considered a spirit — a brother of the tribe.
When he had clearly defined his characters, the award›winning writer of fairy tales and stories of the supernatural, set to work.
‘‘I wrote a few different drafts which started off in a local setting on a remote island, but I soon realised that wasn’t going to work,’’ Mr Holcroft says.
When his son married in Northern Argentina, and he and his wife travelled there, it triggered a setting, and The Candle Trees began to take shape.
It tells the story of Julian being less than impressed at meeting Julia, not wanting a great›granny to join the household.
But on discovering a diary written by her when she was a young girl, he becomes absorbed in the account of her wild, romantic adventures in a remote South American forest as she goes in search of the legendary and magical Candle Trees.
Mr Holcroft says the thing he enjoyed most about writing the novel was the way the story built and expanded in his mind, with new ideas being‘‘absorbed or perhaps rejected’’.
‘‘It is a process of discovery for me, which I always enjoy, and particularly so with The Candle Trees, the longest story I’ve written to date.’’
Mr Holcroft’s books and stories for children have been published and anthologised in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada, and adapted for New Zealand radio and television.
