Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi

The actual inspiration came from Hatupatu's Rock, a rock near my home here in New Zealand, where people often leave a coin as a mark of respect, just as they do at Tama Ariki's Rock in my story. The Maori people tell stories about a young man called Hatupatu who centuries ago used the rock as a place of refuge when chased by a "bird woman". Originally, travelers would leave a green twig so that they could safely pass by, but now a coin is the usual token left. A Maori elder told me about people stealing coins from Hatupatu's Rock and some of the dreadful things that happened to those people. Those people certainly did seem to attract far more bad luck than most people and it was clear that the bad luck cut a wide swathe through their families.

Queenie D: What sort of "dreadful things" happened to those people?

Dawn R: Accidents, murder, physically handicapped children - horrible things extending over a number of generations. It seems so unfair that children should be punished for the sins of the father, although it's a concept with it's roots in Christianity, but a family whose grandfather stole coins from Hatupatu's Rock is still suffering today. Now maybe that is coincidence - but maybe it isn't.

Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi Question 1

The whole concept of utu - which means "repayment" and is almost always used in the sense of revenge - is very strong in Maori culture. In past centuries it certainly was common for revenge of a wrong to be paid back by someone from a later generation. It was a family's duty to do that.

Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi Question 2

I find that I "see" a story in a succession of still clips - almost like an old movie juddering along. And - and I'm guessing that you're referring to the beach scene - that was how I saw it. So much blood. And a feeling of such despair at not being able to stop things. That despair just tore me up. I was crying as I typed and when I'd finished that scene I thought "well, I can't have that in the book. It's too bloody - too graphic." So I tried to change it - to water it down, but I couldn't. The story disappeared when I tried to just hint at the awfulness of that scene. You had to be there with Saffron and walk through that blood and experience those feelings for the story to make sense.

Stephen King once likened writing a story to unearthing a fossil. He said a story is already fully formed. All the writer needs to do is chip away the bits of debris that don't belong there. That's what I tried to do - just dust away the bits that didn't belong. When I left out that scene it was as if I'd knocked an entire leg off the fossil. It toppled over.

So there are scenes in Ripples that affected me strongly when I wrote them and still affect me when I read them today - but I believe they are true to the story.

Queenie D: I'm going to admit, I was shocked by some of the scenes of absolute cruelty and brutality - especially involving the babies. Do you feel it was necessary to include such graphic images of death and blood to drive home the point of the novel?

Dawn R: If you think about the story without those scenes, I think you'll find the story has gone. I never thought in terms of deliberately having so much blood in the book.

Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi Question 3

Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi Question 4

Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi Question 5

The camera is a very distancing medium. I did quite a bit of freelance press photography when I was younger and there were moments when I shocked myself with my ability to disassociate myself from the mayhem. It's as if you become removed from the scene. That aspect troubled me a lot. I wonder how the paparazzi live with themselves sometimes. I used those conflicting emotions that I had felt and gave them to Nick Jones.

And that's why such a talented photographer ends up working in a small New Zealand town. He was punishing himself. He could not forgive himself for taking those photographs. He tells himself - hang on (sound of Dawn flicking through pages) "one day, when he'd got his head around the fact that he'd photographed his wife while her lifeblood spurted away, he'd start worrying whether it would have been OK if she'd been someone else's wife." Nick still had a whole lot of forgiving to do.

Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi Question 6

I agree that his beating of Billy was brutal but for Big Wal it was absolutely necessary. Because of his "connectedness" to the world of his ancestors, he knew the history of those coins the moment they touched his counter. He was a happily married, middle-aged man with grandchildren and his little business. He knew that Billy's action of placing the coins on his counter put all that he loved at risk.

So - if a savage dog threatened one of his grandchildren, Big Wal would have grabbed that baseball bat he kept under his counter and used it in defense. To Big Wal, what Billy had just done was exactly the same. Those coins were "tapu" - so sacred that for their own safety people had to be stopped from touching them. And then this stupid kid dumps them on his counter and tries to buy a burger from him with them. Big Wal had no option.

And remember, he does ask Billy a number of times to remove the coins. It was only when Billy refused that Big Wal was forced to act.

Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi Question 7

Book Interview Dawn Rotarangi Question 8

I was lucky that Ripples on the Lake spent a number of weeks on the New Zealand Best Seller list so that many people emailed me to say they loved the story. It made me realize what a privilege it is to tell stories to people - you connect - and knowing that people are waiting for another story makes me want to deliver. But I can't force it. I'm probably not a commercial writer in that, although my topics and my handling of them are commercial - and I've just had a reviewer use the term "directed at a popular audience" as if it was a string of four letter words - my stories seem to need a long incubation time.

Queenie D: What's wrong with writing for a popular audience?

Dawn R: Yes, it surprised me too. Surely the popular audience are the majority of the book-buying public? What's wrong with writing stories that people want to read? Certainly one reviewer criticized everything from the title to the price to the cover as being 'directed at a popular audience.' The inference seemed to be that this was not good.

Queenie D: Does that hurt?

Dawn R: Yes. A story is like your child. You want everyone to love it although you know that isn't possible. But a number of teachers are using Ripples on the Lake in the classroom as a story that teenagers can enjoy and yet also get them thinking seriously about New Zealand history and the whole Maori/Pakeha equation. That gives me a lot of pleasure. Makes up for the occasional person who just doesn't get it.

Queenie D: Pakeha?

Dawn R: That's the word for non-Maori New Zealanders.

There has been some interest in making a movie based on Ripples but it didn't pan out in the end. I'd love it if someone did put it on the big screen.

I blog sporadically and although it started out as a "writing" blog, it has become more of a chat with internet friends so that if any of the Book Club Queen readers want to join in I'd love to see them at The Flightless Writer.

Or if they simply want a little more background on Ripples on the Lake or the town of Taupo where the story is set then my website might interest them. Between an internet business, the writing, the blog and three boisterous dogs, I keep busy.