About Fleur

When I was growing up we lived on a 77 acre playground. Well, it was actually a dairy farm in Taranaki with bush, creeks and a river to swim in. There were eels in the river but we didn’t often get bitten. My four brothers, sister and I were allowed to go anywhere on the farm except the river until we were old enough to swim competently.

Mum had a university degree but Dad had to leave school after two years at high school. They were both determined we would all have some form of tertiary education so three of us went to university, my youngest brother did an apprenticeship then trained as a nurse and finally a paramedic while the other two brothers both went to agricultural colleges.

Me aged about 16 planting fodder beet. Dad was driving the tractor and got so bored he counted the tyre treads.

Storytelling and writing runs in my family. As well as reading to us every night, Mum would sometimes tell us a story she’d made up. They were magical and we loved them. She got her first books published after I’d left home but her writing career was cut short by illness. She wrote one of the first Ready to Read books called T-Shirts which is still used in schools today.

My oldest brother Andrew was a great story-teller who told excellent burglar stories. When he got stuck for inspiration he’d say, ‘And he burgled and he burgled and he burgled.’ He became a physicist and didn’t write books but his daughter, my niece Juliet Jacka has had books published but her life got busy with two children and a full-time job so the writing is on hold for now.

I started writing short stories for radio when I was at home with two pre-schoolers. I’d never thought about getting published until I won a competition and the wonderful Dorothy Butler told me to contact an agent to see if he could place the story with a publisher. The agent was Ray Richards (Battle of Britain pilot). He placed the story and it was published – so exciting! After that until his death he was my mentor and general encourager. A good agent is worth their weight in gold and fairy dust – but you need to be careful if you’re looking for one overseas as there are all sorts of rogues who set up as agents.

I began writing novels when I was teaching in a high school. It’s my opinion that it’s best to treat writing as a hobby to start with rather than quit your job to write a book. New Zealand is a small market and realistically it’s difficult to make your living by writing unless you’re also published widely overseas – which is getting very hard to do.