Ella WestAuthor of Rain Fall and Night Vision. Published by Allen & Unwin. by Author supplied

A Word in Your Ear

This issue, we had a chat with fiction writer Ella West about Rain Fall, her new book for Young Adults,

Ed: How did you write Rain Fall?

Ella: As a finalist in the New Zealand Children and Young Adult Book Awards in 2015 with Night Vision, I toured Westport and Reefton. One of the kids at an author talk asked me why I hadn’t written a book set in Westport and I didn’t have an answer. At the time Wesport was going through, and is still going through, huge social upheaval. It’s a community of about 5000 people and that year 1000 jobs were lost, mainly due to the downturn in coal. It was heart breaking to see what was happening.

Ed: You’ve lived in Westport haven’t you?

Ella: I went there as a journalist in the late 1980s – it was my first job after varsity and I fell in love with the place. I stayed for fifteen years, got married, our children were born there and we finally wrenched ourselves away in 2003 and came to Dunedin, mainly for better schooling for the kids.

Ed: Do you regret leaving?

Ella: I love going back. As soon as I see those mountains I just relax and start smiling. But I think small-town living is something I’ve done and don’t want to return to.

Ed: So what happens in the book?

Ella: It’s a murder mystery with horses galloping down rain-sodden beaches and there’s kissing and guns and explosions.

Ed: Kissing?

Ella: I know – it’s so hard to write for this age! The 10 to 15 year olds either start getting all embarrassed or love it. I’ve taken the plunge.

Ed: And horses.

Ella: Lots of stuff about horses which was fun to write. I learnt to ride in Westport and actually did gallop along the beach that’s in the book, although was totally terrified at the time.

Ed: You have to tell us about the penguin.

Ella: Usually when I write a book I start at the start and go on to the end and that’s it. With this book I started writing sections all over the place and then realised they were memories. There is so much that is true in this book, not the plot or the characters but all the little things that make up the story and the penguin is one of them. I used it in the disclaimer at the start of the book: “Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Okay, except for the penguin, and maybe some other stuff too.” So the penguin story in the book is true and there’s a funeral at the start as well that’s true. The father of a friend of ours had died and he was a horse trainer and his farm was on the edge of the cemetery. They had the horses in the paddock next to the grave and they were all standing with their heads over the fence, quiet as during the service but when they lowered the coffin the horses went nuts, neighing and galloping everywhere. I remember it made everyone cry.

Ed: So what’s it like writing a book with a real setting?

Ella: Scary. Totally scary. In Night Vision, Viola’s farm didn’t exist. You couldn’t drive there and say this is it (although I had several teachers wanting to take their classes there!). In Rain Fall the names of the streets are real, the school is real, the cafes are real (and Freckles do make the best pies in Westport) so where is that line between truth and fiction? What is real and what isn’t? Will people think that some of the fictional stuff is true? Will they hate how I’ve shown Westport? I hope not.

Ed: The title?

Ella: Rain Fall. It was originally just Rain but there are a lot of books called that so the publisher Allen & Unwin in Melbourne suggested Rain Fall which I really liked. So, as you can guess, it rains a lot in the book. Actually from the start to the end. My international rights agent in Sydney told me she loved the book but she wished it would just stop raining which made me laugh. And it can rain like that in Westport. One spring it rained for six weeks – either misty drizzle or full on downpour. The sun never came out and everyone went a bit crazy.

Ed: Tell us something usual about the book

Ella: I put myself in it, which I’ve never done before. Didn’t Hitchcock use to put himself in his movies? So I’m one of the characters – just for a page. I’m doing something I used to do most days when we lived there and Annie and her dad see me and wave. It was a bit of fun!