I write best in sheds. My regular shed is a concrete box in Raumati, next to a busy roundabout. You have to wear earmuffs to block out the traffic. The desk is a door and sawhorses from the dump. If you stand up, you can just make out a slope of kohekohe forest on the escarpment. And there’s always damp, because much of Raumati is reclaimed swamp.
Another favourite place to write is on the train to work. From the window you can see raupō poking through paddocks, pūkeko flicking about. Everywhere the wetland wants to come back. From here it’s easy to see my characters navigating the returned swamps of the future, the altered climate that is ahead of us. In that way Raumati is like the South Island places where we grew up—small farms prone to peatiness and swamp near Springston and Hook.
Most of our family lived in the South Island. I remember trips to the Hunter Hills, Te Anau, through Central and the lakes. Lots of my favourite books are from there too—The Divided World, Butler’s Ringlet, The Lazy Boys. I’m keen to get back.
Links
Read ‘My Brother’s Blood’ from Sport 40 http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Ba40Spo-t1-body1-d51.html
Listener interview http://www.listener.co.nz/culture/books/interview-lawrence-patchett/
More info at Lawrence’s website www.lawrencepatchett.com
Lawrence on craft www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/6222050/Bright-literary-sparks-on-the-rise
Lawrence interviewed by Craig Cliff: http://thecraigcliff.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/all-that-lofty-stuff-chat-with-lawrence.html
A RNZ interview: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/artsonsunday/audio/2519377/lawrence-patchett
roadwords 