Interview: DeAnne Nicoloso talks about Three Little Vikings
- NZ Booklovers
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
DeAnne Nicoloso is a mother of eight children and grandmother of three, who lives between New Zealand, Australia and Brazil. She is a Criminal Barrister, and Yoga Instructor currently residing in Queenstown. Her passion is dance and languages. She talks to NZ Booklovers about Three Little Vikings.
Tell us a little about your novel.
Three Little Vikings is a story about a vigilante group of women who orchestrate hits on child sex offenders who plead not guilty. They are victim focused and trying to fix a criminal justice system that fails them. It starts with a hit that goes wrong, almost killing an innocent man. The story flicks between the present time, the police investigation into the attack, and the childhood's of the three main members of Practical Justice, the vigilante group. It shows how the children were affected by the fallout when one of them exposes a child sex offender within the family. The community's response when he is sent to prison, is as damaging to the victim and her friends, as the actual abuse. The childhood of the three girls is told through a Māori woman named Moana, who has watched them grow from little girls and remains close to them in the present time. The story follows a criminal investigation, although it is essentially about the strength of female friendship, and how instrumental it is when one's family is dysfunctional.
It shows different perspectives around child sex offending. For example, despite running their own punishment regime, Practical Justice sometimes deals with offenders, who admit their guilt in a restorative justice focused way. The story is semi-autobiographical, from my perspective as a child and adult victim, and criminal defense lawyer representing child sex offenders.
I wanted to explore the topic of child sex offenders because I think despite all the progress we have made bringing attention to the exploitation and abuse of women and children, child sex offending is an area that most people are uncomfortable with, therefore it is still to some extent, swept under the carpet. Sexual offending and trafficking of children is unfortunately an ongoing issue, particularly now in the online world. Offenders often take the view that they are not actually harming children, when the offending occurs online, but of course they are maintaining it. I wanted to write something a little dark and thought provoking to encourage thought around child protection but also treatment of offenders. I am an advocate of restorative justice as a powerful means of accountability for the offender and healing for the victim. I wanted to give some power to the victims by allowing them to design their own bespoke type of punishment.
What research was involved?
Zero research. All just anecdotal work stuff and my unhinged imagination. Although because it was semi-autobiographical and based on where I have lived, I did document every address I could recall living in, there were 51. Now it would be in the 60s.
What was your process or routine writing your novel?
I had the idea about 20 years ago, but have had a busy career as a criminal lawyer and raising my eight children, so I never really had the energy to properly write. My process was erratic, spontaneous, protracted but when I made a commitment to focus on finishing the book full time, I just wrote. Actually my husband and two teenagers moved out of our rental home on the gold coast, when our lease expired as we were planning on moving to Brazil. We lived in tents, traveling around southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. Not paying rent, meant I didn't have to work full time so was able to focus on getting the book done. I finished it between the beaches and public libraries of Byron Bay and Brunswick heads.
If there was a theme song for your book what would it be?
'Emperor's New Clothes' Sinead O'Connor
If your books turned into a movie or TV series, who would play the key characters?
Kathleen: Nicole Kidman
Jillian: Uma Thurman
Hannah: Keisha Castle-Hughes
What did you most enjoy about writing this book?
Writing it was so cathartic. I used the content of my life and spread it across the three main characters. It meant looking back at what I had been through and what I was doing, which made me understand the choices I had made. I also wrote it after finishing a stint, convening a criminal law course at the University in Queensland, so I had come from writing assessments based on factual scenarios where I had to constantly re-write and check the law. When I first started writing the book, I remember feeling delirious with the sense of freedom, that I could write whatever I wanted.
What did you do to celebrate finishing Three Little Vikings?
When I finished the book, to celebrate, I spent the day wandering around Byron Bay in a haze. Later, my husband and two kids had a celebration moonlight picnic on the wharf at Brunswick Heads
What is the favourite book you have read this year?
Favourite book so far this year is 'The Hop' by Diana Clarke. It is raw and brutal but honest and so many themes are familiar to me from my life and especially from teenage girls and women I have represented.
What is next on your agenda?
I want to write a series of books about this vigilante group of women. Three Little Vikings is the end of that series. I want to write the series completely randomly, as in, not in any order. The next one might be about when the women are in the middle of their enterprise, and the next one might go back to the beginning of it. I would like to write the books in a way that makes sense to the reader, given the knowledge of how it all ends. I would focus on different themes within each book(e.g. coercive control, child pornography) and also flesh out the characters of the other players, e.g. Patch and Triumph, the hit men. Go into more detail with some of the hits they do.
I would like to get a publisher or agent. I would really like to write a script for a series. I think it would look good on screen. For now, I have to get my two babies through high school, so I am working as a barrister. I am currently living in Queenstown, too cold to live in tents. If Three Little Vikings sells, I will write a series; if not, my rationale has always been that there is so much of my life in the book, at least it will be something my many offspring can have as a type of family history. I don't think any of my own children will bother to read it, but I like to think of my grandchildren in the future trying to decipher the facts from the fiction.