Jessica Howland Kany was born on Manhattan Island (NYC) and now resides on another extraordinary island: Rakiura Stewart Island, New Zealand. She has lived there since 2002, editing the Stewart Island News (SIN) since 2005. Between island lives, she graduated from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri; lived in San Francisco; wrote for the Jackson Hole News in Jackson, Wyoming; and worked at the Lahaina Library in Maui, Hawaii. On Rakiura she has worked at the pub, the post office/flight centre and is “desk crew” for her fisherman husband. Other hats include librarian, rat trapper, trail runner, “Foveaux foodie”, artichoke enthusiast, and running a myths & legends club for kids. Jessica talks to NZ Booklovers about her debut novel.
Tell us a little about A Runner’s Guide to Rakiura.
I wanted to write a book about running, and I wanted to write about a treasure hunt, so I combined those ideas. (Any excuse to create a treasure hunt…I do them for all my boys’ birthdays and every myths & legends club gathering.) I threw into the pot all the stuff that gives me a buzz: artichokes, yellow-eyed penguins, Yeats, oysters, rat-trapping, dictionaries, muttonbirds, scrimshaw, etc… and the result was the book. There are basically two intertwining storylines: one contemporary and one in 1940s wartime. If someone reads the book and feels the running stoke and starts running, that would be a wonderful result. Ditto if a reader decided to give some attention or money toward helping yellow-eyed penguins.
What inspired you to write this book?
The treasure element is just a prevalent thread on the island – ever since I’ve moved here, I’ve heard tales of treasure hunters and buried treasure and all of that lore and history has served as inspiration. Pengies and pengy people inspired me too. When I was first living on the island, I had the opportunity to tag along with the yellow-eyed penguin team and it was a major experience for me. Opened my eyes to the incredibly hard work that goes on in the conservation world, and I also became besotted with YEP and wanted to write a book that would include these wonderful birds. As far as running goes, I enjoyed reading the nonfiction books What We Talk About When We Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami and Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and I wanted to see if I could write an entertaining fictional book about running. And then, of course, there is story of the Māori Battalion at Monte Cassino. Shortly after I first moved here there was an exhibit about this at the Community Centre, and my friend Gwen Neave invited me to her home around that time to view the short film Tama Tū and this stuck in my mind and heart. I’d go to the ANZAC dawn services and feel so deeply moved by the stories of the soldiers. I felt guilty I’d lived my life ignorant of these men and their courage and sacrifices. So I did further research about Monte Cassino and hope that others might be moved to do the same if they, like me, didn’t know much about it.
What research was involved?
I bugged a lot of people with a lot of questions. Fortunately, on Rakiura Stewart Island I am surrounded by experts in various fields so if I wanted more information about yellow-eyed penguins, for example, I’d look out the window and see the resident penguin expert walking her dogs on the beach and I’d run down the driveway and walk with her and pepper her with questions. My husband’s fishing crew is knowledgeable about guns and ballistics, so I asked him for advice. I have friends at the Rakiura Department of Conservation who answered my questions about flora and fauna. Of course, there was always someone on hand to ask about anything related to boats and fishing. Some of the narrative references the Māori Battalion at Monte Cassino, and for this research I read books.
What was your routine or process when writing this book?
Running! It was amazing how the narrative would just unfold to me, and the characters would speak as I ran, and I’d come home dripping with sweat and scribble down all the notes from my head. Four Square had a promotion where you got a little shopping list free with a purchase and we had dozens of those lists around the house so I would keep them on the kitchen bench and fill them with notes when I got home from running. At night, after the kids went to bed and I had time, I’d sit and type it all in as a cohesive chapter. I ended up creating a monster doing it this way, because every single chapter (and there are many) was a separate document saved on my computer desktop and when I was finally finished it took ages to assemble them all into a single document in the correct order. Much of the book contains mysteries replete with true clues and smoking guns and red herrings so the order was very important.
If a soundtrack was made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.
I can’t just name a song or two. There is so much music in the book, probably because running is the main time I listen to music and every scene in the book has a soundtrack in my mind and starting with page one so many pages directly reference a song, not to mention the music of blues legend John Lee Hooker is a central part of the book. One of the main characters, Vil, leads a band called the Unholy Gumboots and they do headbanging sea shanties and there are original sea shanties in the book too (fictional “troopship shanties”) and original songs penned by Vil. It would be a cool opportunity for a musician out there to put to music the original lyrics from the troopship shanties and Vil’s band.
Drunken Sailor by unknown
Rearview Mirror by Pearl Jam
Never Let Me Go by Florence and the Machine
Enter Sandman by Metallica
Bang Bang Bang Bang by John Lee Hooker
Oceans Away by Arizona
Call the Days by Nadia Reid
Case of You by Joni Mitchell
Learning to Fly by Tom Petty
If your book was made into a movie, who would you like to see playing the lead characters?
The book unfolded cinematically in my mind so I gave this thought and was purposely vague about Maudie’s appearance/race so that role would be wide open to any actress. As far as Maudie and Vil go, I wouldn’t want anyone particularly glamorous cast in those roles, it’s important to me and to the book that while they are beautiful and attractive to each other, they are not conventionally “Hollywood-starlet” beautiful people if that makes sense.
Who will enjoy A Runner’s Guide to Rakiura?
People who like words, wordplay and puzzles. People who like nautical stories. Trail runners. Bird lovers. Anyone who likes a treasure hunt. And I hope it will resonate with anyone who has visited the island, sparking happy memories.
What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?
I’ve been doing the Dracula Daily this year and that’s been an entertaining way to experience a book – it’s basically emailed to you in “real time” according to the book (every book chapter is dated). It made me realize that my book format is quite similar, with the inclusion of SIN articles and emails and liner notes from a troopship CD cobbled together to tell a story. Bram Stoker’s whole book is like that!
I read lots of kids’ books with my boys and our recent favourite was an oldie and such a treat: A Book Dragon by Donn Kushner. Delightful story. For “horror zombie apocalyptic pandemic fun” I read, back-to-back, Zone One by Colson Whitehead and The Dog Stars by Peter Heller which I recommend to anyone who loved Station Eleven. I am currently reading Less is Lost, the sequel to Less by Andrew Sean Greer and I’m loving it, it is so funny and wonderfully written. Same vibe with David Sedaris’ latest collection Happy-Go-Lucky. I love books that make me laugh so it’s strange to report that my top three recent favourite books just made me boo-hoo-hoo. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adiche and Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. Both harrowing and amazing, just tore me apart and built me back up again.
What a time to be a bookworm, we are living among the most masterful talents, true giants in the field. I have to say the absolute best book I read this year is Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land. I run the school library and I run a myths and legends club for kids here which involves parties and costumes, so this book rang all the big bells for me. I couldn’t put it down and I didn’t want it to end and I cried when it did.
What’s next on the agenda for you?
Long term: My older sister Miranda and my best friend have been making noises about coming down to the island and spending time testing recipes for a spinoff cookbook as there is a ton of great food referenced in Runner’s Guide. We’re at the just-talking-about-it fantasy stage of that idea. Currently I’m writing another novel. It’s another mystery, and there’s wood splitting in it which is another big buzz for me. Immediate future: I’m creating a treasure hunt for the next myths & legends party.
Quentin Wilson Publishing