Interview: Kirsty Powell talks about The Strength of Old Shale

Kirsty Powell has a Masters of Creative Writing from AUT and her debut novel The Strength of Eggshells was the end result, winning the 2020 NZ Booklovers Award for Best Adult Fiction. She talks to NZ Booklovers about her new novel, The Strength of Old Shale.  

Can you tell us a little about the story?

The Strength of Old Shale is a stand-alone sequel, twenty years on from my first book. The story opens with the discovery of the bones of a woman and a child wrapped in a delicate Shetland Shawl in a forgotten Otago gold field graveyard. What follows is a dual narrative that spans two centuries and follows the lives of two strong women, each searching for truth and connection in very different worlds.

Ariel is raised rural tough in the fiercely independent community of Whangamomona.  She is no stranger to conflict, but when her childhood nemesis is found decapitated beneath Ariel’s ute, her world spirals into chaos.  With no memory of the event and a court case looming, she seeks refuge amongst the skeletons of the past that she studies with Otago University on the Otago goldfields.

Meanwhile, in 1861, Isbell – a horse whisperer who has fled the depression-era Shetland – makes her way to the Otago goldfields. Caring for dozens of coach horses aboard the SS India, she escapes one harsh world only to face another in colonial New Zealand. 

What inspired you to write this book?

In the middle of the 2020 Covid Lockdown I won the New Zealand Booklovers Best Adult Fiction Award, with my debut novel The Strength of Eggshells.  I felt my first book was overlooked somewhat, as folks' minds were in other places and that the story had more to tell.  So I chose to write a similarly formatted stand-alone sequel to create a matching pair with chapters alternating between a historical and a contemporary story.

I enjoy learning history by osmosis while being carried along in a fast-moving novel narrative, and that’s what I set out to achieve here. In both my modern and 1860s stories, I have included real historical characters in the subplots.  How could I leave them out when they are larger than life. You will get to meet Richard and Vicki Pratt, the current publicans at Hotel Whangamomona, and my good motorcycle buddy Wally Dalziel, whose Lawrence farm has been in his family for 150 years since his great-grandfather Christopher took up a 100-acre lease after 10 years working on the goldfields.  The very same Christopher Dalziel who jumped ship to come to the goldrush.

What research did you do?

I read every book I could find about early Otago and 1850’s Shetland. I found fascinating real characters and their stories, many which are included in my tale. Past Papers were also helpful in tracking down the real family history of some who appear in my novel. I was lucky to find a well written book about 1850s Shetland and the migration of a shipload of unmarried woman to Australia. At the time there was twice as many unmarried women as men left on the island. I also sent away to the Shetland Lace Knitters Guild for their book about the amazing art of knitted Shetland Lace, which was all the rage in Queen Victoria’s time, for fine wool stockings and wedding veils.

What was your routine or process when writing the book

I wrote both the historical and modern stories concurrently, switching backwards and forwards between them chapter by chapter, allowing the ebb and flow of emotion to merge between the stories. Not an easy task, maybe next time I will write something simple and chronological. Time will tell. The best advice which helped inform my writing was to write several pieces of backstory for each main character before I started that would allow me to know each of them well and confidently understand how they would react in any new situation that I presented to them.  After all, we are all just an amalgamation of our past experiences and made-up characters are no different.

If you were to have a soundtrack and a film made, who would you have?

Pipe dream question here!  Who but Marlon Williams to write the soundtrack and Kate Winslet’s daughter Mia Threapleton to play the part of Ariel, and maybe Isbell as well, as neither character ever meets the other, with each storyline set centuries apart.  I quite like seeing a talented actor play two distinct roles in the same movie … in this case it would need to be a mini series I suspect. 

What did you enjoy most about writing your second novel?

I learned a lot writing and then rewriting in my first novel.  I felt the second one was easier to pull from its rabbit hole.  I think a loose plan with the ability to be surprised and sidetracked is a great way to write.  Just like a reader, I was able to enjoy what each new chapter brought forward with very little rewriting required and with an editor who believed in me, the publishing process was also enjoyable. 

What did you do to celebrate finishing The Strength of Old Shale?

A deadline is a great thing. After mucking around forever with the research and first half of the novel.  I actually wrote the final 40,000 words over several months with a deadline of a trip to Central America as the most wonderful carrot.  I made that deadline by just a few days and the trip was a blast. 

What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?

Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell.  It is interesting, after reading a couple of her historical novels which are amazing to read, this is quite different.  A simple chronological contemporary story about a retired father whose clockwork habits are disturbed when he walks out one morning to the shop to get the paper and doesn’t come home.  It is a hilarious character assassination of his grown children, who all come home to help sort out this dilemma.  It is a laugh-out-loud story for anyone who grew up with brothers and sisters, with all the usual foibles that family dynamics bring.  The other person I have really enjoyed reading this year is Trent Dalton for quite similar reasons.  I love their personable way of writing.

What’s next on the agenda for you? 

I have always worked on several contracted jobs, as well as writing, so I am accustomed to managing multiple projects simultaneously.  I have recently given up my day job and now plan to continue my writing career by doing several things at once.  I would like to write a contemporary, straightforward novel with lots of back story, a bit more in the style of O’Farrell or Dalton.  I am currently reading old Auckland history with the thought of doing a biography about Captain David Rough who is a distant relative several times removed, and also exploring children’s book writing with Mahy and Cowley as my heroes.

Cloud Ink Press