Nell: First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions and congratulations on the NZCYA book awards shortlist!

Gracehopper blew me away so I have to ask, what was the original inspiration behind the story?

Kia ora Nell, thanks so much for your interest. The original idea (of the love between Grace and Charlie) came to me in 2014 when I was stuck in a car on a very boring stretch of motorway in the middle of Italy and I scrabbled around for a scrap of paper to write it on before I forgot it! I could see these two clearly in my mind but I have no idea where they came from apart from that!

Grace does Jeet Kune Do, a martial art that I had personally never heard of. What drew you to using it as Grace's hobby, as opposed to a more widely known martial art?

In some work I did several years back, writing a resource for youth at risk, I came across the sayings and philosophy of Bruce Lee and felt he had some good things to say about resilience and perseverance. He always thought of himself as an outsider, and was critical of too much rigidity about who could and couldn’t practice martial arts, which I thought worked very well with the themes of the book and with Grace’s situation. When I researched more, I read several of his books, including a breakdown of a number of Jeet Kune Do moves, and later checked with a Jeet Kune Do practitioner and teacher to make sure I wasn’t misrepresenting it.

There were also a lot of pop-culture references in the book. Were these references you were already familiar with, or did you find them with the purpose of fleshing out the relationship between Grace and Charlie?

Overall, they’re all references I already knew. I’m very old, so have a big store of them! The only ones I didn’t know were all those cheese puns, which gave me a good laugh when I discovered them.

Gracehopper sparks some interesting conversations on stereotypes and the pros and cons of playing into them. Do you agree with Grace on this issue, in that there are better ways to change people's perceptions? If so, what do you think the best way is?

Yes, Grace is giving voice to my thoughts on this. It’s easy (and lazy) to reach for the stereotypes, and if we’re ever to have a cohesive society where everyone can be accepted (and respected) for who they are, we need to find ways to celebrate difference and embrace it, rather than reducing people to lazy labels or trying to impose our own beliefs on them. Only through talking to each other and learning about lives other than our own (walking a mile in their shoes) can we build empathy and compassion. That’s what changes perception, and that’s the power of fiction!

Excuse the internet sleuthing, but it says on your website that you have a 'a passion to promote the politics of love'. I would love to hear what this means for you.

This came from a chapter written by Max Harris in a book called ‘The Interregnum” (Bridget Williams Books.) He writes: "A love-based politics is an extension, not just an application, of values of care, community and creativity. Love is a stronger value than care." This idea really struck me. If every action our politicians took genuinely came from this place, we wouldn’t be staring down the barrel of such horrific homelessness, joblessness, poverty, divisiveness, disconnection or environmental degradation. It also resonated with something I found when I was writing a resource years ago called “Parihaka and the Gift of Non-Violent Resistance”, a quote from Martin Luther King Jnr, that said, ‘When we make non-violence a way of life, the first question we ask at a time of conflict is What is the most loving thing to do?” I try to live with this in mind.

You certainly put your characters through an emotional roller coaster throughout the book, and your readers as well. When you are writing do you have to disconnect from their pain or do you find the writing process cathartic?

I wouldn’t say it’s cathartic, as their issues aren’t mine, but I feel them very deeply as I write them, trying to inhabit their thoughts and emotions, sometimes even crying as I write the first draft. It can be very intense!

In what situation do you do your best writing? Any specific places, or things you have to have around you?

I can write anywhere, but I do have a writing room where I do most of my work and it helps if it’s not too noisy, though I can cut this out if I’m really in the ‘zone.’ My best thoughts usually come in the ten minutes before I fall asleep, so I always have a pen and paper by my bed and can scrawl notes in the dark if necessary!

What advice would you give to your past self, and what is the best piece of advice someone has given you?

That’s so hard! I think the advice to my past self would be that you don’t have to write to please everyone (you never will), so first please yourself and trust at least one other person will get what you’re trying to do. The best advice I’ve been given is to get over myself (and my terrible lack of self-confidence) and just get on with the work!

What were your favourite books when you were a teen? This isn't just me trying to add to my reading list, I swear.

There wasn’t really a thing called YA when I was a teen, so I just read widely and indiscriminately, from classics, to sci-fi, to some pretty trashy novels too! I think, looking back, it was science fiction/speculative fiction that most hooked me, as they were big on ideas and expanded my thinking about the world and often delved into the politics and morality of situations, which I was interested in. I loved George Orwell, Frank Vonnegut, Ursula Le Guin, Frank Herbert, and Arthur C. Clarke.

And finally, what are you working on at the moment? Could we get a sneak peek of what we have to look forward to?

I’ve just finished the first draft of a speculative fiction/sci-fi set nearly 300 years in the future after catastrophic climate collapse and the invasion of an alien species who are picking off the surviving humans one by one.