Lucky break set novelist on her way
Name: Vanda Symon (49) Occupation: Dunedin crime novelist
QWhat about your early life? I was born in Tauranga, and lived there until my high school years, when we moved to Hastings. I studied pharmacy at the University of Otago before returning to Hawkes Bay to work. I started writing my first novel while living in Napier, had it accepted and was offered a threebook contract by Penguin New Zealand. I was gobsmacked!
QWhat did you gain from your recentlycompleted Otago PhD in science communication?
Completing the PhD gave me a great grounding in research and an even bigger grounding in determination and dogged perseverance. I loved the opportunity to intensively study my research topic: the communication of science in crime fiction, including the works of New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh.
QWhat jobs did you do before this one? Before I seriously began writing I was a pharmacist working in community pharmacy and in palliative care. I have also taught at Otago University, had jobs cooking fish and chips and burgers in a takeaway bar, sewing for a wedding dress maker, on orchards, for a government department and in a toy shop.
QHow did you get into it and when? I was a pretty academic kid, and loved sciences, so went from school to university and trained to be a pharmacist. After concentrating on my pharmacy career for many years, it wasn’t until I had children and was at home with them that I finally had the time to start writing, in 2003.
Crime fiction was a pragmatic choice. I also loved to read historic fiction, but with a toddler and a baby there was no way I could get to do the intense research needed to write historic fiction.
QWhat qualifications did you need? None. Just life.
QWhat personal skills do you need? Imagination, creativity, curiosity, an eye for detail, an ability and want to tell a story, empathy, a good grasp of language and grammar, a sense of humour, selfmotivation, selfdiscipline, determination and a thick skin.
QAny physical requirements? You need to have an awareness of the fact that you are sitting and writing at a computer a lot, so thinking about having a good adjustable chair and the correct height for your screen and desk setup to reduce risk of neck/ back/ arm/ shoulder strain.
QWhat do you do on a daily basis? Read, read, read newspapers, fiction, nonfiction, magazines, blogs, children’s books, the junk mail — anything and everything.
QWhat is the most challenging aspect? You have to be very selfmotivated and disciplined.
QWhat have you gained from taking the highlypopular University of Otago summer school’s forensic biology paper in 2008?
I did the course as research for my crime fiction writing so I wouldn’t make factual clangers and get strongly worded email from readers. It was utterly fascinating and spurred me on to more postgraduate study and the PhD. It was a lifechanger.
QDid you have a ‘‘big break’’ that helped you to be published? I happened to send in my manuscript for Overkill to Penguin publishers at a time, unbeknown to me, that they were looking for a crime fiction series to publish.
QWere you surprised by the success of Overkill, your first crime novel, published in 2007?
I was amazed to have the first novel I wrote accepted for publication. It was really well received by readers and then to have it and my second novel translated into German was pretty special. I’m rapt that my works are now going to come out in Britain with Orenda Books.
QWhat are the most important elements of a good crime novel? To me the most important element in crime fiction is character. It doesn’t matter how clever your plot is, how many twists and turns you make, if your readers aren’t invested in your characters, if they don’t grow to care about them, then you have lost them. Of course plot is important, and so is pace, but crime fiction is first and foremost about people.
QHow has the job changed since you started? The advent of . . .books gave the industry the collywobbles, and some multinational publishers left New Zealand. It is harder to get published traditionally than it was, and even established authors struggle to have new works published. But there are a lot more platforms and opportunities for selfpublishing your work.
QWhat’s something people generally don’t know about the job? The pay is lousy! Most writers have
day jobs to keep them in coffee.
QWhat are the highs of the job? The satisfaction of seeing your work in print, and then discovering people actually read them who aren’t related to you!
QWhat are the lows of the job? The raging selfdoubt when the writing is a struggle and you question your ability to put a coherent sentence on a page.
QWhat is the most rewarding aspect? The simple act of being able to spend time writing, thinking, and creating.
QWhat is the salary? A recent Horizon Research survey showed the average income from writing for a NZ writer was $13,500 per annum. My earnings are well below that average. I couldn’t write without having other sources of income and the luxury of having a supportive husband to keep us fed and watered and a roof over our heads.
QWhere will you be 10 years from now? At my computer, with a tea tray, happily writing my latest novel.