Book tells Coromandel story
Author battles cancer while writing first novel
Awindow into 1970s life in the Coromandel has been brought to life by a Bay of Plenty author. Ron Murray has spent four years on his first novel Coromandel Dreamin’, recounting his time on the Peninsula.
His self-published work of fiction co-incided with a rough battle with metastatic melanoma cancer, having been diagnosed in 2019, the same year he started on the novel.
Unfortunately, publishing a novel was put on hold for two years while Murray underwent treatment.
“In 2019, they targeted where the melanoma was and cut it out from a couple of different places. I went on a drug trial fortunately and was on an immunotherapy drug for a year. They stopped the drug and were to observe me for another four years to see how it had gone.
“In 2022, the melanoma came back just when I had finished at one job and taken a week off to advance my novel before I started my dream job in internal communications. The cancer metastasized so it got into a lot of parts of my bloodstream.
“It’s broken out as lesions on my skin and a surgeon cuts them out now and again to keep them at bay.”
He noted the total of lesions he’s had to cut out so far is around the 150 mark, as they pop up everywhere in his bloodstream.
“I’m on my fifth melanoma treatment and apart from the first one, none have been successful and one of them did a lot of damage that resulted in a severe case of gastritis.
“I lost about 10kg and I didn’t do much writing at all during that time.”
Despite battling cancer daily, Murray takes the struggle as a form of motivation to keep going.
“I bounced back and got off the drug and have been on others since, I feel like the one I’m on now might be having a little bit of a positive effect. I take each day as it comes and squeeze out what I can in terms of writing. I’m still able to get up, write, drive, and go to the beach which I love so much.”
Murray spent most of his younger years at the beach, surfing in oceans across several regions with his dad and two brothers, becoming one of the inspirations for his novel.
Surfing is just one passion that he had to give up now.
However, writing remained his rock through sickness, and kept him going on days he didn’t want to.
“This is sometimes real end-of-life
stuff from where I’m standing. It is really hard mentally to cope with this.
“I used to be a surfer and I would go surfing with my family always and having been a surfer my whole life, because of my state now I can no longer surf.
“I don’t know how much time I have left and writing is a bit of a beacon. I can still write, I have things I want to get back and do and stories I want to write. It’s something to get up every morning and think about. I love it and I will carry on and find more time throughout the days to write.”
When Murray turned 60, he set the goal of publishing a book every year. He has since published a few poetry books and internal communication editions. Now publishing his first novel at the age of 66, Murray said a pillar of strength for his achievement is his belief system.
“Stoicism has been a strong piece of armor for me to wear through all this hassle, it gives me that mental space to be able to focus on creativity and writing.
“It’s a set of prescience to basically help manage setbacks and difficulties, and just be strong. I meditate
every morning and my mantra is around the things the Stoics say which is only work on what is right, real, and controllable.”
Murray’s new novel, Coromandel Dreamin’, doesn’t touch on his struggles with cancer though, but instead showcases the beauty within the Coromandel area.
He said the 1970s is a ‘reflection back into a nice past’, in a world that is so different now.
“It’s sort of a view of the place and the times, what the people were like, and what the music was like. Music teaches a lot in the story. There’s no cellphones or internet so it’s sort of a different technical kind of space.
“It was a place where people probably ahead of the rest of the country were environmentally sensitive, and thinking about taking the 60s dream of living a good life with nature, growing their own produce, and making crafts.
“My theme in the story is the power and beauty of a sense of community, love, support, doing the right thing, and never giving up.
“It’s an element of people seeking to get away from the big bad city and create a real sense of community.”
The novel is inspired by an old English ballad, Thomas the Rhymer, and tells the story of Thomas who is a musician on a side road when a woman on a white horse invites him to come back to her place in old England.
Murray’s novel starts similarly, with the lead character of the story hitchhiking through Coromandel on a late afternoon when he gets a ride with a woman who lives in a small settlement in the back-blocks of the peninsula near Coromandel Town.
He ends up staying a while in a fairyland which has significance to Ma¯ori . . . and what happens after is for the reader to find out.
Murray’s next move is publishing another novel.
“Because of my cancer issues, it’s sort of like the clock is ticking anyway so it’s great motivation. I want to write another novel, which will be based on the 1980s.
“If I want to finish this novel I need to be working on it and I will, I hope things go well with my treatments.”