Nicole Cleary.
Sarah-Kate Lynch has turned her hand to many tasks, from journalism and broadcasting, to writing columns and novels. After pivoting to fiction in 2000, Sarah-Kate’s debut novel was followed by eight more. She has also written for television, including 800 Words and Friends Like Her. In a departure from her previous rom-coms, Something He Did is Sarah-Kate’s first thriller.
I’ve always loved reading and I had an older cousin who’d take me to the Wellington Public Library.
I realise now that it might have been embarrassing for Matthew in his St Pat’s uniform, with me, three years younger, dressed for St Mary’s. But he took me to the library, where I discovered Agatha Christie. What a kind thing for a teenage boy to introduce a younger cousin to a whole new kind of reading. I hadn’t seen Matthew for years, but he died recently and I was reminded of his great kindness.
The best thing about my all-girls’ school was the friendships.
But I wasn’t nun material because for nuns, the worst thing you could be was too big for your boots. I spent a lot of time trying not to be too big, which was not easy as I’ve been 173cm since I was 13 and a Catholic girl’s education was not about standing out… not being too much of anything. It’s taken me a while to recognise that it’s okay to be me.
Aside from English, I took all science subjects because I was going to be a vet.
Then we dissected a rabbit at the end of sixth form. It hadn’t occurred to me until then that vets looked inside the animals. I just liked the furry outsides and the patting. I imagined myself being like [All Creature Great and Small author] James Herriot, but that rabbit undid me.
I ended up studying journalism at Wellington Polytech in 1981, but I was a terrible student there too.
My grades were so bad that for my first job, I forged my certificate by making some changes for the better and photocopying it. Even back then, I had a gift for fiction. That first job was at the local paper in Taupō. We covered everything from court reporting to local celebrities and politicians who came to town. We even took and developed our own photos. Even though I’d dreamed of working on a bigger newspaper, I’m eternally grateful for all I learned there… like being accurate. Get someone’s name wrong in a court report and you’d be duffed up in the car park.
I wrote my first novel after being made redundant from the NZ Herald and I’d been fired from a radio job before that.
I was sick of doing a good job and having it turn to custard. At the same time, my husband Mark was starting as art director on the first Lord of the Rings film. Which meant steady work travelling around New Zealand for a year, so I went with him and wrote Finding Tom Connor.
I partly have our old bank manager to thank for that book.
We lived in Piha back then and our bank manager was a surfer. Instead of us going to the bank, he’d come to us. When I told him I needed a loan for a new car, but I also wanted to go with Mark and write a book, he said, “Never mind the car, you should always invest in yourself.”
I’ve been pivoting since before it was invented, but after my eighth novel didn’t sell, I tried writing for TV.
I did a few weeks on the Shortland Street story table, which is the hardest thing to write. Also being in a room full of gorgeous young people who might watch me fail, I had to give myself a pep talk every morning as it was really hard to try something new in my fifties. But I gave it a crack and that led to 10 years working in television.
We’ve been in Melbourne for five years now.
Mark just worked on a Chris Hemsworth film, but he keeps me away from meeting the big stars as he thinks I’ll pounce. I did go all goofy when he introduced me to Hugh Jackman, so I’m probably better left at home, locked in a cupboard.
Writing is a job like any other.
I sit down at half past eight each morning, sometimes earlier – my obsessive personality probably helps – and I just keep going. It’s hard yakka, but I love it.
Something He Did by SK Lynch (Ultimo Press) is out now.
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