The Coffee Group
This week I'm interviewing a pair of authors who are probably in great need of a coffee after six years spent writing their novel, working and bringing up children. I talk to Aucklander Mary-Jane Aggett and her sister Annemarie Mirams.
Writing a novel is not something taken lightly. It takes time and effort, after all - a great deal of it. Hours sharing anecdotes on the phone between Auckland and the Hawkes Bay about their young kids turned into a six-year project for sisters Mary-Jane and Annemarie, when they decided to spin their experiences as mothers into The Coffee Group.
Annemarie says the project just evolved naturally, after realising they were both a little bored and in need of a channel for their shared sense of humour. Although both sisters swear the events of the novel are not at all based on people they know, it has sometimes proved difficult to persuade their friends. The novel concerns a group of five Auckland women who band together after their children are born, and the crazy things they get up to. Mary-Jane promises a light, easy read and lots of laughs - a vast departure from the sisters' favourite crime thrillers.
Neither exactly set out to become novelists - Mary-Jane was a reporter for Fair Go, and Annemarie teaches high school science - but both have thoroughly enjoyed the process, laughing their heads off as they tried to outdo each other with the following chapter.
"Sometimes my kids would see me laughing at the computer
or phone and ask: "Is that about your book again?"," Annemarie says.
The book started with one sister writing one chapter from a certain character's point of view, and the next one choosing another character, but gradually both sisters got to know each other's characters so well that they were able to swap. The reason The Coffee Group took six years was that real life was just as hectic as the novel - both women moved house during the period, and were raising children (in Mary-Jane's case, still having them). As Mary-Jane puts it: "It was like that half-knitted jumper you've put away and pull out from time to time."
For now they're having a bit of a rest from the creative process but haven't ruled out giving it another go in the future. After all, coffee is addictive...
**Obviously you can request The Coffee Group from Auckland Libraries, but copies are also available to purchase now from Paper Plus Takapuna, or from online retailers soon**
