John Parker

As a child

I can't remember being very happy as a child. That may have been because I suffered from asthma, but my parents disagreed on many things and there was tension in the household. My dad was a Methodist minister who stayed in different parishes round the country, so we spent little time in the one home. I think I lived in some seven houses in my first 12 years. But I had two brothers and we made our own fun, even if we weren't allowed to speak at the dinner table - unless we were asking for the butter. So we developed a secret code: finger-tapping, knee-knocking and so on. When I was young, I read like Jaws - devouring everything, from comics to novels and anything in between. I loved the library: its calm, its wonderful shelves of books, the way the outside world seemed to recede once I was in there. I remember reading everything about Biggles and laughing myself sick at some of the misadventures of AA Milne's Pooh Bear - and I enjoyed Milne's wonderful verses, too. From my dad, I learned the power of words, especially when spoken. He was a fine preacher and his voice could thunder from the pulpit. And I was always interested in the powerful click-tick of my dad's Remington typewriter, the noise issuing from behind his closed study door. Sometimes I would creep in when dad was out and press down the keys. Behold, black letters on the white page. Wonderful! Mysterious! Potent!

As an adult

As an adult, I lived mostly in Auckland, the main city in the North Island of New Zealand - and I gained my two degrees in its university. Then I went teaching and lecturing for most of my working life until I was around 50 - when I took up writing full-time. There were breaks in the teaching life, however. Five years was spent in England and Europe as a professional singer in opera and oratorio. And I've also been a postie, a house-painter, a poultry-farm worker, a teacher of piano, a truck driver, and a worker in a big clothing factory. In my later 30s, I realised that I'd talked about writing but never really got started on it. All talk and no walk! So for around two years I made myself write for an hour every day - whether I felt like it or not. The words came as I sat at the desk and things got published - and at the age of 50 I took the leap into writing as a career. Now I've written almost 130 books and many poems, plays and non-fiction articles.

As an artist

I like to work regular hours as a writer. Generally I'm at the desk between seven and eight in the morning, then work through until the early afternoon. There is a thing called inspiration but if I waited for it to happen, not much would get done. Provided what I'm writing engages me in some way - through the mind or the heart - then I find my subconscious will work for me in coming up with possibilities and solutions. And sometimes that's exciting. Or dangerous! Once I was writing a play but the ending wouldn't come to me. The next day I was up a high ladder pruning a big bamboo hedge, but still wondering how to finish that play. Presto, the ending suddenly arrived in my head! I was so thrilled I almost fell off the ladder. But I'm not proud! If I need help then I'll ask for it. For example, my Walker Books story Sucked In was improved through the suggestions of my daughter and my son-in-law. And good editors can be very helpful, too. Sometimes it needs another pair of eyes to tell you what can be done better. There are clever people I know who could write very well but are not interested. On the other hand, I want to write and I need to write - though it's quite hard work and takes many drafts to get the writing as good as it can possibly be. The more I draft, the more light and shade and interest and polish comes into my writing. It's like sunlight coming into a room.

Things you didn't know about John Parker

1. John lives beside a golf-course, so sometimes golf-balls come through the windows - even when they're shut.
2. One day he couldn't remember anything for 40 minutes after he took a big tumble when he was skiing too fast.
3. He has a grey cat called Mister, who's almost 20 years old and is always hungry.
4. He likes to surf in quite big waves, using a boogieboard.
5. A crisp crunchy apple is his favourite fruit.
6. He loves to look at clouds and the weather patterns in the sky.
7. Green is his favourite colour, perhaps because it is the colour of growth.
8. He does all the washing and ironing at home.
9. If he eats one cashew nut he finds it very hard not to eat about 50 more.
10. He's tried to like cockroaches but hasn't succeeded.