Motueka’s Stef Harris has spent most of his life working nights. As a traffic control officer in the police, he says that if he has an hour before he goes to work, he has to make use of it.
“You can’t just sit around chewing the pencil if you want to get a piece of work done,” he says. “If I get a bit of time, I write furiously.”
The latest fruits of Stef’s pencil-chewing have just been released under the title ‘The Girl From Sarajevo,’ and is for sale throughout the country.
The novel is, in fact, two standalone stories written as “cinematic novellas” – The titular Girl From the Sarajevo, and The Other Jasmine.
The former features a young female immigrant and an aging novelist, both from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The latter tells the story of a mail-order bride from China, which Stef describes as “almost a black comedy of manners” which gets darker and darker as it goes on.
Both stories have Stef’s usual touches of humour, robust character arcs, and more than one twist in the tale that will keep readers guessing until the final pages.
There is something familiar about the backdrop to The Other Jasmine. A small town featuring a plethora of apple trees on the outskirts, a clock tower on the main street, and a steampunk-loving sushi proprietor.
The story is not, in fact, based in Motueka, but Stef says he played around the with geography a bit. “It’s nice to be able to walk around and actually look at the landscape when you’re writing,” he explains.
The novella’s main characters are described on the book’s cover as “two strong, capable, modern-day heroines determined to make their own way in the world”, and indeed, they read as women who are resolutely walking their own paths, adapting to the circumstances and dubious opportunities around them. The characters are composites of people Stef has met during his life and particularly his work – and yes, mail-order brides are found in New Zealand, he confirms.
When asked if he finds it challenging to write with a female voice, Stef laughs and says, “Funny story about that.” He had contacted a fellow member of the Society of Authors to have someone offer a second opinion and do some editing on these stories. He exchanged many emails with a fellow author, Anne, and it was only once the book was on its way to print that they met in person at Māpua’s Apple
Shed for a celebratory lunch with their respective spouses.
“We sat down, had a nice lunch, and then Anne confessed that she had thought all along that Stef was a woman writer that she had been communicating with.”
Stef says that he “takes that as a win” for his ability to carry the narrative from a female perspective.
Stef is already well-known as an author of both novels and screenplays. He has written and directed three award-winning feature films, the most recent of which, Blue Moon, won a swag of awards nationally and internationally. He sees both novellas in The Girl From Sarajevo as ripe for film adaptation. “When I sat down to write it, I’d already imagined it scene by scene.”
He reckons readers do the same. “When you write something, the reader is basically producing the film,” he says. “They’re filling in the blanks. So they’re doing the art direction, they’re doing the soundtrack, putting in the music, choosing the actors.”
For those people waiting impatiently for the sequel to his 2023 crime thriller Double Jeopardy, he says the draft has been completed, but readers will have to wait a bit longer before the book is in their hands. In the meantime, he has more crime thriller ideas percolating.
The Girl From Sarajevo was published through Quentin Wilson Publishing, and the first 5000 copies are on sale now. The book is being launched in Motueka at Te Noninga Kumu-Motueka Library next Tuesday, 8 April. Doors will open at 5.30pm for a 6pm start, and people are asked to text 0274 606 403 to confirm attendance and to go into the draw to win a free book.
