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Awkward moments are embraced by Palmerston North writer and grandfather Tony Chapelle, who uses them as inspiration for his award-winning short stories. MICHELLE DUFF talked to him about the difficulties of puberty, writing, and sisterly love.
Remember that excruciating moment in the playground, when the world seemed composed of giggling girls, and the bell couldn't ring fast enough?
Tony Chapelle does. The incident happened when he was 11, and all the swaggering posture of youth couldn't help him from wanting to keel over in shame.
As the group of girls teased, he waited for the Earth to swallow him up.
"I remember being so embarrassed... I was a rough and tough little boy, and these girls found something that was terribly funny about me, and I resented that hugely," the writer says, shaking his head.
But while some try to forget their most cringe-making moments, Chapelle couldn't ask for better inspiration.
The Palmerston North writer is the winner of the New Zealand Society of Authors Central Districts short story competition, for his story Original Sin, which chronicles the chaos of puberty.
Young protagonist Jamie doesn't understand why his 15-year-old sister isn't interested in swimming at the river and playing games any more. And he can't explain why he's too embarrassed to talk to a girl at school.
"It's about the changing nature of sibling relationships," Chapelle says.
"Four years between siblings doesn't seem to matter much until one becomes an adolescent, and one gets left behind and starts to think things are not the way they should be."
Though the story is not autobiographical, it definitely has roots in his childhood experiences, Chapelle says.
"You write about things that have stayed in your memory, because they have influenced you in some way. You might have had it in the back of your mind and think `oh goodness, I want to forget about that,' but writing it down can actually be quite cathartic.
"Short stories have to be at least partly experience – in a novel you can create a whole world that is imaginary, but a short story is different."
A stay-at-home grandfather, Chapelle spent his working life as a Pacific historian in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, before moving to Palmerston North 20 years ago.
Now retired from the world of academia, Chapelle divides his time between looking after his 15-month-old granddaughter and writing.
It's personal work. Though he's been writing for 18 years – winning numerous short story competitions, and penning a novel during this time – much of his work is still unpublished.
"I haven't really tried to get anything published, mainly because if I got rejected I'd get terribly depressed about it," Chapelle says, self-effacingly.
For example: after eight years spent penning a Victorian-style novel loosely based on his Welsh ancestry, Chapelle sent it to one publisher. They said it was too long, so he shelved it.
"That was enough to send me back into my shell completely. Most writers love to get published, I know, but it doesn't really worry me. I mean, I would like people to read my work, and if I didn't have to go through the agony of rejection I probably would try."
Still, he's currently working on a New Zealand-based novel that he thinks might appeal to a wider audience and could fit in well with his first effort. In the meantime, there are gardens to tend, meals to cook, and toddlers to be looked after – and when it comes down to it, it's family that matters, he says.
"Hopefully [the novel will be picked up] but if it doesn't, well, my daughter read it, she liked it, and that's mission accomplished."
Chapter closed.
What the judges said
FIRST EQUAL. Original Sin explores the complexities and confusions of puberty – and does so with unerring perception and intelligence. We are given the world through the eyes of Jamie (who has a crush on a girl at school and a sister who's sliding away from him into adulthood), and every word and nuance rings true.
A very fine story about right and wrong and the slippery grey area in between. Beautifully crafted prose and a perfect ending.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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