Red Rocks (12 page)

I am grateful to Creative New Zealand for a ‘quick response’ grant, which enabled me to write with two small children. Thanks to the following people for helpful feedback at various stages: Tania Roxborogh, Pippi Priestley-King & Rebecca Priestley, James Gracewood-Easther and Ros Henry (otherwise known as Mum); my wonderful (and tireless) agents, Vivien Green and Gaia Banks; the fabulous team at Random House New Zealand, in particular Jenny Hellen, for her boundless support, patience and enthusiasm; editor Jolisa Gracewood, especially for taking queries at midnight before the final
manuscript was due; Peter Rutherford for moral support and incredibly insightful creative input, and my children, Tom and AJ Rutherford, who have always been the readers I had in mind while writing this book, despite only being aged five and two when I finished it. Finally I’d like to thank a place: the windy, wonderful south coast of Wellington, where I have done some of my best and most important thinking, and where I walked as a new mother with a baby and was bowled over by the unexpected idea for the story of
Red Rocks
.

Rachael King is the author of two novels for adults:
Magpie Hall
and
The Sound of Butterflies,
which won the award for the best first novel at the 2007 Montana Book Awards and was published in ten languages. The idea for
Red Rocks
came to her as she walked her first baby son around Wellington’s wild south coast and thought it a place where magic could happen. Now with two sons, she wanted to write down the story for them and is thrilled to share it with other children as well. In 2008 Rachael was the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence at Canterbury University, and she has lived in Christchurch ever since.