Photo: Rachel Bevan
Author Emily Pattullo's new novel explores decisions we make when we're young, and the far- reaching consequences they can have.
Anna is teenager hanging out with her friends when they're involved in a car accident that kills someone. It's the worst snowfall in years, and it literally covers their tracks.
But secrets don't usually stay that way - and that's the premise the book, Silent as The Snow.
Pattullo is a British author who's lived in New Zealand for a number of years. Her first book Ring Around Rosie, was a young adult novel that explored the issue of child trafficking.
She has always had a fascination with the decisions we make as teenagers, she told RNZ's Nine to Noon.
"I wanted to write a story that encapsulated that. And obviously, this is quite an extreme example, because the four teenagers in question are actually involved in killing a stranger, through no particular fault of their own, but it's how they deal with the accident that happens. And then the ramifications following on in later years."
The story is told from the perspective of 20 years later when the four are reunited for a funeral, she said.
"You get to sort of unpick who they are now as a consequence of what happened. And gradually, the reveal of what did happen on that on that fateful night becomes clear."
The snow serves as a metaphorical device in the novel, she said.
"I liked the idea of snow, snow was very much a metaphor in the story for the hidden secrets for the silence that snow brings. When it covers everything and you have that silence. It's almost deafening.
"And you know that there's stuff going on underneath and there's things growing underneath the ground still when it snows but it very much creates this kind of silence that covers it all."
Then gradual melting of the snow reveals what's hidden, she said.
"Things are revealed, but you never know when the snow is going to start melting, you never know when the temperature is going to start warming up enough for that to happen.
"So all the characters are always on tenterhooks as to how long they have, and when somebody's going to finally see what's happened."
The teenage mind fascinates Pattullo.
"I like teenagers in that they still have the innocence of children and yet, they're starting to take on a lot more outside information and making up their own minds at that point as to what they consider to be right and wrong.
"And so, they're really beautiful to work with in that respect. And then I quite like, the reflection back as adults, because of all the changes that go on as a consequence of that."
As well as being a novelist she has a successful day job as a life coach, which she said dovetails nicely with her creative work.
"I've incorporated the two, so that my life coaching is very much around creating the life you want to live through writing and drawing, and how you explore your life as it is now, and what story you could then generate from your life and go on your own life adventure, like a choose your own adventure.
"So, then I created a journal called 12 Creative Steps to a Fulfilling Life which I recently released, and that allows people to take themselves on this on this life journey and really explore it as they want."
