Miss Conception Films has been breaking our hearts recently with their beautiful adaptation of Patricia Grace’s novel Cousins. Their whole M.O. is about bringing stories about women by women to the screen. So thrilled to be working with these wāhine toa.

I first wrote In Aroha as a feature film, more than 17 years ago, then tucked it in a drawer and forgot about it. It wasn’t until a friend tagged me in a Facebook post for Avalon Studios who were doing a call out for scripts that I remembered it. One of their wishlists included: post WW2, historical, nostalgic, female lead, romantic drama. I ransacked the house for the manuscript. I didn’t even have a digital copy. My husband found the box in the garage. I had to scan the pages into a PDF reader to make them digital again. I rewrote the script and sent it to Avalon. Avalon was swamped with submissions and I despaired of hearing any news. I thought, why am I sitting around waiting and reached out to Ainsley Gardiner at Miss Conception who has been working on adapting my YA novel Spark. I asked her if she knew anyone who might be interested in looking at a historical drama. Meanwhile, her business partner Georgina Conder had already been asked by Avalon to help them review their overflow of submissions. Georgina loved it and here we are. #serendipity

And because I can’t help myself, I’m also adapting In Aroha for publication as an adult novel. I’m half way through and it’s a wild ride.