Safekeeping: An interview with Karen Zelas

Karen Zelas is a local poet and novelist, and former psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Her latest novel, Safekeeping, is her second featuring child advocacy lawyer Rebecca Eaton.

Missbeecrafty chatted with Karen about her thought-provoking book which is sure to leave one pondering who the law really protects.

Missbeecrafty: Safekeeping has a very clear sense of time and place. Reading a book so obviously set in Christchurch always gives me a little thrill. Being able to picture Rebecca walking down familiar streets, past familiar landmarks, really brought the book alive for me.

Was it a conscious decision to set the book so firmly in Christchurch, or did it just happen that way?

Karen Zelas: I was tired of reading books set in a colourless community that could be anywhere. So I did make a conscious and deliberate decision to set the book in Christchurch. I assumed that readers would be likely to get the thrill you refer to, or others who are not familiar with Christchurch or wider Aotearoa New Zealand might be drawn to it.

The first book in the series, RESOLUTIONS, took the reader to the West Coast and the Marlborough Sounds in addition to Christchurch. I wanted to showcase aspects of Aotearoa New Zealand and to demonstrate needs and flaws in how we care for some of our children and families in this country we love, and the mixed feelings some people have about raising children in the world today.

Missbeecrafty: What do you like best thing about living and writing in Christchurch?

Karen Zelas: I live in Christchurch, but also retreat to the Marlborough Sounds. I make time and space because I need them and I retired from psychiatric practice to enable this. Writing is my second career and I love it.

MBC: The Zeitgeist of the 2020s also comes through very strongly in the novel. What prompted you to write a story set within the miasma of Covid restrictions and fears?

KZ: I was living and writing through the Covid/Omicron years. It was one more challenge to the community and one (fictional) family in particular. I could feel the dynamism of living now, with the characters I was drawing; the parents against the justice system.

MBC: What was the experience of lockdown like for you? Were you able to use that time to be creative?

KZ: My sister who was visiting from UK became trapped here with us and become subject matter for a sequence of exploratory poems. These were written alongside the novel Safekeeping.

I found Safekeeping quite thought-provoking. One passage that really stood out to me was when Rebecca considered “the point at which excessive care can become a form of maltreatment.”

Hooray, thanks for noticing! Yes, there is the occasional comment intended to make the reader think; take an idea and chew on it.

If your readers were to take one thing from this novel, what would you want it to be?

The justice system and welfare services are present to help families, but they must be adequately resourced. Our children depend upon us, and our future depends on our children.

I believe you have worked alongside the family court at times during your career. How much of the book is inspired by real events or people?

The characters are fictional; the things that happen could happen and occasionally do; the events and plot are fabricated but realistic.

Do you enjoy reading courtroom dramas? Can you tell me about your favourite books or authors?

I haven’t deliberately set out to read/study courtroom dramas. The first I read many years ago was one of John Grisham’s, but I didn’t seek them out over the years, except for To Kill a Mockingbird. It was rather my own experience as an expert witness in the family court system and, for some years past, participated in psychological training of family lawyers that have inspired me.

Sometimes, so I’ve heard, authors feel that their characters take on a life of their own. Do you feel that way when you are writing, or are you always completely in control?

Yes and no. It’s a psychological event, but it is one that occurs in me, not in the character; a realisation that the person is not alive. And this event allows the writer to be aware that something needs to change or be changed in keeping with what has happened in the plot. Whatever type of novel is being written, characters should change, grow, adapt, complete a journey, or at least take a step forward.

Rebecca and Sylvie’s relationship is a slippery one at times, as the line between friend and client becomes increasingly blurred. If you were the friend of any of your characters, do you think you’d want to give them a bit of a talking to for some of the things they do? If so, what would you say, and to whom?

I think you will see that Rebecca does give Sylvie ‘a bit of a talking to’ as things go on. Rebecca is not working pro bono. And you will realise that Sylvie is not her client but does become a friend.

I enjoyed the some of the vivid imagery of the novel, such as the “cruet set brothers” who shared Rebecca’s office building; the awkward embrace of mother and daughter looking as though they were “marionettes manipulated by an inexperienced puppeteer”; the court clerk “shaking out the smell of mothballs from his Batman cloak.”

Do you think your poetry writing influences your novel writing?

Yes, I do think that poetry can influence and enrich the writing style of prose. It can help describe character, behaviour, thoughts or feelings, for example, in a distinct and succinct manner by making a comparison with something unexpected.

I’m sure like most writers, you’ve had occasions when you’ve been stopped by writers’ block. If this does happen, what do you find to be the best antidote for it?

The best thing for me is to go for a walk or sit and look at the view – and try not to graze!

Finally, do you think there’ll be another Rebecca Eaton novel? If so, can you tell us anything about it?

I am hoping so. I am thinking on it. I would like to round off a trilogy. Hopefully, Rebecca will continue to move forward toward her goals.

Safekeeping by Karen Zelas (Quentin Wilson Publishing) is out now.

Find more

• Titles by Karen Zelas including the first Rebecca Eaton book, Resolutions
• Crime and mystery reads