February 1, 2025 • 14 mins
Geoff Parkes is making his debut as a fiction author - but his CV highlights a long and varied career across multiple areas.
He's worked in abattoirs and wool sheds in New Zealand, he’s been a hay contractor, sold insurance and has been an executive of a Fortune 500 company in the medical industry.
He's also made a name for himself as a rugby writer - and he's written his debut novel set in rural New Zealand, When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole.
"There's certainly elements of my experience - people, events, even little snatches of dialogue, things like that. They're dotted in the book, but by far, the majority of it is fictional...and that's really the process."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks AB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Right now, I want to introduce you to a new
Kiwi fiction author who cev might just be one of
the most diverse I've ever seen. Jeff Parks has worked
in abattoirs and woolsheds here in New Zealand. He's been
a hay contractor, he sold insurance, and he's been an
executive of a fortune five hundred company in the medical industry.
He's also a rugby writer and now to add another
(00:35):
string to his boat, he's written a novel set in
rural New Zealand. His new book, When the Deep Dark
Bush Swallows You Hole, it's coming along very highly rated,
and I'll tell you why it's highly rated, because I've
read it well, i'm reading and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
And to tell me more about this very very talented
author is himself Jeff Parks. He joins me live from Melbourne.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Gadey there, Jeff, good morning, Ronan. Thank you for that introduction,
and I look, it's a pleasure to to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's great to have you along. My very first question
is after reading a lot of this book already. How
did you come up with the setting in New Zealand
a town called Nashville, because it feels like me when
I'm reading the book, it feels almost certainly that it's
Tiawa Mutu or Tahunga. Am I right?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Well, no, you're on the right track, but not quite right.
I grew up in Tolmino Nu and then lived there
after i'd finished university for a few years as well,
and I know I'm rooted in that area, worked there
(01:45):
in my university holidays as a wall presser, and you know,
as my life changed. I moved to Australia thirty five
years ago and have lived here, but I've still stayed
very connected to my home region. My family is still there,
and I always felt that there was a book there
(02:06):
about the district and about you know, drawing on some
of my experiences from the time there. So that's really
where the idea came from to set a book in
the king Country and have that landscape feature very strongly,
almost like a character if you like. And then from
(02:28):
there it was just a matter of deciding what kind
of book it would be. I've always been interested in
crime fiction, so those two things sort of blended together
and a plot sort of developed over a period of time,
and then that's all results in what you're reading at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I actually am genuinely really enjoying the book, and I
think I'm enjoying it because I have read quite a
lot of that Scandinavian dark kind of crime stuff, and
the fact that it's written about a town that I
think I know pretty well here in New Zealand makes
it very special. There are some parallels between you, I'm
picking and the main character, Ryan. I was interested it
in the Deer Club. Is there any factual basis on
(03:10):
this Deer Club? Ryan and his friends challenge each other
to do some hilarious dares. Is that based on your childhood?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
No, it's not. Yeah, Look, it's a question of getting
a fair bit you know about how autobiographical is the book,
And I think that the best thing to say is that,
you know, there's certainly elements of my experience, you know, people, events,
(03:37):
you know, even little snatches of dialogue things like that.
They're dotted in the book. But you know, there's a
lot of the things. By far, the majority of it
is fictional. It is it's just made up. And that's
really the process that was enjoyable, you know, to sit
down and say, right, well, I've got an idea because
(03:58):
I remember this happening or or that was a funny
thing or an unusual thing that I can use for
the book. But then just you that as a base
for then going off on tangents and adding all the
fictional elements. So yeah, look, there's no question that you know,
I did work a couple of seasons and a sharing
gang as a wall presser. The main character Ryan, that
(04:22):
is exactly the scenario for him. But beyond that, that's
really where it sort of starts and finishes.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, you write it in such a way that really
pulls me and and I'm sure other people will find
the same way. It falls into that category of rural noir.
Why is a rural setting so popular and I guess
so good for a crime novel.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, it's a really good question, and I'm not sure
I had the answer. It's been popular for a while now.
It's extremely popular here in Australia and authors like Jane Harper,
she's really taken it to another level and there's quite
a strong group of writers in Australia and also in
(05:03):
New Zealand that have have tapped into that, not in
any cynical way, but just because you know, that's something
they enjoy writing about and people clearly enjoy reading about it.
So you know, one thing when my agent submitted this
book to publish his Penguin Random House, when they took
(05:24):
this up, that was one thing my publishing editors said.
She said that the rural genre is still very strong
and still very popular, but this book stood out to
her because it had that point of difference in the
New Zealand landscape and all of the authenticity that resides
(05:45):
around that.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
As I mentioned in the introduction, you've had a really
varied career, which we'll touch on soon, but one of
those roles was as a wall presser, which is not
a job for the Shai, a job that you bring
to life very well in the book, and I read
two or three pages of you describing the sky pressing
the bail and the process going through it in the
shenanigans that the other shares play on. What was it
(06:07):
like working in an old school wallshed back in the eighties, Well, yeah,
it was a.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Lot of fun. I remember that it was also a
lot of hard work. You know, these were long days,
five am starts in the shed till five pm. You know,
sometimes depending on where we were staying in quarters, you know,
there might be a forty minute minibus ride. So you're
getting up at four am, working twelve hours, five to five,
(06:37):
driving back to the quarters, have a shower, had been
a you know, two beers, maybe three beers, and you're
crashed by eight point thirty something like that. And you're
doing it every day. You know, covered sheds had just
come in then, so it was very rare to get
a day off for rain or anything like that. So yeah, look,
(07:00):
it was great for fitness, it was a great team environment,
and you know it was a good money earner for
a student. But it was really hard work.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Did you love working in the Wallshit? Do we tend
to romanticize hard work, don't we? We look back and go,
I love that work, and actual fact, it was hellish.
You had grease balls under your skin and sharers know
what grease balls are. They can be painful, can they?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah? No, absolutely, Yeah, I think that's a good point
about romanticizing it, you know. In the bigger picture, Yeah,
it was great, but you know, day to day again,
those long hours. You know, when you're pinning up out
the back and you're coven in sheep shit and you're
under pressure because you know you've got a bit behind.
(07:46):
You know, you can't leave empty pens for the shearers.
They don't want to be walking in and trying to
catch sheep. They just want to grab one, and all
of that's your fault if their lives made me difficult.
So you know, there was a lot of pressure, and
you know there were times when you know that came
to the surface and the gang, but mostly you know,
(08:08):
it was pretty good.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So was the eighties. Wollshit experienced the inspiration behind setting
the book in the eighties rather than setting it now.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yes, because around the time I finished, sort of in
the mid eighties, things were starting to change. And now
the shearing sit it's still hard work and it's still
very similar in a lot of respects, but electric presses
were coming in and that certainly made the job, the
physical side of the job a lot easier for the presses,
(08:40):
and the ours were shortened as well. So you know,
there were five runs during a day. Now there's four,
and they're not twelve hour days. Anymore. So, Yeah, I
was keen to sort of to show that sort of
physical side. It's an important part of the book, the
tiredness that develops over the summer, and that wouldn't have
(09:02):
been the case above set the book in the nineties
or in this century.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
One thing you describe beautifully and I've worked in woolsheds.
I've got to level too with the New Zealand will
Board in terms of sharing, so I know what you're
talking about. There's that real stark contrast between the quietness
of an empty wallshed the smell is still there, and
then when you go in when the radio is going,
the shearers are going, the rouses are chatting away. The
difference between those two is quite special and quite different.
(09:30):
There's something eerie about an empty, quite wooshed, isn't there.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah? Absolutely, yeah, And I'm glad you've picked up on
that because that was you know, it's quite a contrast
in the book, you know, in the days when they're
working in the shed and the various events that are
going on, and then the shed also features outside of that,
you know, in the night where it's a totally different
(09:55):
environment and as you say, a little bit of an
eerie fact that comes into it. So you know, without
giving any of the plot away, that's absolutely right, and
it's an important part of the book.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yes, everyone's a suspect. I'm only halfway through, so don't
spoil it for me. The book is when the deep
dark Bush swallows you whole. And I'm speaking with the author,
Jeff Parks. Your career incredibly diverse. You've been an avatar worker,
a contractor, insurance salesman, executive manager for a fortune five
hundred company as we mentioned, a wool presser, rugby writer,
(10:27):
and now a fiction writer. What's behind such diversity for you?
What's the driving force for all this change?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Well, I'm not really sure. I've just sort of fallen
into different things. Originally, when I went to university, you know,
I was looking to probably take the easiest path. You know.
My favorite subject at school was a sport and for
zir and so that seemed like an obvious scene to
(10:57):
do at university, which I really enjoyed. You know. It
was a great four years down in Otago, and I
think the same thing happened. You know. Ever since, I've
sort of found it hard to settle into one career,
you know, for a lifetime. I've been happy to sort
of go from one thing to the other and experience
(11:19):
a lot of different things. And you know, and I
enjoy working at all sorts of levels, you know, in
a sharing gang, on the Avatar floor or whatever. It's all.
It's all great fun and you get a lot out
of whatever you're doing. And and you know, I fell
into jobs with big American corporations in the medical industry
(11:43):
and and got through to a pretty senior level. Less
Since then, I've gone into consultancy and dental practice ownership
and and all sorts of different things. And to me
that felt like natural progressions, not necessarily jumping around, just
something that builds on whatever was there before. And I
(12:04):
don't even think I'm finished yet. I'm with a new
startup business in artificial intelligence for dentistry, working with a
lot of younger guys or younger people in that business,
and I'm finding that very stimulating and exciting and something
that I can contribute to. So yeah, I think as
(12:26):
long as you know, my dad was someone that never
retired or anything like that. He just kept working and
doing what he found interesting until he couldn't. And I
feel the same. You know, I'll just just keep going
on as long as it's interesting and I'm adding some value. Then,
(12:47):
you know, that's all I can ask for.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Look, you've done a great job. You've been a writer.
Writing's not new for you. You've been writing for twelve years.
You've been writing rugby stuff for the Raw, and you've
written in a couple of books, both nonfiction. How did
you find the switch to fiction and was it something
you actually planned to do or he thought I'll have
a crack at this. I've done everything else.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yeah, I think it was sort of planned. It's always
been in the back of my mind as we talked
about earlier to write about the king Country or my region,
and so it was planned in that sense. But being
a rugby writer and doing that on a weekly basis,
(13:29):
have a weekly column every Monday, writing a couple of
books on that, I was always going to jump into
fiction at some stage. In terms of the process, I
must say it's been very enjoyable. You know, writing a
nonfiction book is difficult. You know, there's a lot of
work that goes into fact checking, transcribing interviews, making sure
(13:53):
that everything is one hundred percent correct, because you know
you're putting yourself out there as an authority on the topic.
But when it comes to fiction, if you feel like
you're getting stuck or way down, you know, it's just different.
You can just make something up, you can just go
off on a different tangent, let a character take you
(14:14):
where they want to go and see. I found it
really liberating, you know, and it was very, very enjoyable
compared to the almost the grind of writing a nonfiction book.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, I think you've done it very well, Jeff, And
I'm genuinely really enjoying your first fiction book. When the
Deep Dark Bush Swallows You whole and Jeff Parks on
the Blower There from Melbourne a great read. I I
highly recommend it.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks AB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Right now, I want to introduce you to a new
Kiwi fiction author who cev might just be one of
the most diverse I've ever seen. Jeff Parks has worked
in abattoirs and woolsheds here in New Zealand. He's been
a hay contractor, he sold insurance, and he's been an
executive of a fortune five hundred company in the medical industry.
He's also a rugby writer and now to add another
(00:35):
string to his boat, he's written a novel set in
rural New Zealand. His new book, When the Deep Dark
Bush Swallows You Hole, it's coming along very highly rated,
and I'll tell you why it's highly rated, because I've
read it well, i'm reading and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
And to tell me more about this very very talented
author is himself Jeff Parks. He joins me live from Melbourne.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Gadey there, Jeff, good morning, Ronan. Thank you for that introduction,
and I look, it's a pleasure to to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's great to have you along. My very first question
is after reading a lot of this book already. How
did you come up with the setting in New Zealand
a town called Nashville, because it feels like me when
I'm reading the book, it feels almost certainly that it's
Tiawa Mutu or Tahunga. Am I right?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Well, no, you're on the right track, but not quite right.
I grew up in Tolmino Nu and then lived there
after i'd finished university for a few years as well,
and I know I'm rooted in that area, worked there
(01:45):
in my university holidays as a wall presser, and you know,
as my life changed. I moved to Australia thirty five
years ago and have lived here, but I've still stayed
very connected to my home region. My family is still there,
and I always felt that there was a book there
(02:06):
about the district and about you know, drawing on some
of my experiences from the time there. So that's really
where the idea came from to set a book in
the king Country and have that landscape feature very strongly,
almost like a character if you like. And then from
(02:28):
there it was just a matter of deciding what kind
of book it would be. I've always been interested in
crime fiction, so those two things sort of blended together
and a plot sort of developed over a period of time,
and then that's all results in what you're reading at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I actually am genuinely really enjoying the book, and I
think I'm enjoying it because I have read quite a
lot of that Scandinavian dark kind of crime stuff, and
the fact that it's written about a town that I
think I know pretty well here in New Zealand makes
it very special. There are some parallels between you, I'm
picking and the main character, Ryan. I was interested it
in the Deer Club. Is there any factual basis on
(03:10):
this Deer Club? Ryan and his friends challenge each other
to do some hilarious dares. Is that based on your childhood?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
No, it's not. Yeah, Look, it's a question of getting
a fair bit you know about how autobiographical is the book,
And I think that the best thing to say is that,
you know, there's certainly elements of my experience, you know, people, events,
(03:37):
you know, even little snatches of dialogue things like that.
They're dotted in the book. But you know, there's a
lot of the things. By far, the majority of it
is fictional. It is it's just made up. And that's
really the process that was enjoyable, you know, to sit
down and say, right, well, I've got an idea because
(03:58):
I remember this happening or or that was a funny
thing or an unusual thing that I can use for
the book. But then just you that as a base
for then going off on tangents and adding all the
fictional elements. So yeah, look, there's no question that you know,
I did work a couple of seasons and a sharing
gang as a wall presser. The main character Ryan, that
(04:22):
is exactly the scenario for him. But beyond that, that's
really where it sort of starts and finishes.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, you write it in such a way that really
pulls me and and I'm sure other people will find
the same way. It falls into that category of rural noir.
Why is a rural setting so popular and I guess
so good for a crime novel.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, it's a really good question, and I'm not sure
I had the answer. It's been popular for a while now.
It's extremely popular here in Australia and authors like Jane Harper,
she's really taken it to another level and there's quite
a strong group of writers in Australia and also in
(05:03):
New Zealand that have have tapped into that, not in
any cynical way, but just because you know, that's something
they enjoy writing about and people clearly enjoy reading about it.
So you know, one thing when my agent submitted this
book to publish his Penguin Random House, when they took
(05:24):
this up, that was one thing my publishing editors said.
She said that the rural genre is still very strong
and still very popular, but this book stood out to
her because it had that point of difference in the
New Zealand landscape and all of the authenticity that resides
(05:45):
around that.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
As I mentioned in the introduction, you've had a really
varied career, which we'll touch on soon, but one of
those roles was as a wall presser, which is not
a job for the Shai, a job that you bring
to life very well in the book, and I read
two or three pages of you describing the sky pressing
the bail and the process going through it in the
shenanigans that the other shares play on. What was it
(06:07):
like working in an old school wallshed back in the eighties, Well, yeah,
it was a.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Lot of fun. I remember that it was also a
lot of hard work. You know, these were long days,
five am starts in the shed till five pm. You know,
sometimes depending on where we were staying in quarters, you know,
there might be a forty minute minibus ride. So you're
getting up at four am, working twelve hours, five to five,
(06:37):
driving back to the quarters, have a shower, had been
a you know, two beers, maybe three beers, and you're
crashed by eight point thirty something like that. And you're
doing it every day. You know, covered sheds had just
come in then, so it was very rare to get
a day off for rain or anything like that. So yeah, look,
(07:00):
it was great for fitness, it was a great team environment,
and you know it was a good money earner for
a student. But it was really hard work.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Did you love working in the Wallshit? Do we tend
to romanticize hard work, don't we? We look back and go,
I love that work, and actual fact, it was hellish.
You had grease balls under your skin and sharers know
what grease balls are. They can be painful, can they?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah? No, absolutely, Yeah, I think that's a good point
about romanticizing it, you know. In the bigger picture, Yeah,
it was great, but you know, day to day again,
those long hours. You know, when you're pinning up out
the back and you're coven in sheep shit and you're
under pressure because you know you've got a bit behind.
(07:46):
You know, you can't leave empty pens for the shearers.
They don't want to be walking in and trying to
catch sheep. They just want to grab one, and all
of that's your fault if their lives made me difficult.
So you know, there was a lot of pressure, and
you know there were times when you know that came
to the surface and the gang, but mostly you know,
(08:08):
it was pretty good.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So was the eighties. Wollshit experienced the inspiration behind setting
the book in the eighties rather than setting it now.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yes, because around the time I finished, sort of in
the mid eighties, things were starting to change. And now
the shearing sit it's still hard work and it's still
very similar in a lot of respects, but electric presses
were coming in and that certainly made the job, the
physical side of the job a lot easier for the presses,
(08:40):
and the ours were shortened as well. So you know,
there were five runs during a day. Now there's four,
and they're not twelve hour days. Anymore. So, Yeah, I
was keen to sort of to show that sort of
physical side. It's an important part of the book, the
tiredness that develops over the summer, and that wouldn't have
(09:02):
been the case above set the book in the nineties
or in this century.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
One thing you describe beautifully and I've worked in woolsheds.
I've got to level too with the New Zealand will
Board in terms of sharing, so I know what you're
talking about. There's that real stark contrast between the quietness
of an empty wallshed the smell is still there, and
then when you go in when the radio is going,
the shearers are going, the rouses are chatting away. The
difference between those two is quite special and quite different.
(09:30):
There's something eerie about an empty, quite wooshed, isn't there.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah? Absolutely, yeah, And I'm glad you've picked up on
that because that was you know, it's quite a contrast
in the book, you know, in the days when they're
working in the shed and the various events that are
going on, and then the shed also features outside of that,
you know, in the night where it's a totally different
(09:55):
environment and as you say, a little bit of an
eerie fact that comes into it. So you know, without
giving any of the plot away, that's absolutely right, and
it's an important part of the book.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yes, everyone's a suspect. I'm only halfway through, so don't
spoil it for me. The book is when the deep
dark Bush swallows you whole. And I'm speaking with the author,
Jeff Parks. Your career incredibly diverse. You've been an avatar worker,
a contractor, insurance salesman, executive manager for a fortune five
hundred company as we mentioned, a wool presser, rugby writer,
(10:27):
and now a fiction writer. What's behind such diversity for you?
What's the driving force for all this change?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Well, I'm not really sure. I've just sort of fallen
into different things. Originally, when I went to university, you know,
I was looking to probably take the easiest path. You know.
My favorite subject at school was a sport and for
zir and so that seemed like an obvious scene to
(10:57):
do at university, which I really enjoyed. You know. It
was a great four years down in Otago, and I
think the same thing happened. You know. Ever since, I've
sort of found it hard to settle into one career,
you know, for a lifetime. I've been happy to sort
of go from one thing to the other and experience
(11:19):
a lot of different things. And you know, and I
enjoy working at all sorts of levels, you know, in
a sharing gang, on the Avatar floor or whatever. It's all.
It's all great fun and you get a lot out
of whatever you're doing. And and you know, I fell
into jobs with big American corporations in the medical industry
(11:43):
and and got through to a pretty senior level. Less
Since then, I've gone into consultancy and dental practice ownership
and and all sorts of different things. And to me
that felt like natural progressions, not necessarily jumping around, just
something that builds on whatever was there before. And I
(12:04):
don't even think I'm finished yet. I'm with a new
startup business in artificial intelligence for dentistry, working with a
lot of younger guys or younger people in that business,
and I'm finding that very stimulating and exciting and something
that I can contribute to. So yeah, I think as
(12:26):
long as you know, my dad was someone that never
retired or anything like that. He just kept working and
doing what he found interesting until he couldn't. And I
feel the same. You know, I'll just just keep going
on as long as it's interesting and I'm adding some value. Then,
(12:47):
you know, that's all I can ask for.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Look, you've done a great job. You've been a writer.
Writing's not new for you. You've been writing for twelve years.
You've been writing rugby stuff for the Raw, and you've
written in a couple of books, both nonfiction. How did
you find the switch to fiction and was it something
you actually planned to do or he thought I'll have
a crack at this. I've done everything else.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yeah, I think it was sort of planned. It's always
been in the back of my mind as we talked
about earlier to write about the king Country or my region,
and so it was planned in that sense. But being
a rugby writer and doing that on a weekly basis,
(13:29):
have a weekly column every Monday, writing a couple of
books on that, I was always going to jump into
fiction at some stage. In terms of the process, I
must say it's been very enjoyable. You know, writing a
nonfiction book is difficult. You know, there's a lot of
work that goes into fact checking, transcribing interviews, making sure
(13:53):
that everything is one hundred percent correct, because you know
you're putting yourself out there as an authority on the topic.
But when it comes to fiction, if you feel like
you're getting stuck or way down, you know, it's just different.
You can just make something up, you can just go
off on a different tangent, let a character take you
(14:14):
where they want to go and see. I found it
really liberating, you know, and it was very, very enjoyable
compared to the almost the grind of writing a nonfiction book.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, I think you've done it very well, Jeff, And
I'm genuinely really enjoying your first fiction book. When the
Deep Dark Bush Swallows You whole and Jeff Parks on
the Blower There from Melbourne a great read. I I
highly recommend it.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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