Writing a novel requires a great deal of tranquil time. Basically, life needs to be pretty boring. Back in 2018, when Queenstown author Catherine Bennetto embarked on writing her third and latest novel, The Reason, little did she realise that things were going to be anything but dull.
Still, she pushed through some major health issues to produce her most heart-warming story yet.
A broken shoulder was her first hurdle. Catherine did it mountain biking and it left her unable to type for ages – or do much of anything.
“My husband was working overseas, so my kids had to help me get dressed every morning,” she tells. “My younger son did up my bra and the older one tied up my hair!”
Finally pain-free, Catherine’s more present for husband Edd and her boys.
The need for major brain surgery happened more recently, although Catherine, 44, had been having difficulties for a while. A tangle of blood vessels were pressing on her facial nerve and the first sign of a problem was a tiny eye twitch.
“Over the years, it got stronger and more noticeable,” she recalls. “Then I started going deaf in one ear and hearing a dull click at night. And there were headaches and pain.”
Finally, it got to the point where microvascular decompression surgery was necessary, which was a daunting prospect. “I had to stop telling people what was happening because when I did, their reactions were so dramatic, they would frighten me,” explains Catherine. “I went into this little world where I only talked to positive people. I called it my glittery bubble of protection.”
Thankfully, the procedure was successful, but recovery was harder and slower than Catherine had imagined. She was exhausted and in a foggy daze for weeks. “I couldn’t cope with too much stimulation, even just two people in a room talking. And I tried to work, but I’d lose hours sitting on the sofa. It was like I’d powered down.”
There was also another trip to hospital for a hysterectomy. Catherine had been suffering from adenomyosis, which is when the tissue that normally lines the womb grows into its wall, causing painful, heavy periods. “I had to live with really bad pain and couldn’t go anywhere the week of my period because it was so heavy,” she says. “I couldn’t even really be too far from the bathroom.”
Only when she spoke to someone with the same condition who had decided to have a hysterectomy did the writer realise it was an option. And now her womb has been removed, she no longer has those disabling menstrual cycles.
“I very gleefully gave all my tampons to my sister!” laughs Catherine, who believes women need to talk about these issues because so often it’s assumed to be just a normal part of ageing.
“It’s not shameful and shouldn’t be hush-hush,” she asserts. “And you shouldn’t be sitting on the sofa, not living your life and missing your kid’s camp because of terrible painful periods.”
There were also other hurdles in the way of Catherine finishing The Reason. The lockdowns, of course, and needing to home-school her two sons, now 16 and 13, while husband Edd, who works in the film industry, was away on location. Then a friend came to stay because she had lost her husband suddenly, which was a situation uncomfortably like the plot of her new novel.
“She was with me for two months and because I was writing about grief, I stopped working while she was there because I didn’t want to take anything from her experience,” says Catherine.
The Reason is about a woman whose ultimate fantasy comes true at the same time as her worst nightmare. She loses her husband in a botched medical procedure and gets a huge compensation payout, making her impossibly wealthy. So she decides to use the money to do something extraordinary to brighten up life for her daughter, who is being bullied at school.
The writer poured her grief into The Reason.
Despite its grittier themes, this is a joyful and often very funny read. And Catherine suspects a lot of parents will relate to the bullying storyline because it happens so often in real life. She was bullied herself as a child and one of her own sons has been through it. When she started reaching out into her wider network, Catherine realised just how common it was.
“Often it was the same sort of experience, at a similar age,” she says. “It’s heartbreaking to watch and there’s a feeling of helplessness because you can’t really stop a bully, and other parents never want to see that their child is the one being nasty. All those experiences are right there in the novel.”
With The Reason now in bookshops, Catherine has embarked on her fourth novel, a comedy murder-mystery.
“Whenever I’m working on one book, I’m always having lots of ideas for the next one and I can’t wait to get into it.”
The Reason by Catherine Bennetto (Simon & Schuster, rrp $24.99) is out now.
