Writing fiction is a strange disease. It doesn’t kill you. Quite the opposite—it makes you long for more. Or maybe it’s an addiction. Or both. Either way, it’s an exquisite way to pretend you’re doing something meaningful.

Then come The Promoters. You block one, and ten more appear, buzzing into your inbox like relentless mosquitoes.

But writng goes on

Last week, I wrote about Wiremu. His story keeps deepening. Writing him through a European lens reveals new perspectives on New Zealand culture. After 19 years here, I’m still stunned by the scars left by systemic racism and the stubborn remnants of colonialism.

You can only explore those truths through fiction—through characters who embody the tension between the official narrative of harmony and the quiet desperation beneath. The image of New Zealand as a multicultural paradise begins to wilt when you wander into the margins.

My first novel skewered the cultural elite, their hunger for influence, their shortsighted games. Handful, the second, was my take on families and the bittersweet chaos of growing up. This October, The Triumvirate Murders sheds light on the greed, anger, and ignorance that pulse beneath the polished surface of the business world.

Now, my fourth novel is starting to stir. It leans further into the complex architecture of social structures—those invisible walls that marginalise, silence, and pass trauma through generations like a dark inheritance.

When I began the Pekka Wall series, I wanted to explore the story of an eccentric older man. But as the writing deepens, the themes pull me toward justice and injustice, toward questions of belonging and resistance in a changing world.

Even Pekka, introverted and unwilling, must face society—must learn not only to love his partner, the ginger-haired catastrophe magnet Tuomas, but to open his heart to humanity itself.

I hope readers travel with Pekka, Tuomas, and the rest of this growing cast—and perhaps, in the process, find gentler views of their own blind spots and better ways to live with one another.

As Pekka told Tuomas before falling asleep last night:
"Tuomas, I love you for the courage it took to let me into your life."
And Tuomas replied half asleep:
"That was easy. But keeping the door open for everyone who followed—that’s where it got scary."

To read the rest of that scene, you’ll have to wait until the next book is published early next year.

In the meantime, Handful – The Boy at the End of the Rainbow launches on the 30th of September. Something to look forward to. 😊

Happy reading,
Janus

Janus Lucky
www.januslucky.com

Get The Birthmark Murders from below:

👉 Amazon
👉 Apple Books
👉 Books.by – for those who like things a bit more indie