I was recently interviewed by Rachel Doré about my upcoming science fiction thriller. She hosts a fantastic weekly radio show called ‘Words from the Bubble’ on Manawatu People’s Radio. We talked about the new book, my obsession with bees, and the ways living in New Zealand has impacted my writing.

The highlights

Here’s a transcript of some of the highlights. The full audio is below.

Rachel: 

So, tell us a bit more about ‘The Last Beekeeper’.

Jared:

The book takes place on a remote island in Lake Michigan. The main character is somebody who has gone through some family trauma, and he’s retreated from the world.

He’s a traditional beekeeper on this island, and he’s there with his daughter. He lost his wife years previous, and he’s very protective of his daughter and trying to keep her safe. It’s really a family drama to some extent about the relationship between this father and daughter.

But there’s something in the woods, and people start disappearing. Then he finds something very strange in his beehives, and he begins to unravel the mystery of what’s going on—what’s in the woods killing people and what’s in his beehives. He joins up with a local deputy and begins to solve the mystery.

Rachel:

It sounds like you know something about bees and beekeeping.

Jared:

My partner kept bees for some time, and I have become obsessed with them. We no longer have bees on the property, because my partner had a very bad reaction to some severe bee stings at one point. So we got rid of the hives.

But I have been reading about beekeeping for many years, and I started thinking about what would happen if bees became increasingly rare. Already there’s a huge problem with colony collapse disorder, where bee populations are dying.

But what would happen if that went even further? What if there was a global bee crisis and bee and insect pollinated fruits and vegetables became increasingly rare? How would that impact the global food supply?

I’ve also done reading about the ways various people are looking at how to remedy the situation. There are obvious things like arguing for reduced use of pesticides. Some people are looking at making small mechanical drones that would do pollination. Others are looking at genetic modification. There are a lot of different scientific approaches to how we would solve this problem.

So, that just took me down a path, and I started thinking about this story of a father and a daughter on a remote island during a global bee crisis.

Rachel:

Right. I can see how it went there. You said it’s a series. Is it going to have the same characters on the same quest?

Jared:

Yes. The protagonist, the last beekeeper, will be throughout them. Right now I imagine that there will be about four books. I’m working on the second book now. It’s called ‘The Brood Chamber’.

Rachel:

Oh, good title.

Jared:

It’s a term from beekeeping. The brood chamber is where the young bees are reared in a beehive. Each book will have its own story arc, but then there’s a bit of a cliffhanger that carries through to the next book. I’m having a lot of fun.

Rachel:

I’m sure when you have a lot of fun or invest your life in a fun way into any work of art, I think it translates, doesn’t it?

Jared:

Well, I’m hearing great feedback from my beta readers. They’re all asking me, “What’s going to happen to this character or that character?” I’m really getting some positive feedback, so I think that fun has translated.

Rachel:

It’s nice when that happens. You’ve been in New Zealand 16 years you told me. Do you find yourself writing in a way that’s been influenced by being in New Zealand, or are you writing as an American?

Jared:

Of course I was born and raised in America, so that has defined a lot of my worldview. At the same time, before I lived in New Zealand I lived in Japan for about 4 and a half years. So I have a very altered worldview from having lived in Japan, where it was a very different culture from the kind of Anglo culture I knew growing up.

When I came to New Zealand I thought at first that it was more familiar, but it’s not. On the surface it’s predominantly an English speaking culture, but it’s culturally very very different. Whereas in Japan the cultural difference was always in my face. Here it’s more subtle, but very much there.

In terms of my writing, New Zealand has had a huge impact on my writing. My first book was an olive farming memoir, and it was a basically about my love affair with rural New Zealand and the animals—the chickens, the pet pigs, the cattle and sheep on the property…

I’m often going on long walks through the paddocks and down to the river. There’s a big stretch of bush down by the river. Just walking through there and feeling a connection with the natural world here has really influenced my writing in a lot of ways.

Even when this new book, ‘The Last Beekeeper,’ is set in the States on a small island in Lake Michigan, in my heart it’s still very much influenced by my relationship with rural New Zealand.

The full audio

You can listen to the full interview (54 minutes) in the media player below.

Rachel is a lovely, passionate, creative soul, and it was an absolute pleasure chatting with her. Be sure to jump over to the Manawatu People’s Radio website to listen to more excellent episodes of Words from the Bubble.

I’m sending out a big thanks to Rachel and to also to Lorna (the kind reader who told Rachel about me). Thank you!

The Last Beekeeper is already available for pre-order on Amazon. Ebook only right now, with paperback to follow.