Sarah Ell, author of Tarawera novel A Sky Full of Fire

Sarah Ell was a sixth former camping on the shores of Lake Tarawera when she first imagined writing about the eruption. That was 1986, a century after the mountain blew. Forty years on, her story has a cast of visitors gathered at the hotel with lies to tell and plans to carry out. The reader knows what's coming. They don't. At the heart of A Sky Full of Fire is Mohi, a young Tuhourangi boy. Sarah tells Perlina why she couldn't write this book without a Maori voice, and what it meant when a Tuhourangi reader loved it. She also explains why there's always weather in her books.