Lyn Rasmussen

Possum skins, pig hunters, Regency romance – the story writer’s story  

Words Jill Nicholas

Pictures/video Stephen Parker

From founding and editing a pig hunting magazine to writing Regency romance novels is a quantum literary leap.

That Lyn Rasmussen has accomplished swapping such disparate genres has been achieved through hard slog, fuelled by her life-long passion for the written word.  

She’s one of those whose blended cultural mix is deeply rooted in this whenua. Her early years were spent in Kaingaroa Forest Village where her father, Bruce Rasmussen, was a saw doctor in the mill.

Her mother, Dawn Mere Rasmussen (nee Dansey), was an avid reader and encouraged her daughter to read too.

Lyn has childhood memories of going to sleep to the sound   of oven trays rattling as her mum warmed her feet in the coal range while reading.  

For Lyn reading and writing came naturally. The village was a great place to bury her nose in a book.

“I was in the privileged position of having two older brothers, being the only girl and the youngest child.

“I was always in the margin of my brothers’ activities . . . the dead Indian in the woodshed.

“I read the books they did, authors like Jack London and James Fenimore Cooper. His The Last of the Mohicans was thrilling, it was so violent.” 

She was 10 when the family moved into town. They settled into what, in those days, was the only house in Kotuku Street. “It was really rural.” 

Rotorua, Maketu connections, memories

Lyn was thrilled to be close to her maternal grandparents, Ted and Hilda Dansey. “They farmed a few acres at the end of what’s now Sloan Avenue.” 

The combination of her Dansey-Rasmussen heritage makes her gene pool a relatively rare mixture of Danish, Māori and Pakeha bloodlines.

“We were brought up with an understanding of our Maoriness and our Englishness. We knew only a little about Dad’s Danish side. Finding out more is on my list of things still to do.”

 It was her great-grandfather, Roger Delamere Dansey, who flashed the news of the 1886 Tarawera eruption to the world. He was Rotorua’s postmaster of the era.

“He taught himself Morse code while installing that exciting new phenomenon, telegraph lines, between Taupo and Napier. He practised by manipulating the trigger of his carbine [rifle].
“His wife, Wikitoria Ngamihi Kahuao, only spoke broken English. He spoke Māori, English and several other languages.” 

Her Dansey grandparents had a bach at Maketu.

“My grandfather built it. It was very basic with a long drop. I have all these wonderful memories of being there. I remember swinging on the wooden gate as old Pita Tapsell rode up on his white horse. I will never forget these old gentlemen speaking at length in Māori and the smell of fennel coming from the urupa on the hill.” 

The young Lyn’s fondness for horses was on a par with her love of books. “One day my brother, Wayne, brought a horse home. We called him Sam and I spent hours riding him; no saddle, just a bridle. I was never an ace rider.”

Schooldays, the working world, marriage

At Girls’ High English was her top subject, followed by Latin and French. “I was hopeless at maths, not particularly good at sport. I was in the A stream but always near the bottom. However I did win essay prizes for two or three years in a row. I was never part of the cool crowd.” 

A careers’ adviser set her up with a job in an accountancy firm. She loathed it.

“There I was, yet so bad at maths. I didn’t understand I could have had a career relating to writing.

“I was too shy to be a journalist, but I’d have loved to work in publishing or a library because I was such a great reader.”

Reading consumed her even more when her mother bought a book shop on the corner of Springfield and Otonga Roads. A lending library took up one wall.

“I read lots of romance: Mills & Boon, Georgette Heyer, Barbara Cartland, Victoria Holt.”   

She went to night school and learned to type. “It’s typing that has kept me in work all my life.” 

At 19 she married – she’d met her husband-to-be at a dance.

“The wedding was at St Faith’s, the Anglican church at Ohinemutu. I wasn’t brought up in any religion, My fiancé was a Catholic but it turned out he wasn’t baptised so we couldn’t marry in a Catholic church.”    

Possum skins, tractor driving 

The couple went into possum trapping, raising their toddler daughter, Angie, in a wooden caravan in the bush at Pongakawa, later moving to  Tarawera Road near the shooting range.

 “My job was pegging out the skins; cleaning and scraping the fat off them, stretching them out to dry before packing them in wool bales to be shipped for sale.”  

They bought over an acre of scrub-covered land by the Waikato River at Mihi, living in their caravan, then a farm cottage, as they broke in the land.   

“Once it was cleared we bought a three-bedroom transportable home which we lived in for the next 17 years.”

For several summers Lyn worked at the local lucerne factory.

“I drove a tractor loading the lucerne into dryers from midnight to 8am.  In the winter it was back to the possums.

“I was still reading a huge amount of romance novels. Later I only read non-fiction.” 

Son Adam was born while the family were at Mihi. Lyn became the local school’s cleaner and groundskeeper.

Producing pig hunters’ magazine

 Mihi was where the idea to publish a magazine for pig hunters germinated. “My husband was a mad-keen pig hunter. The business plan was basic; it would be black and white with a picture on the cover, something we’d sell for $4.”

Pig-hunting mates were recruited to provide the content. In 1992 Lyn advertised in the New Zealand Herald for subscribers.

“The initial reaction was surprisingly good. That paid for the first issue.” 

When her marriage hit the rocks Lyn moved back into town, living with her parents. 

“I bought the magazine with me. Desk top computers had just started to come in.  I’m not someone who can programme an oven or a microwave but I just loved computing. It meant if you made a mistake you didn’t have to retype the whole page. It was before the internet or emails.”

She reflects on what hard work producing New Zealand Pig Hunter was. “I didn’t have the business nous to make it really successful. After seven years I sold it to Rod and Rifle Magazine. Thirty years on it’s still going strong.”

Prize winning writer 

Before the magazine’s inception she’d entered a Women’s Weekly short story competition run in conjunction with the publishing house Hodder & Stoughton. She won.

“It was called Swimming to Motiti and was based on memories of my beloved Papa from Maketu. That was a tremendous boost.”

Buoyed, she joined the Rotorua Writers’ Group. Stories. Stories she wrote  appeared regularly in publications ranging from Australian Women’s Day to New Zealand Dairy.  

Her present partner, Red Logan, was a group member.

“He was a keen hunter, fisherman and writer. I thought his writing was very good. He joined me working on the pig hunter publication. It was hard work and financially unrewarding.”

When the magazine was sold in 1999 she turned to desk top publishing, specialising in CVs for WINZ clients.  

By then she’d helped Red self-publish and sell two books and secure a multi-book deal with publishers Reed & Co.

While still at Mihi Lyn had developed an interest in oral history, talking to older people about their lives.

Arawa Street pig chase, India

“I decided on stories from people born before 1920. … I like old people, now I’m one myself.”

Lyn was inspired by her mother’s cousin, Roger Kusabs.

“He’d told me this great story of how as a child he’d been sent to post a letter at the Arawa Street Post Office. He said it was getting dark when suddenly a wild pig came out of the bushes. He chased it into a draper’s shop. Eventually a butcher came and shot it” 
Lands End Publishing liked the “folksy” concept of the older people’s yarns and signed her up. 

They became part of the primary and correspondence school’s curriculum. One, Doing the Washing, was nominated for the Library and Children’s Information Book Awards.

“I didn’t win but it was a thrill to be nominated alongside writers like Margaret Mahy and Maurice Gee. I felt honoured to be among those names.”

The publishers asked her to find more diverse ethnicities. 

“I met a high-caste Hindu lady, Nirmal Rani Fermah, from Whakatane, who’d been living in India at the time of partition. She said it was karma we met and asked me to write her life history. I didn’t feel qualified but she convinced me to go to India with her.

“The upshot was she fell ill and I ended up there on my own with no one to meet me. Before that I’d never been out of New Zealand.

 “I went to Delhi and a retreat in Amritsar where her guru was. There were 200,000 people there.

“I’ve always felt bad that I didn’t finish her story for various reasons. She’s now dead but I’m still hoping to one day.”

Romance writing

Lyn turned to romance writing.

“I falsely thought romance stories would be easy to write. I just wasn’t nailing it until I went to a writer’s retreat near Whangarei. It was such an inspirational weekend it gave me the confidence to continue.” 

She approached world-leading romance publishers Mills & Boon.

“They were encouraging and wanted a synopsis and three chapters submitted. That was easy but I found it really hard to get beyond the third chapter.  

“I still find it difficult. That is the beauty of self-publishing; you can write shorter books and sell them.

Her self-published work is marketed via Amazon. She’s one of 400-plus members of Romance Writers of New Zealand.

“They are extremely generous with their experience and knowledge. Many are now international successes with six-figure incomes.”   

Lyn’s stories are primarily set in the Regency period.

“I have four Regency titles of differing lengths, I’m presently working on the fifth in a series I’ve called Northbridge Brides.

“Regency romances involve a lot of research and note taking. I’ve written  a short book from my notes titled Tips For Writing Regency Romance.”

She swats aside any suggestion her books tend towards the bodice-ripping raunchy.

“I am very careful about what I write. I think if two people care for each other, desire each other it’s okay to include that. My sex scenes aren’t very detailed but they don’t stop at the bedroom door.

“No matter how much I tell myself no one will die in the book I’m writing at the time someone does die.

“Writing a novel I’m thinking things through; it’s like a puzzle.”

Her romances appear under the pen name Leigh D’Ansey, a salute to her maternal whakapapa.     

“Regency romance is very focused on family connections, very much like Māori.”

Other books, other jobs  

“My dad wrote a how-to on finding faults in small engines, my mother’s cousin, Harry Dansey, was a well-known writer. My great-grandfather penned a lovely, unpublished  account of the Tarawera eruption. He told how Mrs Dansey - he referred to her throughout as Mrs Dansey - had the good sense to grab an umbrella when the eruption started. They sheltered under it as they fled to safety."    

Her first ebook was a contemporary romance set in Rotorua. It’s titled Kincaid’s Call and published under the Leigh D’Ansey name.

She’s written a collection of short stories under her own name, again using the Swimming to Motiti title. There’s also a handbook on how she learnt to paint. 

“When the kids went on their OEs in 1999 I thought I didn’t want to grow into an old lady without a hobby so I took up painting.  I’m still just a beginner.” 

So what’s the response to those who slam the romance genre as lightweight and meaningless?

“To people who snigger I say that it’s the genre that supports all other genres and sub genres. It helps publishers take risks, risks that let them publish most other books.” 

Outside writing and publishing she’s worked for health and welfare-related organisations: Red Cross, the Stroke Foundation and NASCA (Needs Assessment and Coordination Association).

Last year she retired from Age Concern after four years as its  administrator.

“It was a lovely job. The people were the loveliest I’ve ever worked with.” 

We urge Lyn to help us out by switching her mind from romance to mystery.

What we, and no doubt others, want to know is how come she’s so seamlessly switched from the gritty world of possum skins and pig hunting to Regency gowns and heart-fluttering love scenes? 

Much thought goes into her response. She admits it’s something that baffles her too.

“I can hardly believe it myself. I guess my answer is I’m an adaptable person. 

“My fault as a writer is I’m undisciplined but I’m trying to improve.”