Millers Flat author Kyle Mewburn’s new novel ‘Sewing Moonlight’ has been a 24-year-long journey, involving numerous rewrites, but it has hit New Zealand bookstores and made a bestseller list last month. 

Kyle said she was “astounded” to make the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list on April 19 as it has never happened before.

“I've been around for 20 years now and I've had one picture book in number 10 for one week. But, when you say you've been in the top 10, you're in the bestseller list, people think, oh, you'll be going on a fancy holiday and buying a new car. And, you think, I might be able to afford my power bill this month.”

Sewing Moonlight is set in the fictional Falters Mill in the 1920s. It follows a German immigrant finding his feet in a new country and exploring sustainability.

The cover of Sewing Moonlight, published by Bateman Books. PHOTO: Supplied 

Kyle and her wife Marion bought their five acres in Millers Flat in 1990 and started building “a little oasis, planting hedges and gardens.”

In 1997, Kyle bumped into a volunteer at a 24-hour book sale, the granddaughter of one of the original owners of her Millers Flat property.

“She told me her grandfather was a massive gardener. They had a macrocarpa hedge around the whole property. They had chickens, they had perennial borders, [and] orchards. She also told me that her grandmother married beneath her station. Her parents basically gave her a sewing machine for [her] wedding and never talked to her again.

“I suddenly thought . . . that we were just repeating a cycle . . . we’ve basically got our macrocarpa hedge and orchard."

The idea of cycles led her to the moon, companion planting and biodynamics and that combined with the sewing machine story sparked her to start the novel in 2000 and finish the first edition in 2002.

Marion and Kyle Mewburn. PHOTO: Supplied

The historical fiction book had two local launches thanking Central’s arts community, one held at Cromwell’s Paper Plus and a 1930s themed ‘ladies plate of supper and dance’ in the Millers Flat hall, attended by more than 50 people.

Kyle’s advice to aspiring writers, learned over the past 30 years since she started writing full time is to “play around, have fun, experiment . . . find your inner self and then start expressing that.”

Listen to Kyle’s interview on today’s episode of The Outlet podcast.