Riding high

With her 39th novel just published, Stacy Gregg has carved out a place in children's fiction with stories about ponies and other creatures.

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Former journalist Stacy Gregg began writing children’s stories about horses almost 20 years ago, with Mystic and the Midnight Ride arriving in 2007, the first in her Pony Club Secrets series. Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Maru) has since written numerous books in the successful Pony Club Secrets and Pony Club Rivals series. Last year, she took home the highest accolade in children’s publishing, her book Nine Girls winning the Margaret Mahy award at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. It was the bestselling locally published junior fiction novel in 2024. Now living in Auckland, she’s also a screenwriter; her credits include Mystic and local series My Life Is Murder, starring Lucy Lawless.

What is your earliest memory?

My nan giving me a bath, which she'd decided to do for some unknown reason in the laundry sink, and there was a wasp on the wall beside me and I wanted her to get rid of it. “It won't bother you if you don't bother it,” she said dismissively. It promptly flew down and stung me. Life lesson: sometimes, even if you do your best to mind your own business, someone will go out of their way to fuck you up.

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

A horse vet. Or an international diplomat. I ran into an old family friend from childhood a couple of years ago and asked him what he did now for a crust and he said, “Well, I was a horse vet but I've since become an international diplomat...” You have no idea how furious I was that he had stolen both my dream careers and didn't even seem that fussed about it.

When are you happiest?

The day I send off a finished manuscript to my editor.

What makes you unhappy?