Later this month I’ll get to share a little limelight with Dame Fiona Kidman in a library author talk we’re doing together at Kilbirnie Library in Wellington: Life, Love, Fact and Fiction.
I first met Fiona when I took a series of writing workshops she taught in 2000. Fiona’s been a mentor, and a champion of my writing, ever since. It was such a thrill when she said she’d launch my book in Wellington last year.
Fiona’s latest book, The Infinite Air, launched a month after mine. It’s a novel based on a real historical figure, New Zealand aviator Jean Batten.
It’s going to be a treat to get to talk about my novel in the context of Fiona’s at the Kilbirnie Library event. My novel tells the life story of a fictional character, loosely sharing the timeframe of Jean Batten (Batten was born in 1909, my character Lena Gaunt was born in 1910), and they’re both women who lived unconventional lives. Many readers of my novel have presumed that Lena Gaunt was a real historical figure, and Fiona and I will talk about fact and fiction, love and loss, and the drivers behind the characters we’ve created.
Details on Eventfinder, Facebook.
Fiona Kidman’s website is at www.fionakidman.com
There’s a Jean Batten biography on NZ History website.