This week we held a bookwarming in Wellington to celebrate the publication earlier in the month of my second novel, The Hope Fault. A bunch of us gathered (like the bunch of people in my book gather) to talk and drink and eat, under the unsettling but appropriate gaze of the wallabies and possums dotted about the … Read more…
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The Hope Fault on the map – reviews, interviews, events
My second novel, The Hope Fault, was published this month, and it’s been a strange and wonderful few weeks watching it start to make its way onto the map of the big wide world of books. Here are some highlights, and a reminder to join us in Wellington on 28 March to celebrate the novel’s publication. Reviews Pip Adam’s lovely long-form … Read more…
The Hope Fault — publication day
Today is, officially, publication day for my second novel, The Hope Fault. Fremantle Press have produced a beautiful looking book, and it was a particular delight to work once again with publisher Georgia Richter on this novel. It’s such a thrill to be with Fremantle Press — Georgia and Jane Fraser and Claire Miller and … Read more…
Writing workshop at KSP in Perth
I’m visiting Perth for 6 weeks, ahead of the publication (1 March) of my new novel The Hope Fault, and while I’m here I’m teaching a writing workshop at Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre (KSP) in Greenmount. It’s an updated version of a workshop I taught last year at Perth Writers Festival and at WORD … Read more…
The Great Big Book Read, Fremantle
I’m visiting Western Australia for 6 weeks in early 2017, and while I’m here I’ll be taking part in the first event that Fremantle Press is holding this year – their very first Great Big Book Read, at Clancy’s Fish Pub in Fremantle, on 1 February. The Great Big Book Read will celebrate five new books from Fremantle Press, all … Read more…
2016: my year in books
Like Jane Rawson this year, I decided a few years ago to try reading in private for a while, rather than publicly rating and/or reviewing books on Goodreads or other sites. And it’s been working for me, this curving of my arm around to hide the page as I read. In 2016, I kept track of … Read more…
Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive – a 2016 countdown
Let’s face it, 2016 has been a crap year for the world. And politically, 2017 scares the poop out of me (though let’s hope New Zealand seizes the opportunity later this year to #changethegovernment). But in writing terms, for me 2016 was a great year, and — with my new novel due out in a … Read more…
Publication day: Good Dog! anthology
Today marks the publication of Good Dog! New Zealand Writers on Dogs, an anthology edited by Stephanie Johnson, and produced in glorious hardback by Vintage / Penguin Random House New Zealand. It includes writing — poetry, fiction, essays, old and new — from a cast of New Zealand writers, including Fiona Kidman, Charlotte Grimshaw, Tina … Read more…
Hope springs
A year ago today — in late September 2015 — I sent the manuscript of my second novel off to Georgia Richter, publisher and editor extraordinaire at Fremantle Press, with fingers crossed, but unsure what her response would be. I had had the pleasure of working with Georgia on my first novel, The Life and Loves of … Read more…
Aardvarks + Aussies + BUST, oh my!
In a fortnight I’ll be in Christchurch for WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival 2016 (24–28 August). There’s a hashtag, of course; trust @kebabette to wear it with style. The last #WORDCHCH, in 2014, was fabulous (I wrote about it here and here, and here‘s the PechaKucha talk I gave there), and this year the festival promises (less scary than lions and tigers … Read more…