I have written stories, short, long, middling all my life.  I have written a ton of short stories over the past 10 years, mostly because of the Huia short story competition which is now called Pikihuia.  I've been a finalist three times, yay, with 4 stories yay yay.  
When I say I have written "tons” I have started "tons" and finished about 30% of them.  I have to be honest here, I am a bit of a digital hoarder and I hardly ever okay I never delete word docs so, consequently I have a bajill...

It is New Years eve…

I am in the midst of spring cleaning.  My mother had a theory, that if your house was spotless on New Year’s Eve then it will be spotless for the rest of the year and I have always followed this advice. So I am decluttering, tidying and throwing a lot of crap out.

And “Oh My God” I have a lot of crap.

 I have clothes I never wear…(according to the KonMari method, this is the place you start purging especially the “One day I will fit into that” items from...

• In every situation do the right thing and if you can't, do the kind thing.
• If your name is going to appear on anything make sure "you" are the one to make the last decision on it.
• Say no when you don't want to do something and be okay about changing your mind, even if it is at the last minute.
• Remember to eat.
• When life is scary bed is the best place to be.
• 
  

Me and my tarzan outfit.

• I don't watch tv as I know it will be addictive if I started
  
• Big is a complete and utter arse-hole
• I know a lot of woman who do actually have that life.
• I never got the shoe fixation

Interiority...

Hello everyone!!!  Or the one person who reads this bloggidy blog blog blog.  

I got told, by those in the know that a writer must have a 'Facebook Page" a "Twitter Account" a "Website" and a 'Blog' well, I have to say after a couple of years of having all these things and angsting over every fecking thing I write in them,  I can truely say, from my experience, that this is total and complete bollocks.  

A writer doesnt need any of these things!!!!!!!!!

All a writer needs is a medi...

Visit to Porangahau School

 When I was a little girl in the Primers (ages 5-9) at Woodhatton Primary School, Wood Street in Wainuiomata, the thing I love the most was having a teacher read out loud to me. 

Fresh faced and attentive (the girls) squirmy and distracted (most of the boys), we sat on the “Mat” and listened to teachers reading one through books one or two chapters at a time or poems. I can’t remember all the books read out to us in the first two years except for the “Litt...

A fat ginger Tom Cat lumbered in through the cat door and hissed at the woman standing at the sink scrubbing pots.  He hissed, calling her a filthy name that should have gotten him a good slap across the ears. Instead, she stopped what she was doing wiped her hands on a tea towel and bent down to stroke his head. 

He swiped his claws up her forearm drawing blood.  ‘Where’s my dinner?’ he screeched glaring at his bowl.  ‘This is third night in a row I’ve had to wait.  Don’t be su...

The doctor said you have three good years and then he shrugged.  I didn’t know what the shrug was about but it felt ominous.  I didn’t say anything back.  I couldn’t think of any words which would fit this situation.  Instead, I tried to smile, because I am a woman and I have been conditioned to make others feel better in bad situations.  Including the doctor who was giving me some of the worst news a person can receive. 

The definition of “good” became of immense importance to...

• a blog
  
• a website 
  
• a twitter
  
•  the ability to relate a book that took you years to write in five minutes 
  
• a face you can stick on the back of a book that won't scare people
  
• witty quotable repartee for the newspapers
  
• a theme 
• hidden analogy
• hidden irony
• a Well of buried pain and a bucket
• a drink and/or drug and/or confectionery problem
• the hide of an elephant with spiked armour and a spartan helmet
• total unconditional love and support from your whanau especially the ones with money...

On a Tuesday in July, I returned home from work to find the house empty of everything except my clothes, my Formula 1 magazines and my toothbrush.  Propped up on the mantelpiece where our children’s photos used to sit was a letter from my wife Anna, informing me of her intention to divorce me. 

Scrawled at the bottom, seemingly an after thought, was a postscript stating she would be keeping my children and the cat, but we could negotiate the budgie. 

I sat on the floor in the centre of my emp...

The most important think I have learned is a writer’s most useful tools for editing is time away from the Manuscript, reading out loud and honest feedback.  Although, through the process you have to write the story you want to!  It’s all about you, or me I should say, the writer.  But if you want to publish what you write, and let the manuscript out of your clutches to be thrown to the wolves, you must be prepared to get as many responses as people you’ve shown it too.  Also, if you sho...

Julia stared at the large sheet of stretched cream paper taped to a board, propped on her travelling easel.  Her gaze shifted to a stand of silver birches scattered through the native trees on the other side of the river. 

She’d been waiting, perched on a tiny canvas stool, wrapped in a fleece blanket since five am and now it was here, the ephemeral window of perfect light.   Exhaling her relief she dipped a ...