Kia ora lovies...

They tell you that to be a successful writer you have to splattered over the internet in every conceivable way. One has to have a Website, Tumbler, Twatter oh sorry I mean Twitter, a Blog, a Video Diary and blah blah blah freeking blah every www thing else.  
I find it difficult to do enough actual writing to justify being on the internet so much.  I also don't have that much "fascinating" crap to say. But I'm a good girl.  I do as I'm told.  
I have no idea if anyone reads it or if it contributes in any way to my success.  

Am I successful????????????  

Well I'm selling books.  (Not as many as I want,  people keep telling me they LOVE my book so they lend them out to all their mates.)  Bugger it.  And apparently the book is on loan in every library...yey!
I've got other 'Arty jobs' being offered to me and this year I'm jetting off to the other side of the world to stand in front of hundreds of people and talk about what I write.

 
A Taniwha from my presentation for the Goddess Conference in Vienna
http://www.goettinnenkonferenz.at/wasser-wesen-und-das-ansehen-und-die-macht-der-frauen/

So yeah, things are groovy and great.  Although I do spend a lot of time thinking I am a fraud and someone is going to tap me on the shoulder and tell me it's all been a big mistake and I am not the 'Olivia Giles' they're going on about.  

It is just a bugger that success doesn't translate into money.  That's where I feel like a big fat fail.  I don't even make enough to pay back my student loan.
I actually earned more money a billion years ago, when I was fifteen making burgers and milkshakes in an army canteen.  But then, I was fifteen and living in Waiouru, surrounded by thousands of single soldiers, so the job had its 'other' compensations.  As does this job.  Apart from being broke, it is GREAT being a writer.



I get to live in my room.  I read and watch masses of documentaries, two of my favourite things.  I keep my own hours.  Which means a lot of working late into the night and getting up when I feel like it, or not at all.
Being an artist is great too, creating gorgeous things for people is fun, and teaching is fun.  Although kids don't need to be taught how to be artists.  They just are...what you want is for them to hold on to their creativity and openness.  




a kids art workshop at my house

So maybe I should just shut up and stop moaning.  

I do what I love and I love what I do.  How many people can say that.  

Livxxx