Kylie Griffin's Blog: New Zealand

Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

TOPIC: An Author's Life...with Karina Bliss

Being a published author is an ... involved ... process, and I take my hat off to those who've been in the business more than a few years now.

As a pre-pubbed author I was always curious about what happened once you received THE CALL and stepped into the world of publishing.

What did it involve? How did they handled the day to day pressures? Did they developed routines, set goals etc.? What did they like/dislike about the process?

So I asked my special guests these questions and many of them have offered some intriguing insights into their lives. Maybe they'll even give you a heads up on what to expect if you're thinking of entering the world of "getting published".

Please welcome my next guest...

On average, romance authors take 5 years and 4.5 manuscripts before they get their first book contract. Despite her willingness to be the exception, journalist KARINA BLISS ended up fitting that statistic almost exactly. En route, she became the first Australasian to win a Golden Heart® from the Romance Writers of America.

Her debut, MR IMPERFECT, was published by Harlequin Superromance in Sept '06 and won a Romantic Book of the Year Award in Australia. Since then she’s written ten books for Harlequin SuperRomance.

Author Facts
Pseudonym or Given Name on the cover? Why a pseudonym?
With a name like Karina Bliss who needs a pseudonym, no one believes it's real anyway.
Location: New Zealand.
Published Genre: Harlequin SuperRomance.
Website: www.karinabliss.com (Karina also has a GoodReads blog)
First published in: 2006.
Number of books published: 10

The Nitty Gritty
List up to 5 significant events in your journey to publication?

Peter and Barbara Clendon - The Clendon Award aka Finish The Damn Book for unpublished writers. As Kylie knows, a great success rate with picking writers who go on to publication.
The Kara School of Writing, a romance workshop run by Daphne Clair and Robyn Donald in Northland, NZ.
The Writegals, my critique group, made up of Abby Gaines, Tessa Radley and the late Sandra Hyatt.
My partner, Trevor, who is still patiently waiting to be a kept man. And in the meantime keeps me.
Winning the Golden Heart®. The manuscript never got published but it didn't matter. Enough to be queen for a night.

What resources/techniques/events did you find useful to develop your writing skills/craft?
I'm a recovering craft book junkie.

The books I keep going back to are: STORY by Robert McKee, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Donald Maass; TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER by Dwight Swain, and SAVE THE CAT by Blake Snyder.

Can you share the special moment when you received THE CALL/THE EMAIL?
All I can remember six years on is wishing Victoria Curran would quit with the small talk and get straight to the "We want to buy your book" part!

Funnily enough when she did say those magic words, it still took a couple of days before I really truly beleived it and started celebrating.

Looking back over your writing career, how have you grown as an author?
I think I get better with every book - and worse - which isn't the contradiction it sounds. Craft improves hugely under the guidance of an editor, but it's also a case of the more you know the harder it is to let go through the first draft. Voice is there from the beginning but I also think it evolves and deepens with every book.

How important is it to set career goals? Can you give an example of one you have for yourself?
I have mixed feelings about setting career goals. One, I think they're important, two I think you should always be open to revising them.

The only personal goal that has never changed is to write keepers. Whether I acheive that or not is decided by the reader, the particular story resonating with me as I write it, and lots and lots of fairy dust. But I'd rather fail big than win small.

Can you describe your writing process/timeframe from when you start a new book to handing it in at deadline?
Let's take the last book I turned in as it's fresh - BRING HIM HOME, out June 2012.

I have an initial idea - A guy falls in love with his army buddy's widow. And I push that idea to the nth degree. What if he had to make a Sophy's Choice (lesser of two evils) in the ambush that killed his buddy? What if his buddy was complicit in that choice? What if he's so scarred emotionally he turns his back on his friends, the only family he has?

What if his best friend's widow forces him to come home because his signature in a family trust is required in order for her sell the home and invest in a business? What if she hasn't forgiven her late husband for something and the hero has to act as go between?

What if his own redemption is increasingly tied to reconciling the widow to her late husband at the same time he falls in love with her?

I also look at genre conventions and try and twist them. Let's have a widow who adored her husband. Let's have the late husband a major character in the book. Let's have the love triangle about the hero's loyalty to his best friend as much as his love for his best friend's widow. Let's have a woman who's moving on and a hero who can't. Let's explore the idea of a soulmate against the backdrop of a happy marriage to someone else.

How will I make a reader believes that this man and no other is the 'one' while still developing an affection for the heroine's late husband?

That's a story evolution that takes a few months to write myself into. And all the time I'm studying facts looking to ground the story in reality which is necessary for SuperRomance. For this book, the SAS, sportsfishing, family trusts and working as a bodyguard were all areas that needed researching. Not to mention how people process grief.

The first draft is torturous. A crawl of four to six pages a day. If I write ten I can guarantee I'll delete five. I'm not a born writer but I'm an excellent reviser :) and I'm totally committed to doing my best work.

One of the things I found challenging about being a published author is the constant juggling of tasks ie. writing a book, editing another, planning promotion, writing the prosposal for another (and usually this all happens while holding down another job or dealing with family/life etc.).

What do you enjoy the most in the publishing process?
I love the beginning - coming up with ideas and the end - line edits and AA's when all the hard work is done and you're tweaking.

What do you least in the publishing process?
Everything after page three until three pages to the end.

What's the most memorable fan-mail you've received?
Every reader email is special. I still find it wondrous that strangers read my books.

Is there anything you think pre-publishers writers need to know about the business/industry before they're published?
The quality of the book is the only thing you really have control over. Know what you want out of being published - fame, fortune, critical acclaim and keep that as your touchstone when you're making decisions that affect your career.

A Bit of Fun
Favorite color: Money.
Hunkiest hero ever: Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall. (And then he cut his hair and I went off him...so shallow).
Most daring thing you've done in your life: I was a broke Kiwi travelling through the States and ran out of money. I slept on a friend's floor for a month, working in a card shop, until I could fly home. That friend lived in a frat house at Stanford University where he was studying! I was little sister to thirty guys. An amazing experience, Animal House meets The Sound of Music.
Greatest love: My husband and son.
Timeout/relaxation for me includes: Reading on an exercycle. I'm magically getting fitter while I'm lost in a book.
Special quote/saying you like: "I can't stand Willy Wet Leg, can't stand him at any price. He's resigned and when you hit him, he lets you hit him twice." - D. H. Lawrence. It just makes me laugh.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

TOPIC: An Author's Life...with Amanda Ashby

When she’s not moving country, she likes to write books (okay, she also likes to eat chocolate, watch television and sit around doing not much, but let’s just keep that amongst ourselves, shall we?)

Author Facts
Pseudonym or Given Name? Amanda Ashby.
Location: Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
Published Genre/s: young adult, middle grade.
Website: www.amandaashby.com
First published: 2007.
Number of books published: I’ve currently got three books out and four more to come in next 12-18 months.

The Nitty Gritty
List up to 5 significant events in your journey to publication?
The first clever thing that I did was join the Romance Writers of New Zealand.

I won a competition, which would’ve seen my book get published with a small UK publisher, but they went under before that happened.

At the same time I had moved to the UK and joined the RNA and went along to a local chapter meeting in Cheshire. There were four of us at that first meeting: me, Penny Jordan, Susan Stephens and Amanda Grange. To say that I was overwhelmed was an understatement but despite being a fish out of water those wonderful writers took me under their wings and made me feel like my writing dream was possible!

From there many more people ending up coming to our chapter meetings (including the wise Kate Walker and the lovely June Francis who writes Liverpool sagas).

Hanging out with so many Harlequin authors led me to the eharlequin boards and that is where I met my CP's Christina Phillips and Sara Hantz.

Meeting those two was definitely the best thing that ever happened to my writing career. I think we had been friends for about two years when I finally sold and I can’t imagine what I would’ve done without them (especially since they are fabulous at correcting my shoddy grammar!!!!).

What resources/techniques/events did you find useful to develop your writing skills/craft?
I love Blake Snyder’s book SAVE THE CAT. I’ve read a lot of writing books that try and teach me how to write but with Blake’s book I feel like he’s putting names and structures to the things that I naturally do.

Can you share the special moment when you received THE CALL?
My first book went out on submission in 2005 to quite a big list but within two weeks we had received rejections from nearly all of them.

Then my agent sent me an email to say that NAL had offered on the proviso that I changed it from a young adult book to a woman’s fiction book. Honestly, in that email all I saw was the words ‘offer’ and so I immediately said yes!!!!

Looking back over your writing career, how have you grown as an author?
I think I write like a puppy! I have a lot of enthusiasm and over the top of ideas and not a lot of structure and style. Thankfully, over the years I’ve definitely learnt how to control my voice and impose some order on it.

Of course, it hasn’t all happened in a bubble and I owe it all to my editor Karen Chaplin who has been such a champion of my work. Karen has since left Puffin but I still keep her in my mind when I’m working on a new project because she knew just how to push and develop me as an author!

Ditto with my agent, Jenny Bent who never lets me put anything but my best foot forward.

How important is it to set career goals? Can you give an example of one you have for yourself?
You know I really should start setting some goals. It sounds very grown up and clever! Unfortunately, I tend to just float along in a very vague way and hope that good things happen (for the record, don’t try this at home).

Can you describe your writing process/timeframe from when you start a new book to handing it in at deadline?
It varies so much depending on the contract. I’ve sold books on the full, on a partial and on a synopsis and so each experience has been different.

The only thing that stays the same is that by the time I hit the middle, my head is fit to explode and I’m convinced that I’m the worst writer. In. The. World!

Also, for me a lot of the work starts after the book has been handed in and when we move onto the revision stage (that when crazy really comes to visit!)

One of the things I found challenging about being a published author is the constant juggling of tasks ie. writing a book, editing another, planning promotion, writing the prosposal for another (and usually this all happens while holding down another job or dealing with family/life etc.).

What do you enjoy the most in the publishing process?
Ideas!!!! I’m such an ideas person and so I love the challenge of coming up with something that has a cute title, strong hook and that can work in the current market.

What do you least in the publishing process?
The waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is so much downtime in publishing, depending where you sit on your publisher’s list and so often you have long periods of time where nothing is happening and you have to keep yourself amused and out of trouble!

What's the most memorable fan-mail you've received?
It was for my debut book YOU HAD ME AT HALO and it was from a lovely reader called Laura who I would say was my first fan! She was so wonderful and I even ended up meeting her at the RWA conference in San Francisco.

We joked that she was my stalker but she wasn’t like that at all. She just really liked my book and I’ve never forgotten her because she was the first person who made me feel like a ‘real’ writer!

Is there anything you think pre-publishers writers need to know about the business/industry before they're published?
I don’t want to sound all pessimistic but sometimes when I think of publishing I think of Kurt Vonnegut’s book, CAT'S CRADLE where it concludes, ‘No dam cat. No dam cradle.’ Because no matter how great your publishing experience is, it’s NEVER how you expect it will be!

So my advice is to lose your expectations, concentrate on your story and remember that it’s not the most important thing in the world.

A Bit of Fun
Favorite color: apple green.

Hunkiest hero ever: David Boreanaz.
Most daring thing you've done in your life: bought sour Skittles instead of regular ones. Sometimes I just scare myself with my thrill-seeking nature!
Greatest love: husband. He’s very lovely when he’s behaving himself!
Timeout/relaxation for me includes: watching television and reading books.
Special quote/saying you like: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd." - Flannery O’Connor. I love this, and it pretty much sums up every book that I’ve ever written!!!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

TOPIC: An Author's Life...with Maree Anderson

The other great thing about being an author is having a valid reason to read loads of books -- all in the name of research, of course. When she's not 'researching', Maree's writing romance of the paranormal persuasion.

She's a Kiwi, a New Zealander, and she's addicted to chocolate -- the darker the better. Not to mention coffee and excellent NZ wine. She's not quite so addicted to her local gym but she's working on it ;-)

Author Facts

Pseudonym or Given Name? Given name—plain old Maree Anderson. I didn’t really think about the pseudonym thing until after I was published... in erotic romance. Ooops. *face palm*
Location: Auckland, New Zealand.
Published Genre/s: Erotic Romance of the science fiction/fantasy/paranormal persuasion, paranormal romance, Young Adult paranormal. (If you’re sensing a theme here, you’d be right *g*)
Website: http://wwwmareeanderson.com
First published in: 2009.
Number of books published: 8 (3 novella-lengths, 5 novel-lengths).

The Nitty Gritty
List up to 5 significant events in your journey to publication?

As Barbara Clendon would say: “Finishing the damn book!” Or in my case, that very first manuscript.
Someone asking me shortly after I’d finished that very first manuscript, “What scares you about taking the next step toward publication?”
Finalling in the RWNZ Clendon Award in 2004 with that very first manuscript, and having Barbara Clendon say something to the effect of, “It needs a lot of work but for some reason, I just wanted to keep on reading the darned thing.”
Writing an erotic romance novella specifically for a contest, just to challenge myself, and being offered a publishing contract. (I’d never written a novella or an erotic romance before, so that was The Best feedback *g*)
My second Red Sage editor, Judith Harkins. We worked on four stories together before she left the company, and she was an incredible mentor, who really “got” me. She pulled scenes from me that I didn’t know I had it in me to write. We still keep in touch regularly via email.

What resources/techniques/events did you find useful to develop your writing skills/craft?
I read widely, across a variety of genres. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for writers to read heaps. And heaps. And heaps.

For me, inspiration for a story strikes at the strangest times—in the middle of listening to a song, reading an article in an ancient magazine in the takeaway shop while waiting for my fish ‘n chips order, watching TV, glimpsing a photo as I flick through a magazine, waking from a dream.... I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve sprinted round frantically looking for a pen and paper to scribble down the idea before it vanishes.

So the best resource a writer can have? Pen and paper always at hand! (And preferably a pen that works, too.)

Entering contests can be a great way to get feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of your story—and your writing in general. I have a special fondness for the RWNZ Clendon Award, because it’s a full manuscript contest, with romance readers (not writers!) reading your whole manuscript and giving you feedback.

And having a group of writer-friends that you can meet with regularly is a must. “Normal” friends—and even family—don’t truly don’t understand what it’s like to have characters talking inside your head, and the muse cracking her fluffy whip and compelling you to write. Other like-minded writers “get” it and they’ll “get” you. And that’s a huge gift, because writing can be a lonely, very isolating, business.

Plus, I’ve always found other writers to be incredibly supportive and generous with sharing their knowledge. Our RWNZ Auckland chapter meetings have sometimes been the only thing that’s kept me writing through the tough times.

Can you share the special moment when you received THE CALL/THE EMAIL?
I wrote an erotic romance novella—just to see if I could 1) write a novella, and 2) erotic romance. I entered the finished novella in a publisher-run contest, and to my delight, I finalled.

The editor who read my entry sent me an email saying Red Sage were “so impressed by the quality of your manuscript, we’d love to publish it.” I cried all over the place. It was a dream come true.

I printed out that email and still have it pinned to my notice board.

Looking back over your writing career, how have you grown as an author?
When I first started out, I thought I was a fantasy writer. Period. Then I discovered I like to challenge myself as a writer, so I started to experiment, and learned I could write in a variety of genres, and lengths, and POVs (third or first.)

I also believed that I was a dedicated pantser, who would “never” be a plotter. But I’ve taught myself to outline if needs be.

For me, I’ve kind of lived by “if it isn’t working, try something different” when it comes to my writing. So now I’m pretty flexible. And if I get stuck, or parts of a manuscript aren’t working, I have lots of tools in my arsenal to help me fix the story.

How important is it to set career goals? Can you give an example of one you have for yourself?
Here are the career goals I had when I first accepted a publishing contract with Red Sage:

to have a novella published
to have a novel-length story published
to have a novella accepted for a Secrets anthology, so I’d have a story in print.

Those are the goals that I worked towards, and I achieved the last one with the July 2011 release of Kat On A Hot Tin Roof in the SECRETS Volume 30 “Desires Unleashed” anthology.

Can you describe your writing process/timeframe from when you start a new book to handing it in at deadline?
Because Red Sage is primarily an e-publisher, and they generally contract already completed manuscripts (i.e. they don’t usually contract on proposal), deadlines weren’t such an issue for me. I’d complete a manuscript, send it to my editor, we’d work on it, and when we were happy with it, I’d be sent a contract.

That said, my editor liked the idea of SCENT OF A MAN (a fantasy I’d written a few years back) so much that she contracted it without reading the entire manuscript.

So for me, that was my first taste of a tight deadline. I had to drastically cut the word count and rewrite a fantasy as an erotic romance. It was a mission, and then some—especially since I had a large cast of characters, multiple points of view, and my hero and heroine spent far too much time apart!

But every time I panicked that I might not be able to do this, my editor would tell me how much she believed in me. So I had to believe in me, too.

I recall things getting really tough when we decided quite late on during the rewrite process that the last quarter of the story wasn’t working. In the end, I decided to cut a chunk of the story out, outline what needed to happen, decide which of the scenes I’d cut (if any) still fit the new outline, paste them back in, and then write to fill the gaps.

I made the contract deadline with about three weeks to spare, I think. But it was an incredibly stressful process.

What I took away from that process was that I can completely pull apart a story and put it back together again while working under pressure to meet a deadline. So nothing much scares me anymore ;-)

One of the things I found challenging about being a published author is the constant juggling of tasks ie. writing a book, editing another, planning promotion, writing the proposal for another (and usually this all happens while holding down another job or dealing with family/life etc.).

What do you enjoy the most in the publishing process?
The writing! Because for now I’m not contracted to a specific publisher, I get to pretty much write what I want and try different things. For example, although I’m published in erotic romance, I also write non-erotics and YA.

I’m currently pulling out old manuscripts and rewriting them, which is a fun process—and a humbling one, when you see just how far you’ve come as a writer!

So far I’ve published three of my manuscripts—my 2006 RWNZ Clendon Award-winning manuscript, THE CRYSTAL WARRIOR, and a paranormal YA, FREAKS OF GREENFIELD HIGH (winner of the Maryland Romance Writers ‘Reveal Your Inner Vixen’ contest) are now available at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Diesel eBooks, iTunes & Sony.

And the second Crystal Warrior book, RUBY'S DREAM, (a Clendon Award finalist) is available at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes.

The third Crystal Warrior book, JADE'S CHOICE (also a Clendon Award finalist) will be released in the next few months. It’s an exciting time to be an author *g*.

Unfortunately, my muse is a slave-driver, and she doesn’t count “re-writing” as real writing! So I’m currently querying a recently completed YA that placed second in the From The Heart Romance Writers Golden Gateway Proposal contest for published authors.

I had a full manuscript request from one of the judging editors, so at the time of writing this interview, I’m waiting to hear what she thinks of the full manuscript. And once I’ve finished rewriting the third Crystal Warriors book, it’ll be back into writing something shiny and new to keep Ms Muse happy.

What do you like least in the publishing process?

Writing the dreaded synopsis! Followed closely by the dreaded blurb. And the dreaded tag-line...

What's the most memorable fan-mail you've received?
I received an email from a lady who’d bought the kindle version of THE CRYSTAL WARRIOR on Amazon, telling me how much she loved it, and what a fantastic story it was. I cried all over the place—it was just so wonderful to hear that.

Is there anything you think pre-published writers need to know about the business/industry before they're published?
Do the research. You (hopefully!) wouldn’t jump into a car for the first time, stick the key in the ignition, and just automatically expect to be able to drive it. Writing is the same.

If you don’t know how to say, format a paragraph or conversations in your manuscript, pick up a few books and see how it’s done. Same with a synopsis, and a query letter—there’s a wealth of information and excellent advice out there. All you have to do is be prepared to look for it and learn from it.

Besides, once you’re published, writing becomes even more of a business, so why not be professional right from the start?

Other than that, the most important thing to do is write, get into the habit of writing, and get into the habit of finishing what you start. Good things take time, and so does learning the “craft” of writing.

A Bit of Fun
Favorite color: Purple.
Hunkiest hero ever: Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair.
Most daring thing you've done in your life: Bungy jumped off the Kawerau Bridge in Queenstown.
Greatest love: My husband, my kids. And really good quality dark chocolate.
Timeout/relaxation for me includes: Reading a book. In bed. While juggling cereal and a mug of coffee.
Special quote/saying you like: “Begin at the beginning,” the King said, gravely, “and go till you come to the end, then stop.” (Lewis Carroll, from Alice in Wonderland.) Pretty much my mantra when it comes to writing a book!

Thanks heaps for inviting me to participate in this questionnaire, Kylie—I had heaps of fun putting the answers together!
You're welcome, Maree! :-)

And to finish off, you can find Maree lurking in all kinds of places:
Website/blog Facebook author page Twitter Google + Writers Gone Wild Blog

Saturday, December 3, 2011

TOPIC: Blog Highlights during 2011

What a year 2011 was - a lot of ground covered in blog posts - guest authors, craft articles, a heap of links, some more interviews and some fun stuff.

I'd like to thank everyone who appeared as a guest author or who agreed to be interviewed during the year - there were a lot of wonderfully generous people who said "Yes" when I emailed them with my request. You've made 2011 a memorable year for my readers. Thank you!!!

I thought I'd go back and list the top posts on my blog for 2011 - a trip down memory lane...

By far the most viewed page on my blog was Flooding In Australia (to date 5500 page views) - the year certainly kicked off with a slew of natural disasters, with the worst floods across Australia occurring in Dec.2010 & Jan.2011.

Which Hero Turns the Page for You was another popular read (nearly 800 page views). I guess we love our heroes and like to see which ones we have in common.

My long awaited first cover - VENGEANCE BORN - drum roll please... - came in with 450 page views. Yay!

Top 5 guest author interviews (whether they were interviewed in 2011 or not & in no particular order):

Christina Phillips
Shea Berkley
Nalini Singh
Kandy Shepherd
Helene Young

Christina Phillips - Berkley author

Posts that kept popping up consistently on my Popular Posts sidebar:

General posts that generated the most comments:

Guests who generated the most comments (in no particular order):

Serena Tatti

Serena Tatti (RWAustralia member)
Anna Campbell (Aussie author)
Vanessa Barnevald (RWAustralia member)
Annie West (Aussie author)
Rachel Bailey (Aussie author)
Erica Hayes (Aussie author)
Rowena Corey Daniells (Aussie author)
Angi Morgan (USA author)
Helene Young (Aussie author)
Cheryl Wright (Aussie author)

A very interesting set of statistics.

Makes me wonder what 2012 will bring!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Lessons in Seduction

The romance community is great at helping one of its own.

In August this year, Harlequin romance author, Sandra Hyatt passed away and her family, friends and the romance community mourned the loss of such a bubbly, vivacious woman.

Her posthumous book LESSONS IN SEDUCTION, is out tomorrow (December 1st) and her writing friends are spreading the word in the hope of increasing royalties for her family.

LESSONS IN SEDUCTION

A prince on a quest to find the perfect wife doesn't have time to trifle with a commoner. But Adam Marconi's longtime friend and sometime driver, Danielle St. Claire, has him contemplating a change in plans. Why can't the royal have a little fun before finally settling down? Then their supposedly quick affair suddenly turns serious.
And Prince Adam finds himself in a quandary. Say goodbye to the one woman who sets his heart and body on fire, or defy all the rules and cause the scandal of the century.

4.5 stars from Romantic Times Magazine.

And here are some buying links:

At AMAZON
Print

At HARLEQUIN
e-Harlequin Ebook Print

At THE BOOK DEPOSITORY
Book Depository

Feel free to pass this information on - the more people who see this, the more successful this venture might be (and don't forget, Christmas is coming up so this might make a fantastic prezzie for someone).

Thank you to anyone who purchases Sandra's book - you generosity is greatly, greatly appreciated!!!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Visiting New Zealand (again)

Yes, that time of year came and went, again - the annual trek to visit New Zealand.

Kelsey

I flew straight from Melbourne (and the RWAustralia conference) to Auckland and spent a lovely few days with Clare Scott, a fellow RWNZ'er, and her husband Doug, before attending the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference.

Garfield

I met their cute and cuddly pets Garfield and Kelsey while I was visiting.

In the few days before I attended the conference I took the chance to visit the Auckland Botanical Gardens (a beautiful, peaceful place).

Ducks were everywhere in the gardens...

So were pukeko's!

Succulents and cactii

The lake and surrounds were lovely

One Tree Hill, Auckland, NZ

Doug and Clare also took me up to One Tree Hill to get a 360 degree view of Auckland.

It might have been windy and cold (NZ had just had a record amount of snow dumped on it) but it was spectacular being able to put the geography in persepctive - the CBD, Mt.Wellington, Rangitoto Island, the two harbours and the Coromandel Peninsula.

Rangitoto Island, Auckland, NZ

Sad to say it's another year and another visit over... :-(

Monday, October 17, 2011

PARTY TIME for Dark Side DownUnder blog!

The Dark Sider DownUnder authors are celebrating their first birthday!

Where: Dark Side DownUnder blog

When: Halloween (Oct.31st)

Who's coming: the Dark Side Aussie/Kiwi authors and you

What to bring: Nothing - we're supplying the fun and the giveaways!

Be prepared for a spook-alicious time!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Change of Pace

Over the last year or so I've featured a number of guest authors from Australia, New Zealand and America, interviewed members from various romance writing organisations and various craft articles about writing/the writing industry/reading.

The regular posts have been on a Monday, Thursday and Saturday. With my writing schedule, I'm going to be cutting back to two posts as of the beginning of next month (November).

So, it's time for a change in content, but I'm curious to know what readers are looking for.

Do you like the Guest Author interviews? Is there a topic or issue you'd like more information on? If you're a reader or writer, is there something you'd like to see more of?

Leaving a comment will help me with planning future posts.

If you'd like your answers to remain anonymous please contact me via email - kyliegriffin71 (at) optusnet (dot) com (dot) au

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it.