Book Tour

In just over a week my mini book tour will begin. The tour will last two days and I'll speak in three different towns. I hardly ever seem to stay overnight anywhere nowadays so it will be a treat to forget about the feeding of dogs and hens (and husband!) and enjoy doing something different.

The tour is called "Myths and Mayhem" and I'll be joined by two other kiwi authors, Deborah Challinor and Elenor Gill. Both these ladies are multi-published authors so obviously work harder at their craft than I do!

I gather that we will be talking about "the process of crafting history and myth into the perfect story". And there I was thinking I was just belting out an exciting tale!

I have to confess that I actually did do a lot of research before writing Ripples on the Lake, but once I started writing, I was more concerned with the pace of the story and making sure that it never slowed as it galloped towards the end.

Before the writing began, I read everything I could on early Taupo history (the town the story is set in) and on early Maori history. It felt important to keep everything accurate and real - goodness knows why since the story is paranormal. I think I wanted a reader to believe that it could have happened to anyone - even them - exactly as I wrote it, so that background accuracy was important.

It's been lovely to get email from readers saying that they have learnt things about maori culture from the story. It was never my intention to "teach" anything but it's a nice spinoff.

I'll be doing a reading on the book tour and have chosen the passage where Billy dies. It doesn't contain the central character but does feel "complete" in itself.

On the puppy front, Berry continues to thrive. She is still hunting which is unlikely to do her or the unborn puppies any harm, although I'm begining to think that the jump up on to the back of the ute will become a bit of a stretch.

I told Tori that he might need to lift her up, but he just gave me a funny look! I know that he will - he'll just make sure that none of his pig hunting friends see him doing it!