Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Seresin/Landfall Otago University Press Writing Residency

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During September and October 2013 I spent six weeks as writer-in-residence at Waterfall Bay, a beautiful secluded spot in the Marlborough Sounds where I worked on a second collection Stories Bodies Tell and a third novel The Gulf Between. Shortly after arriving I fell into a daily rhythm of writing, walking, thinking, reading, and writing again. In the evenings I recorded in the attached notebook, a gift from a friend, my reflections on reading for pleasure and reading for research, observations about adapting to a bush-clad landscape and extreme weather patterns, and insights into the benefits of abandoning regular life to focus for a while on the work of writing. My first experience of a residency has convinced me to apply for others. First, though, I must unpack and then revisit the words I wrote at the bay.




Saturday, November 16, 2013

Film Options

In October 2013, along with Penguin (NZ), I signed a film options contract for my first novel Ribbons of Grace, another first for me. Whether we go to the movie depends on funding. Fingers crossed!




French Edition

In July 2013 Editions PRISMA (France) published Des vies derriere soi, the French edition of Lives we Leave Behind, which Penguin (NZ) released in October 2012. The French edition came about after Debra Millar gave Penguin’s French agent a copy of the NZ version of my novel at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair. The agent loved the book and worked hard to place it with a French publisher. It’s been a real thrill to have my fiction translated for the first time.