A House Built on Sand

My latest novel, published by Text, has just received a wonderful review in Landfall: ‘It is a work of wisdom and maturity, likely to be read and treasured by many.’

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Review

And great to see a review of Ephemera on Vivienne Lingard’s blog: https://viviennelingard.net/2020/04/30/ephemera/#more-3748

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Sketch of Ephemera

I love this sketch of my latest novel! It’s by talented NZ artist Vivienne Lingard.

smartcapture
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Ephemera

New novel in the works! My novelEph thumbnail is being published in March by Cloud Ink Press – watch this space 🙂

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Margo Lanagan

One of my favourite authors is the Australian writer Margo Lanagan. Here’s a quote from her: ‘I write a lot of stories with babies, children and young people in them, because I’m interested in the way people piece together their world for the first time. As we grow, we try to work out what’s happening and why, to interpret other people’s intentions. We also have fresher perceptions of atmospheres, weather, physical, social and interpersonal events, because quite often it’s the first time we’ve encountered them.’margolanagan2

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Ursa

I’m very proud that my latest YA title Ursa has now been launched at the Storylines Margaret Mahy Day. Head of Publishing Linsay Knight at Walker Books had this to say:

“Working with last year’s winner, Tina Shaw, has  been an absolute delight. Her standout entry Ursa shone from the outset. And her unstinting work ethic and desire to deliver the strongest book possible has made our blossoming relationship with her a real pleasure. Ursa is a book for our times and aStorylinesURSA_cover tour de force for Tina. Everyone at Walker Books congratulates her and celebrates the launch of this extraordinary book with her.”

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Advanced Reading Copy

Am very excited to see the ARC of my YA novel Ursa that’s due to be released early next year by Walker Books. This is what the full cover looks like.

URSA ARC COVER

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Storylines award

Me&JacindaI was at the Storylines Margaret Mahy Awards Day yesterday and won the Tessa Duder Award for an unpublished manuscript. While there, I happened to shamelessly cadge a photo from our PM (my heroine).

One thing that really struck me yesterday was the sheer amount of female talent in the place – I was blown away by all that womanly writing and publishing. The line-ups on the stage for the Notable Book Awards: nearly all women. The Storylines organisation is run by strong and talented women … and look at One Tree House (my publisher): Christine and Jenny are dynamos, and have just picked up a major publishing award at the Bologna childrens book festival. I was very impressed by the sheer energy in the place yesterday. So fitting that we had the strong and positive Jacinda to speak to us and give the MM medal.

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My new YA title

I find the decision by Whitcoulls to not stock my new YA title ‘Make a Hard Fist’ – as it’s possibly too confronting and therefore a hard sell – to be a disturbing trend for New Zealand publishing. So does this mean that Whitcoulls are actually dictating the terms of what we publish in New Zealand? If they don’t take a title because it’s a hard sell, then publishers here (as we’ve seen) will be selling books that are tending towards the bland end of the spectrum, the safe approach, presumably to sell less confrontational books more easily to Whitcoulls. So, what about Patrick Ness, as an example – will Whitcoulls not sell his books because they are confronting? No, because he is an overseas author, and thus accessing a larger market segment than boring old Whitcoulls. What can you do? Go into Whitcoulls and order my book!MAHF_cover

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The wonderful Hilary Mantel

I’m such a fan of Hilary Mantel’s writing, so was thrilled to pick up a discounted copy of her story collection at a bookshop recently. There is a marvellous story  about two girls who are spying on a strange figure in a wheelchair on a patio:

And we saw – nothing; we saw something not yet become; we saw something, not a face but perhaps, I thought, when I thought about it later, perhaps a negotiating position for a face, perhaps a loosely imagined notion of a face, like God’s when he was trying to form us; we saw a blank we saw a sphere, it was without feaUnknownture, it was without meaning, and its flesh seemed to run from the bone.

– from ‘Comma’ in The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher

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