You can read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 at these links. FINAL PART: ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) made the task of preparing my book for publishing incredibly simple: I downloaded a template for the size I needed (as close as I could to Watched’s measurements), inserted enough chapters and formatted them as closely as […]

You can read Part 1 and Part 2 at these links. PART 3: HOME STRAIGHT I had a few bottom lines that I wanted for my book: I wanted hard copies as well as eBooks, because in my experience with Watched, most people wanted hard copies (plus I personally wanted the physical feel of my book in my own hands); […]

You can read Part 1 here. PART 2: THE NIGHT IS DARKEST There was a silver lining to my publisher’s rejection of Exceptional – after all, it’s the reason I’m writing this story about how I self-published it! It meant I was legally allowed to approach other publishers. As I explained in a blog post at […]

Exceptional, my second novel, has now been published and is available from Amazon. I don’t know about other writers, but for me reaching this point for the second time is quite indescribable. A strange mixture of joy, doubt, fear, and something a bit like indifference – on to the next one, I suppose! But there […]

Today I took a break from work to have coffee with a friend. I headed towards our usual – a coffee place across the road from Parliament – and along the way I walked over a number of messages written in chalk on the footpath: “Ban 1080” they said. Fine, I thought. People protest stuff […]

“Show, don’t tell.” It must be one of the fundamental principles of good fiction. It’s been quoted at me countless times in critiques of my writing, and it’s a criticism I personally make of various works fairly often. I’d like to explore in this post whether “show, don’t tell” as a principle is really as […]

No, this is not a piece about male gamers feeling marginalised or threatened by the rising number of female-led or -empowering games on the market. When I say God of War is a game men need right now, I don’t mean that it’s a game only for men, one that male gamers can just play […]

“Why would I learn Māori when it has no use outside New Zealand?” “I don’t care if Māori want to learn it, I just don’t want it jammed down my throat.” “It’s been Rimutaka for as long as I’ve known it!” Just a few examples of the types of responses you could expect from ignorant […]

As a Star Wars fan, I was hugely let down by The Last Jedi. I had big expectations following the previous film, The Force Awakens, which, despite criticisms that it was essentially a rewrite of A New Hope, just felt like Star Wars to me. It’s a hard concept to explain, but I’m sure other […]