Changing ‘The Changeover’

The Changeover has been my favourite novel since I was 15, I’ve read it five times (as a dedicated “once only” reader of fiction, this is a very high number for me) and I’ve written before about what a wonderful gift that book was, and continues to be. How much stress a book-fan suffers when…

Continue Reading

Gothic gals

I was thrilled to be asked to take part recently in a WORD Christchurch session as part of their Shifting Points of View “mini-festival”. Actress Rebecca Vaughan (who was mesmerizing in her show Jane Eyre: An autobiography), YA author Karen Healey, WORD Christchurch Director and novelist Rachael King, and little old me getting together onstage…

Continue Reading

The Nerd Degree: Friends

I had a kind of grunty cold at the time we were recording this and made goddamn heroic efforts not to cough into the mic during this episode and where’s my medal? But heroic efforts aside, yes, my Friends fan-fiction basically grew out of a desire for someone to clean my house… for free. What…

Continue Reading

Things to see and do: Rarotonga

Despite my longish history of blogging I have never really done much in the way of travel writing unless you count that time I told everyone in mind-numbing detail about how I lost my passport in between countries, or the slightly less dramatic tale of my Singapore sunburn.

Continue Reading

The Nerd Degree: Cake

Cake. It’s safe to say, I’m a fan. And when it comes to the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cakes book, I take that shit seriously. So when I say if I were a cake I’d be the swimming pool cake, even though it’s clearly for comedy purposes… I’m also deadly serious. Any cake that…

Continue Reading

The Nerd Degree: Lies

If ever there was an episode during which you had carte blanche to make stuff up, this would be it. In the introduction we had to state a lie that we had told and even though I shouldn’t be, I am somewhat proud of the outrageous lie that I told my 3 year old. BAD…

Continue Reading