Hamilton is a lovely city. Keri and I stayed close to the venue and did a big long walk to Hamilton Gardens. It was $20 to see the themed gardens and expect to see photos from these pop up here and later. I reckon I could get a mystical door way theme going.
The event was quite big. A lot of authors and cool vendors and well organised. It was well organised. Some authors did fabulously well. Keri Arthur for one. Laura Hunter said she did great. Me, not too great but not bad either considering I am still building a following and I haven’t ever appeared at a NZ event before.
It was lovely to meet readers and also connect with authors who I knew but haven’t seen in a while. Waves to Lee Murray. Or authors I know online such as Mary Brock Jones. We were table buddies being placed next to each other. I met a librarian and also a rep from the NZ Society of Authors. The beauty of this book event is that it is free to readers. Yes, there are VIP tickets I think and raffles but basically it is free. I recall they do an anthology for charity too.
While I wasn’t busy at the table I scoped out a series. I did a lot of writing down of world building, story arc, characters and plot. It’s very weird but I was inspired by Nalini Singh when on panels at the ARRA event. She talked about her 12 book Psy-Changeling series and how she wrote the first book and a scene for the final book at the same time. I haven’t ever tried planning so hugely. Actually I lie, when I first wrote a book, an SF romance with feminist overtones, Relic, I mapped out a six book series, a cross galactic, alien and sex and gods and planet settling thing. However, I never published that book. It was in 2000 and SF romance wasn’t a big thing, I was a new writer, there was no self publishing then and while I had two different agents around that time, it never went anywhere and I wrote other things. I did get feedback from author friend that I should write it later on when I was more experienced. Maybe I will, who knows.
Anyway, I wrote the first scene in that scoped series the other day. However, I have lots of things going on writing wise and need to apply my ADHD post menopause brain to achieve more and faster.
Anyway, take aways from NZ and Ages of Pages. NZ is always worth a visit. Ages of Pages is a great event. Not sure I’ll go again but you never know as I always have a reason to visit NZ so makes sense.
Here is the photo bomb!
Chinese section of Hamilton Gardens
Photo by Keri Arthur. Me in the pagoda thing Hamilton Gardens
Japanese section of Hamilton Gardens. Lovely lamp.
Italian section of the Hamilton Gardens. Romulus and Remus being fed by the wolf.
Egyptian Wall Hamilton Gardens
Small statue in the picturesque section? Not sure. Hamilton Gardens.
Unicorn from Tudor garden section Hamilton Gardens
Egyptian pool, Hamilton Gardens.
Keri taking a photo of me, Chinese section Hamilton Gardens. Some great reflection going on there.
The photo Keri took of me in the Chinese gardens.
This is a shot from leaving the themed gardens. Hamilton Gardens.
This gum was in the Hamilton Gardens, general area. It’s very impressive.
Also, we walked around the street and found some amazing trees. I asked Keri to pose with this huge Plane tree so you can see how thick the trunk was.
We did about 18,000 steps that day.
At Ages of Pages
Me and Laura Hunter at Ages of Pages
Keri at her table before she sold out of some of her books.
My table at Ages of Pages
At dinner on the eve of Ages of Pages at The Cook pup. Keri, JO Mantel, assistant to Laura, Laura and me grinning like a ghoul.
Anyhow, I am back home and I’ve done some stuff and will be blogging all that over the next few days.
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 