Saturday 28 April 2018

More wonderful reader feedback for 'The Fine Art of Kindness'


I received this email this morning.
'Thank you for your beautiful new book. I have just finished it and I simply loved it. I was slow to get started as I had a book club book to finish and review before I could begin ( 620 pages! ) It was worth waiting for! You write so beautifully and simply, it was a joy to read. I love the way the stories are about ordinary people leading ordinary lives. I have a friend from NZ  and I lent her 'To The White Gate' and she is anxious to read 'The Fine Art of Kindness'. I also must mention the cover, so beautiful and gentle, just like the book! Thank you so much for your fine act of kindness, best wishes.'

Thursday 19 April 2018

'Underneath The Arclight' FREE promotion

Poor old Underneath The Arclight. It's a wonderful funny Kiwi story that doesn't get the attention it deserves because -- it's my own fault -- the cover is too low key and 'good taste'. So I've decided that for a while I'll give away a FREE copy with any other book sold. 

Here's the blurb from the back cover
Nothing much ever happens in Robinson Street, Blythewillow, and for Phyllis, Graham, Karen, Charlie Downs and Monkey Oldfield, and most of the other residents of the town, that’s just the way they like it.
With The Arclight cinema, The Record Reign, Wake’s butchers, the garden, and Monkey Oldfield’s brand new chicken coop, the residents of Robinson Street have everything they need. So when Clint appears in the garden one night and tells Phyllis that it’s all about to change she doesn’t know what to think.
Within days there are changes at The Arclight, and Clint’s isn’t the only ghost making its presence felt. Long forgotten events from the past bring visitors from the outside world; from the city, Australia and from Los Angeles, with news, offers and veiled threats.
Are these the changes promised by Clint? And can the residents of Blythewillow save their town’s bucolic charm? Only time will tell as Karen and Graham and Jehoiada Hartsfield – the charming young city lawyer – peel back the layers of Blythewillow’s forgotten history to discover Clint’s secret treasure.


Sunday 15 April 2018

Murder in the (Takapuna) Library

Last Wednesday night (the eleventh of April) I and three other authors took part in the Takapuna edition of the 'Murder in the Library' series of events as part of the 2018 Ngaio Marsh awards for New Zealand crime fiction. It was well attended by the book-lovers of Takapuna and excellently moderated by Sarah Ell. My novel Six Murders? is entered in the competition but it is not really very 'crimey' -- it's a bit on the light and humorous side really -- whereas the other three authors were each, in their own different way, serious series writers.

Pictured at Takapuna Library, from left, Sheryl Beaumont, me, Carne Maxwell, Sara Ell and Mike Boushier


(Note: I'm a bit late posting this because we have been without power since last Tuesday night. We got restored this morning only because Newstalk ZB pointed out what Vector didn't seem to know: that as of Sunday morning there were still thousands of city streets out and  that the problems were not just limited to the 'fringes of Auckland' as Vector claimed. Once ZB pointed out to Vector what Vector themselves didn't know we had power restored in five minutes -- literally five minutes -- after being fed misinformation and waiting helplessly for five days.)