Ch-ch-ch-changes....

I recently had a few weeks of far too much excitement. I'm sure it is true that one has a certain allocation of happy/good/exciting things for any one stage of life and that perhaps I've gone into overdraft. Hei aha tāu! I'm not complaining.

Firstly, Banquo's Son received a wonderful review from the Historical Novel Society. The reviewer said: "Banquo’s Son is superb historical fiction that this reader hated to end. Readers will be eagerly anticipating the next novel in this series by this very skilled writer!" You can go here to read the rest of the review.

Then, the advance copies of Bloodlines arrived in a huge box (and one teeny tiny box) all the way from Seattle.








Then, Banquo's Son went on a promotion gig for the month of December and quickly made it to number 24 on Amazon's Historical Fiction List:




Then we sold our house in Dunedin (it was only on the market a few weeks). A gorgeous 100 year old Kauri Villa. You can go here to see the pretty pictures.

Then, (yes, there's more - I told you so), twenty mins after we signed the sale agreement, I got a call from the principal of a school I was dead keen to teach at: they would love me to come be a part of their community. Whoop. This is the school. We move back to the city of my birth, Ōtautahi/Christchurch, in January - something that I was not ever expecting to happen but, just like in writing novels, sometimes even the author is taken by surprise.

Then, (true, not making this up), my publishers Thomas & Mercer let me know that Bloodlines is being made into an audio book and, narrated by the awesome Napoleon Ryan, will be available in March.

Finally (this week), I graduated from the University of Otago. Thirty years ago, as a fresh faced 19 year old, I was at Massey University studying for a BA in Humanities to become an English teacher; today, I have graduated with a BA in Māori Studies to become a Kiwi who can speak one the three official languages (and our first language) of New Zealand.

 


(I am wearing a korowai, a tradition Māori cloak, made of feathers woven into fabric.)

What has this to do with writing or the trilogy? 
Life continues to move forward outside of the world of writing but, for me, still within the world of books and story. Even with this whirlwind of excitement and the start of 2016 meaning a new home, town, school, I have still been writing, still been reading and still plotting the next series of books: set just before, during and just after the battle of Hastings.

As a heads up: Bree and Henri are more than somewhat involved.