I’ve been trying and failing to get words down on paper lately. Even my opening line isn’t right. I’ve actually been writing a lot these days. I’ve got a new job where being a writer is now my title and primary duty. It’s right up there on my list of office/employed/8-5 dream jobs, and IRead more
It’s Boxing Day – the day after Christmas and a Commonwealth holiday I’ve never known the origin of and have never bothered to look up. I’m in the shower rinsing off chlorine and the layers of the sticky suncream I’ve been smothering myself with all day. Despite my diligence, the potent New Zealand skin hasRead more
I have known many winds. I have known the Santa Anas – the eerie stillness that precedes them, the way they arrive and warp the human psyche to bring about unrest at best, violence at worst. I have known the hot sticky air that blasts through the Southern Californian concrete like a devil blowing hisRead more
MaiLynn worries that she cannot fill the space of a writer’s bio with prestigious alma matters, names of literary publications, forthcoming books, prizes, titles of grandeur. She has only the pieces of her writing: pages made from paragraphs made from sentences made from words made from letters made from memories, all of them crafted likeRead more
The tangled tree in the front yard can’t make up its mind. Tree? Maybe not. More of a messy bush of branches that grows as wide as it does tall. It’s cold today, blowing a gale southerly and raining in horizontal lines. Been this way all week. Southern Hemisphere winter is well and truly here.Read more
I’ve been talking, dreaming, writing and thinking in metaphors. It’s my thing these days – giving in to the urge to extract symbolic meaning from all of the weird experiences and situations I’ve found myself in lately. Call it the plight of a writer (if I can even call myself that), or the curse ofRead more
On the day before we catch the red-eye back to Wellington, Mel asks me if I might blog about Melbourne. She said it would be interesting to hear how I had witnessed the city and to compare it to her own experiences. It’s Monday night. Cat and Fiona took a flight back Auckland this afternoonRead more
“We live in cities you’ll never see on screen. Not very pretty but we sure know how to run things,” Ella Yelich-O’Connor, better known as Lorde, sings in the chorus of her song Team. Lorde is an Aucklander, not a Cantabrian, but her lyrics play in my head as I cruise through Christchurch. I’m hereRead more
I turn 29 this week. Being in my twenties has been a perpetual excuse to make light of my delightful assortment of neuroses, anxieties and mistakes. It’s also been a decade of miniskirts, two-day hangovers, quiet nights cozied up with a good book, six-hour Game of Throne binges, $130 yoga pants, quitting jobs to travel,Read more
“Knowing how you actually want to feel is the most potent form of clarity that you can have.” — Danielle LaPorte *** i am joy. the kind that teems, like sticky honey oozing. joy that finds the beat and makes my toes tap until my whole body can’t stop the dance. i am bold. big.Read more