Tim Jones's Blog, page 36

The Load-Out

 

The Men Briefly Explained / Tongues of Ash book tour is over. I'm back in my home, Keith is back in his, our publisher David is back in Australia, and the roadies have loaded the last of the gear into the trucks ... OK, I may have made that last part up. They actually loaded the gear into pantechnicons.



We travelled from Dunedin to Auckland via Christchurch, Wellington, Eastbourne, and Paraparaumu. Along the way, we slept under hedgerows, in deserted fields under the stars, and in the houses of friends. At our performances met up with real-life friends and friends from the Internet. We sold books. We signed books. We read organised sequences of words from books. We got in cars and planes. From the planes, we could see clouds. From the cars, we could see election billboards. We saw John Key a lot. We didn't see Phil Goff. We saw Annette King, though - she came to our Wellington launch.



We didn't have contract riders, but if we had, they would almost certainly have stipulated only macrobiotic food, a room set aside for meditation at every venue, and the removal of all the brown M&Ms.



Actually, I like the brown M&Ms.






Tim reading at the Rona Gallery launch event in Eastbourne. Thanks to Sally McLennan for the photo.

Sometimes, I read before Keith, and sometimes, Keith read before me. Sometimes, David read before both of us. I quickly discovered which poems from Men Briefly Explained worked well in front of a live audience, and which didn't. I attended an excellent voice workshop for poets a few days before the tour started, and in tribute to this, I used my voice quite a lot on the tour. By our Auckland gig, it was showing definite signs of wearing out.



Seriously for a moment: though it was tiring at times, I enjoyed the tour very much. The physical touring is over, but now there's a virtual tour to think about. Watch several other spaces!You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Rangipo Grounding, by Keith Westwater

 

I looked around

Ruapehu's apron

after the subaltern



bellied the rover

in a minefield of boulders.

Waiting for the NCOs



who'd seen it all before -

a new lieutenant

green as the desert was grey



trying to impress us boys

though he'd been told

not to go that way.



Behind, Ruapehu simmering

Ngauruhoe smoking.

In front, desolation -



a few tussocks, wire weed

desecrated earth.

I didn't know then



about rain shadow

desiccation by wind

the habitats of lahar fields



or the conditions necessary

for things to grow.

Muttering wry derision



the NCOs

with knowing grins

levered, heaved, hauled it free.



Those dry, wiry, salty men

who supplied us with

the necessary conditions.





Credit note: "Rangipo Grounding" is from Keith Westwater's debut poetry collection Tongues of Ash.



Tim says: Since last Tuesday, Keith Westwater and I, together with publisher and poet Dr David Reiter, have been on a book tour to Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Lower Hutt, Paraparaumu and Auckland to launch our respective collections, his Tongues of Ash and my Men Briefly Explained. Our final gig is tonight in Auckland: we are reading at PoetryLive at the Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, which starts at 8pm.



"Rangipo Grounding" is one of my favourite poems from "Tongues of Ash". I love the way it brings together a particular landscape and the people who inhabit it, how it reaches from the particular to to the general without strain, and the aptness of its title.



The Tuesday Poems: You can check out all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem Blog - this week's hub poem in the centre of the page, and all the other Tuesday Poems on the right.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Must ... Buy ... Comb

 

You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

My Book Tour Hits The North Island - And Adds A New Kapiti Coast Event

 

After a damp but enjoyable South Island leg, the book tour to launch Men Briefly Explained and Tongues of Ash has reached the North Island - and we have added a new book tour event, this coming Saturday at 1pm at Paraparaumu Library.



This one has been added at very short notice, so it would be great if you could let Kapiti Coast folks who may be interested know about it.



Here are the remaining tour dates. I hope to see you at one of them!



Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
Kapiti Coast: Saturday, 29 October, Paraparaumu Library, 1pm
Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm
You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

It's On! The Men Briefly Explained and Tongues of Ash Book Tour Begins Today

 

No Tuesday Poem on my blog this week, but no shortage of poetry, because the Men Briefly Explained and Tongues of Ash book tour begins today!



Once more, here is the itinerary:



Dunedin: Tuesday, 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
Christchurch: Wednesday, 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

You can sign up to attend the tour on our Facebook events page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=188416554563635



Some lovely Tuesday Poets have kindly posted poems from Men Briefly Explained on their blogs this week - you can check them out by going to the Tuesday Poem blog and looking on the right-hand menu. Don't forget to check out this week's hub poem and all the other excellent poems featured on the right.



If you can't make it to one of the tour dates, here is ...



How To Buy Men Briefly Explained



You can buy Men Briefly Explained from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook.



Likewise, it is available from Amazon.co.uk in paperback and ebook formats.



You can also find out more about it, and buy it directly from the publisher, at the Men Briefly Explained mini-site.

Men Briefly Explained is also available in a range of formats from eBookpie and for the Kobo.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Book Review: Slightly Peculiar Love Stories

 

(Disclaimer: Slightly Peculiar Love Stories includes my story "Said Sheree", which I have not attempted to review!)

Slightly Peculiar Love Stories is the second book, and first short story collection, published by Rosa Mira Books, the new New Zealand publishing house set up by Dunedin author Penelope Todd earlier this year. I was honoured to have a story included in the collection, and have blogged about that previously.



There are a couple of things that should attract any reader to Slightly Peculiar Love Stories. One is that really cool cover. Another is the really rather extraordinary range of New Zealand and international authors who have contributed new or reprinted stories to this anthology:



From New Zealand, we have Craig Cliff, Sue Wootton, Janis Freegard, Tina Makereti, Bryan Walpert, Coral Atkinson, Claire Beynon, Latika Vasil, Linda Niccol, Maxine Alterio, Susannah Poole, and Tim Jones.
International authors include Alex Epstein (Israel), Angelo R. Lacuesta (Philippines), Brenda Sue Cowley (USA), Christos Chrissopoulos (Greece), Elena Bossi (Argentina), Lawrence K. L. Pun (Hong Kong), Salman Masalha (Israel), and Tania Hershman (UK).

That's quite the lineup, but the proof of any short story collection is in the reading. The good news is that there is a lot of good reading here, and a lot of different takes on love. My favourites at the moment include:

The sets of short-short stories by Alex Epstein and by Tania Hershman (four apiece)
Janis Freegard's ingenious and moving "Mill", which won the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award in 2001
Elena Bossi's lovely and poignant "The Ache"
Claire Beynon's magical "Trapeze Artist"
Angelo R. Lacuesta's "Space Oddity"

- but there are so many other good stories here that I imagine your favourites will differ from mine.



There's something I haven't mentioned about Slightly Peculiar Love Stories: it's an ebook. The good news is, you don't need an ebook reader to read it. I read it on my computer in PDF format, and (as a person who doesn't generally like to read large amounts of text on-screen) I found it easy and enjoyable to read. The fonts are crisp and the layout clear.



So, if you don't have an ebook reader, don't let that put you off. Slightly Peculiar Love Stories is easy to read on a computer screen, and more to the point, it is well worth reading, because there is a lot of good fiction in here.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

News You Can Use: IP Inside Track Consultations, Momaya Press Competition, Rosa Mira Books Interview, Book Tour, And At Last Romance!

 

In the leadup to the Men Briefly Explained/Tongues of Ash book tour, which starts in Dunedin next Tuesday, here is some other news you can use.



IP Inside Track Consultations



While Dr David Reiter of Interactive Press is in NZ for the book tour, he is offering Inside Track Consultations with authors who want to get a publisher's view on the state of their manuscript (without any commitment to submit it to IP). David tells me that he has plenty of consultations lined up in Auckland, but could fit in some more in the Wellington region. If you would value this opportunity, check out Inside Track Consultations on the IP website.



Momaya Press Short Story Competition



UK-based Momaya Press contacted me asking me to publicise their short story competition, which is open to authors from all around the world, and I'm happy to do so. Entries don't close until 30 April 2012, so you have plenty of time to enter. Check out the details on the Momaya Press website, or see the announcement below. They have an Awards Ceremony too!



Momaya Short Story Competition 2012 – Now Open: Momaya Press sponsors the 9th Annual Momaya Short Story Competition to bring fresh writing to the attention of qualified judges. Submit your short story (3,000 word limit) on the theme "Heat" by 30 April 2012 in order to compete for prize money and publication in the Momaya Annual Review 2012. The judging panel includes members from Random House, Penguin, Reuters and a novelist who has published six books.



Submission details at: www.momayapress.com



NZ Book Council Interviews Penelope Todd of Rosa Mira Books



The New Zealand Book Council has recently published an interview with author and publisher Penelope Todd - in this interview, Penelope is wearing her e-publisher hat, as she tells the Book Council all about Rosa Mira Books.



I am working on a review of RMB's Slightly Peculiar Love Stories anthology which I am determined - determined, I say! - to post before my book tour starts next week. In other news, I just mis-typed the title as "Slightly Peculiar Love Tories". Which would be a different book, albeit one with a good market in the UK.



Book Tour Dates



You didn't think you were going to get off scot-free, did you? Well, you aren't. Be here or be rectangular:



Dunedin: Tuesday, 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
Christchurch: Wednesday, 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

 

Romance



Tell yourself it's 1pm, or wait until 1pm. Then watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J8n9R8rnB8You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

I've Selected The Tuesday Poem This Week: Guarding the Flame, by Majella Cullinane

 

This week, I'm the editor for the main Tuesday Poem blog, and I have selected "The Force of Things", from the collection Guarding the Flame by Majella Cullinane, as this week's Tuesday Poem.



Head over to the Tuesday Poem blog to find out what I have to say about it - and don't forget to check out all the other Tuesday Poems for the week, which are listed to the right of the hub poem.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.[image error]

An Interview With Mandy Hager, by Johanna Knox: Part 2

 

This is part 2 of Johanna Knox's interview with New Zealand author Mandy Hager. You can read Part 1 here - that part focuses more specifically on Mandy's Blood of the Lamb trilogy, while Part 2 sets those novels in a wider context.



Interview with Mandy Hager: Part 2





About Mandy Hager: Kapiti-based Mandy Hager is the award-winning author of numerous young adult books, including the recent Blood of the Lamb trilogy, a dramatic dystopia in set in the South Pacific. In these books, teenager Maryam, with her friends, must try to escape and later overthrow the corrupt and oppressive religious cult that has dominated her people since a disaster known as 'the Tribulation' struck Earth.



Margaret Mahy has described the first book as 'Like 1984 for teenagers – direct, powerful and passionate.' Books 1 and 2 in the trilogy were shortlisted for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards in 2010 and 2011. Book 3 was released earlier this year to critical acclaim.



About Johanna Knox: Johanna is a Wairarapa/Wellington-based writer, researcher, and reviewer. She frequently writes on food and sustainability issues. She is also the author of The Flytrap Snaps, book one in a newly released mystery-adventure series for children, all about mutant carnivorous plants - see http://theflypapersbooks.blogspot.com.

JK: Book 2, Into the Wilderness, is particularly dear to me. I found it harrowing, almost cathartic, and felt like I'd been taken apart and put back together again by the time I'd finished it. To me, this is the book where the concept of self-sacrifice is explored in most depth.



Did you think a lot about the notion of self-sacrifice when writing the book?



MH: I hadn't thought of ITW in that way but I can see why you might think so. To me it's not so much about self-sacrifice as it is about love and anger – both of which have the capacity to make us put aside our own considerations and fight for a greater good. If I am willing to lay down my life for my children (which I am!) it's not about self sacrifice, it's about love – and if, for instance, I'm angry because their futures are being ripped off by greedy capitalists, and the only way I can try to stop this is to step in front of a logging truck or a tank, I'll do this too – spurred by anger but based on love for them. So maybe it's not self sacrifice, but altruism in its purest form?



JK: Yes, I wonder if self-sacrifice is the wrong word then. Perhaps it has connotations of resentment and martyrdom? Maybe the word I should have used is 'selflessness' ... But 'altruism in its purest form' ... I like that. It puts the focus on what you ARE doing, not what you're not doing, if you see what I mean.



MH: Yes, that makes sense. One of the things I researched for the trilogy was a little about Buddhism – I'd never been able to understand the concept of 'detachment' before – used to think it meant being emotionally detached and remote (which I consider a bad thing) – but then I realised it's about taking ego out of actions and decisions – now that makes real sense. And I started to plot how often my responses to things, situations or people were controlled by ego first (a lot!)



Once ego is taken out of the equation then it really is 'selflessness' – doing what's right, not just what is right for you. It's amazing how it changes the way I respond to things (though I admit it's sometimes still a battle to smother that little bastard of an ego!)



The quote from Martin Luther King Jnr, at the end of Resurrection, really says it all: "the first thing we ask at a time of conflict is 'what is the most loving thing to do?'" If we all practised that, all our problems would disappear!



JK: Obviously we are on the brink of some big upheavals globally: Climate change, peak oil, the financial crisis. In the world you write about, devastation has been caused by solar flares. Why did you choose this as the source of the world's trouble?



MH: The effects of a massive solar flare fit very well with the descriptions in Revelations about the end of the world, which all played into the Apostles hands when they were making their case for being living gods. I researched all about the flares on the NASA website – scary stuff, and spookily, they are at their most dangerous point of their cycle next year in 2012, the same year as the Mayan calendar ends – it was too much of a coincidence to ignore!



JK: Maryam finds herself in a bind at the end of the third book. I like that it is satisfying but you haven't tried to bring about a perfect conclusion, when really there couldn't be one. It was an unexpected ending for me, but once I'd read it, I felt it couldn't be any other way ...



MH: I always knew Maryam would bring about release from the Apostle's rule, and I knew it would be by providing a cure for Te Matee Iai, but I had no idea it would happen in that way! It surprised me as much as you!



But then it made sense to me – nothing is ever so easy to resolve – and when you are dealing with indoctrinated people it is unrealistic to believe that they can throw away all vestiges of their faith/doctrines just because they're told to.



Look at the real world – the problems we're seeing now are because countries have gone into another country/culture, stripped away one form of control but have not taken the people along with them, have not respected their core beliefs, and have provided no secure continuity to allow people time to adjust.



I came to realise that it couldn't be straightforward and it was necessary to discuss how power vacuums are dangerous and that transitions need to be carefully and thoughtfully handled, and must accommodate all views.



JK: And - dare I ask - do you have a clear idea in your own mind of what happens after the events of the last chapters of the third book? Or is it as full of possibility in your own mind as it seems to the reader?



MH: There was a point where I realised 'Damn, there could be a fourth book here' – but I didn't want to go there! I might one day, but I suspect not. For now I have faith that together they'll sort it out – though it won't be easy. That's as much as I'm going to say!



JK: As many people know, you come from a family that has a strong focus on social justice. Is there a strong spirit of support amongst the family members for what you each do?



MH: Absolutely. I'm incredibly proud of what my siblings do (and my parents did) – we're all close and support each other as much as we can.



My younger sister was over from England recently and we all got together – ended up in a rollicking discussion about politics – nice to know we're all in agreement!



I am in awe of the work Nicky [Hager] does, and it frustrates me so much that he's so dismissed by people here, when he's invited all over the world to speak at investigative journalist conferences and the like as a key-note speaker with people like Robert Fisk and John Pilger – here they don't even ask him to chair a Readers and Writers event, let alone speak at one – this drives me wild!



JK: It's funny - I was really hoping you'd say you got together and had rollicking political discussions! In the back of my mind that's how I imagined your family, and it's a heartening thought.



MH: Heartening, but sometimes a little intimidating to outsiders (and partners!)



JK: What did your parents do?



MH: My parents lived their social justice beliefs – when we were young they opened our house to all sorts of people in need – including young pregnant girls whose families had thrown them out, boys from the local borstal in order to give them some happy family time, gay men and women at a time when homosexuality was still considered illegal, people with mental health issues who needed support, and they supported Maori rights... and they were deeply involved in the Values Party, which was the precursor of the Green Party – in fact my mother was the first woman to be elected to the role of (co)leader of a political party in NZ.



They covenanted trees in our garden and fought for protection of the environment and the local lake (Lake Horowhenua) and my mother was on the District Council.



My father was a refugee from Austria – arriving here just before WW2 – so he knew only too well how human beings could be monsters, and he instilled very strong ethics in us – and opened our world up by introducing us to music, opera, literature, art, dance... we had a very lucky upbringing.



What I really admired about them was that they lived their values, didn't just spout them! I think the four of us kids have spent our lives trying to live up to their high standards – I feel I'm only just starting to make some headway now!



JK: This might be another terrible question ... but what next? Do you have other fiction in the pipeline, and if so is there anything at all you can say about it?



MH: I'm 60,000 words into a new novel currently called 'The Nature of Ash.' It's set about 20-25 years in the future, here in NZ, and reflects how things might be if we keep going down the free trade/privatisation path. But it's essentially about an 18 year old boy and his Down Syndrome brother, and the nature of family. Still remains to be seen whether it will be published, but here's hoping!



JK: Do you think - in general - story has an important role to play in equipping people - children and adults alike - for circumstances they are facing, or might face?



MH: I think story is the MOST important way to equip us with understanding about the world and our place in it. I've thought about this quite a bit actually, so what follows are some notes I wrote for a library conference talk.



From earliest times, people have used stories as a means of relating ideals and values important to them: i.e. where to find the best foods; what foods/people/places to avoid; the basic rules of conduct; behavioural expectations; relaying history and whakapapa etc. Story was – and still is – the means by which we investigate, interpret and understand our world.



Think of earliest man sharing stories around camp fire – stories about such things as where the best water holes are; don't tackle that bloody great hairy creature with the huge curved tusks on your own; or over in the next valley there's a really spunky Neanderthal of a man! ... (nothing's really changed!) I think maybe it's possible to divide all stories into two essential plots: those that explore Human Nature (our essential behaviours and inherent codes of ethics) and those that explore Mother Nature (how, as human beings, we interact with other animals, landscapes, weather etc) – really,these are the two most vital things we need to learn to negotiate in our lives.



Stories have the ability to go to the heart and mind of an issue, where straight reporting cannot always go – opens us up to greater empathy and understanding. For instance 1906 novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair brought alive the poverty and corruption of the times in a way no newspaper article could have (and his descriptions of meat processing in the US at that time literally brought bile to my mouth and underlined why I don't eat meat!)



We are social animals – that's how we survive. I think we read primarily for one of two reasons: the first is to validate our own experiences, thoughts and feelings by reading of someone traversing the same issues, the second is to safely experience something we don't have the opportunity or courage (or good/bad luck) to experience for ourselves – including trying on different spiritual, ethical and behavioural hats. It's also why we love gossip – we have an inbuilt fascination with other human beings and how they behave – it's how, as youngsters, we learn to negotiate the social world.



Story helps us enter the world of others who we would not normally meet – broadens our horizons – culturally, ethnically, between the sexes, inter-generationally. We filter our understanding of the world through the ideas and input of others – parents, teachers, peers etc. – and our understanding is malleable and changes as we hear new stories and points of view.



Ego means we are constantly checking and comparing our appearance, behaviours and beliefs against others – stories give us more peepholes with which to view the kaleidoscope that is human diversity.



Think about the Pike River miners – without the personalised stories it is easier to dismiss – the same crisis in China has little effect once the newspaper is put back down, but the miner's stories stayed with us because we entered into their lives through hearing the family stories – and the key to this is in engaging with our core emotions. It enables us to be empathetic and compassionate – the two most important values human beings need to learn to be decent members of a family/society.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Poetry Tour Preparations: The Physical Tour ... and the Virtual Tour?

 

The Physical Book Tour: It's All On



It begins in a fortnight. And appropriately enough, it beings on a Tuesday.



"It" is the book tour Keith Westwater and I are embarking on to launch our new poetry collections: Keith's first collection Tongues of Ash, and my new collection, Men Briefly Explained.



Here are the stops on the tour:



Dunedin: Tuesday 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
Christchurch: Wednesday 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
Wellington: Thursday 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
Lower Hutt: Friday 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

If you live in one of those places, I hope you'll be able to make it along - and, whether or not you can make it along, please tell your friends in those centres!



Some other things you can do:



Sign up for the tour on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=188416554563635
Check out the tour poster and other details
Buy the books online if you can't make it to a tour event: Men Briefly Explained: paperback and ebook and Tongues of Ash: paperback and ebook.

It's worth noting that Dr David Reiter, the publisher of Interactive Press and a noted poet in his own right, will also be in attendance and reading from his new collection My Planets. As he is an international poetry publisher who has a track record of publishing collections by New Zealand poets, he may be someone you want to get to know.



The Virtual Book Tour: Under Construction



On hearing about the physical book tour, two writer/bloggers have kindly offered to host stops on a virtual book tour to follow the physical one. I'm grateful to those people, I think this is a great idea, and I am keen to line up more stops. So, if you would be interested in your blog hosting a stop on the virtual book tour, please get in touch by emailing senjmito (at) gmail.com, or say so in the comments below.



Hmmm, you may be wondering, what is a virtual book tour? Well, it involves a series of bloggers hosting interviews with or guest posts by a writer with a newly released book, according to a pre-arranged schedule. Not long after setting up this blog, I was one of the stops on the virtual book tour for Tania Hershman's debut short story collection, The White Road and Other Stories, which serves as a good model.



(Note: Some of the links in this 2008 post no longer work.)



I don't have Tania's impressive stamina for answering a lot of questions in a short time, so I thought - and one of my generous prospective hosts has suggested - that I could use the "Five Questions With..." format used in the tour for Tales For Canterbury. That makes the load a bit lighter on everyone.



So. If you can come to one of the launch events, please do - I think you will enjoy them. And if you're interested in hosting a stop on a virtual book tour, please get in touch.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.