Nick Spill's Blog, page 6

Groundswell Avant-Garde Auckland 1971-79

 

I won't be able to make it to the Auckland City Art Gallery on December 7th, but would love to see old Mildura/Trans-Tasman Tie up alumni there: Phil Dadson, Matt McLean, David Mealing and Gray Nicol. Also Bruce Barber and Billy Apple. Wishing everyone a great opening and show.

Dolphin Kicks Cactus Pricks and K-129The true story, rewr...

Dolphin Kicks Cactus Pricks and K-129The true story, rewritten for 2018, of how to travelled to Mexico with a bunch of psychics and what happened when events went cactus pear shaped. I rescued the wife of a Navy SEAL, a Greenpeace activist and a hippie left over from the Haight Ashbury days as we struggled to cross the border back in the U.S. of A. And yes there is a K-129 connection with a classified Congressional Medal of Honor Medal included. 32 pages - about an hour read.
The short story is available on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents or free on Kindle Direct.

Nick of the Antarctic

Nick of the Antarctic Series # 1
Nick of the Antarctic here in another exciting episode live from the Antarctic.
We are floating on an iceberg, really an ice flow.
There are polar bears on another ice flow following us.
We haven't eaten in three days but we have lots of ice.
We ran out of King Penguins and bullets.
The polar bears don't know about the bullet shortage.
Stay tuned for another exciting episode of Nick of the Antarctic.

Will he survive to release the sequel to The Jaded Kiwi?

Reading about Proust, not Proust

Reading "How Proust can change your life" by Alain De Botton. He refers to the All England Proust Summarize Proust Competition by Monty Python. What better way to summarize Proust?   All England Summarize Proust Competition .You have to love a writer who writes seriously and perceptively about Marcel Proust then quotes Monty Python.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IScaIp2fVIw

The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards

The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards #1Best non fiction:
The Taking of K-129 by Josh DeanI renamed it Grand Theft Sub -How the CIA stole a Soviet submarine.We still do not have the complete story of how the CIA recovered the Soviet sub from deep in the Marianas trench in the Pacific, but this is the closest we have gotten, so far. The Navy SEALs who were on board and who received the (still sealed) Congressional Medal of Honor are not talking. And the NAVY Specialist who was responsible for dealing with nuclear material has died, so there are still unanswered questions.Recovering the sub has been compared to putting a man on the moon. Josh Dean follows the evidence and creates a thriller.






The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards #2
Best Non fiction Holocaust story
The Pharmacist of Auschwitz - the untold story by Patricia Posner.

Trisha Posner's research and story telling is second to none in a compelling and heartbreaking true account of what happened at Auschwitz. A valuable addition to Holocaust scholarship and a must read for anyone committed to World War II history.






The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards #3 Best Autobiography The Pigeon Tunnel by John Le CarreThe Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards # 4Best Kiwi Thriller 
MEGABYTE by Cat Connor
(Spoiler alert! That's my blurb on the cover.)Cat Connor has written nine thrillers based on her FBI Special agent Ellie Conway who somehow manages to balance realistically portrayed family life with the unexpected and stressful adventures she is thrust into.




The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards #5 Best Continuing Cop Fiction Series set in an exotic location:Bruno Chief of Police by Martin Walker
Bruno, the first novel is eminently readable, like a great Bordeaux. Each novel in the series gets better and better, combining fascinating local history with national events, culinary wonders and interesting characters. Bruno continues to surprise and fascinate without having to have the obligatory hero faults over crime series writers rely on.







The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards #6
Best Self Help Book
When It's Never About You by Ilene Cohen Ph.D.Dr Ilene's first book is a winner. 
Now I need her to write a guide  about "People-Pisser-Offs".










The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards #7
Best non fiction book rediscovered after being stolen from military library and sold on Amazon. KGB The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents by John Barron.All the well documented events and the relentless espionage, sabotage and assassinations of the KGB are presented in a very readable format. Still very relevant and a healthy reminder that Cold War or no War, we are still facing the same merciless tactics from a renamed agency.The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards #8Best Mystery
Prussian Blue a Bernie Gunther novel by Philip Kerr.
Bernie Gunther continues to be seduced into insurmountable intrigues and violent amoral situations, but somehow survives in what must be one of the best written series in any category.










The Jaded Kiwi 2017 Book Awards #9When you have to dig up a dead character (Smiley) and write one of your best novels despite what the critics claim.
A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carre.The master story teller returns to his original sources and methods and creates a masterpiece.

Brought to you byThe Jaded Kiwi & Shadow the editor.

The pleasures of reading

Next to writing the sequel to The Jaded Kiwi, nothing beats reading a great novel. Trying to read Andrea Camilleri's latest Inspector Montalbano's mystery, A Nest of Vipers.
Enjoying Barry Eisler's latest John Rain assassin thriller, Zero Sum.

Summer Kindle Special 99 cents Jaded Kiwi

Summer in America Special 99 cents for The Jaded Kiwi on Kindle

Click here for 99 cents Kindle version. In the running for the Ngaio Marsh entrant for Best Crime Novel Award.

The Art of the Heist

The Art of the HeistIn early August of 1977, two students from the University of Canterbury School of Art walked into the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, took a painting off the wall, and walked out the front door. After lunch, the director Brian Muir noticed a 7 by 9 inch painting was missing.








Read the rest of the story here:Art Students steal a valuable paintingCurators steal it back.  The true story here from The Jaded Kiwi https://

Summer special 5 days only

The Jaded Kiwi is 99 cents on Amazon (flask not included.)
In the running for the Ngaio Marsh Award in New Zealand.
I think the emphasis is on running...
I am also offering in honor of my father
Reluctant Q is free as an ebook - a gripping story about survival and triumph in the jungles of Burma in World Ward II, and
The Way of the Bodyguard - knowledge not gossip - how to be a bodyguard
Limited time offer - free as an ebook.

Both ebooks free till June 2nd.
Download now.
Go to my Author page here for details.

Sending 7 Jaded Kiwis off to the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel

Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel
Seven Jaded Kiwis off to be judged for the Ngaio Marsh Wards for Best Crime Novel and Best First Novel in New Zealand. I am on the very long list, now to get on the short list.
Review of The Jaded Kiwi from the New Zealand Book Council.
Given the author’s background, it’s fitting that this debut crime novel is a rollicking, madcap tale full of colourful characters. Spill grew up in 1960-1970s New Zealand and curated exhibitions at the National Gallery in Wellington before heading overseas, where he’s worked as a bodyguard and is now chief investigator for a government agency in Florida.It’s summer in Auckland, 1976. Marijuana is in short supply. Two couples – a physicist and gynaecologist, and a violinist and actress – meet in a pub, help a Maori leader evade police, and find themselves caught up in the growing war on drugs and organised crime. It’s as crazy and fun as it sounds. Spill delivers the kind of crime tale that would appeal to fans of caper stories like Oceans’ Eleven and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Dark crime mixed with humour, packed with craziness yet still flows and fits together. This is an enjoyable if slightly over-the-top treat that never takes itself too seriously, and is very Kiwi.