Discovering a Writer
A reader and friend has just sent me a newspaper clipping (NZ Herald, June 10, 2017) about a best-selling Kiwi author who “despite awards, and international acclaim, remains little known at home.”
Her name is Nalini Singh and her fiction genre is “paranormal romance”.
I rejoice in her success and admire her for her extraordinary abilities in earning it.
Sadly, along with most Kiwi fiction writers, she’ll never get the recognition given to an All Black – something John Key, former Prime Minister, has pointed out as the fate of local authors.
Like others among my author colleagues, she also shares the inferiority in her own country of writing genre not literary fiction, the former less likely to be lauded here. (I know that feeling.) She puts blame for the divide mainly on the expectations of readers and publishers. Not that domestic fame is to everyone’s taste.
And why should she care when she’s sold 6 million copies of her works? That performance will stand up to any measure of publishing success, especially for someone so young. She’s an inspiration to aspiring writers everywhere.
I wish her well, and a long career in her chosen occupation.
Sorry that I’ve not heard of you until now, Nalini, and sorry that I’ve never been attracted to reading paranormal romance.
Good on the NZ Herald for running an article on the career of an ‘obscure’ local writer.
Her name is Nalini Singh and her fiction genre is “paranormal romance”.
I rejoice in her success and admire her for her extraordinary abilities in earning it.
Sadly, along with most Kiwi fiction writers, she’ll never get the recognition given to an All Black – something John Key, former Prime Minister, has pointed out as the fate of local authors.
Like others among my author colleagues, she also shares the inferiority in her own country of writing genre not literary fiction, the former less likely to be lauded here. (I know that feeling.) She puts blame for the divide mainly on the expectations of readers and publishers. Not that domestic fame is to everyone’s taste.
And why should she care when she’s sold 6 million copies of her works? That performance will stand up to any measure of publishing success, especially for someone so young. She’s an inspiration to aspiring writers everywhere.
I wish her well, and a long career in her chosen occupation.
Sorry that I’ve not heard of you until now, Nalini, and sorry that I’ve never been attracted to reading paranormal romance.
Good on the NZ Herald for running an article on the career of an ‘obscure’ local writer.
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