Marian Keyes is a stone-cold legend: terrifically funny and emotionally intelligent, and never afraid of the dark. She deserves all the prizes. In lieu of that, here’s a heartfelt piece by Scarlett Cayford, who grew up steeped in Keyes’ stories and sensibilities. My first encounter with Marian Keyes was in a bedroom in Devonport in … Read more
Last year prolific – and profitable – author Steff Green quit her day job to write full-time. And she’s creaming it. Responding to a recent Spinoff essay by Stephanie Johnson, she says it’s time for the old school to drop the scorn and learn from those nailing self-publishing. This story was published in June 2019. … Read more
The author of Fifty Shades of Grey is back, with more unintentionally hilarious catchphrases and “linguistically bankrupt fondling of a clitoris”. The Mister opens with an extremely important piece of translation – the difference between the word “daily” in US vernacular (a newspaper published every day but Sunday) and UK parlance (a woman who is employed to … Read more
An essay in praise of Amazon by Kirsty Wright, a Southland erotic romance author who is ‘killing it’ thanks to sales generated by the online empire. Sarah Forster’s story in The Spinoff, headlined “In Which Amazon Goes to War with NZ Bookstores”, suggested Amazon is the enemy, taking money away from local brick and mortar … Read more
“We rule the book-reading world”: Catherine Robertson reports from the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference. “Charlotte Stein writes the best cunnilingus scenes. And I’m a gay guy. Think about what I’m saying.” Damon Suede cannot shock his audience. This is the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference, held recently at the Novotel … Read more