One night in Ponsonby

Last night I attended a lively books event at Dymocks Ponsonby, celebrating Roy Vaughan’s first novel, THE MERELEIGH RECORD CLUB TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND (now available in paperback as well as hardcover).

It was great to see a good crowd of 40-50 people there, especially as Vaughan’s book is published by a small New York publisher, and hasn’t been widely available in New Zealand in stores. Vaughan is a former officer in the British and New Zealand Merchant Navies, and journalist for the New Zealand Herald (amongst other roles), who has now started a series of thriller novels, alongside his work as a travel agent specialising in overseas educational tours (eg school trips to Europe, Asia, the Pacific Islands, etc).

There were several New Zealand Herald staff, former and current, in attendance, including former editor Peter Scherer who shared some of his thoughts on Roy and his writing in an introduction to the evening. It was great to see current Herald editor John Roughan also there. There were a few local writers in attendance also, including Charlotte Grimshaw (whose earliest work was crime/noir-ish, eg PROVOCATION), Bev Robitai (MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW), and Pauline Hayes (MURDER NOT SO SWEET) - see photo below of Roy, Bev, and myself. Great to see everyone there supporting books and writing.

It was a cracker of an Auckland late summer evening outside, so things got a little hot and stuffy in the store thanks to the large crowd, but drinks in hand we were entertained by first Scherer, then a reading from THE MERELEIGH RECORD CLUB TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND - a scene on board an ocean-going vessel where a passenger falls overboard, chosen because it demonstrated Vaughan’s use of his own maritime background in the novel - and then Vaughan himself talking about his journey to writing this novel, and his upcoming work. Vaughan also unexpectedly gave both myself and Crime Watch and Graham Beattie of Beattie’s Book Blog a nice bouquet - he had some nice things to say about how the support or acknowledgement of others who aren’t friends or family can mean a great deal for writers.

It was good to see much of the crowd hang around after the speeches ended, mixing and mingling, discussing books and writing, and getting Vaughan to sign copies of his debut thriller. It is always great so those who love books - writers, booksellers, readers, reviewers - come together with events like last night’s. Hopefully there will be more such events in future for our local writers, as well as visiting international stars.

Kudos to Andrew Rumbles and his team at Dymocks Ponsonby for putting on a good event, supporting local writers, and looking after the attendees. THE MERELEIGH RECORD CLUB TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND was published by a small New York-based publisher, and for those of you overseas is available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Book Depository. Readers in New Zealand could also contact Andrew at Dymocks Ponsonby (Ponsonby@dymocks.co.nz), who might be able to help source copies locally - the book sold like hot cakes last night, if you’re lucky there might have been a couple of copies left (possibly signed).

You can read my 9mm author interview with Roy Vaughan, from June 2010, here.

MURDER NOT SO SWEET - more Kiwi crime in 2011

Recently I've become a user of the Smashwords website, where you can buy e-books in a variety of formats at some very reasonable prices. There are many books on the website that aren't necessarily available in print yet (or are hard to find or costly), so although I'm not a Kindle, Kobo, or iPad owner, I've made a couple of purchases of lesser-known Kiwi crime/thriller novels - printing them out to read at my leisure; old school I know.

I first came across the website when I purchased MURDER IN THE SECOND ROW by Bev Robitai, an enjoyable murder mystery set in the theatre, that harkened back to the Ngaio Marsh/Agatha Christie style, just in a contemporary setting.

You can read more here, or in a great review at Reactions to Reading here.

I've since purchased a couple more Kiwi-written crime novels, including CROSSROAD BLUES by Steve Malley, whose second novel, POISON DOOR, was released this month. I've now discovered another 2011-released Kiwi-written mystery novel is available on Smashwords - MURDER NOT SO SWEET by PM Hayes.

Here's the blurb: "Sebastian, a retired detective living on a quiet little island, finds his skills are still needed as he investigates the mysterious death of Rufus, the island’s beekeeper. Among the ordinary people he sees every day is someone capable of sending Rufus' van plunging over a cliff. There are secrets beneath the surface of many lives on this idyllic island."

PM Hayes is a hospital worker who lives in Auckland, and was brought up in Gisborne, a city on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. She has completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Auckland University, as well as creative writing courses. MURDER NOT SO SWEET is her first novel, after having some short stories published in writing group magazines.

MURDER NOT SO SWEET, which a reviewer has said is an enjoyable read "in the genre of the traditional 'whodunnit'", is available here.

It's great to see more NZ-penned crime, thriller, mystery and suspense fiction becoming available, both through the local arms of the larger international publishers picking up some Kiwi writers, and smaller and online publishers doing the same.

Do you like the sound of MURDER NOT SO SWEET? What do you think of e-publishing, and more authors getting more opportunities to publish online? Have you found any 'gems' in e-books that weren't yet in print? Comments welcome.