Words, Words, WORD
I know it's spring now, because it's WORD Christchurch, aka the event of the year. The city is buzzing as book nerds from around the motu make pilgrimage to the best literary festival in the country.
(Yeah, I said it, Auckland Writers Festival. Fight me!)
Last night, events kicked off with Lost the Plot, the WORD quiz night, which includes excellent categories such as "Book Awards" and "First Lines" instead of dumb stuff like flags and sports1. As a proud nerd, I was there, saying insightful things like "Oh, fuck, I've read it but I can't remember the title!" and "Look, I think it's Gavin Bishop but I can't guarantee that's right." (Reader, it was.)
Our team, Asterisk and the Footnotes, came a noble second to Ultra Elite, a team that included amazing author and former festival director Rachael King, horror scholar and brilliant all-rounder Erin Harrington and Naomi van der Broek, incredible performer and textiles art legend.
What I'm saying is, you want to lose to a team like that.
I am going to five more events at WORD, all of which I am desperately enthusiastic about, and several of which have sold out. One that hasn't sold out, and I would very much recommend to the Ĺtautahi-based fantasy and romance lovers among you, is the Romance of Fantasy, featuring splendid YA author (and teacher!) Rachael Craw and Andrea Eames, whose debut novel A Harvest of Hearts is an absolute delight, with an exceedingly sensible heroine.
(You all know how I feel about sensible heroines. I wish to hold every one to my heart and shower them with praise for their practicality.)
The session is being run by the aforementioned quiz-winning Rachael King, and you don't need to have read the works of the Mizzes Craw or Eames to attend what is sure to be a fun, clever, and far-ranging discussion on romance, fantasy, and maybe why the two biggest selling fiction genres get a whole one panel at the country's best literary festival2. I'm gonna be there, and I encourage you to be there too.
I am not going to keep harping on about the Patreon, but I am going to say that I'm collecting some of my work into box set collections, and also that I have an early eARC tier for $5/month. If you happen to be on that tier (or any higher one) you get an eARC before I put work out for sale.
No reason! Just saying!
1 Are they dumb because I'm bad at those categories? yes, but shh.
2 The reason, which I have heard from too many festival directors to doubt, is not because of inherent snobbishness in the selectors, but because these sessions, especially romance, do not bring in big enough audiences to be sustainable--despite having a well-documented thoughtful, engaged, and HUGE readership.
The truth is, fellow romance readers, if we want more of our genre in our literary festivals, we have to turn up. Crime readers did it, and now crime writing is an automatic lit fest destination! Are we gonna be beaten by crime?