Katherine Mansfield in Auckland

I'm now in Auckland, staying in a budget hotel in Grey Lynn, because tomorrow evening - Tuesday 10th August - I have to do a talk and Q and A session at the Women's Bookshop to promote my new biography of Katherine Mansfield.  Penguin have produced a lovely design for the book, which looks like this:



Tonight Neil and I are going out to dinner to celebrate publication with the publisher, a couple of friends, and Sarah Sandley, who is going to introduce me tomorrow night and chair the discussion.  I'm really looking forward to this evening, because so far contact  with everyone at Penguin has been  by email which is very impersonal and it's great to meet the people behind the names.  Contrary to public perception, it's not the normal thing these days for publishers to wine and dine their authors.  Unless you're Lee Childs or J.K. Rowling, they can't afford to do it! 

Auckland is a big, sprawling city, spread out around the various inlets from the oceans on both sides of the north island.   We've been lost several times just finding our way round.  I have also, unfortunately, had my email account hacked and so my entire data base has been receiving spam purporting to come from me.  Ugh!   But this is one of the penalties of using WiFi on the move  - many of the networks have poor security, but what can you do?  I will have to find time to change my mail address which is a bit of a pain, but can't be helped.  What I need is a nice glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to cheer me up!

Comments

  1. Enjoy your Q&A session!
    The cover looks great.
    What a nuisance the whole spam/hacker thing is, enough to drive one to drink.

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  2. Oh do call me if you want to catch up with some Tuesday Poets in Wellington 0276003313, and I can give you contacts for further south...

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  3. Am following your New Zealand tour with great interest, Kathleen. My closest friend - and the best travelling companion ever - now lives in Nelson. Is Nelson on your itinerary? If so, she will definitely want to come along.

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  4. Thanks Al - the wine certainly is worth it here! Beautiful stuff.
    Mary - I will certainly be ringing you. I'm hoping to meet up with Tim Jones too. Will be in Wellington from the 17th to the 21st (roughly).
    60going on16 - I'm afraid I won't be going to Nelson this time, though I've been there before and it's beautiful. I love Golden Bay - if you ever get the chance to go, jump at it!

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  5. Kathleen - I've been trying to contact you through Penguin to see if you are available to talk to the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors in August - we meet at the Thistle Inn which is an historic pub that KM used to frequent - I realise that you have a very busy schedule - can you email me at maggie@at-the-bay.com

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  6. Congratulations on the new biography of KM, Kathleen. I purchased my copy at Reader's Feast Bookshop in Melbourne whilst on holiday last week. So starting to read the tome with a glass of NZ Sauvignon Blanc, here in Adelaide, South Australia. The magic of books and how they travel around the globe.

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