KurtX rocked the stage at New Zealand’s Got Talent (NZGT) this week in his semi-final performance. KurtX may be the first musician to play harmonica to dubstep – a modern dance music genre that originated in Britain.
What’s astounding is that he underwent heart surgery shortly after his NZGT audition to correct a congenital hole in his heart that was discovered a few weeks before he went on stage. See the full story of Kurt’s heart surgery in the Dominion Post, one of New Zealand’s leading newspapers.
KurtX’s heart surgery was detailed in Dominion Post, a national NZ newspaper
Although Kurt needed six weeks to fully recover from the catheter procedure used to insert a device into his heart wall to block the hole, he was soon back on stage again for another high energy performance.
Wellington Newspapers, The Wellingtonian and The Cook Strait News, also ran articles on KurtX. He was on local radio station Classic Hits on Monday morning and busked in town during his lunch hour so he could meet the public.
New Zealand’s Got Talent backstage blog also reveals what KurtX’s favourite ice cream is – although he doesn’t eat ice cream before going onstage – so he won’t damage
KurtX plays cool tunes on his Memphis Meltdown at NZ’s Got Talent.
his lips before a performance. In this link, you’ll also get to see his fellow semi-final contestants – Jenny, Oceana, Geordie and OK Krew – in action!
KurtX had a fabulous time with them – doing push ups with Oceana on his back, gifting one of his back up harmonicas to a member of the OK Krew, (and teaching him how to tune it on the spot) and hanging out with Geordie and Jenny. It was a tough show – all the contestants were talented. The results will be announced this Sunday night.
Tomorrow night is the pre-Halloween launch of ‘Baby Teeth – Bite-sized Tales of Terror.’ My first published short story, ‘Dad’s Wisdom,’ is in this anthology!
Wellington Authors Back L-R: Michael Parry, Paul Mannering, Dan Rabarts, Sally McLennan. Middle: Jack Newhouse, Eileen Mueller, A J Ponder. Front: Jenni Sands, Darusha Wehm.Baby Teeth cover
Baby Teeth is an odd concept. Inspired by the creepy things that kids say, these horror stories are raising funds for children’s literacy in New Zealand, via Duffy Books in Homes. What a great way for writers to raise funds for children! When I heard about the charity aspect, I wanted to be involved. Two years ago, I organized a project to help children’s literacy in Fiji, so this was a cause close to my heart.
Before submitting, I read some of these stories and was so creeped out that I nearly decided not to submit! Some of the Baby Teeth authors have been doing horror for years and do it very well! However a story about a little boy having fun with a monster caught my eye. It was creepy but really funny. Voila! I had my inspiration. Thank you Paul Mannering for showing me that horror can be hilarious!
Mine is a quirky, humorous tale about a boy who finds a dragon under his bed and goes to Dad for advice – with unexpected results! I’ll be reading ‘Dad’s Wisdom’ tomorrow night. Paul Mannering will be reading the tale that inspired me to write about creepy things kids do to raise money for kids’ literacy.
Dominion Post’s Capital Day page features Baby Teeth
New Zealand press have been intrigued about this odd collection of stories helping kiwi kids so I was able to place four articles in these newspapers. The Dominion Post (national NZ newspaper) ran this feature today The Wellingtonian ran this article. The Hutt News ran this story. Cook Strait News published the article below .
Cook Strait News post launch article.
Come to the Quality Hotel, 223 Cuba St, Wellington. Drinks from 5:30pm. Readings at 6pm. Join our Facebook event.
We try balancing writing and family, but sometimes life just happens! Our family has been extremely busy in the last few weeks. We had a TV crew filming my husband (see my last post about KurtX on New Zealand’s Got Talent) a massive plumbing leak, and lots of kids’ activities. With four kids, we’re always busy. Among all that, I had set myself some writing goals that challenged and extended me.
With a week’s notice, TV said they were coming to film KurtX at home! I decided to do a little spring clean (can you hear my family rolling their eyes?) Then two days before the TV crew arrived, a pipe burst! Yep, a plumbing leak! TV were coming with soggy, stinking carpet, 5 holes in the wet wall downstairs and two more in the ceiling.
Plumbing disaster – dried out!
When the TV crew turned up, there were 4 large industrial fans running and an enormous dehumidifier humming away in the background. One of the fans was in our #HarmonicaHero’s sound studio. Of course we had to turn them off to film, but the carpet was still emitting a pungent aroma, reminiscent of wet dog! Luckily it was only television, not smellavison, so we avoided the soggy areas and the holes in the wall, and kept smiling.
My kids, especially the two youngest, thought the fans were a blast. Here’s a video of them having a ball – at the expense of the poor plumbing, battered walls, and sad carpet! My kids showed me that whatever mess life throws us, we should still have fun. I learned from their sense of hilarity and adventure. Aren’t kids great?
Note for Health and Safety Officers: By the time the kids were allowed downstairs by the fans, the TV cameras were long gone and the carpet was nearly dry!
What has this to do with balancing writing and family? Despite TV, leaks and mad, slapdash family life, I’ve had a productive time, writing-wise. For me, the best way of balancing writing and family, no matter what is going on, is to:
take time to exercise, preferably in fresh air (in windy Wellington the air is always fresh!)
spend time with my kids and husband
Get outdoors to exercise – balancing writing and family.
see a friend occasionally (often to exercise)
do something writing-related most days
have a day off from writing occasionally
set writing goals to focus me.
Setting goals for writing helps me in balancing writing and family life. My goals need to be challenging enough to keep me motivated, but not unachievable. In one of my former lives, I was a performance measurement consultant for a large IT business, so my old habit of utilising SMART goals, is automatic. SMART goals are:
Specific,
Measurable,
Achievable,
Results-driven
and Time-bound.
So what goals have I achieved since last blogging? And why haven’t I blogged for so long? Whathave I been doing?
Firstly, when I set up my blog, I decided not to commit to blogging weekly. I didn’t want my blog to take away my precious writing time. So I’ll blog when I have something cool to share.
I’ve sent out my writing newsletter, Write On!, each week. (Sign up in the blue and yellow box if you’d like to receive it.)
Completed revising a novel and submitted it.
Completed three short stories.
Finished a children’s picture book and submitted it.
Done some more work on my paranormal romance novel (sizzle, sizzle)
Plotted an adventure chapter book for 8-12 year-old children.
But I haven’t blogged. Although I’ve written about 6 blog posts in my head. I had a brilliant post planned about a porcupine we saw attacking a bunch of meerkats at the zoo. We caught the prickly dude on camera. But when we searched for the video, someone had deleted it. So that blog post wont eventuate! (Sigh!)
Write on the ferry.
The key to balancing writing and family is ensuring you write often. I have a friend who has a half-hour commute on a ferry across Auckland harbour each morning and evening. That’s his writing time. He uses it EVERYday. That’s the only time he gets. The rest of his life is for work and his wife & kids.
Write on the bus!
I was speaking to another writer recently who said she only has a two hour block every Sunday and can’t find any other time. I wrote my first novel by becoming a time-thief, stealing minutes everywhere. So I encouraged her to find a small ten-minute slot each day to churn out a few words.
“Ten minutes?” Her face lit up. “I can do that, even if it’s during my lunch hour, or on the bus.”
So soggy carpets aside, one of the best ways of balancing writing and family is to make sure we write! A novel grows a word at a time. If there are no words, there is no novel. How do we carve time out from our lives to write?
Set manageable goals with time-frames.
Monitor your progress.
Do something small every day. Or five days a week. Or every Saturday. Squeeze it in when you can.
Creative activity makes us feel great. Doing a little in regular bursts sustains that feeling!
Start with EASY goals.
If you don’t achieve them, don’t beat yourself up, they’re there to motivate you, not weigh you down!
Count your successes! I keep an excel sheet of all my milestones and writing activity, so I can see what I’ve done!
Celebrate milestones with your friends and family! Keeping them involved in your successes motivates them to encourage you to write.
Soggy carpets, TV crews, kids leaping in fans, and family commitments non-withstanding, I hope you find some time to write and to enjoy life with those you love most.
KurtX played his ‘wee instrument’ last night for New Zealand’s Got Talent, generating a storm of music with his harmonica. He started with a slow haunting lyrical line, but the judges’ faces soon changed as a rock number hit the sound system and KurtX ramped it up, showing us just what can be achieved with the tiniest of instruments, and earning himself the nickname #harmonicahero.
What’s my vested interest? He’s my husband. I fell in love with a recording of his harmonica playing before I ever met him!
The following quote is from the New Zealand’s Got Talent’s ‘Tip Top Naturally Talented Moment’ page:
This week’s Naturally Talented Moment was 50 year old Swiss, Kurt X who has been playing the harmonica for decades but has only recently started playing publicly. “I have been working on my harmonica for 20 years but I am very much a closet artist. I entered NZGT because I finally felt that I was ready to share my talent with the world”
The IT Specialist amazed us with his ability to lose himself in the music, getting dub
KurtX at NZGT 2013 qualifying for semi-finals
bed #HarmonicaHero for his resemblance to the game Guitar Hero. “I feel like I’m melting into one with my harmonica, it is totally a part of me. It’s so physical – my technique and style. It’s all about the music and the moment”.
Ruth Paul with her children’s picture book, ‘Stomp.’
Author-illustrator Ruth Paul taught a children’s picture book workshop at The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington last weekend. I was excited to attend because she’s one of my youngest daughter’s favourite authors and is an inspiring speaker
Ruth entertained over 25 participants with advice about writing, illustrating and publishing picture books in New Zealand and for the international market. Here are some of her tips:
Immerse yourself in current picture books and notice the latest styles, language, themes and content.
Ruth said the biggest rule is: There are NO rules! Someone will have broken all of these rules and been successful! Having said that, Ruth mentioned several ‘NO’s when writing picture books:
NO digression
NO adjectives
NO description
NO author intrusion
NO explanation
The images need to do the talking and often tell a second story. If we don’t obey the above rules, the text is not tight enough to sustain children’s interest or doesn’t give the illustrator enough freedom to insert their own sub-story into the pictures.
To rhyme or not to rhyme? Non-rhyming picture books are much easier to write, and to translate for foreign markets. If you insist on rhyming, Ruth gave some great guidelines to follow:
Rhyme needs a strong, consistent structure
Don’t let the rhyme dictate the story
The rhyme must be the servant of the story, a musical tool which enhances the story
Use vocabulary that empowers parents as they read to their children
Only break out of the rhythm if has been established well.
Your nonsense MUST make sense.
I’m not an illustrator, so I can’t wear that hat, but it was interesting to note that Ruth encouraged tight text from writers and loose initial illustrations from artists.
Ruth’s workshop was jam-packed with information, personal anecdotes, and practical advice about how to go about creating a children’s picture book. Both authors and illustrators attended and we had a lot of fun. She gave us homework to hone our editing and story-tightening skills, and handouts that will help us enhance our next picture books. Thumbs up for Ruth Paul – she’s dynamic, vivacious and motivating. I hope those of you that live in Wellington have a chance to attend one of her classes (see below).
Ruth has been writing and illustrating picture books for ten years. Her stories are lively and full of fun. My kids LOVE them. Check out Ruth’s website here.
Thanks to John & Ruth McIntyre of The Children’s Bookshop for creating this opportunity to learn.The writers and artists that attended enjoyed Ruth Paul’s workshop immensely and learned a lot. John and Ruth play a huge role in mentoring local talent. If you’d like to attend their next children’s picture book workshop with Ruth Paul on 13 October 2013, please email childbkwgtn@xtra.co.nz
Wow! I am ecstatic! I’ve just had three short stories accepted in one week – to two different anthologies.
At the end of last week two of my short stories were accepted for a fantasy anthology about Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum. ‘A Wizard in the Works’ is a night-time rollick through the museum. ‘Lucky Brake’ is a coming of age story about a boy facing a tough a decision. I’ll post more about these later.
Cover of Baby Teeth
This week my flash fiction piece ‘Dad’s Wisdom‘ was accepted for ‘Baby Teeth’ – bite-sized tales of terror! I don’t usually write horror, but when I realised this anthology was raising funds to support Duffy’s Books in Homes charity, I was keen to be a part of it. I’m passionate about reading and children’s literacy and have done work in the past to aid kids’ literacy in developing countries (more about that later in another post!)
Instead of scaring myself witless by writing a blood-chilling psychological terror story, I penned ‘Dad’s Wisdom which is a humourous take on childhood fears.
Baby Teeth will help Duffy’s Books in Homes to give books to underprivileged children in NZ. It utilises crowd funding via this site. Once the book is published ALL proceeds go towards children’s literacy in New Zealand. Authors have donated their time and energy so we can make a difference in children’s lives by providing them with books to read. Donations close on 10 August. To donate, please click here.
Thanks for supporting Baby Teeth and helping more kiwi kids to read.
WARNING: ALTHOUGH MINE IS NOT, SOME OF THESE STORIES ARE DISTURBING-TYPICAL OF THE HORROR GENRE.
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The new & old SpecFicNZ committee including Elizabeth Heritage, Dan Rabarts, Liz Gatens, Marie Hodgkinson, Grace Bridges, Beaulagh Pragg, Darian Smith, Darusha Wehm, Simon Petrie, and others. What an incredible team!
The New Zealand National Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention – Au Contraire – took place in Wellington 12-14 July with 200 Sci-fi and fantasy buffs attending. Although I’m not in this photo of the new and old SpecFicNZ committee, my claim to fame is that I took it!
It was amazing to meet many of the NZ authors that I had only seen online. And to meet those who organised the contests that I recently won! Au Contraire was an amazing event, full of education, fun, and frivolity! There were book launches, panels with well-known writers giving us their versions of reality, plenty of opportunities for mingling and 200 people to talk to! If you know me well, you’ll be laughing – 200 people to talk to? I was in my element!
What were my highlights?
Meeting Grace Bridges, the President of SpecFicNZ and owner of Splashdown Books, who gave me a fantastic critique as part of my SpecFicNZ Going Global 1st place prize.
Going out to dinner with the Guest of Honour, Jennifer Fallon, who discussed her new self-publishing ventures with me for three hours – yes 180 minutes! And every minute was great! A fun and informative class on psychology of our friends and family, um, I mean characters, taken by the hilarious team Beaulagh Pragg and Darian Smith.
A flash fiction workshop by Guest of Honour Phillip Mann. Believe it or not, I never spoke once. I’d signed up late and was only there as an observer! So observe I did, and heard some great flash pieces from NZ authors.
Meeting Phoenix Writer’s Group members whom I had emailed many times – Alicia Ponder, Lorraine Williams, Rob Campbell, and Lynette Howell.
To cap off the weekend, the Sir Julius Vogel Awards were presented to the best writers in many categories and genres. See the winners here. It was great to make so many meaningful connections with writers. Au Contraire has given me many new writing opportunities – some which I’ll mention soon! Watch this space!
Wow, you guys are amazing! Thanks to all my loyal friends who voted for me in the SpecFicNZ Pimp your Profile competition. After my novel won SpecFicNZ’s Going Global competition, I thought I’d better add my writer profile to SpecFicNZ’s website! I did so in the nick of time— just before the profile contest closed.
My loyal friends had spread the word on Facebook and voted for me. A huge thank you and bouquets for you all! 🙂 What a boost to a writer just beginning her journey. I hope you all enjoy my stories when they go live soon.
After four years of writing, imagine my surprise when I opened my email to see that the first few chapters of my young adult fantasy novel had won a NZ writing competition! I was thrilled.
I won first place in the SpecFicNZ (Speculative Fiction of New Zealand) Going Global competition. The most valuable component of first prize was the critique, which has enabled me to improve my manuscript further. Not that I’m sneezing at the money they sent me – that’s always appreciated! (I’ll also receive a copy of a book written by one of the judges.)
Although I often write in public – at cafes, playgrounds, swimming pools and skating rinks – writing is a solitary activity, so it was great to get recognition for my work. Now, I can ‘come out’ as an author. 😉
Subscribe to my blog, or sign up to read my short stories, novels, and blog posts – just click ‘Eileen’s Stories’ on the drop down menu. If you’re a writer, you can join my newsletter Write On! which contains articles about writing, links to writing courses, and my experiences as I learn on the job.
