The other night I was watching one of my favourite comedy shows, Ancient Aliens, where the presenters chock up all kinds of terrestrial occurrences to off-world civilisations, some ridiculous, others completely ridiculous. They never mention the high civilisations that existed in previous epochs or ages, the most familiar to most people being Atlantis and Lemuria, nor …
In 2008, before I quit my job, and decided to listen to that voice that was in my head (the one that I had encountered on a heroic dose of psilocybin mushrooms) and go back to Lyall Bay to ‘write’, my jam was travelling. I just wanted to see the planet, mingle with cultures that …
In the novel United, Pablo Wairua is the fulcrum that necessitates the epochal shift from an age of darkness, into an age of light, expansion, and knowledge. This young man, born to a Quechua mother, and a Tuhoe Maori father is the greatest Tohunga (an expert skilled in mystical occult knowledge, a healer, and in Pablo’s lineage, a warrior-priest) …
I have various degrees of affiliation with the characters of the books I write. The experience of being the character, occupying their bodies, mind, and spirit is not a unique experience unto me. Many, if not most writers of novels, short stories are granted this gift when they scribe the narratives of their stories. However, for me, this experience …