new zealand author

Upcoming release: Dragons of Aotearoa New Zealand

/ Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

Less than three months until Dragons of Aotearoa New Zealand is released! I’ve had so much fun working on this book, and I can’t wait to share it with you. I’m especially excited about the awesome illustrations created for me by the amazing Lily Duval. Look for a cover reveal in June, and the release of the book in July at the Tamariki Book Festival!

A world-first guide to dragons, written in consultation with the dragons themselves.

Hidden for centuries, Aotearoa New Zealand’s dragons step out of the shadows in this unique and informative guide. 

Here you will find information about:

  • All eight dragon species found in Aotearoa
  • Dragon biology and evolution
  • Dragons’ unique culture and customs
  • New Zealand Draconic language
  • The history of dragon slaying in New Zealand
  • Dragon conservation
  • How to stay safe in dragon country

With a foreword by the founding members of the Dragon Defence League, and special commentary by the dragons Rata and Foggy Bottom.

A must-read for dragon lovers! 

Spooky Reading

/ Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

As a kid in North America, I used to love celebrating Halloween. I love spiders, bats and black cats. I love crisp autumn days and frosty nights. I love carving pumpkins. I love making costumes—I’d start planning each year’s costume in April. 

Yes, the candy was a nice bonus, but the real fun was walking the streets after dark wearing a costume and seeing all the other creative costumes out and about.

Here in the southern hemisphere? Well, Halloween makes no sense. By the end of October, spring is well advanced. We’re on daylight savings time, so the evenings are long and bright. I’m planting pumpkin seeds, not harvesting pumpkin fruits. We’re enjoying a riotous display of colours from the flowerbeds and eating delicious springtime crops like peas, asparagus and spinach. We’re planning our summer vacations, and looking forward to days on the beach.

Spooky? Not so much.

Still, I enjoy spiders, bats and black cats at any time of year. And witches never go out of style. 

Maybe that’s why I wrote The Ipswich Witch a few years ago. Because not all witches wear black, and maybe witches enjoy a little summer sun, too. (And a good date scone.)

So here’s to all the southern hemisphere witches, who are busy tending their gardens in October, growing all those herbs for their potions, filleting their fenny snakes, and drying fresh eye of newt and toe of frog. 

Reading never goes out of style either, so whether you’re a fan of the spooky season or prefer your Halloween reading to be a bit cosier, here are a few suggestions, all written by Kiwi authors:

Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa

Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa is mired in the shifting landscape of the long white cloud, and deeply imbued with the myth, culture, and character of Aotearoa-New Zealand.

Curated by multi-award-winning author-editor Lee Murray, the anthology opens with a foreword by six-time Bram Stoker Awards®-winner and former HWA President Lisa Morton; and includes a brutal, lyrical poem by Kiwi resident Neil Gaiman.

Laced with intrigue, suspense, horror, and even a touch of humour, the anthology brings together stories and poems by some of the best homegrown and Kiwi-at-heart voices working in dark fiction today.

Remains to be Told features stories and poems by Dan Rabarts, Kirsten McKenzie, Celine Murray, Kathryn Burnett, Helena Claudia, Marty Young, Gina Cole, William Cook, Del Gibson, Paul Mannering, Tim Jones, Owen Marshall, Denver Grenell, Bryce Stevens, Debbie Cowens, Lee Murray, Jacqui Greaves, Tracie McBride, and Nikky Lee. 

Overdues and Occultism

(Book 1 Mt Eden Witches) by Jamie Sands

A witch in the broom closet probably shouldn’t be so interested in a ghost hunter, right?

That Basil is a librarian comes as no surprise to his Mt Eden community. That he’s a witch?

Yeah. That might raise more than a few eyebrows.

When Sebastian, a paranormal investigator filming a web series starts snooping around Basil’s library, he stirs up more than just Basil’s heart. Between Basil’s own self-doubt, a ghost who steals books and Sebastian, an enthusiastic extrovert bent on uncovering secrets, Basil’s life is about to get a lot more complicated.

Overdues and Occultism is a novella-length story featuring ghosts, witches and a sweet gay romance. It’s part of the Witchy Fiction project of New Zealand authors.

Angelfire

by Deryn Pittar and Meg Buchanan

Emma isn’t looking for trouble. She’s an angel in hiding – but her evil brother has found her.

She’s been chosen as this year’s offering for Halloween, and she’s prepared to fight to the death to prevent it happening.

Her neighbour is home on leave: Handsome, fighting fit and after one meeting their mutual attraction is sparking. Can she dare to ask for his help? Will he believe her?

He has a problem he’s struggling to conquer, but he’s used to death walking beside him and isn’t afraid of anything. Is being brave enough?

Angelfire is the first book in the touching Angelfire series. If you like appealing characters, heart-warming moments and action, then you’ll love Meg and Deryn’s exciting novel.

Author Lee Murray

For the spooky season, you can’t go wrong with just about any title by New Zealand’s mistress of horror, Lee Murray. Check out all her books on her website or her Amazon author page.

Book Review: You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories

/ Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

This collection of short stories by Octavia Cade is a pull-no-punches imagination of a near-future Earth under the influence of climate change, as seen intimately from the eyes of individuals. It is an exploration of our connection to the other living things with whom we share our planet.

At their core, these stories are about the losses we will suffer as the full effects of climate change take hold. In these terse and well-crafted stories, personal loss and environmental loss are mirrors of one another, and sometimes it isn’t entirely clear where one leaves off and the other begins. Some, like You Are My Sunshine and Gone to Earth lean towards horror, with characters whose relationship with the world around them veers into the surreal waters of mental health crises. 

I read this book slowly, needing to pause and digest each story before moving on to the next. I will admit that the drumbeat of despair in the first half of the book made me almost dread what fresh pain the next story would reveal. But the second half focuses more on hope—the hope of those who have felt loss, the hope that we as a species will recognise our place on Earth as kin to all the other living things on the planet, the hope that we will change our ways and create a better future for all life on Earth.

Science is at the core of the book, and the sea is a recurring theme, almost a character, in some stories. Many of the stories are set in New Zealand and draw on places, people and events in New Zealand, but the experiences and emotions of the characters are universal. They will surely resonate with people everywhere. 

If you are looking for a vivid and personal exploration of our possible future, or an examination of loss and the recovery of hope after loss, these stories are a must-read.

From the book blurb: 

Sometimes change can hurt. This collection of short stories traces the growing pains of a new world, beginning with the death throes of our current way of life and ending with a world transformed by science and technology, and by grief, hope, love, and humanity’s will to transform. This is a collection that will both tear you apart and tend to your wounds. Cade’s beautifully wrought stories are informed by science, tracing the biological and emotional threads that bind us, human and non-human alike. Containing a brand new novelette in the Impossible Resurrection of Grief universe, You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories is a promise of what worlds are possible if we allow ourselves to change.

To be released September 2023. Preorder here.