I am in the process of revamping this website to make it more user friendly, but in the meantime I’m pinning this post for those of you wanting to get your hands on my books.
I’m really thrilled with the way Ghost Bus turned out and even more thrilled so many of you are enjoying it. Below are the details for where to get both e-books and tree books.
What I love the most about these are that every bit of them is made in NZ. The cover is designed by the very clever Catherine Slavova’s Karnstein Designs , the typesetting and editing was done by Jana Mittelstadt’s Kiwiberry Editing and it was printed by Your Books.
You can get your paws on a copy here for $20 – free postage within NZ.
Ghost Bus paperback $20
For those of you who haven’t read my first book Which Way is Starboard Again? Overcoming fears & facing challenges sailing the South Pacific and extra fiver will get you a bundle of both books – free postage within NZ also.
Ghost Bus/Starboard bundle $25
For those who don’t use Paypal
For those of you allergic to Paypal just drop me a line at annakirtlan@gmail.com and I will flick you my bank account details.
For overseas readers – there is an Amazon print on demand option which might suit you guys better as the rona seems to have made international posting a bit of a hit and miss venture at the moment. You can buy it here:
Ghost Bus – Tales from Wellington’s Dark Side is available on most ebook platforms. You can check out which ones here: https://books2read.com/ghostbus
Which Way is Starboard Again? Mental Health Foundation fundraiser
A note that I still have an ongoing fundraiser for the NZ Mental Health Foundation tied up with my first book Which Way is Starboard Again? So if you are interested in that book alone and would like to donate to a great organisation, you can find out more here:
It will also be available on Google Play and Apple books shortly (there was a slight hiccup with the upload because apparently I didn’t put enough capital letters in the title). I will update the link above as soon as it goes live.
Don’t worry print purists, there is a paper copy in production. I will let you know as soon as it is available.
Tomorrow I will be publishing my second book and it is a million percent not what I thought my second book would be.
At first my second book was going to be the story of another trip around the South Pacific, but life – in a good way – had other ideas about that.
Then my second book was going to another travel tale about our adventures in the United States when we went there for Paddy’s 50th birthday. That one was called Gators, Guns and Keeping Calm. I got quite a way through writing it and then something terrible happened in my home town involving firearms and I just couldn’t. The tone was all wrong. One day I might resurrect that book. It was a fascinating place and we met some amazing people. I’ll know when the time for that is, but it’s not now.
And then there’s the one I actually finished
My third attempt at a second book is one I have actually finished writing. It’s had a manuscript assessment and needs a bunch of editing but it won’t be long before it’s good to go. It’s the first book in a nautically themed YA fantasy series with a lot of underwater shenanigans and it will see the light of day I promise!
This second book though, my actual second book, started life as a writing challenge. I decided I would take a crack at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for the first time at the end of last year.
Book stores and pick up artists
It started with a running gag I had with a friend that came about after her insistence that a woman chatting with me about the cover of I book I was holding in Unity Books was actually chatting me up. We then started joking about how book shops would actually be an excellent place to score and that there probably was a secret code among browsers in the know. The idea fascinated me and I ended up writing a short story about it for her. With a bit of a supernatural twist it became a tale called ‘The best pick up joint in town.’
After I wrote it I discovered it was NaNoWriMo time. The challenge was to write a 50,000 word novel in a month and a short story collection counted, so I decide to give it a crack.
A creepy love-letter
Well I didn’t make the 50,000 word mark, but what I did end up with was a collection of short stories that formed a sort of warped love-letter to Wellington New Zealand – the home I have chosen for myself. A collection I felt proud enough of to have a crack at publishing.
Some of the stories are spooky, some of them are silly and some have a pretty high body count, but all, I hope, in some way will make the reader smile. It’s escapism, pure and simple – my gift to a world that might need a little bit of that right now.
The Wellington that was
This is my first foray into fiction, but when I was putting the stories together for publication, it wasn’t the ghosts, aliens and witches that stood out. It was the normal things that aren’t so normal anymore. Hanging out in bookstores, sitting on a crowded bus, buying a kebab at 3am.
What my second book actually turned out to be was a love letter to a Wellington that was. A Wellington I miss, and one I very much look forward to seeing again.
A socially distanced hug
So here it is, book number two. A very different book from number one in many ways, but similar in the most important one. It’s for you. It’s to make you smile if you are feeling shit. It’s a distraction if you are feeling scared. It’s not the great New Zealand novel – instead it’s a written hug from me to you.
I hope you enjoy it was much as I enjoyed writing it and tomorrow I will let you know where you can get your hands on it.
In the meantime check out this amazing cover, designed by the very talented Catherine Slavova’s Karnstein Designs
Before our entire country was (quite rightfully) sent to our
room, I was already seeing a bunch of messages from historians in writers’ forums
asking people to write about the pandemic.
It was a moment in history we were living through and we should
be documenting it, they said. I thought about it, I really did. I write
non-fiction, I write about mental health and I write about people. It really is
right in my wheelhouse.
But it turned out I just couldn’t. While I was living
through it and trying to process it and wondering what was going to happen next,
I just couldn’t write about it.
Ghosts, sea monsters and cats, oh my!
Instead I found myself gravitating towards something that had absolutely nothing to do with the giant ‘thing’ that was affecting the entire globe. I turned to a series of stories I started during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last year. It’s a challenge that gives you a month to write a 50,000 word novel or, as I discovered, a bunch of short stories. I didn’t make the 50,000 mark in time, but I did get a decent collection of stories together, which I was quite pleased about.
It was my first crack at fiction – a sort of odd combination
of sci-fi, horror and humour and I found the whole process a huge amount of
fun.
At the time we were being asked to write about Covid-19, I
jokingly tweeted about it:
I’m hearing a lot from historians asking writers to journal/blog about life during the pandemic. Historians I love you, but that’s the last thing I want to do rn. All ppl are getting from me is sea monsters, aliens, witches and Mittens the cat #escapist #soznotsoz
Giving through escapism
My cunning plan was to finish the last of the stories once
we went into lockdown, find myself a local editor and cover designer and turn
the stories into an e-book.
I can’t do much to fix this mess we’re in, but I can use my powers to provide a silly distraction and support some local creatives in the process. That’s why I want to design and edit locally and why I want to self-publish and make the collection as cheap as the e-platforms will let me.
Lockdown writer’s block
The thing was, once NZ went into lockdown proper, I couldn’t
make myself do even that. I had around 600 words left of the last story, and do
you think I could finish the damned thing?
I’ve been working from home (and I am not complaining about
that because I know I am privileged to be working at all) but it has been
really hard to switch from work brain to writing brain when I’m in the same
location. I just had a massive block about it.
Finished!
So on Friday I took at day’s leave, in my house/now
workplace and finished the damned thing.
It was the most amazing feeling of accomplishment and
relief. Sort of the way I felt when I had Starboard ready to send out to
publishers. It’s probably the best I’ve felt since we all got grounded I think.
I’ve now got myself an editor and am working on finding someone
local to help me with a cover and I will self-publish it as an e-book. So
sorry, no deep insight about Virus McVirusface or mental health during
lockdown. I probably could write a whole book on that, but not now, not while I’m
living it.
Instead you get aliens in Cuba Mall, piranhas in Oriental
Bay, haunted nautical artefacts and true agenda of Mittens, Wellington’s
celebrity cat.
At present that collection is titled Ghost Bus – tales from
Wellington’s dark side, and I will let you all know as soon as it’s available.
The face (and gin) of finished
When normal becomes the fantasy
One of the strange and sad things that happened when I was re-reading the first stories I wrote was that all of a sudden it wasn’t the ghosts and the aliens that stood out. It was the things happening in the background – browsing in a bookstore, stumbling down Courtney Place in search of a kebab, being squished together on a crowded bus.
The stories are now about a world that, at the moment, doesn’t exist. Now I look out the window and see our bus, still doing its run for essential workers, basically empty on each loop. It makes me sad but I also have hope. I am super proud of how our little country has stuck together and protected each other and one day I am sure those bits will stop being fantasy.
Don’t worry non-fiction readers and sailors
If you are one of my non-fiction readers, don’t despair, I
won’t be stopping that any time soon, it’s my natural writing home, and I have
a couple of projects tucked away.
For the sailors, I’m not quitting that either, even if it
does take a while before I’m out on a boat again.
And if you like a little bit of both, there’s a nautically
themed YA novella in the works too.
Our lockdown in pictures
Finally, to make up for the fact that I’m not writing about lockdown, here are some photos of ours instead.
From our bubble to yours, stay safe, wash your hands and be kind xx
My home office My supervisorOffice clothesOur take on the ‘We’re not scared – great NZ bear hunt’ Disturbing my bubble buddies!Chef Paddy making lockdown stewPaddy’s lockdown birthday cakeCutting the lockdown birthday cake – yikes!Colouring therapy‘Help’ with the colouring therapyEaster in lockdownNot impressed with our contribution to the Great NZ Egg HuntLike seriously not impressed!Driveway Anzac service with our amazing neighboursAnzac day 2020Bubble walks have reminded us how beautiful our neighbourhood really is Yep, that’s right down the street!Bubble walk view
