Bio: Karen Healey
Yay! I get to do this now!
Name: Karen Healey
'10 Book: GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD
Publisher: Little, Brown (US/UK); Allen & Unwin (Australia and New Zealand)
Favourite Writing Advice:
When I was about 11 or 12, I went to a writing workshop with Gaelyn Gordon, whose work I adored. She looked through my carefully typed portfolio and wrote some very nice things, but the thing that stuck was "KEEP WRITING". She underlined it several times, so I thought it must be important.
Favourite Part of Writing:
I like revising. Possibly there's something wrong with me. But I really like getting into all the bits that I knew were shitty and broken or far too cute on the first hectic draft and either ruthlessly slashing or working them over into something useful and clean. Of course, when it doesn't work, it's a pain.
Least Favourite Part:
Having to finish the first horrible draft when I know it's horrible, and can only persevere by chanting "You'll make it in revision. You'll make it in revision."
Outline or Let It Fly?
I usually have some vague idea of beginning point and destination in mind, and let fly at the latter from the former, stopping to acquire directions on the way. In my co-written work, my partner and I talk through plot very thoroughly, but even there we tend to be writing while we're doing it.
5 Things About Me
1) I'm a New Zealander living in Australia (I wrote GUARDIAN in Japan).
2) I wrote my MA thesis on an internet porn site. I'm currently writing my PhD on superhero comics.
3) I also write about superhero comics when I'm not getting paid, for feminist comics site Girl-Wonder.org: my blog is called Girls Read Comics (And They're Pissed).
4) I have just discovered the most incredible recipe for cashew and chocolate chip cookies.
5) I didn't realise I was writing a horrible, gruesome novel until I had finished, and people started praising it for being creepy and terrifying. Then I was all, "Oh, yeah! I guess there are some bits where people get eaten."
GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD synopsis:
Ellie Spencer thought that her parents dumping her in a boarding school for her final year of high school while they tripped around the world had given her ordinary problems - no freedom, no partying, no decent vegetarian food. Then she encounters the chilling Reka Gordon, whose interest in Ellie's best friend is neither healthy nor human, and her problems are suddenly extraordinary.
Ellie has stumbled into an ancient conflict between humankind and the mist-dwelling creatures of Maori myth, and it's coming to a terrible climax that threatens to destroy her home, her people, and her land. With her newly discovered abilities and the aid of the secretive (and distractingly attractive) Mark, can she do anything to stop the coming disaster? When she's seen a taniwha in the Avon River, a woman in the moon, and the Guardian of the Dead in her underworld sanctuary, almost anything seems possible; but averting the death of millions might just be too much.
Name: Karen Healey
'10 Book: GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD
Publisher: Little, Brown (US/UK); Allen & Unwin (Australia and New Zealand)
Favourite Writing Advice:
When I was about 11 or 12, I went to a writing workshop with Gaelyn Gordon, whose work I adored. She looked through my carefully typed portfolio and wrote some very nice things, but the thing that stuck was "KEEP WRITING". She underlined it several times, so I thought it must be important.
Favourite Part of Writing:
I like revising. Possibly there's something wrong with me. But I really like getting into all the bits that I knew were shitty and broken or far too cute on the first hectic draft and either ruthlessly slashing or working them over into something useful and clean. Of course, when it doesn't work, it's a pain.
Least Favourite Part:
Having to finish the first horrible draft when I know it's horrible, and can only persevere by chanting "You'll make it in revision. You'll make it in revision."
Outline or Let It Fly?
I usually have some vague idea of beginning point and destination in mind, and let fly at the latter from the former, stopping to acquire directions on the way. In my co-written work, my partner and I talk through plot very thoroughly, but even there we tend to be writing while we're doing it.
5 Things About Me
1) I'm a New Zealander living in Australia (I wrote GUARDIAN in Japan).
2) I wrote my MA thesis on an internet porn site. I'm currently writing my PhD on superhero comics.
3) I also write about superhero comics when I'm not getting paid, for feminist comics site Girl-Wonder.org: my blog is called Girls Read Comics (And They're Pissed).
4) I have just discovered the most incredible recipe for cashew and chocolate chip cookies.
5) I didn't realise I was writing a horrible, gruesome novel until I had finished, and people started praising it for being creepy and terrifying. Then I was all, "Oh, yeah! I guess there are some bits where people get eaten."
GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD synopsis:
Ellie Spencer thought that her parents dumping her in a boarding school for her final year of high school while they tripped around the world had given her ordinary problems - no freedom, no partying, no decent vegetarian food. Then she encounters the chilling Reka Gordon, whose interest in Ellie's best friend is neither healthy nor human, and her problems are suddenly extraordinary.
Ellie has stumbled into an ancient conflict between humankind and the mist-dwelling creatures of Maori myth, and it's coming to a terrible climax that threatens to destroy her home, her people, and her land. With her newly discovered abilities and the aid of the secretive (and distractingly attractive) Mark, can she do anything to stop the coming disaster? When she's seen a taniwha in the Avon River, a woman in the moon, and the Guardian of the Dead in her underworld sanctuary, almost anything seems possible; but averting the death of millions might just be too much.