Uncategorized « Elizabeth Knox

My Workspace

My Workspace (without the customary cats)

I guess this piece could be titled ‘How I came to change the way in which I do everything’. It could go two ways—and I’ve decided it’s better to resist neither, to do both, even if one is personal and might seem beside the point of workspaces, and . . . → Read More: My Workspace

Next Big Thing

Margo Lanagan tagged me for this chain interview—her responses to the questions are here Margo’s Next Big Thing is her magnificent novel, Sea Hearts.

I’m tagging Dylan Horrocks. His answers should be up a week after mine. Dylan is in the home straight of his graphic novel Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen. Yay!

Here . . . → Read More: Next Big Thing

Margaret Mahy’s The Other Side of Silence

Margaret Mahy’s The Other Side of Silence is my favourite among her novels. It is a book that conducts an argument about nature and nurture, the effect of fame on families; that explores the power of speech and silence, of belief and skepticism; and that argues, explores, and demonstrates the shape-shifting nature of story. Actually, . . . → Read More: Margaret Mahy’s The Other Side of Silence

Hermitage

Ray Knox

Between 1954 and 56 my father was a guide at the Hermitage, in the Southern Alps. I was brought up with Sefton and Sebastopol, shale and serracs. And with dad’s ice axe, which hung in the garden shed in Pomare, then the basement workshop in Wadestown, and finally in the garage in . . . → Read More: Hermitage

The Invisible Rider by Kirsten McDougall

The cover and illustrations are by Gerard Crewdson

I was pleased and privileged yesterday to launch this book at the Thistle Hall in Wellington. This is my launch speech.

I was fortunate to be present at the birth of Philip Fetch. It was during a workshop on world-building that my sister Sara and I . . . → Read More: The Invisible Rider by Kirsten McDougall

Margaret Mahy, Hero

I first met Margaret Mahy when I was working in the shop in the old National Museum, Buckle Street. I met her in The Haunting, then, the very next day, in The Changeover. I was too old to have read Margaret’s picture books as a child, and I sometimes think what it would have been . . . → Read More: Margaret Mahy, Hero

My post-Leipzig talk

In March of this year ten writers and six publishers from New Zealand were at the Leipzig Book Fair, on the Frankfurt Book Fair’s stand. We were being introduced to German journalists, publishers and readers as part of the preparations for New Zealand’s appearance as Country of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair this October. . . . → Read More: My post-Leipzig talk

In purgatory stories are street lamps (1)

I thought it might be easiest just to post the lovely photo of Mum from her order of service (it’s on my facebook). But then I wrote this.

Over the past few years it’s been family, friends, and fiction for me. They were all a challenge, and all sustained me. I want to write a . . . → Read More: In purgatory stories are street lamps (1)

True Story 2

My mother has Progressive Bulbar Palsy, which is a form of Motor Neuron Disease (ALS). I wrote this in May last year.

Mum in Ezibuy looking for winter clothes because nothing from last year fits her. We choose a pair of size eight needle cord pants and two skivvies that—as it turns out—are too tight. . . . → Read More: True Story 2

Fate, time travel, and truth-telling: The Dreamhunter Duet

Back in 2009 a fan of The Dreamhunter Duet found me on Facebook and wrote to me with questions. I answered her first few and she came back with more, prompted by a conversation she’d had about the books with some friends of hers. (I didn’t know it then, but this encounter was a little . . . → Read More: Fate, time travel, and truth-telling: The Dreamhunter Duet