A Day Out at the Beach...

Books on the Beach, the first of it’s kind held on a mildly windy summer’s day at Paraparaumu Beach and kindly initiated and organised by the Hunter sisters, Sharon and Toni, along with Sharon’s supporting architect husband Darren Hunter.

We were there early on a Sunday morning, table, umbrella in hand plus our books merchandise and all the other paraphernalia that makes up setting up a market stall.

We had first heard about Books on the Beach while crossing over on the Inter-island ferry and finally all these months later the day had come and what a day, a bit equivalent to the usual inter-island crossing, a strong wind sweeping over the ocean and land.

We managed to keep our stand up for all of five minutes, just enough time to make one sale of our Science-Fiction genre to the local college and catch up with old friends.

Our backs turned for a couple of seconds talking to other stand holders and unlike the Wahine she was over in seconds. One minute we were all sitting upright and the next we were down, blown down like a pack of cards. We took it as a sign it was time to pack up and leave while we were still ahead.

The flip side of abandoning ship so soon, gave us time to check out the fabulous section of fellow writers and talks and decided it was best to use our time supporting our fellow craftsmen and artists. A quick whizz around the weekend market and then upstairs to Club Vista for a much deserved and needed hot drink and scone to warm up our cockles after coming in looking very windswept and interesting. Club Vista did themselves proud by providing a warm and inviting venue for writers such as Mandy Hager who pulled in a full house into the small nook and cranny of the bar we were assigned to. Much better alternative than on the stage out in the elements. Mandy shared all her pearlers about the intense research and study she had undertaken to write her most recent of books. It was also good to share our own writing stories with a fellow Levin born and bred writer from back in the day.

Between writers we checked out the local iwi doing a presentation and story telling session beneath a strong sturdy marquee.

Then back inside in the warmth for Leanna aka Leanne Morgan another local writer and listen to her also share willingly her pearls of wisdom on how she had given up her full-time well-paid job at the local library to take up writing full time and what a success. A real inspiration and happy to share.

More on Leanne has just appeared in the local Kapiti paper, summing up after achieving her dream of writing one book this led to many, many others being written and to great accolades and success. In fact, in her first year she made $54,000 followed by almost four times that much in the following year. Enough that she could entice her Fireman husband into her taking early retirement from the traditional kiwi office type job and take up writing full time.

Yes - dreams really do come true and all here on the Kapiti Coast!