1. Where do you call home?
Dunedin where I live  - but the South Island is more a home, couldn’t live north of ChCh.

2. What was the first book you fell in love with and why?
A field guide to New Zealand birds…I loved the drawings, the descriptions and the neatness of it – plus flicking back and forward from descriptions to pictures. Also, it was useful – I loved taking it with me - looking for birds.

3.  Describe your writing process. 
I try and write 1000 words a day – with no excuses but, at the same time being aware of how life works: that my son has  sick days and school holidays, that I have chores blah blah…I never know what I’m going to write but force myself to do it anyway and after an hour or so I get into it.

4. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Be true to yourself and don’t try and second guess the reader. Write as if no one is going to buy it…which is pretty much the case. Also, be determined rather than ambitious.

5. How do you deal with a less than favourable review?
I mull over what is said – see if I agree – and if I don’t agree, or if I think they’re wrong, I ignore them…though certain parts stay with me for ever.  If a bad review is thoughtful…then it’s worth considering and learning from.

6. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
None that’s really relevant to writing…but I’ve learnt a lot by reading and by listening to other people (not necessarily fiction writers). 

7. What has been the highlight of your career to date?
Getting my second book accepted for publication, being shortlisted for the Montana, getting the Burns fellowship and being re-printed. But, mostly, just getting a book published – which always amazes me….plus the fantastic people I have worked with at Penguin. Really amazing, supportive people.

8. Which New Zealand book should every New Zealander read and why?
The Reed field guide to NZ Birds…and, the Reed Atlas of NZ….both because they arouse your curiosity and  imagination, they take you on journeys to wonderful places (in your head) when you can’t go there physically. Any early NZ road travel guide is also fascinating…the road journeys around the South Island read like exploration.

9. Is there a New Zealand book you feel has been underrated?
I read books from the 60s and 70s…eg. Ted Middleton’s short stories (The Loners …I don’t know if they’re underrated but they’re very good.)

10. Which author, living or dead, would you like to meet and why?
Australian poet Philip Hodgins…his rural poems are terrific. Just about any Australian writer – David Malouf and a lot of European writers: Joseph Roth (Zipper and his Father), Miroslav Holub, J Saramago, I Kadare,  and nature writers and poets  like Richard Mabey, Kahleen Jamie

11. Which books are on your bedside table right now?
John Burnside, A Lie about my Father; Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Sue Wootton, Hourglass; David Malouf, Typewriter Music; Oxford dictionary, Baedeker’s Switzerland 1917 ed.

12. What interests do you have aside from writing?
Walking, white water canoeing…mostly fairly solitary things

13. What's the best thing about being a writer? 
Satisfaction and frustration…and living in a dream world