Witchy business at 40
Ten years ago I was having conniptions about turning 30 and not having achieved the things I ‘should have’ by then:
Instead I was getting ready to go sailing around the South Pacific with some bloke I’d been seeing for a couple of years – a trip that turned out better than any of my ‘should haves’, and kick started my writing career.
On March 1, I turn 40 and publish my third book. Again, a lot of my ‘should haves’ never happened, but the ‘did haves’ more than made up for it. More happened in the past 10 years than I could possibly have predicted. Which Way is Starboard Again? was published, I got to talk about sailing and mental health a whole lot, and met some amazing people. The bloke and I got engaged, we bought a house – and we went into lockdown in that house.
During that period of working from home, I finished writing, and published, a silly, spooky, short story collection called Ghost Bus, which people seemed to quite like – and which I have been having a lot of fun promoting.
Ghost Bus – Tales from Wellington’s Dark Side
Witchy Fiction
Another thing that happened during lockdown, was that I was invited by an awesome bunch of Kiwi speculative fiction writers (the umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy, horror – basically everything weird, wacky, and fantastical) to take part in the Contemporary Witchy Fiction project. It was an endeavour conceived after people felt grim post-apocalyptic fiction was a bit too real for 2020, and the world needed something with a bit more warmth and joy.
Here’s a really cool piece about the project from last year’s Verb Wellington festival:
Something Witchy this way comes
I felt like a bit of a fraud taking part at first, since Ghost Bus was my first foray into fiction, and I was totally making it up as I went along, but one of the short stories in it involved witches, so I figured expanding that into a novella couldn’t be that difficult (LOL).
Cosy, Kiwi, magic
The brief was pretty simple, the stories had to be cosy, involve witches, and be set in New Zealand. Our books were set in a shared world, so we could be creative, but not do anything too drastic. For example, you couldn’t magic the North Island away, because somebody else might need it for their story.
It has been an awesome, collaborative, process where we have been each other’s cheerleaders, critics, editors, and design advisors. There are so many talented creatives here in NZ and I feel really lucky to be able to work them. By the time March 1 rolls around, we will have produced 12 witchy books – which I think is pretty amazing.
Scary new things
My witchy book – Raven’s Haven for Women of Magic – actually turned out to be more of a challenge than I had expected, and I am actually much more nervous about releasing it than I was the other two.
To keep consistent with the other novellas, my story had to be written in third person, which is not natural way for me to write. Both Starboard and Ghost Bus are in first person, which is really easy for me. Third person is HARD! I stuffed up perspective all over the shop. And then there was the fact that it was my first long-form fiction. What do you mean what you say in chapter two still has relevance in chapter nine? I ended up trying to stuff way too much into one story, so, for better or worse, I am now splitting it into three. Luckily I had some amazing feedback from my witchy crew, which hopefully knocked it into shape.
Romantic challenges
The biggest challenge though was the tagline that came with the books. “Contemporary Witchy Fiction – with a touch of romance.” Romance isn’t really my thing, so I had to ask for quite a bit of help to get it right. If romance isn’t really your thing either, don’t worry, I went light – there are only a couple of snogs. If romance is your thing, then I apologise profusely.
Regardless of how it turns out, being part of this amazing, supportive, group of witchy writers has been amazing for my development as a writer and for my mental health as well. It’s awesome to be able to have a group of people living in my phone (and who I meet up with on occasion!) who just get it. And if I have managed to produce something to distract people and make them smile right now, then that makes it worth it for me.
You can pre-order the digital version of Raven’s Haven here, and I will update this page when paperbacks become available:
Raven’s Haven for Women of Magic
There are two other witchy novellas launching on March 1 too – Microscopes and Magic by Andi C. Buchanan and A Gap in the Veil by Sam Schenk. If you want to check out the rest of the witchy books (and you should!) they are all available on our website:
New website and newsletter!
Last but not least, those of you who are receiving this in your inbox will be the first to notice it is coming from a new address (lucky you!). Since I seem to be writing all sorts of different things now, I figured it was time for a real grown-up website that promotes me as a writer, rather than a blog based around one book.
I got in touch with the amazing web designers at Pixel Boom and presented them with a seemingly impossible task – “I write about boats, and mental health, and ghosts, and aliens, and witches, but it’s kinda funny, and there’s cats. Can you do something with that?” It turns out they could!
Anna Kirtlan Writes (annakirtlanwrites.nz) is my new site and I am thrilled with it. And check out my amazing new logo!
The other shiney new thing I have for you is a newsletter. This is different from the blog in that it will just be book stuff. Sneak peeks at new projects, short stories just for you, first dibs on new stuff, and probably random photos of my cat. If this sounds like you, please sign up!
Anna Kirtlan Writes newsletter
Fair warning, I will be spamming people about the new website and newsletters on all my platforms a bit, so if you read this and immediately forget to sign up (you wouldn’t do a thing like that would you?) there will definitely be more opportunities.
Thanks to all of you who have stayed with me on this journey so far, and welcome to the new kids. To quote my beloved David Bowie;
“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.”
