So what's it like...the residency?

So I'm over half way through on my residency. This puppy wraps up August 21st although I have a few bits and bobs tacked on to the end so I won't be home proper till the end of that month.

So, what's it like - this residency thing - I hear you ask? I spend a lot of time on my own and it's okay, although I've discovered I can be a bit annoying at times. Time alone is an interesting concept and everyone should do it at some stage, even if only to observe that you don't really like it. I don't mind it but miss the people I love and care about. I am thinking that in future a lovely little annual sabbatical will be mandatory, whether to write like the clappers or to just wallow in. Just me. And then the rest of the year will be happily spent wallowing in the best and most beloved company of others.

I have discovered that jokes work best with more than one person and I require other people to provide the musical backdrop to my day to day existence (and secretly I am grateful that they do). I have music here with me but I just don't put it on. It is weird - more silence than I am used to. It is amazing what your mind fills it up with.

The Robert Lord Writers Cottage is an excellent place. Idiosyncratic, which is a good thing, I think, for writers. The kitchen and I don't really get on though. I like more space and equipment and someone else to do the dishes. And cooking for one is much less straight forward than it sounds. But there is a TV and washer and drier and clothes line and the location is good - far enough to afford me some exercise and close enough that my days aren't too much arranged around the time it takes me to get anywhere. The wind in Union Street East is a beggar though.

I really like the University. Lots of venerable old stone buildings with personality. It has good old bones. And there are lots of lovely people, especially in the College of Education. I do wonder if anyone in the Science faculty is studying how some students can wear one layer on single digit temperature days though. Or is there a training facility for this somewhere on campus? On my first day in Dunedin I was advised to go for layers (thank you Philip Roxborogh) and this is the key to surviving the fluctuating temperatures and conditions here. I have only been caught out once or twice. I am finally getting the chance to indulge my passion for woolly hats (although I am yet to find a fix for hat hair). Still yet to wear socks over my shoes when it's icy - I keep telling myself I am up to it if the need arises.

I think my residency would be a very different beast if my year hadn't quite exploded like it did, with invitations to speak and workshop and participate in festivals, with shortlistings and touring. But it probably wouldn't have exploded like it did without my gaining the residency - proximity is definitely a factor. Hard to see what the one would have been like without the other. Anyways it is my year of travelling and I am becoming familiar with the different types of plane and the best seats to sit in on each type and little tips like always checking the departure gates for connecting flights on arrival because they are not always what is printed on your boarding pass. And that swimsuit issue themed safety message IS annoying. And I now know where the loos are in the main airports which you might think would be obvious but some airports in NZ currently seem on a mission to discourage this sort of activity.

At times life has been a bit of a whirlwind from which it takes me a while to unwind. Public speaking events are simultaneously fun and scary. If I didn't enjoy doing them I wouldn't say yes, but I find them challenging as well. Still, challenges are good and my skill set has grown. When I first embarked on this career around fifteen years ago I don't think I would have recognised the me I've become. I'm mostly a chicken on the inside now.

And the writing? It isn't just about having the time to write. There are other requirements like coffee, and chocolate and. And plenty of people write masterpieces in random minutes snatched from their busy days so time isn't the essential factor missing for most writers. They just think it is. It is also about 'being' a writer. About sitting down to the task and having belief at your back. Doubt is the middle name of many writers. We often feel like imposters. To say, this is what I do, this is who I am, is the best gift of all.

Why yes, I have been writing ...

I have been wittering about a bunch of stuff recently - defending picture books, writing on didacticism, trying to be a wee bit poetic. It is probably the result of breathing in the Dunedin air, which is a blend of poetry, academia and culture. The city, the University and the College of Education where I am based have been very welcoming. I have already been invited to and attended a range of cultural and academic activities and it's all been fascinating. A performance by a concert cellist, an academic lecture on Social Construction and Frame Theory, and the opening of a very cool exhibition of pre-1960 NZ Children's Literature.  The weather has mostly been settled although a little bit chillier than I am used to for this time of year. Being away from the family has its challenges but I know it's for a finite period and its flying by. Despite my fears before I left home that I would go blank when I got here and not write a thing, I have been zipping along with one project and making some progress on another, as well as finishing one small one in entirety. I wasn't sure how I would go in an 'office' but so far it is a productive environment. It is a unique gift.  Writing is the whole point. If you have ever considered applying to be the Children's Writer in Residence I encourage you to do so.

It would seem I am the token hobbit in the world of men - these are the 2014 University of Otago Fellows 

Notes from the South, Part 1....

So I have moved cities and life has changed comprehensively. So far I am still in the 'this is surreal' phase. Or 'weird'. I am cheating using words like these and not giving you a wider description of how it feels and what it means. The brain is still whirring and clicking and cogitating. I am still in the midst of conclusifying. It is mind bendery.

But I intend to talk about it. Again it is a little like having children or having a first book published. As much as you ask questions about it beforehand and think you have it sussed about what the change will mean in your life, what the reality of it all is, you cannot really know until you are immersed in it. And even then it takes a while to settle into all the ramifications. And I think this whole ramification thing might have a very long tail.

It is novel to be in an environment where there is no expectation of you other than that you will write, and perhaps sometimes talk books with other folk, and you will be paid to do so. And the money is not rewarding the end product, (which is how a writer's financial life is usually arranged and strangely after bleeding yourself onto the page the recompense still most often seems tied to things other than your personal effort), but rather the act of just writing itself. I think, perhaps, this is a big part of the adjustment I am experiencing. I am, for the next six months, actually employed to do one of the jobs I love best. It is a novel kind of freedom.  I'll let you know how it goes

I cannot thank the University of Otago's College of Education enough for the existence of this brilliant opportunity, or the fact that they gave it to me. Or how wonderful their welcome has been. Enormous thanks too to Creative New Zealand for co-funding this amazing initiative. And to my family who said 'go' and who understand what this means to me. Man, I love you guys so much!  How lucky am I????

The dog may never forgive me...

I have been concealing a sekrit. I could have told you all but then there would have been problems over what I would have done with all the bodies. But that is no longer an issue as the news has now been made public. I am to be the "University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence" for 2014. I will be heading down to the city of Dunedin next February and staying there for 6 months. There is a stipend, accommodation, working space on campus at the University of Otago and most importantly an ENORMOUS amount of time to do nothing but write. I must admit that last bit leaves me a little giddy.

I am leaving my family at home. This will be a challenge for me and them. We are a close knit unit and I will miss them terribly (the dog may never forgive me. The cat will just say 'meh'). When I think of who I am, as an individual and a writer, my family are an indivisible part of the whole package. But when applications first opened for the residency back at the beginning of May I mentioned it to my eldest and she encouraged me to put my hat in the ring. Thank you Elora for showing me this opportunity wasn't just good for me, it was good for you too. My family all know I have writer stamped on my DNA. And there is more to receiving this opportunity than time to write (which is HUGE), financial support ( a concrete endorsement of my being a writer), and being part of an academic environment (which I have always loved - I am a recidivist student). It's a big honour to be selected. The children's writing community in New Zealand is such a strong one. And while the benefits in 2014 will be tangible and obvious, I think this opportunity has the possibility to keep rewarding me for years afterwards. And then, ya know, YOLO. I have always been a little risk averse (let's not play the radio in the car when the engine is off), and kinda careful about a bunch of stuff. This is a big adventure for me. I think this experience is going to inform my writing in new ways. And I must say that is rather exciting.

Thank you to James, Elora, Geneva and Remek for their understanding and patience. And to the University of Otago College of Education, and Creative New Zealand. I am truly grateful.