I hope you’re all having a lovely festive season with plenty of great friends, great food, and great cheer! I have a feeling that many of you, like me, will be taking the chance to use this “holiday” time for a little bit of relaxing, but also as much writing as can be squeezed in, so I thought I’d continue with our Tuesday Therapy series for all of you who are so diligently working away.
Our final bit of advice for 2011 comes from one of the friendliest writers in the Southern Hemisphere. Mary Victoria’s Chronicles of the Tree trilogy was published by Voyager — rollicking adventures in a magical setting (The World Tree! Airships! Need I say more?!) Tymon’s Flight was shortlisted for the Gemmell Morningstar award in 2011, as well as for two Sir Julius Vogel awards (Best Novel and Best New Talent categories.) It also won the Sir Julius Vogel award for Best Artwork: congratulations, Frank Victoria!
Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in all the non-writing parts of a writing career… So today Mary reminds us what this venture is all about:
When life gives you lemons, write. Actually, when it lobs any kind of citrus fruit at you, write. When it clobbers you over the head with a big fat melon, write some more. Basically that’s all the advice I can think of… write write write. And read read read, because it feeds the writing.
Mary Victoria was born in Boston, but has lived most of her life in other places, including Cyprus, Canada, Sierra Leone, France, and the UK. She studied art and film, and worked as an animator for 10 years. A job on the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies took her to NZ, and back to reading and writing fantasy novels. She lives in Wellington with her husband and daughter. Visit her lovely website here.
Lisa L. Hannett 
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