Jamie Baywood - Author Guest Post - Getting Rooted in New Zealand

Today I am very pleased to welcome author Jamie Baywood to the blog with a guest post. Jamie is the author of Getting Rooted in New Zealand.

Guest post by Jamie Baywood

It was always my dream to live abroad when I was growing up in California. I had bad dating experiences in California and read in a New Zealand tour book that the country’s population has 100,000 fewer men than women. I wanted to have some me time and an adventure. New Zealand seemed like a good place to do so. Although I intended to have a solo adventure I ended up meeting my husband a Scottish man in New Zealand.

I consider myself an accidental author. I didn’t go to New Zealand with the intentions of writing a book about my experiences there. I had funny experiences that I had trouble believing were true. I wrote the stories down to stay sane. I wrote situations down that were happening around me and shared them with friends. The stories made people laugh so I decided to organize the stories into a book and publish in the hope of making others laugh too.

One of the first people I met was Colin Mathura-Jeffree from New Zealand’s Next Top Model. I had no idea who he was or that he was on TV when I meet him. He is friends with my former flatmate. We had a steep staircase that I kept falling down. Colin taught me to walk like a model so I wouldn’t fall down the stairs.

In New Zealand, I had a lot of culture shock.  One of the most memorable moments was learning the meaning of the Kiwi slang word “rooted.” One night I was brushing my teeth with my flatmate and I said, ‘I’m really excited to live in this house because I have been travelling a lot and I just need to settle down, stop traveling and get rooted’. He was choking on his toothbrush and asked me if I knew what that meant because it had a completely different meaning in New Zealand than it does in the States.

I had the opportunity to write and perform for Thomas Sainsbury, the most prolific playwright in New Zealand. I performed a monologue about my jobs in the Basement Theatre in Auckland.  The funny thing about that experience was Tom kept me separated from the other performers until it was time to perform. I was under the impression that all the performers were foreigners giving their experiences in New Zealand.  All of the other performers were professional actors telling stories that weren’t their own. At first I was mortified, but the audience seemed to enjoy my “performance,” laughing their way through my monologue. After the shows we would go out and mingle with the audience. People would ask me how long I had been acting. I would tell them, “I wasn’t acting; I have to go to work tomorrow and sit next to the girl wearing her dead dog’s collar around her neck.”

I love making people laugh more than anything else. I feel very grateful when readers understand my sense of humour. I plan to divide my books by the countries I’ve lived in. My next book will be about attempting to settle in Scotland. 

Getting Rooted in New Zealand book description:

Craving change and lacking logic, at 26, Jamie, a cute and quirky Californian, impulsively moves to New Zealand to avoid dating after reading that the country's population has 100,000 fewer men. In her journal, she captures a hysterically honest look at herself, her past and her new wonderfully weird world filled with curious characters and slapstick situations in unbelievably bizarre jobs. It takes a zany jaunt to the end of the Earth and a serendipitous meeting with a fellow traveler before Jamie learns what it really means to get rooted.

About the author Jamie Baywood:

Jamie Baywood grew up in Petaluma, California. In 2010, she made the most impulsive decision of her life by moving to New Zealand. Getting Rooted in New Zealand is her first book, about her experiences living there. Jamie is now married and living happily ever after in the United Kingdom. She is working on her second book.

Getting Rooted in New Zealand is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482601907

Jamie Baywood can be followed on the following sites:

Facebook.com/jamiebaywood

Twitter.com/jamiebaywood

Pinterest.com/jamiebaywood

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7069448.Jamie_Baywood

Amazon.co.uk

The Apple Tart of Hope - Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

‘He wasn’t just my friend. He was kind of magic.’

I previously read and enjoyed Back to Blackbrick, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald’s debut novel, so when I saw she had written a second novel, I was keen to read it, and when I saw the lovely title and the beautiful cover design, I was even more attracted by it.

Oscar and Meg live next door to each other, and have done for years, and they chat to each other through their facing bedroom windows. The pair of them have developed a close friendship, and brighten up each other’s lives:

‘We got to sitting at our windows, late at night, at the end of every day. He was different from anyone I’d ever met, and when Oscar was my friend, nothing was annoying or complicated. Everything was simple and enjoyable and fun. Everything made sense.’

As the story opens, we learn that Oscar is missing, presumed dead by suicide, though Meg, as well as Oscar’s brother Stevie, wont believe it. Then we are taken back to several months before, and the story tells of Meg’s father taking his family to New Zealand with him for six months with work, with Meg bitterly opposed to going. Alternating chapters, ‘slices’ of an apple tart, are recounted from Meg’s, and then Oscar’s, perspective, and gradually reveal how Oscar and Meg’s friendship is changed when she does go. A new girl, Paloma, and her mother, move into Meg’s house temporarily. With regard to the book’s title, Oscar has a heightened sense of when something particular is in the air, and this is when he bakes one of his remarkable apple tarts which improved people’s feelings and helped with troubles.

I felt this story had real depth, and dealt honestly and compassionately with strong emotions and serious decisions. At times it was also rather magical which just added an extra element of sparkle to a great tale. I liked Meg and Oscar, and I was compelled to read on and discover what happened to them both, why had things changed, what had caused so much sadness? There are themes of love and friendship, the difficulty and sadness of separation and loss, as well as belief and honesty, manipulation and jealousy. The story shows how strong a connection we can feel for another person, and how nerve-wracking and all consuming it can be when we try to convey our feelings, and how devastating it is if we suspect our feelings aren’t reciprocated, and all this even more difficult to deal with as a teenager.

It’s a fairly quick read and is really well written with some lovely use of language; I liked this description of one of the character’s homes; ‘Barney’s house stood battered and gloomy, as if it was in a sulk from having gone to the elaborate trouble of being built and then having been neglected so badly that it looked as if nobody lived in it.’ Overall this is another very good young adult (and indeed adult) offering from this talented author.

Thank you to amazon vine for a review copy of this novel. 

Author links - twitter @SMooreFitz |

Published by Orion Children's Books

My review of Back to Blackbrick

Close to the Wind - Zana Bell

'A new world looped within a perfectly circular horizon, under the command of an autocratic captain whose smile could stop her breath.'


It's 1868 and Georgiana da Silva overhears a conversation involving her fiancé Jasper that prompts her to flee from her home and undertake a daring journey to try and save her brother Charles from death. She hadn't been in love with her fiancé, just fond of him, grateful and accepting, after all, he'll take her away from life with her aunt. Now she has discovered what is going on, that Charles may be in grave danger, she escapes and finds her way onto a ship bound for New Zealand, where her beloved brother is now, in the goldfields. 

Captain Harry Trent is getting ready to set sail for New Zealand. He has his own aims on arrival and is allegedly sought by some who believe he has committed a crime. The paths of these two headstrong individuals cross and they are destined to continue overlapping as they both pursue their own agendas. It becomes increasingly difficult though, for either of them to ignore the mutual attraction and admiration they feel.

I read this novel on holiday, and I found it enjoyable and good fun; an entertaining historical adventure on the high seas that I could escape into. The New Zealand aspect appealed to me as it's a place I love, although it's well into the novel before the drama actually takes place there; I'd have loved more time with that as the backdrop, although I did enjoy the time at sea with the crew, and the other destinations that were mentioned. I liked Georgiana, she is feisty, determined and courageous, an admirable female character when considering the period, unafraid, keen in fact, to leave behind the role society would have her play. I liked her plan for successfully getting aboard Harry Trent's ship though I knew it wouldn't last forever. 

The interaction between Harry and Georgiana was nicely done and I enjoyed the dialogue between them. There's mystery too, in trying to discover the truth about what happened back in England, the matter which Harry is implicated in. Yes, there were times when the plot could have moved a bit faster or been a bit tighter, but then the resolution couldn't happen too early as the tension as to what would happen to the two of them, and whether they were in fact at cross purposes, rightly needed to last further into the novel. I liked that there was a lot more than just romance to the story.

Overall Close to the Wind offers escapist reading with fun and excitement, there's a lot to enjoy, a strong heroine, a handsome captain, a plot with drama, deception, romance, intrigue, travel and adventure. 

Author links - twitter @ZanaBellAuthor | website |

Published by ChocLit

The Girl Below - Bianca Zander

'I had the strangest sensation then that I had somehow left the real world behind, and had gone to a place that didn't exist.'

Suki Piper returns to her childhood home in London after an absence of twenty years, the last ten of which she has spent in New Zealand. Recognising a familiar name on the doorbell to one of the neighbouring flats, she pays a visit to the now very ill lady, Peggy, who still lives there and whom she remembers. As a girl Suki was influenced by Peggy’s children, in particular her daughter Pippa, and Suki gets back in touch with Pippa to find her struggling with the unruly behaviour of her sixteen-year-old son Caleb.

Suki feels displaced in London, not quite at home anywhere, drifting without a job, her thoughts often returning automatically, and sometimes involuntarily, to the past. She never seems to have settled into her own life, escaping it through drink and drugs, often feeling lonely and still looking for a healthy loving relationship.

It is a rather unsettling read at times, with episodes that are eerie and dreamlike; Suki recalls dark memories and experiences glimpses into her past, to a party over twenty years ago in her parents’ garden, and she is drawn again and again to the haunting recollection of events in an old underground air-raid shelter, and there is also the ornamental figure of a girl which always haunted Suki. She has the feeling that she 'was trespassing across space and time.'

The chapters alternate between her past and present, and between London, New Zealand and Skyros, and we gain a fuller picture of her unsettled life to date.

It’s a very well written debut; Suki is portrayed convincingly as a flawed and troubled narrator and I was absorbed in her world and her troubles. In many ways she isn’t a likeable character yet I had sympathy with her and I felt moved at how alone she was, often seeming very unhappy, unstable and confused, battling with life and being defeated. The novel left me thinking about Suki, wondering what might happen next in her life.

Published by Alma Books on 28 February 2013

I originally reviewed this book for We Love This Book. Thanks to them and to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel in advance of publication.

After the Fall - Charity Norman

‘I hoped I was dreaming, because this was a terrifying nightmare.’

Five-year-old Finn is taken by rescue helicopter to hospital one night after a fall from the upstairs balcony of his family home deep in rural New Zealand. He has been known to sleepwalk, so the fall was surely just a terrible accident. However, Finn’s mum Martha knows more about what happened that night than she is prepared to reveal to those questioning it.

The McNamara family has moved to New Zealand to make a new start. There newfound paradise is idyllic but it won’t be without problems or challenges for them all. The move was prompted by a need to escape and try to find a new life for them, especially for Martha and husband Kit, an artist whose business in the UK has failed as so many others have, and whose thoughts were descending into despair at where his life was heading. Martha thinks the move will offer a chance to save him and revitalise his painting with the beautiful landscapes they discover all around them. Martha and Kit’s twin sons, Finn and Charlie see it all as an adventure; they’ll miss their Grandfather and friends but will soon adapt to the new place and see all the possibilities for play and exploration. Martha’s daughter from a previous relationship, Sacha, is sixteen-years-old and for her it is a difficult time to be separated from everything she has even known.

The narrative shifts in time, and the author builds up the background to the move, introducing us to Martha’s sister and father, to Sacha’s life at school, and to Kit’s troubles. We are aware of the history that has prompted the family to move.

This is a lovely novel, so well written, with a central character in Martha that has so much to deal with, and tries to do the best she can for her family. She carries secrets from the past, and she has her love tested to the absolute limits. Martha is a compelling narrator and one whose voice I was gripped by throughout. We learn of her relationship with her mother, we see her grow and change in New Zealand, taking on a new job, having to be so strong to deal with things affecting her family, and yet finding moments to become Martha, not mother or wife but just herself, and to experience growth in her own life:

‘I felt a sense of something deep within myself, something I didn’t quite recognize. After thinking for some minutes I realized that I was actually proud of myself. I’d done something I’d been afraid to do. For once I hadn’t sat on the fence and watched my children; I hadn’t been the photographer, the waver-off, the cheerer on the sidelines. It had been a long time since I’d had an achievement that wasn’t vicarious.’

Martha spends a lot of the novel in difficult situations, with scenarios to deal with and decisions to make that no-one would envy. She is human, she is flawed, and I warmed to her and willed things to go right. Her character prompted me to think about her motivations and about how I would react to the events that befall her; would I react in the same way? Sacha is also a well-drawn and complex character.

More than one character needs the opportunity for a second chance and for forgiveness, both of which are dominant themes in the novel. Despite there being a lot to express about the issues that are dealt with in the story, I feel that to say anymore about them here would spoil it for those yet to read the book – you must discover the twists and turns as you read.

This well-written novel made me think about family and love, the bonds that are so tight between a mother and her children, between a husband and wife, and how that love and trust that we develop and depend on can be severely stretched and tested, how deeply those we love the most can hurt us, and the power of forgiveness.

I was very impressed by this novel throughout; the storytelling, the characters and the development of both were strong and well handled. I felt like every encounter and conversation drove the narrative on and had a purpose towards the story as a whole, there was nothing surplus as can sometimes be the case.

Charity Norman deals sensitively and yet thoroughly with modern day issues that can be frightening for all involved, and will test this family to the limits of love.

It’s a book that I wanted both to read quickly and discover how the plot unfolded and yet wanted to savour and not to come to an end because I was really enjoying reading it.

New Zealand is a country I’ve spent time traveling in myself and which I love, and it was wonderful to read a novel set there, indeed to read about a family’s dream to start again there. The author incorporates aspects of Maori mythology into the conversations with some of the friends the family makes, which I enjoyed reading.

The storyline totally captivated me and I found it very moving; at the end I shed a few tears at the outcome. I wish my review could do it even a bit of justice. This is a talented author at work. More please.

Published by Allen and Unwin

Thank you to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and review. 

After the Fall is one of the Richard and Judy Book Club picks for Spring 2013

You can find the author on twitter @CharityNorman1 and on facebook here.