Surrender by Donna Malane (new kiwi crime fiction!)

Check out my book review /interview of Donna Malane talking about her new kiwi crime novel, online at the Bay of Plenty Times newspaper. 

Shout out to Martine for getting it up and running on the site!

Surrender is an excellent read.  Well paced, characters that grab you and set right here in New Zealand.  I particularly like Surrender's main character Diane Rowe, a strong female lead in the kiwi crime prevention scene. 

Malane plans to write a sequel to Surrender next year. Can't wait to read another installment.

Find more information about Donna Malane and Surrender.

Picture of Donna Malane kindly supplied by Tauranga Writers, presumably via NZ Society of Authors. Photo by Mark Mitchell. Donna Malane at home in June 2010.

Hot Pools

I am having the day off.

I've done my errands. I've finished a bit of cleaning up. I've ignored any other work. I've looked at the filing. I've eaten a healthy lunch.

Now its time for a dip in the local, salty hot pools. The hot pools are wonderful here, even on a warm, summer day. You can do a few laps then waddle on over to the really hot pool for a soak and a stand under the gushing hot taps. Last time I was there those jets of water managed to undo my bikini top. Cheeky.

It's also a great place to go because even though no one has anything much to do except lounge in the water and gaze at all the other people lounging in the water, you don't really feel on show. There's loads of beautiful people there for sure, but they come in all shapes and sizes.

The kids pool is cute too, with its little slide, but I enjoy my time not having to wade through its shallow, somewhat cooler water, wondering how much of it has been peed in.

Behind the pools and an ever constant presence, is the Mount. Mount Maunganui towers up over us as we soak away our ills, a sturdy guardian of nature. Bright beaming blue sky, the green and greys of the Pohutukawa Tree, tiny dots of colour crawling its heights and the sound of the ocean beach waves just 200 metres away.

You can almost breathe in the summer here, it's so quintessentially kiwi.

I Hate Rugby

Okay, so hate is a strong word. However 'I dislike Rugby' doesn't really grab one's attention.

And really, is it the game of rugby I dislike? Or all the media attention, obsessed fans and terrible injuries that circle the great rugby universe?

I know I'm in the minority in this country. Rugby as we all know and are told all year round, is our national sport. It provides a strong, team-focused outlet for young men in small communities to bond together, learn discipline and exert some agression out on the playing field. In short(s), it is the thinking man's battle ground.

Well what about women's rugby? Aren't the NZ women's team the world champions? But they get no media coverage.

I met a guy the other day who has a tattoo of the All Blacks on his leg. Not the whole team, just the name "All Blacks". Now, I'm all for permanent body art if it has meaning to you, so I can understand the impulse to scrawl the name of your favourite team on your bod.

However, the fervour with which he worshipped this team was palpable. I know he was holding most of his adoration on the inside too, because I told him I "just wasn't that in to sport". He told me that he loves rugby, that when the All Blacks lost last time he cried. I didn't even know how to reply to that. "Good on you mate?"

I have to say this sort of national pride is to be admired. We need people like that to support our sports industry and keep sports journalists busy. After all, in our house the sports section is the first to go out in the recycle bin and if there's rugby on telly, we turn over immediately.

I know I won't be making any friends writing this post. But here's the thing, one day I'd like to be able to tell people that I don't follow rugby, don't watch games on television, don't subscribe to Sky Sport (even though I do have Sky), don't enjoy anything about the game, don't like the build of rugby players, don't like the little shorts or the big thighs, don't admire the athletic prowess of diving head first in to the dirt or sticking your fingers in to eyeballs, or other types of balls, don't think Dan Carter is anything to write home about... without being looked at like I'm a) mad b)clueless c)not a true New Zealander. I was born here and have lived here most of my life, I just don't like rugby!

There are others like me out there, but we have to keep quiet. When you admit to not being a big fan you'll be surprised how many others will come out of the woodwork. I must say I haven't come across many men who will confess they are not a fan, but I'm sure they are out there.

The thing is, rugby is a great converstation starter in kiwi society. Start talking about the game and you have something to really go on about for a good twenty minutes - especially for men, who often have trouble chatting on that level unless it is about sport. My significant other is Danish, so he doesn't like Rugby, cricket or any of those team sports. It was one of the things that MOST attracted me to him. ha ha dee ha.

The thing is we have been to rugby games and did watch some of the game. We tried to understand what everyone was jumping up and down about. We tried to understand why parents had decorated their kids in all over body paint to show their support of team colours. We tried to understand why grown men would intentionally play a sport which made their ears do that thing, their noses bleed, their likelihood of getting a head injury increase by some astronomic percentage.

But to tell you the truth the only joy we really got out of it was from watching the spectators.