Tales For Canterbury Interview

Gosh, this is a tricky one! It would really depend on the stage of the project, but most days began with an email between us, normally letting the other know where we were at on our tasks and saying what we hoped to get through today—checking if there was anything the other could think that had been forgotten, or whether we needed help with anything in particular. From there we would work with stories – reading them, or editing them, emailing authors at each stage of the process, drafting posts for the blog, the contracts, press releases, keeping up with emails from other people involved such as the graphic designer or potential printers etc.

Anna came up with a great spreadsheet to help us keep track of everything, and from time to time the columns would change as we moved past one stage of the process and into another (such as when moving from the ‘reading submissions’ stage to the ‘accepting/rejecting stories’ stage, then to the ‘editing’ etc). This was fantastic, and would be colour coded, so when we managed to have catch ups we could go through it to see where we were with everything and update accordingly—there is a whole lot involved behind the scenes to get an anthology together!

Hmm, inspiring…I think one of the most amazing for me was Neil Gaiman. His response to my email blew me out of the water—basically he told us to take our pick of a story and let him know. We weren’t sure where to start! Another was a prominent NZ writer whose story wasn’t quite a fit for the antho, but she sent us something despite having an incredibly busy schedule. Every individual who is associated with this anthology took the time and effort to be involved and I have to say I was humbled and proud, to be a writer, and a New Zealander.

What surprised you the most while producing Tales for Canterbury?

I think for a long time, what surprised me most was that people were trusting that I could pull it off. Prior to this I’d had just a couple of short stories published and pretty much no experience when it came to publishing, so to have this idea and then watch it take off and grow, to get so much support and positive feedback along the way, to have authors donating their stories and everyone looking forward to the book being released was a surreal experience. There were days when I wondered what on earth I’d gotten myself into, when I thought there was no way we would get everything done, but I always kept in mind that other people thought I could do it—and if they thought I could, then I had to. I couldn’t disappoint anyone, it wasn’t an option.

So, I guess in some ways, the most surprising thing was seeing that I could rise to the occasion. I definitely couldn’t have done it without Anna, though, she was amazing.

What was the highlight of this experience for you?

I think probably when the first copy I ordered arrived in the mail and I pulled the book out of its package. It looked amazing, so beautiful. At that point it had been just over three months since the idea formed and then all of a sudden I was holding an actual book, with my name on the cover!

Other highlights have been working with Anna, networking with a wide range of authors, hearing from individuals who were really touched by what we were doing and just wanted to say thank you and the general buzz that went along with a project like this. It was such an amazing experience right from the start. I still struggle to find the words to explain it.

What did you learn from the experience that you can apply to your own writing?

I think the most important thing I learned is that there is more than one way to tell a story, and that every story is not for every person. As a writer you need to work with things you are passionate about, find your voice and tell the tales that mean something to you—when you find the right reader for your stories, it’s amazing, but not everyone is going to be that right reader. And that’s okay. In fact, that’s wonderful. There is room for variety, loads of room! So get that pen out, write the story you want to, work it up until it sparkles and shines and is the best thing you can make of it, and then share it with the world. Not everyone will love it, but if you can touch one person, then it’s totally worth it.