Writing Conference

On Friday this week myself and a group of students from school went to the Turanga library in Christchurch. We went to the library because there were some authors coming to speak to groups of students from different schools. Our teachers picked us because we either liked to right or liked reading. There were two authors who came, Eileen Merriman and Mandy Hager. They were each talking about a specific book with other facts in between. Here are some notes I wrote down for each author.


Eileen Merriman : Invisibly Breathing.


Also a doctor, Blood specialist. ( Haematologist )

Took writing courses / Classes.

Rejected by many publishes.

Published her first short story, Pieces Of You.

Her second book was Catch Me When I Fall.

Main Book:

Characters: Felix, Socially weird. Bailey, Struggling with life.

Both characters get bullied and share similar personality's.

She finds young adult books more interesting to write.

Between novels and books she writes short stories.

She said always write what you enjoy reading.







Mandy Hager : Ashes to Ashes, Series of two books.

Her parents both were troubled as kids.

She turns ideas into master pieces.

" Writing is a constant balancing act"

She thinks as a baby you learn how to read people.

Always speak up when you hear something wrong.

First / Main book.

Book set in New Zealand future.

She read out a part of the book that was very traumatising. " Two police came up to my door and instantly he knew what he was going to say. " Your father has been killed in a terrorist attack"But little did he know the government wanted to kill him and his father."