About the Author
IK PATERSON-HARKNESS is
a guitarist, a mother, a wife and writer,
a cyclist, a recyclist,
an anti-capitalist, part-time nine-to-fiver.
a divorcee, a fraudster, a loaner, a daughter,
a singer, a composer,
a once South Islander, now an Aucklander.
a performer, a Kiwi, a food-intolerant control freak,
a scrawny, tattooed laundry lady,
a Doctor Who and Star Trek geek.
a tree-hugging, animal-loving, globe-trotting petition signer,
a proud and stubborn daydreamer,
(though she's the household toilet cleaner).
a wannabe pianist, a grandchild, aunt and sister,
a yoga enthusiast, grammar Nazi,
a pot-plant gardening, whiskey drinker.
a cynic, a pessimist, a skeptical idealist,
a touch-typing vegan,
a left-wing environmentalist.
an agoraphobic, epileptic, introverted chilli addict,
a logical host and parasite,
a thirty-something, three times graduate.
a know it all, soup specialist, a scoliotic citizen,
a city-dwelling nervous wreck,
an obsessive perfectionist, scholarship recipient.
an amateur photographer, a list-writing, Facebooking underweight,
a dirty-blonde committee member,
an agnostic blogger and herbivorous neighbour.
a consequentialist metaphysicist, a rock’n’roll gig goer,
a mammal, a mortal, a mum, a middle child,
a buyer, a seller, a self-obsessed poet.
IK Paterson can be found at www.ikpatersonharkness.com or on Twitter @IKPatersonHark
The SHORTCUTS Series
INTERDIMENSIONAL FORESTS, atomic ghosts and future tech gone horribly wrong abound in SHORTCUTS, a serialised collection of novelettes which celebrate the diversity of genre fiction writing in New Zealand. Published by Wellington-based Paper Road Press, the first SHORTCUTS series features six stories of the future, the past, and the uncanny, all of which wind in some way back to the shores of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Read on to find out more about the first SHORTCUTS series.
MIKA
Lee Murray & Piper Mejia
MIKA TĀURA ARRIVES in New York in the middle of a storm, where she accidentally kills a motorist and lands herself with an injured child. What’s more, she’s missed her rendezvous.
Stan has problems of his own. Several of them just broke into his apartment and tried to kill him, which may explain why hitching a ride in Mika’s armoured waka seems like a good idea. Besides, her business is taking her across to the West Coast, and so – conveniently – is his.
On the run, Mika, Stan and the girl flee across the country to Stan’s reservation home, where they encounter a couple who may be the key to Mika’s mission. But time is running out, for the travellers and for those they leave behind them.
THE LAST
Grant Stone
FORTY YEARS AGO, KATHERINE St. John disappeared – briefly. Thirty years ago, she enacted a disappearance of another sort, stepping not just away from her music career but across the ocean to the other side of the world.
Yesterday, Rachel Mackenzie’s flight touched down in Auckland. She’s travelled to New Zealand to interview the reclusive musician Katherine St. John about her first album in nearly thirty years. But strange things are happening at St. John's farm and soon Rachel finds herself caught up in something far larger than the world of music.
BREE’S DINOSAUR
AC Buchanan
CAM’S AMBITIONS ARE straightforward: study Business English in Wellington for six months, then return to Vietnam to build a promising career. She doesn’t need any complications, least of all those created by Bree, her host-family’s secretive, troubled, teenage daughter. But when a dinosaur is being (very noisily) built in the bedroom next to yours, and a meteor-strike is threatening, it’s not always possible to avoid being sucked in – especially when there's an extinct animal in your own history. And one winter night in Karori, Bree's past resurfaces as well.
POCKET WIFE
IK Paterson-Harkness
CARL'S WORK REQUIRES him to travel extensively, but he and his wife Jenny stay connected through their Tinys – four-inch-tall replicas of themselves which, when turned on, transmit whatever sensory information they are receiving directly into their living counterparts' minds. Through his Tiny, which Jenny keeps close beside her in Auckland, Carl can see his wife, speak to her, even feel her touch. But when Jenny's Tiny malfunctions and she can't turn herself off, Carl has a major problem. He’s having an affair, and he'd rather his wife wasn't around.
LANDFALL
Tim Jones
DESPERATION AND BETRAYAL on the border of a new life.
When the New Zealand navy torpedoes a Bangladeshi river ferry full of refugees fleeing their drowning country off the Manukau Heads, Nasimul Rahman is one of the few survivors. But even if he can reach shore alive, he then has to make it past the trigger-happy Shore Patrol set up to keep the world's poor and desperate at bay.
Donna is a new recruit to the Shore Patrol. She's signed on mainly because of her friend Mere, but also because it's good to feel she's doing something for her country. When word comes through that the Navy has sunk a ship full of infiltrators, and survivors may be trying to make their way ashore, it sounds like she might finally see some action.
THE GHOST OF MATTER
Octavia Cade
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Text copyright © IK Paterson-Harkness 2015
First published 2015
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without the permission of the publisher. The author has asserted their moral rights. A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.
Cover illustration ‘Tiny’ © Irene Frizzera 2015
Cover design © Paper Road Press Ltd 2015.
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