Book Cover

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Shadow and light.

I captured this image while walking in the Pukenui Forest in Te Kamō. I’d been working hard on promoting ‘Julia Eichardt: A Life of Grit and Grace’ and needed a break. Setting out early one morning after dropping the dog off at the sitter, I entered the bush shortly after sunrise. As I wandered down this path, the sun cleared the canopy behind me.

My eye saw a silver tree ahead of me, but my camera caught this – golden light striking the trunk and my shadow, clutching walking poles, superimposed on it.

Shadow and light.

Writing a book is a similar process. I think I know what should come next, but what appears on the page is often quite different to my initial, limited idea. My intuition perceives something different, cleverer, than my tired old brain had mapped out.

The forest is my thinking place, my church, university, and art gallery. It is the place where my imagination is set free.

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Promo photo, sitting in the bush in Whangārei.

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Julia Eichardt

On August 1st 2025 my historical novel, ‘Julia Eichardt, A Life of Grit and Grace’ will be released by Flying Books.

I’ll share the cover as soon as I can. It’s beautiful.

Julia was born in Ireland and raised in Australia.

In her early twenties, she travelled to Queenstown, then the centre of a gold rush.

Starting at Bracken’s Queens Arms, a demolished shearing shed, she rose through the ranks from barmaid to manager. She married Albert Eichardt, and together they grew the modest hotel perched on the shore of Lake Wakatipu.

After Albert’s death, Julia continued to modernise and upgrade the hotel, making it the first in Queenstown to have electricity in every room.

Eichardt’s, now a five-star luxury hotel, retains some original features. It is Julia’s dream made real. Long may it continue.

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Mila and the Bone Man – available in all great bookstores

https://landfallreview.com/i-held-hands-with-the-frightened-the-newly-born-the-bereft-the-dying-and-the-sick/

Reviews are one of the frightening aspects of being an author.

Sometimes, reviewers just ‘don’t get’ the book they’ve been assigned.

Sometimes, they hate it. That doesn’t mean other readers will have the same response.

Sometimes, though, a book and a reviewer are in synch.

Thank you, for this lovely review.

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Celebrating Mila and the Bone Man.

Free refreshments, Q and A, and readings from Mila and a future work.

Mila and the Bone Man.

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Bird Man

The journal is available for purchase from Mayhem https://www.mayhemjournal.co.nz/shop/

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Tutukākā marina beach.

Here we are at the tiring end of the year. It’s summer solstice today in New Zealand. We’ve had sunshine, high humidity, a thunderstorm and torrential rain. At least it isn’t cold.
Mila and the Bone Man is out in the world and has had some lovely reviews. I am currently editing The Anatomists’ Handbook.

2023 will see the republishing of Bent Not Broken and the release of Songs to Sing to the Dying.

I am so grateful to my publisher Quentin Wilson, my editor Jane McKenzie and my amazing agent Vicki Marsdon of Highspot Literary Agency.
And grateful to you, my readers.

It’s been a busy and fulfilling year.

To refill my cup of stars, find my voice and order the words in my head, I need to connect with nature.
Every day Lucy and I walk for an hour – it buys me quiet time and gets her the exercise she needs to sleep quietly at my feet while I write.
It’s a win-win.
Christmas will be quiet – Graham, Bill the cat, Lucy the Bichon and me.

Sending love, peace and a sense of ‘enough’ to all of my readers.

Arohanui,

Lauren x

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Are you in Whangārei on October 20th?

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