Geraldine OliverI grew up in Tairawhiti/Gisborne, where Captain James Cook first came ashore in New Zealand and where, a hundred and forty years ago, with a fine disregard for history, the Marine Department dynamited Te Toka-a-Taiau, the rock he stepped onto. Naturaly I couldn't wait to leave and spent a lifetime missing the sunshine and the sound of the Pacific rolling in from Chile. I have an enduring love of small towns and a hatred of travel because leaving Gisborne involves hours of travelling on steep winding roads in every direction. Thanks to ill health, I finished reading the children's section of the public library by the age of nine and badgered my mother to borrow adult books on my behalf thereafter. University was pretty straight-forward (I'd already read all the books), but I really learned to write by working in advertising where clients not only pay by the word, they measure its marketing power. Once, people wrote to the NZ Herald from all over the country pointing out I'd misspelled 'kaleidoscopic'. I was flattered so many read an ad selling a subdivision on Lake Taupo they had no intention of buying. These days I write for fun whenever I'm not needed in the shearing shed or mustering heifers. Read More Read Less