Coromandel Dreamin' - First Novel Publication

Coromandel Dreamin' is my first novel, following two non-fiction texts and two books of poetry I've published in the last five years.  

It's a story three years in the making but drawing on my memories of the Peninsula in the late 1970s when New Zealand was going through interesting growing pains - loosening of links with Great Britain, the oil crisis, and the emergence of a pervasive drug trade (which I saw happening among my peers and the community I grew up in at Mt Maunganui). For me, that decade marked a loss of innocence of sorts - both personally as I went from kid- to adulthood, and as a country.

Coromandel Dreamin' is a love story between a young itinerant builder/teacher/musician and the leader of a small settlement (not a hippy commune) who picks him up hitch-hiking in the rain. Things start well but take a sinister turn when the settlement is caught up in a spate of criminal activity.

The jumping-off point for the novel is an old English ballad Thomas the Rhymer made popular by UK folk-rockers Steeleye Span. Thomas was similarly hitching round when he was taken up by the Queen of Elfland and spirited away. There is an element of that fairy world in the story - linking with Maori lore around the patupaiarehe - fairy people of the mist - believed to inhabit parts of the Coromandel. But this isn't a fantasy work. My hope is the tale is sympathetic depiction of the time and place, reflecting a very beautiful and in parts mysterious place in Aotearoa - and weaving in a feel for the vibe - the music, the crafts, the pursuits like diving, and an emerging sense of environmental and alternative health matters.

Writing C Dreamin' was a real adventure - and a test - but has given me a hunger to write more. The funding I seek will cover the publication (including design and printing) of the novel and assist with the marketing which I plan to do in the Coromandel principally. I'd ordinarily fund it myself but the coffers are a bit bare with the arrival of melanoma and some costly meds so I'm hoping my friends and fans of fresh lit might support me to bring the story to our world.