CanterburyWriters: Hi Soraya, Thank you so much for agreeing to talk with us. There are so many questions that one might think of to ask you about your writing and your writing career so far, but why don't we focus on the questions that shows that you're exactly like every other writer out there.

When did you first start writing?

Soraya: To be honest, I’ve always been writing. I recently found old exercise books from when I was maybe 10 yrs old, full of scribbled stories, and then an old folder full of very dark poetry and partial chapters from when I was in high school. But I started to write seriously when I was about 19yrs old, in my final year of studying law. It took me two years to write that first manuscript (historical romance, circa 100k words) and after that I was hooked on writing romance.

Local author Michelle Vernal grew up in Auckland. These days though, she lives in the Christchurch and has to date written eleven novels. When she’s not writing, she spends an awful lot of time daydreaming about exotic locations she wants to visit with her family.

We asked her about her writing journey.

CANTERBURYWRITERS: Hi Michelle. Why did you start writing?

MV: I’ve always written and I can’t imagine not using writing as a way of expressing myself. I wrote short stories when I was at primary school, kept journals and wrote angst ridden poetry in my teens. When I reached my twenties, I kept travel journals and was a prolific letter writer when I lived overseas (before e-mail). In my thirties when my first son was born, I did a part time creative writing course at Canterbury University. From there I began to write opinion style articles for parenting magazines and I got paid! Then when my second son was born, I wrote my first novel. That was back in 2006.

CANTERBURYWRITERS: What does your normal writing schedule look like?

MV: I am fortunate in that I write full time. I take my boys to school of a morning and when I get home, I go over the last couple of pages I wrote the day before on my WIP and that acts as a warm up to moving the story forward.

We talked to Kiwi author Alexa Rivers about her writing journey. Here, she offers some insights into her writing habits and offers advice for aspiring authors.

CANTERBURYWRITERS: Hi Alexa, can we ask why you started writing?

AR: I’ve always written. My parents still have a copy of a story I wrote about my cat when I first started school, which I drew a cover for and bound with a folded piece of A3 paper. I’ve just always had stories and characters in my head and wanted to share them.

CANTERBURYWRITERS: So, what does your normal writing schedule look like?

AR: These days I’m far more consistent and organised than I used to be. I write first thing in the morning every day, then edit a different manuscript in the evening. I can happily edit more than one thing at a time, but I can only ever have one writing project on the go. Rewind a couple of years and I’d binge write an entire story in a month, then not write again for six months or a year.