Sound Salad
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For our 7th installment I got to share the mic with a woman I admire hugely, she’s a powerhouse of productivity, and she’s always got time for sending the elevator down to help other writers at all levels of their creative journeys. She is many things; public speaker, workshop facilitator, she happens to be the genius behind the Writing Room, and is primarily a screenwriter. Her credits include Fresh Eggs, The Tender Trap, Under the Vines, My Life is Murder and the Cul de Sac - to name a few.
She always wrote as a child, and went to journalism school to pursue it professionally. Figuring out pretty quickly that she preferred creative writing to current affairs, she ended up in television as a way of making a living as a writer in our wee country. She also writes short stories and theatre - the first play she wrote was based on an argument she had with Nick Ward about the fact that they had no writing work coming their way - and is a board member for The Writer’s Guild. She began the Writing Room; a monthly session where writers from all different styles and backgrounds can come together to simply write in the presence of other writers. When she began there was nothing like this, no standard cafe or environment where all writers went to get the satisfaction and motivation from tapping keyboards. Kathryn genuinely cares about the way writers and the arts are perceived here, which is why she doesn’t mind doing behind the scenes work in advocacy with the Guild, being our lobbying voice for funding and conversations with government. The Guild also provides professional, legal and contract advice to writers. Kathryn has had oodles of experience in entertainment, and speaks about the collaborative nature of the television and theatre industries, versus the often isolating role of novelist or memoirist. There are a lot of boxes to tick and processes to fulfil when you’re working in a large team to tell a story, but she firmly believes that the art phase, or the very early stages of developing an idea and draft, is all you - no matter what medium you’re working in. From there, theatre peeps do live, often staged readings to develop their scripts. In TV someone is always going to have to sign drafts off, give notes etc, but you know it’s finished when you feel you’ve done your absolute best - and you wouldn’t be embarrassed to show it to anyone. At the time of our interview, she was tackling a few tweaks on her play ‘The Campervan’ which was, at that point, set for its debut at the Pumphouse Theatre with Tadpole Productions. Alas, the dreaded Rona has turned up again to foil those plans, but the show will go on! Eventually. (Links to ticketing info below.) She is continuing to develop a screenplay script that’s been a number of years in the making, and she has just completed a huuuge literary event called WriteFest, where she brought together multiple tutors for concentrated masterclasses and workshops for authors. Her advice for young or emerging writers is;
Sign up for her workshops: www.beginnersguidewritingworkshops.com Check out Kathryn’s website, where you can also sign up for the newsletter: https://www.kathryn-burnett.com/ Follow her on socials: Facebook @KathrynBurnett https://www.facebook.com/kathryn.burnett.77 Instagram @kathrynisawriter And for tickets and further info about when to expect ‘The Campervan’ https://pumphouse.co.nz/whats-on/show/the-campervan/ Sign Up Today at Audiobooks NZ and get your first Audiobook for free on a 14 day trial. 
"We’ve got a lot yet to tell, and see, and watch and listen to in this country. There’s such a lot more to tell." Martin Crump is a writer, broadcaster and MC, and (among many other things) one of Barry’s Boys. His feature book, In Search of the Great Kiwi Yarn (2007), is a collection of thematically linked Kiwi stories that he claims he never even knew he could write, least of all deliver. But with his literary lineage it was a shoo-in, and there were plenty of other projects that followed. Martin has been instrumental in the publication of his father’s series for children, Professor Pingwit and the Pungapeople (2009), the origin of which was a white lie about some red shoes being stolen from a driveway. He's no stranger to speaking about his father; it really does seem impossible to discuss Marty’s literary career without making mention of the notorious Barry Crump. Indeed it seems that Barry’s way of developing stories from skerricks of real life, making magic out of the mundane, and flying away on imaginary tangents, was the exact formula to continue the legacy of publishing within the family. Whether it’s a duckling emerging from a hot water cupboard, or a trip to the zoo, Martin finds the unusual and exciting to bring life to, for adults and children. Self confessedly growing up in the ‘Communist Headquarters’ in New Lynn with his mother and brothers, he’s had educated and eccentric people around him his whole life, something that no doubt informs his prolific ability to keep writing and forging new pathways for the family’s archive of work. He’s well keen on audiobooks, having narrated most of his fathers’ titles for AudiobooksNZ - even though he can’t stand hearing his own voice. That may be the case, but the rest of the nation grew a strong affinity with him as a ‘voice in the night,’ as he provided a kind of kinship for those operating, working, or just being up in the wee small hours. The same audience his father seemed drawn to, with The Overnight People and The Bush Telegraph being publications to cater for people who were late nighters. Coupled with the dulcet timbre required of the host, it’s no surprise that Newstalk ZB placed him in the role, nor that he worked as a host for Radio Pacific and Radio Live as well. He believes it’s important to record and capture stories before they’re lost. His other advice for upcoming writers is;
We wish him all the best with the pipelined Puha Rd film, set to follow up the Wild Pork and Watercress cinema adaptation; ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ directed by Taika Waititi. Crump is available to visit schools as part of the Writers in Schools Programme. For this, all other enquiries, and to stay up to date with the family, you can contact them via barrycrump.com. Sign Up Today at Audiobooks NZ and get your first Audiobook for free on a 14 day trial. |
Romy HooperRomy Hooper, Audiobook Narrator, Actor, Writer and Podcast Host Archives
November 2023
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