Congratulations to Andrew Stiggers, winner of our West Auckland writing competition. His short story ‘Morning Commute’ is a candid description of how we all sometimes feel negotiating our way through rush hours traffic heading to our day jobs.
The above prize pack consisting of publications from the Titirangi Poets, Waitakere Writers and Green Bay Writers has gone out to Andrew. Enjoy!
Right in the centre of the Godley Road block of shops sits the Green Bay Bookshop. Right by the bus stop, standing proud in green, although the battered sign has seen better days.
The building itself started out as a superette, before it was turned into a bookshop by Frances Cowan in the late 1960s. The store then sometimes also operated as a lending library.
In the late 1970s Peggy Higgins and her husband Len took over the shop and, over time, added all those little components that made it the cornucopia of needful things it is now: toys, greeting, cards, yarn, buttons, craft supplies … just to name a few. Between this shop and Hammer Hardware, there is nothing you cannot find in Green Bay, apart from clothing. I dare you.
Four and a half years ago, current owner, David Bannister, took on the shop. One of the chattels was Charlie, the resident cat, who preferred to stay in Green Bay, when his owners moved to Thames, and now divides his time between the various shops in the block and some residents’ homes.
While you won’t find the latest bestsellers at the Green Bay Book Shop, it specialises in the classics of adult and children’s fiction, but also accommodates seasonal and currents trends, reflected in the vast selection of adult colouring books now on offer. The shop might have the biggest selection and variety of magazines out West. Apart from the usual fare, you’ll find magazines on everything from Art and Photography over Writing to Automotive.
The shop also proudly supports local authors and people stop by for a chat or to pick up their regular magazine; a reflection of the village feel of this beautiful suburb.
Before David embarked on his adventure as a shop owner, he spent more than a decade working in IT. Looking for a change in pace, David, who grew up in Green Bay, found the perfect opportunity in this shop. And David does not do things by halves. Believe it or not, there is no computer to be found anywhere in the shop. Communication with the shop’s more than 100 suppliers is done using the good old phone. The only nod towards modern technology is a facebook page. Remotely operated, I assume.
Green Bay Bookshop is a much bigger shop miraculously fitted into a compact space. A Tardis of magazines, haberdashery and the classics. A multifaceted gem at the centre of Green Bay.
Come and visit.
Opening hours are 9 am – 6 pm Monday Friday and 9am – 1.30 pm Saturday.
We at Green Bay Creative Writers are currently working on a collection entitled ‘Living Out West’. We hope to have it out in print in early October.
We would like to invite the local writing community to contribute to this collection.
We are looking for poems and stories, fiction and non-fiction, losely on the topic of living out west.
Unfortunately, there will be no payment, as we are running this under our own steam. All rights will remain with the authors. But please keep in mind that those stories might then not be eligible for being entered in writing competitions anymore, as they are already deemed published elsewhere. All stories should be thoroughly proofread and spell-checked. The Editors reserve the right to pick the stories that fit our criteria.
Please send submissions to greenbaywriters@gmail.com. Any questions? Contact us by email, or post in the comments.
Deadline for contributions is August 20.
We are looking forward to your stories.
On Ngaio Marsh’s 120th birthday:
Ngaio Marsh would have been 120 today. This world renowned crime writer and theatre director was born Edith Ngaio Marsh in Fendalton on 23 April 1895. Her father, a clerk, built Marton Cottage at Cashmere in 1906. This was her home for the rest of her life, although she spent significant periods in England.
Ngaio Marsh photographed during the 1940s : “Ngaio in the spotlight” [194-], CCL PhotoCD 17, IMG0038
Today there is a lovely little Google image celebrating her. 
Many people know of Ngaio Marsh as the crime writer. But she also enriched the cultural life of Christchurch with her devotion to theatre production and mentored young people with dramatic aspirations. Ngaio made a huge contribution to the community, and it seems appropriate her name lives on –
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This book is available in selected bookstores nationwide.
Heart absolutely I can is one of three books in the 2014 Hoopla series. The other two are Cinema by Helen Rickerby and Bird Murder by Stefanie Lash. All three collections follow a certain theme. For Heart it is love, for the others film and crime respectively. Heart is comprised of poems published in earlier collections as well as new material.
Harlow’s background is in Jungian psychology and in this vein he dissects the tangled undergrowth of human relationships. The vanities, longing, and secret desires of the subjects are exposed with a surprising frankness.
The harrowing disembodiment of a married couple in ‘The Identikit’ has something of an experimental horror movie, while the brevity of the lines in ‘In which’ suggests a hunted breathlessness of a conflicted mind.
In ‘Today is the piano’s birthday’ a family’s interconnectedness centers around said instrument. The piano…
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These are some of the haiku I wrote for Green Bay Writers‘ Challenge, which was to write a haiku everyday. I’d never written a haiku before, and only dabbled in poetry, so it was a creative challenge that stretched me out fantastically.
Forgotten future,
Built on possibilites –
Why did you leave me?
Hold me. Embrace me.
Let me close my eyes, and
pretend I am loved.
Bang! Crash! Slam, slam, slam!
“What’s wrong with you?” – everything /
nothing / I don’t know.
I beg you tell me,
Whose face do you show the world?
For it is not yours.
Are you friends with both
soaring hope and dark, cold fear?
Or, has love left you?
From silence is born
words of Truth from the devil.
The angels take note.
greenbaywriters 