What's on with Creative Northland

Bianca Claudia Staines

ENTERTAINMENT

•Hangar Gallery is re-opening! Go along to check out the new space at 14 Cross St in Regent on Friday

•Tempist Fujit Single release tour this Saturday at Ruakaka Tavern

WORKSHOPS

•Weekly Art Classes for Beginners @ Reyburn Art Studio

•Weekly theatre sessions on at Northland Youth Theatre check the link for more details

•Inky Fingers Printmaking Group @ Te Kowhai Print Trust every Wednesday

•Experimental Drawing through Lithography workshop with Alexis Neal at Te Kowhai Print Trust this Friday

•Art Incubator - Whakatupu Ake is back for two workshops, following the success of last year's programme at Kings Theatre Creative on July 30th & 10 September

EXHIBITIONS

•Whangarei Art Museum exhibitions: Young Country, M. Francis McCarthy: Landscapes of Memory & Not Now Apocalypse Jo Hardy Restrospective untitled exhibition @ Village Arts Gallery on until September

•'Another Bad' Painting Exhibition at Kaan Zamaan

•Floribunda at the Megan Dikinson Gallery

•Anne Hui Matariki exhibition @ The Quest Art Space (Cnr of Bank & Cameron in the walkway to Farmers)

•Turned and Burned - Justin Murfitt exhibition at Reyburn House Art Gallery

•From the Archives III: Cash and Carry Show at The Quarry Arts Centre's Yvonne Rust Gallery starting this Friday with an opening night on tomorrow at 5.15pm

•The Whangarei Film Society inc are showing weekly film screenings between March & November.

THE TALE OF PRINCE - GIVEAWAY

Bianca Claudia Staines is an Anglo-Italian writer based in New Zealand. Since a very young age, her heart revolved around writing and wildlife. Having built strong didactic foundations on Classical Studies and Literature, she later became involved in animal care and worked for the safeguard of endangered tortoises in Tuscany. She moved from Italy in 2009 and studied Ecology and Animal Behaviour at the University of Auckland. After a few semesters of pure science, she started sneaking into creative writing classes at every given opportunity. Her deep passion for writing eventually led her to actively pursue a career as an author, her stories usually revolving around animals and pets. Bianca's latest project is a children's series named The Taleweavers' Adventures. Her first book, The Tale of Prince, recently won Second place in the 'Animal/Pets' Ebook category of the Purple Dragonfly Children's Book Awards (2017). At present the author is working on the book's two sequels.

Read the excerpt below and answer the question to win a copy of 'The Tale of Prince'

It's a dog's life but Prince couldn't have asked for a better one.

An unblemished pedigree, a loving family, weekly grooming and a bowl always full of delicious Auntie Cher's Amazing Biscuits. What more could a posh pooch want?

That is until she arrives. When a stray she-dog comes trudging through his territory, chewing his toys and stealing his beloved Humans' hearts, his perfect life turns to mush! Prince wants it all back, just the way it was. Yet, despite all his efforts to make her life miserable, getting rid of the despicable Bennie seems harder than getting cat pee out of the carpet...

Prince's autistic master, the silent Timmy, is developing feelings for this creature and even the Council of Pets find her likeable! Things couldn't get any worse... until a pet is found dead in Prince's swimming pool.

As if being accused of murder isn't enough, soon Bennie disappears without a trace. Now the HARASS team, the Council's secret service, is on Prince's tail.

On a quest to regain his reputation, Prince sets off to find Bennie. His only clue on her whereabouts a faint trail of dog cologne and the memory of a strange scent: a smell sour and sweet like dying flowers and rot, the smell of fear...

With the help of Fiddles, a feisty mongrel, and Lancaster, a sly feline-outlaw, Prince embarks on an adventure which will cast him into the strange world outside Bendall Road. A world of usurped kingdoms, laughing demons and fighting dogs until his journey to find Bennie will lead him to confront his most terrible foe yet and, on the way, find the wolf that lives inside every dog...

What is the name of the Council of Pets' secret service? Send your answer to abbey@creativenorthland.com by midnight on Tuesday 8 August to win - the first answers in, win.