Fantasy becomes reality for dairy farmer Korie Massie

Korie Massey signs his book Berserker in his parent's shop, Derek's Electrical on Saturday November 18.

As a reader of fantasy fiction himself and having cut his teeth on Lord of the Rings Korie Massie, dairy farmer of Dannevirke, has always wanted to write one himself.

His short bio reads: "Forever day-dreaming he has been creating stories his entire life. From poetry to songs for his heavy metal band as a teenager, writing has been his lifelong passion".

Now his passion is a reality, having launched his first fantasy novel called Berserker printed by Xlibris in Dannevirke at his parents shop Derek's Electrical on Saturday November 18.

Hopefully my books will be a pathway to owning my own farm. It's a different way to do it from the normal process.

Korie Massie

For Korie just the satisfaction of having "my own book in my own library" is reward for all the hard work that goes into self-publishing. He said writing the book was the easy part — getting it published and marketed was far more demanding.

He has two more books in the Forsaken World series ready for printing. How the first book sells will determine if, or when, the other two get published.

Since leaving school Korie has been in the dairy industry as a contract milker, farm manager and share-milker. With ideas buzzing around in his head while he milked he took to carrying a notebook to record them.

Determined to see his dream come true he returned to contract milking to give himself more time to write.

"Hopefully my books will be a pathway to owning my own farm. It's a different way to do it from the normal process," he said.