Bubbly author has the dream job

Bright, bubbly and bursting with enthusiasm, celebrity author Kerre Woodham did not let a cold quell her visit to Masterton on Friday.
Woodham, who wrote the bestseller Short Fat Chick to Marathon Runner, which is now in its fourth reprint, was interrupted mid-cough with a bad cold for a phone interview with the Wairarapa Times-Age.
She headed the Books and Bubbles event in Paper Plus, though reckoned with Wairarapa having authors coming out of its ears lately including Maggie Hamilton's visit to talk about her book What's Happening to our Girls? and Daniel Vettori doing an instore signing tonight her visiting was not really necessary.
"You've got authors coming up the wahzoo. You don't need me."
She reckons it's a testament to the "cultural community" of Wairarapa.
But she hauled herself on a plane despite a bad head cold and the recommendations from her mother not to fly. At age 43, the exuberant personality considered she could make her own decisions.
It's the first time the author has visited the Masterton store to host the evening aside authors Joan Druett and Patrick O'Brian but it's not the first time she's visited the region.
In fact, more than 20 years ago, the author-come-Paper Plus book promoter-come marathon runner, did her first two-week work experience stint at the Times-Age logging in births, deaths and marriages.
Masterton Paper Plus owner Russell Carthew said the bubbly author does not lack enthusiasm for the job. "She's an avid reader and she loves reading so she reckons she's got the dream job promoting books, reviewing and reading them."
"I have," Ms Woodham concurs. Being the spokeswoman and book promoter for Paper Plus is a job that's taken her throughout New Zealand to smaller towns such as Feilding, Gisborne, Cromwell and Levin.
"If you love reading being told to read as many books as you possibly can and then when you've got an A-type personality and you're asked to give your opinion on them and then to fly around the country meeting cool people and meeting authors it's fantastic."
She can polish off three books a week, but even more when she's flying. "If I'm on a plane I can usually bang out most of a book on a plane trip in an hour and a half. I'm not a speed reader but I do read fast."
Her favourite books span a range of subjects. At the moment she's polishing off Joe Bennett's Where Underpants Come From, but can't wait to get her teeth into Brian Turner's new one, a celebration of being a New Zealand man.
"I'm a bit of a slut with my books. I fall in love with whatever."
The success of her books has her gobsmacked, with her memoir Short Fat Chick to Marathon Runner in the middle of its fourth reprint.
"I don't know what that's up to, about 15,000, 16,0000. Usually I think NZ books sell about five and they're quite happy. It's bizarre."
While completing the Taupo half-marathon last weekend, and polishing off too many red wines while watching the All Blacks the night before, she was stopped by many women, who sailed past her and credited her with their training stickability.
"All these New Zealand women say I'm only here because of you & There's no way I look like your average runner. Not even close."
Meanwhile, the event at Paper Plus was in hot demand, with the expectation for ticket sales exceeded by 40 people, Mr Carthew said. "We had an absolutely overwhelming response. It just staggered us. We thought we'd get about 80, but we ended up with about 120. We had to close the tickets down."
The Books and Bubbles promotion has been running monthly since about September last year and is mainly centred on more rural areas.
"It's good that the smaller areas are getting something, not just the cities that have all these events."
Half of the $10 ticket price is earmarked for the Cancer Society.