After four years of hard work, Te Arawa/Tuwharetoa writer Whiti Hereaka has her first novel on sale.
The Graphologist's Apprentice, launched by Mrs Hereaka and Huia Publishers, is a novel about friendship through the art of handwriting.
It was released at Te Papa in Wellington, where New Zealand graphologist Mark Jones wasguest speaker.
Mrs Hereaka said she worked hard every day on the novel, which she started in 2006 and completed this year, as well as working on other projects which included writing screenplays and a part-time job as an administrator at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
"I would wake every day at 5.30am and work on the novel for a couple of hours before I went to my job and then research in the evenings," she said.
"I would only have the weekends off to recharge."
The passionate writer lives in Wellington, where she studied for a Bachelor of Arts and Law at the International Institute of Modern Letters.
Mrs Hereaka said her law studies had helped her to be more precise and disciplined in her writing and that she had received a good deal of positive feedback regarding The Graphologist's Apprentice.
She said writing was a huge part of her life and she considered it her career and full-time job.
"I think I'll be writing forever.
"I'm working on two projects at the moment - one which includes writing a screenplay for youth, but I hope to start another novel early next year," she said.
Mrs Hereaka has written a number of plays and short film scripts and won the E Tuhi Best Screenplay for a short film in 2005, and recently took out the title for Best play by a Maori Writer at the 2010 Adam New Zealand Play awards.
The novel is on sale for $35 and can be purchased online at manuscripts@huia.co.nz
