Write Space Tauranga Writers http://taurangawriters.org.nz

Change: life's inevitable move, whether in our hearts, minds or locations, from one place to another.

Tauranga Writers is no different. New Zealand's longest running self-help group for writers is moving.

Tauranga Writers president Paul King.

'Two hundred years ago, if you wanted to listen to music, you went to a live concert,” Maketu-based writer Julian Fitter told me in a recent interview, 'And then someone invented the gramophone record, then the tape; now we have compact discs, DVDs and music downloads.”

Today, Tauranga Writers transitions from the traditional medium of print to that of the internet. Where we once discussed events only after they happened, we can now, through SunLive, proactively promote what's happening in the Bay's literary world through daily news articles and our new weekly column, Write Space, where you can view online contributions from our members.

This is our new universe, and the internet has given us the ability to boldly go where, well, many have gone before.

Technology has caught up with the writer. Behind us are the days of the hieroglyph, hand scrawled on papyrus, and the Imperial 66 dangling every g below the line. So too, the book is disappearing. It's possible to download 3000 books to your Kindle or iPad and carry them in your pocket to view at your leisure.

As Julian said, 'There's no use in fighting it. We need to use the technology and run with it.”

With ever decreasing publication costs and the convenience of the internet, any writer can inexpensively self-publish on demand – or online.

With these new challenges in mind, Tauranga Writers has been in recent discussions with the New Zealand Society of Authors to establish a new Region (the first that NZSA staff can remember for many years), with a branch based in Tauranga.

This can't have come at a better time. As we build our new relationship with SunLive, we're able to update the community – and the nation – with what's going on as it unfolds. With links to our website, www.taurangawriters.org.nz and many others, like the New Zealand Society of Authors www.authors.org.nz, you now have access to us and the news and events shaping our world, any day of the week – and at warp speed.

As Tauranga Writers' president, I welcome you to this, the first of our weekly blogs.

With Klingons falling away, we enter the Write Space, our new frontier.