The Write Space Literary news, views and reviews http://taurangawriters.org.nz

You know, it takes a lot of effort to write a book. Books for young adults can run to 45,000 words, and the average novel totals 75,000. How to do it? Stephen King recommends Bum Glue!

Some would-be writers quail at the prospect, or opt for children's books as an easier option. Or poetry, because it's easy as.

This week's piece by Jenny Argante.

Sorry to disillusion you! Children are the most difficult readers to please, and it's mostly adults who buy their books. And real poetry is the most difficult writing there is. Poetry is distillation: and we all know malt whisky takes longer to procure than moonshine.

March is New Zealand Book Month and a celebration of Kiwi writers and poets. It's right to honour them – ours is one of the hardest markets in the world to crack. So any book event is extra-special.

On March 4, we started Book Month proper in Tauranga with the launch of Owen Bullock's fine new collection of poetry, ‘Sometimes the Sky isn't Big Enough' (Steele Roberts, $20). Our venue was a jam-packed Creative Tauranga in Willow Street, where between the chatter – writers are a noisy bunch – Graeme Tuffery played mellow guitar.

Alistair Paterson was there – the grand old man of New Zealand poetry!

Paterson edits Poetry New Zealand and has mentored a plethora of emerging poets over the decades. He described Owen as ‘a poet of craft and distinction'.

Ex-Tauranga artist-poets Jan FitzGerald and Leonard Lambert came up from Napier specially to congratulate an old mate. To Leonard fell the pleasant task of inviting Owen to read his poems.

Some of us write poetry. Some of us are poets. Owen definitely falls into the latter category, and with his wide-ranging themes and formats, there's bound to be enough in sometimes the sky isn't big enough to please any reader. And it's always intriguing to hear the poet's own voice.

If you missed it, never mind. Our second book launch is tonight – Friday, March 18 at Creative Tauranga, 5-7pm. Ian Clarke presents his debut novel, A Very Fishy Business (2011, National Pacific Press.) This is a murder mystery set in the Coromandel, with a splash of the salty brine and a dash of romance.

And you can meet three authors tomorrow at ArtFair, 2011, on the Tauranga Writers stall, Ian Clarke, fiction; and Joycelle on ‘How to talk to the dead'. In B.A. Reader, there's storytelling from renowned tangata moemoea, Tommy Kapai Wilson – 11am, 1pm and 3pm.