STATUS: Still off having a lovely time on the South Island of New Zealand. Every vista is jaw-dropping and breathtaking beautiful. I can say this for Colorado as well but here it’s just different. More rugged, jagged and fierce—along the lines of what I remember when I visited Alaska. Back in the office and back to regular blogging starting on Aug. 30th.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? Not listening at the moment.
Thought my blog readers would get a kick out of this photo. Here is Brian and I right outside our hotel in Queenstown, New Zealand. [Wow. Even I think that’s a terrible sentence. My Bridget Jones moment! Have English degrees. Must remember to use them.]
This mountain range behind us is aptly named The Remarkables.
However, if you are a LOTR movie fan, you might recognize them as the mountains of Mordor.
Enjoy!
Looks heavenly–not at all Mordoresque!
Shouldn’t that be “Brian and me?” Sorry, grammar freak…
Awesome. Yes, the mountains of New Zealand really are much like those of Alaska. Now, if I can just build me a Hobbit Hole, I won’t need to visit N.Z. No, wait. I’ll visit anyway. We don’t have the Maori here.
😉
THAT’S the view from right outside of your hotel?! (Drops jaw.) That is simply amazing. Have a wonderful rest of your vacation!
WOWSER!
talia
Ah – I was going to say they look a lot like the Olympics in Washington State.
Lovely. And the fact that you’re wearing coats makes me pine for crisp weather! I’m so tired of sweat and humidity!
Glad you’re having fun…
pennyoz said…
Been there and loved it. I particularly remember how black the water is. Queenstown reminded me of Switzerland.
Must mean it was deep (?)
When you go into the snow country, it’s like a moonscape. You can imagine yourself there. If I were a screen scene hunter I’d shoot moon pictures up there.
New Zealand south island is so beautiful. I didn’t like Greytown though. It lives up to it’s name but it had a fascinating bridge. From memory, it was single lane, and shared by the train and cars. It was very unusual.
We were there in strawberry time because as we drove we stopped and bought lots of them from private sellers.
New Zealand is very different in topography to Australia. Have you been there (or rather here LOL)?
Another memory is how smelly the lava spots were. You don’t realise that in the pictures.
🙂
anonymous 5:12:
Nope, it shouldn’t. It should read, “Here are Brian and I,” actually. “Are” is a linking verb in this case, plural to match up with the compound subject, and connecting two subjects, not a subject and an object. Think of the classic (grammatically correct) telephone-answering example:
“Hello?”
“Hi, is this anonymous 5:12?”
“Yes, this is s/he.”
Cool! I didn’t realize the Remarkables were the mountains of Mordor–now I want to go ski there more than ever!
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
True story: when my manuscript was wanted by four agents, I had to choose. I instantly crossed off the ones that had grammar errors on their blogs.
That may be terrible, but it is true. They were all great and I had to choose somehow.
“Here is a photo of Brian and me” would also work just fine, by the way. Maybe that’s the construction you were remembering, anonymous 5:12?
When I choose an agent (should I ever be so fortunate), I will choose one who communicates as one human being to another. There’s a difference between formal and informal English, and we all break the rules when speaking informally. (Either that or we come off sounding like pedantic English teachers.)
Blogs are an emerging genre of writing, but in my opinion, it spoils the spontaneity to have to worry about critiques.
Kristin, thanks for being real.
Quit trolling, citizen jane. No one here is hammering Kristin for her grammatical error; we’re just talking about it, civilly. Next time I’ll do my best to defer to your pedantic prescriptivism.
It’s anon 9:12 again. Kristin was not one of the agents I rejected because of grammar errors. She wasn’t even on my list. It’s just that the grammar debate made me think of it. I apologize because it was sort of changing the subject. Sorry.
One agent I did reject, however, had a grammar error on her blog so bad that anyone whose first language was English should not have written it. It wasn’t a casual thing, it was ignorance and therefore I felt okay about crossing her off the list. Basic grammar matters because if an agent was going to offer line edits before sending to editors, I wanted her to know what she was talking about.
Again, not agent Kristin. Soooo not.
The picture is awesome and it looks like you are relaxing and enjoying yourselves.
Thanks for sharing it.
A fantasic shot! Oh, this looks like a great place to visit.
Hi Kristin-
I have enjoyed reading your blog for some time now. I’ve always been interested in what agents do and I love how you include bits from your own life in your blog. The pics from New Zealand have been awesome!
I’m a project consultant at a boutique publicity firm based in Austin, TX that has been doing literary PR since 1994. We work with a number of top U.S. publishers, including St. Martin’s Press, Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Tor and have built a great reputation within the industry. After debating the merits of having our own blog for the past six months, we have decided to launch one. You can view it at phenixpublicity.blogspot.com.
I would love to trade links, if you find our content worthwhile. (Or at least get your blessing to post your link on our blog.) Our blog features trend stories, recaps from industry events, “behind the booking” backgrounders to teach readers more about how we do our job as publicists and other timely information.
Warm regards,
-Katie
Although I’m happy you guys are having such a great time, it will be great to have you back. We’ve missied you. 🙂
I am envious of your being in NZ because growing up I collected books by Essie Summers, all of which were set there. If you see one in a used bookstore during your travels, pick it up and enjoy it for me! (if you find her autobiography, grab it as it is relatively rare). Even if her writing is not to your taste you would enjoy the descriptions.