John Irvine: I'm 77 years old, born and raised in Naenae, Lower Hutt, NZ. Married at 24, two kids. Left soon after and went to Auckland for 18 months, then headed for Oz in 1969 for a short working holiday. Stayed almost 29 years... did a lot of stuff there, from cooking in a bistro to selling cars, crewing offshore yachts and owning a 22,000-acre sheep and wheat property in South Australia's northwest. Lost that due to drought... walked off with my ute, guitar and dog. Then headed up to PNG for a short stint as manager of a jungle resort before returning to NZ in 1996. Back here I couldn't get a job because of my advanced years - I was 56. Tried a few things including professional house/pet sitting, then met my current wife on the Internet. She was an Englishwoman/writer living in Greece at the time, but I convinced her NZ was the place to be. I began writing seriously almost 20 years ago and have 1000s of poems and hundreds of short stories (mainly flash) in the bag, a 209 page fully illustrated collection of international speculative poetry called Anomalous Appetites, and an illustrated, personal horror and recipe anthology titled Blood Curry. These can be viewed at my website: www.cooldragon76.com and clicking on the link beneath the cover art. All my other books of 'normal' poetry can be seen (and purchased) there, as well as from my super publisher Roger Lang at: http: //langbookpublishing.com/
