Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival 2025: indie publishing panel (and more!)

‘A thorn between two roses’ is how Kate described us here – her words, not ours! – which I think captures the support, generosity, hilarity, and light-hearted ribbing of our indie publishing panel at the Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival earlier this month.

Indie publishing panellists posing for a photo — *Indie publishing panellists G. B. Ralph, Kate O’Keeffe, and James Russell*

Chaired by the wonderful Catherine Robertson, our panel featured USA Today bestselling romcom author Kate O’Keeffe, acclaimed children’s book author James Russell, and cosy mystery author G. B. Ralph (i.e. little ol’ me!) talking all things writing and publishing.

We discussed some of the opportunities and limitations of both independent and traditional publishing; finding common ground between writing what we love to write and publishing what readers love to read; how we spend our days; audiobooks and translations and adaptations; the things we wished we’d known before we started; and so much more!

Indie publishing panellists on stage — *Indie publishing panellists G. B. Ralph, Kate O’Keeffe, and James Russell on stage, panel chaired by Catherine Robertson (photo credit: HBRW)*

We had such a fun time on the panel and hope the audience enjoyed themselves too. I am so grateful to have been invited to be a part of the festival and glad I caught almost all of the sessions over the weekend – so many clever, talented, inspiring people all in one place!

Now, I’ve been meaning to collate my notes and photos while the festival is still fresh in my mind, and three weeks later I’ve finally got around to it. Let’s go back to the start…

Friday 10 October 2025

TV personality Alison Mau shared the couch with TV critic Diana Wichtel and chair Catherine Robertson for the Media Memoirs session – a brilliant chat where they discussed life in the public eye, the ick of writing about yourself, resilience, family, and dealing with criticism, amongst many other topics.

Three panellists on stage in front of an audience — *Media Memoirs panellists Alison Mau and Diana Wichtel on stage, panel chaired by Catherine Robertson*

Then I went out for dinner with the wonderful Jax Calder where we caught up on all things indie publishing, cosy mysteries, MM romance novellas, and all the rest. It was so nice and warm in Hastings that we ate outside, though we were too busy chatting and fending off the occasional bug diving into our wine to remember to grab a photo!

Saturday 11 October 2025

I started off my day by caffeinating ready for a stacked festival schedule!

Selfie with coffee — *An author smiling in anticipation of his first coffee of the day*

Roimata Smail chaired Pātaka Kai with Sam Gibson (Sam the Trap Man), Jessica Hutchings (Pātaka Kai: Growing Kai Sovereignty), and Gretta Carney (co-founder of Hapī). Such an interesting session on indigenous food sources, biodiversity, hunting, and kai sovereignty.

Three panellists and a chairperson on stage — *Pātaka Kai panellists Gretta Carney, Sam Gibson, and Jessica Hutchings on stage, panel chaired by Roimata Smail*

Louise Ward had Airana Ngarewa (The Last Living Cannibal) and Dominic Hoey (1985) up the front for a session called Dynamic Histories. They discussed their latest novels which take us back to 1940s Taranaki and 1980s Grey Lynn respectively. Such an interesting insight into our recent history!

Two panellists and a chairperson on stage — *Dynamic Histories panellists Airana Ngarewa and Dominic Hoey on stage, panel chaired by Louise Ward*

Hugh Bain (The Plough, the Chalice and the Sword) took a road trip through rural Hawke’s Bay with Simon Burt (Route 52) and Bill Mouat (Gold Under the Mānuka) discussing the small, isolated communities along the way as well as the history of Mangaorapa Station.

Cristina Sanders started her session with Ruth Shaw (Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World) before Jenny Pattrick (Sea Change) flew in on her delayed flight to much applause just a few minutes later. They shared fascinating tales of pirates, career changes, Russian oligarchs, natural disasters, husbands, and so much more. I could have listened for hours.

One of the dangers of attending a book festival is the number of books on my reading pile tends to leap up and so it was again this time. I was snapped by one of the festival photographers here lining up to get my new copies of Ruth and Jenny’s latest books signed.

G. B. Ralph smiling while holding two books up to the camera — *Lining up to get my copies of Ruth and Jenny’s books signed (photo credit: HBRW)*

After a full day of excellent sessions I caught up with the festival’s writers for wines and nibbles and then debriefed some more over a very late dinner of pizza and beer. Again, I was too busy chatting to think of snapping any photos – sorry!

Sunday 12 October 2025

I met up with some fellow writers for a delicious breakfast. Yet again we got carried away chatting so had to sneak into the first session of the day just as it was getting underway.

Dr Timoti Te Moke, author of The Unlikely Doctor, was in conversation with Airana Ngarewa, sharing his journey from a violent and fearful childhood through to finding a place in prison where he felt he belonged, before recognising his potential and studying to become a paramedic then a doctor. An eye-opening and hopeful session!

A panellist and chairperson on stage — *The Unlikely Doctor panellist Dr Timoti Te Moke, panel chaired by Airana Ngarewa*

Next up was another hard-hitting session, this one titled Healing and Recovery. Matt Heath (actor, broadcaster and author of A Life Less Punishing: 13 Ways To Love the Life You’ve Got) talked to Harry Averill (Hungry to Be Happy) and Sam Gibson (Sam the Trap Man) about tough topics, diving deep on mental health, accepting and offering support, and so much more in what was a generous, insightful, and inspiring conversation.

After that, I grabbed a quick lunch (and enjoyed yet more author catch ups!) before it was time for me to head to the couch for my own session – scroll back up to the top for that!