John Parker
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Children As a fulltime freelance writer, author, and speaker since 1990, John Parker is able to write in, workshop on, or give talks about, the following:
Adult & Business As a fulltime freelance writer, author, and speaker since 1990, John Parker is able to work on the following:
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Kiwi writer John Parker uttered his first wail in Christchurch, in the beautiful South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand – but he now lives in Auckland's North Shore in the North Island in the top half of the country. His house sits alongside the 13th fairway of a golf-course, hence little white round things sometimes come through his windows, even when they're shut.
It's but a few hours' drive to Hokianga Harbour, where in 1837 his wide-eyed English-born forbears trundled their hopes and possessions from the SS Coromandel onto New Zealand soil.
One of the most versatile writers in the country, he took up full-time writing in 1990. Before that, after majoring in English and History from the University of Auckland, garnering music diplomas in composition, performance piano, and performance singing, he was at various times a piano teacher, schoolteacher, polytechnic tutor, professional opera and recital singer in Europe and New Zealand, concert and book reviewer, and a lecturer in English at the former Auckland College of Education. Other gainful occupations have included delivery-van driver, mailman, clothing-factory worker, poultry-farm labourer, TV actor, voice-over artist, and house painter.
John Parker has written almost 130 books for children for a number of publishers in Australasia and overseas. They range from picture-books to novels for teenagers to a 4-volume 130,000-word family history of the land of his birth: Frontier of Dreams, The Story of New Zealand. His work has appeared in 20 anthologies.
Over 70 of his poems, stories, plays, and articles have appeared in the School Journal and other publications from Learning Media; and Radio NZ, TVNZ, and BBC School Radio have also broadcast many of his children's stories and radio plays.
He has written and narrated two humorous series for Radio National: the 20-part Skiing with Father and the 15-part Use It or Lose It, about a middle-aged man's search for fitness.
Around 400 of his journalism articles – especially on travel, tramping, golf and skiing – have appeared in magazines, newspapers, and in-flight publications. He also writes and edits for a range of businesses and educational institutes.
When he's not peering into a computer screen or frowning over another draft on old-fashioned paper, John likes to read, play chess, tramp, ski, play golf, mountain-bike, sing and play the piano, boogie-board at a surf beach (provided the waves aren't too menacing), go to church (yes, really) and remove the weeds from his garden. As a 21st-century new age man, he not only puts the washing into the whiteware, but hangs it on the line and irons it as well.
John Parker's wife is a university educator. His artist and graphic designer son is married to a school psychologist; his veterinarian daughter is married to an environmental scientist; and there are three grand-children: Lily, Laura and Thomas. Mister, a British Blue cat of greatly advanced years, presides over the household.
It's but a few hours' drive to Hokianga Harbour, where in 1837 his wide-eyed English-born forbears trundled their hopes and possessions from the SS Coromandel onto New Zealand soil.
One of the most versatile writers in the country, he took up full-time writing in 1990. Before that, after majoring in English and History from the University of Auckland, garnering music diplomas in composition, performance piano, and performance singing, he was at various times a piano teacher, schoolteacher, polytechnic tutor, professional opera and recital singer in Europe and New Zealand, concert and book reviewer, and a lecturer in English at the former Auckland College of Education. Other gainful occupations have included delivery-van driver, mailman, clothing-factory worker, poultry-farm labourer, TV actor, voice-over artist, and house painter.
John Parker has written almost 130 books for children for a number of publishers in Australasia and overseas. They range from picture-books to novels for teenagers to a 4-volume 130,000-word family history of the land of his birth: Frontier of Dreams, The Story of New Zealand. His work has appeared in 20 anthologies.
Over 70 of his poems, stories, plays, and articles have appeared in the School Journal and other publications from Learning Media; and Radio NZ, TVNZ, and BBC School Radio have also broadcast many of his children's stories and radio plays.
He has written and narrated two humorous series for Radio National: the 20-part Skiing with Father and the 15-part Use It or Lose It, about a middle-aged man's search for fitness.
Around 400 of his journalism articles – especially on travel, tramping, golf and skiing – have appeared in magazines, newspapers, and in-flight publications. He also writes and edits for a range of businesses and educational institutes.
When he's not peering into a computer screen or frowning over another draft on old-fashioned paper, John likes to read, play chess, tramp, ski, play golf, mountain-bike, sing and play the piano, boogie-board at a surf beach (provided the waves aren't too menacing), go to church (yes, really) and remove the weeds from his garden. As a 21st-century new age man, he not only puts the washing into the whiteware, but hangs it on the line and irons it as well.
John Parker's wife is a university educator. His artist and graphic designer son is married to a school psychologist; his veterinarian daughter is married to an environmental scientist; and there are three grand-children: Lily, Laura and Thomas. Mister, a British Blue cat of greatly advanced years, presides over the household.
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I've learned that almost always my first words on paper or the screen only clear the section and maybe hammer in one or two pegs. I still need to build the house. So I keep on re-writing or re-drafting my house of words until it's as good as I can get it. Whether it's a mansion-novel or just a tiny cottage-poem, re-drafting will make for strong foundations, room flowing easily into room, and a view everyone can look at. Drafting is crafting. |
