Peter Stanley's Scribbling Corner

  Last week I had the privilege of flying to Wellington to attend the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) Conference. This year's theme was Standing Together , a simple phrase carrying a surprisingly powerful message in a world that is simultaneously becoming more diverse and more individualistic. Like any worthwhile adventure, the trip had its moments. One evening I headed out for dinner with my fellow ANZASW Board members. The venue had supposedly been confirmed as wheelchair accessible. On arrival, however, we discovered that "accessible" apparently meant "there are only one or two steps." The restaurant manager helpfully informed me that there was a side entrance I could use. The side entrance also had a step. Fortunately, a wooden cutting board appeared and was promptly repurposed into a makeshift ramp. Problem solved. I remember sitting there quietly amazed that someone genuinely thought one or two steps qualified as wheelchair frie...

Good morning from Dunedin, where Mother Nature appears to have glanced at the calendar, laughed, and carried on regardless.  Current conditions: 2°C (36°F) with snow in August. That's right, snow. In August. Visibility remains reasonable, though confidence in the seasons is deteriorating rapidly. Due to the surprise appearance of winter's winter, my wife's campus has officially decided that roads are optional and has moved classes online for the day. Students are advised to attend lectures from secure blanket fortifications with emergency supplies of coffee, tea, and snacks. In unrelated news, I have just submitted the second instalment in the Gene Bukowski Files, and the first draft of SARCOM Book 3 is officially complete. Coincidence? Probably. That said, with the current weather situation developing, one has to wonder: can Jack Crowley rescue us from the latest snow dump? Or will he be forced to battle the most relentless antagonist yet, a South Island winter armed with ...

  I've had a busy couple of weeks. In addition to wrapping up the second and third instalments in The Gene Bukowski Files , which I'm hoping will be a kicker and a thinker respectively, I've also started back at university as a tutor for both Social Work and Community Health. The first classes are now well underway, and my Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are going to be divided up with tutorials. That got me thinking. Yes, I know. Thinking is normally a dangerous pastime. The headaches afterwards often leave you wondering whether the whole exercise was worth it. But I digress. I started thinking about introductions. More specifically, how we introduce ourselves and why. For many of us, particularly those in the 40 to 60-plus bracket, introducing ourselves can seem relatively straightforward. We bring decades of experience, achievements, failures, lessons, and stories with us. We have careers, families, interests, passions, and identities that have had years, sometimes de...

 I've come to realise something important: I currently have three writing projects underway. The first is The Bukowski Files , featuring Asset Denied , which is already live. This is an espionage thriller series featuring a character who has been with me for a long time. I have plans for a six-novel series, with each instalment being a short novel. The second series, SARCOM, co-written with Michael Lavoice. The proof of concept for this series was a short story, also co-written with Michael, which appears in the Face the Storm anthology. You can find the anthology linked here , or by clicking on the cover to your right. The third project is Dragoon , which I first self-published before it was picked up by Three Ravens about two years ago. This is a military science fiction series that depicts a worldwide alien invasion from the perspective of the New Zealand Defence Forces' mech pilots. You can find the first book here, on the column to your right of the blog: I really enjoye...

I recently had a really interesting conversation with the editor and publisher at Defiant House—the team behind the scenes who turned Gene Bukowski’s adventure into the ebook you may have already heard about. We talked about the kinds of topics I could share on this blog, especially now that I’ve come to value my privacy more over the past couple of years. Truth be told, I think I’ll make it up as I go along. That conversation got me thinking, and I found myself revisiting some of my old blog posts—mainly because, well, I had some time on my hands and it was lunchtime. In doing so, I came across a real gem: my very first blog post, written back in 2012. Have a look . That year was a particularly interesting time in my life. The post reflects on a difficult period marked by self-doubt and unemployment after completing my Master’s in Social and Community Work. Despite having strong qualifications and sending out countless job applications, I couldn’t secure work. It led me to question my...

  I believe it’s been about a week since "Asset Denied," the first book in The Gene Bukowski Files, went live on Amazon. I thought it would be a good time to share where it all started and why. The first question you might be asking is, who is Gene Bukowski? He is a legacy character who has been with me for a very long time. My editor can confirm that they first encountered him twenty-five years ago as the main character in a story set on Mars, where he chased bad guys and drove buggies. In a way, Bukowski was a version of me—how I envisioned myself if I were not a wheelchair user, or more accurately, how I saw myself without the limitations of disability. You could say that Bukowski’s initial appearance was little more than a "Mary Sue" character; he represented me in a way. Over time, I evolved. I finished university, earned a master’s degree in social and community work, worked, fell in love, got married, lost my job, faced health challenges, secured another job...