Tag: talks

VJ Cooks is coming to the City Library!

Vanya Insull lives in Taupō, New Zealand. She is a passionate foodie who loves cooking, baking, sharing recipes and of course – eating! In November 2016, Vanya founded the VJ cooks Facebook page which quickly amassed a large following. From there, Vanya set up her own website VJcooks.com which now has over 500 recipes (and counting!) with average daily views of over 25,000 from visitors across the globe.

On Friday May 24, Vanya will be conversing with the City Library’s own resident cooking enthusiast Alex Johnston.

We’re thrilled to have Vanya be our second participant in the soon-to-be-huge Questions & Authors series. Here are her Qs and As:

Q. What’s your favourite book right now?

A. I just read The Women by Kristen Hannah. It was so good, 5 stars from me.

Q. And what about when you were a child?

A. I love Alison Holst’s cookbooks. 

Q. What’s your earliest writing memory?

A. I don’t really consider myself a writer, but I started writing recipes down in a notebook about 7 years ago. 

Q. Do you have a favourite font for writing in? And revising? (Or do you write by hand?)

A. I just scribble the recipes by hand then type them up for my website or cookbook later on. 

Q. Top tip(s) for aspiring authors?

A. Content is king when it comes to sharing recipes so just keep sharing them on social media. 

Q. If you had the opportunity to travel to any country in the world to research food and drink, where would you go and why?

A. I would love to go to Thailand and do some cooking classes there, I love Thai food. 

Q. What is your favourite back-pocket recipe for an instant dinner?

A. What’s in the fridge pasta. I can make a tasty meal with just a few ingredients.

Q. Who would your dream dinner guest be and what would you cook them?

A. I would love to cook for my late grandparents and show them my success and how far I had come from being a plain and picky eater when I was a kid. 

Q. What is your most treasured food memory?

A. The cooking class I did when I was in Greece last year was very special. 

Q. Who are your food heroes/greatest influences and why?

A. I love to follow what other cooks create on Instagram. My faves are Gaby Dalkin, Donal Skehan and Half Baked Harvest. 

Q. What are the ingredients and flavours you could not live without?

A. My favourite flavour combos are: Garlic and Rosemary. Raspberries and Chocolate. Pasta and cream haha. 

Miriam Sharland’s eco-memoir Heart Stood Still launches at Central Library on May 9 at 6pm.

Heart Stood Still is a record of Sharland’s journey towards finding healing in the world’s natural beauty, a beauty that we must fight to protect in the current climate crisis. It is both a memoir and a lyrical portrait of Manawatū.

Miriam Sharland is a writer and editor focusing on creative non-fiction, travel, biography/memoir and natural history. Based in England and Aotearoa New Zealand, her essays, reviews and features have appeared in numerous books, journals, magazines and newspapers, and online. Heart Stood Still is her first book.

Thanks to Miriam for being the first author to submit to our “Questions & Authors” segment! Here are her answers to some burning questions:

Q. What’s your favourite book right now? And what about when you were a child?

A. My favourite book is Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways. It’s a lovely combination of nature writing and travelogue that explores the connection between landscape and the heart. I especially like the sections about the English South Downs, close to where I come from, and Macfarlane’s exploration of the life of Edward Thomas, poet and WW1 soldier. Last year I followed the footsteps of my WW2 airman uncle around England and this book was influential on my writing that story.

As a child I loved Alice in Wonderland, and still do. We had a vinyl recording of it that we used to listen to as a family in the living room of my childhood home. Alice always takes me back to my childhood.

Q. What’s your earliest writing memory? Either something you wrote, or when you met an established author, etc.

A. My earliest writing memory is writing stories in English class at junior school in England. Specifically, feeling disappointed for getting a lower grade when I attempted to write comedy. I learnt my lesson, I think!

Q. Do you have a favourite font for writing in? And revising? (Or do you write by hand?)

A. I like Calibri – it’s nice and clean. I do sometimes scribble in a notebook but I find a keyboard a lot easier.

Q. Top tip(s) for aspiring authors?

A. I didn’t really start writing properly until I did my Master of Creative Writing at Massey. I learnt that writing is a craft that has to be worked at. I also had deadlines which were great because I tend to procrastinate. And, persevere – the first publisher I sent Heart Stood Still to turned it down.

Q. Heart Stood Still follows the seasons, do you have a favourite season?

A. I like all the seasons but my favourites are spring in Aotearoa, and summer in England.

Q. As a cyclist what is your destination of choice?

A. Girona – I visited last year for the first time and fell in love with it. Smooth wide roads, courteous drivers, masses of cyclists, beautiful scenery, fabulous history, great bike shops. It’s home to a lot of professional cyclists and is cycling heaven.

I also love Copenhagen. 98% of locals get around by bike – and the pastries are to die for.

Q. During Covid you explored places you had never been to or seen properly. What were some of the highlights?

A. Discovering fungi foraging sites was exciting! I became obsessed with mushrooms. The calming effect of sitting in a little bamboo grove by the Turitea Stream was another.