After just three months, the New Zealand Book Forum has signed up its 100th member (welcome, Amy!) and is heading for over 650 posts.

Along the way we’ve had some pretty intense discussions, with nearly 90 posts on the subject of writing courses alone - and 50 on the subject of the 'The Six Pack’. That one was viewed over 3,000 times, reflecting the huge interest in the initiative.

We've also broached another milestone: just after opening the doors of our advertising department, VUP has become our first bona fide advertiser. Thanks to Heather in Wellington for your support, and we’re especially pleased that the first ad is for LeafSalon favourite Nigel Cox’s The Cowboy Dog.

Incidentally, TCD is one of NZ Book Month’s Christmas New Releases too – you can see the other 25 here. And if none of those whet your whistle, don’t forget there’s always Vantastic!

So - if you haven’t checked in lately, head over to the Forum here to catch the latest, unexpurgated literary gossip.

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At long last, LeafSalon has a forum - the first forum of its type for New Zealand book matters.

Anyone can head over and read the discussions, but to start or join in, you'll need to register.

This is free, quick and simple - you'll need to submit your real email address to register, but you can hide it from other users of the forum if you wish.

Once you've registered, you're free to air your views. If you get stuck, check out the 'News and Announcements' section, and if that doesn't help, send us an email.

We're also open to feedback and suggestions, so drop us a line if you think the forum can be improved in any way. It's not only a first for the NZ literary scene, it's also a first for us on the technical front!

So go ahead and give it a try. It'll need a few kickstarts, but once people starting posting, it should take on a life of its own.

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This week, we’re loading up the LeafSalon jalopy and driving northwards, first to Tutukaka and then to Cooper’s Beach in Doubtless Bay.

We’ll be hanging out with family and friends, listening to Breaks Co-op and Boards of Canada, and sipping cheapo chilled Pinot Gris bought in bulk from Blackmarket.

So there won’t be much going on with LeafSalon, although we’ll post the odd update if we can find convenient internet cafés. If you’re interested, the holiday reading list comprises:

• How To Read A Book by Kelly Ana Morey

• How to Look at a Painting by Justin Paton

• Tree of Threads and Metal by Terence Hodgson

• Café Wars by Barbara Strathdee

• Pohutukawa and Rata - New Zealand's Iron-hearted Trees by Philip Simpson

• Parihaka - The art of passive resistance by Te Miringa Hohaia, Gregory O’Brien & Lara Strongman

Having said that, with a total of twelve children in attendance at various stages, it’s not looking good for quiet, sustained reading sessions. So we'll also be packing a couple of slim but enticing-looking poetry collections from VUP, for the odd dip when time permits:

• Beauty Sleep by Kate Camp

• The Violinist In Spring by Anna Smaill

We’ll be in touch – but don’t hold your breath. Thanks for all your emails (you know who you are), your wonderful comments, and your votes for us in the NetGuide Awards.

Have a great break, and all the best for 2006.

Kathy Well - that goes for me too. It's been fantastic working on LeafSalon this year, from doing my first occasional postings, to writing almost full time. Having the opportunity to read and find out so much about NZ writing and writers, and meeting some of the best in the country at the annual Going West festival have been highlights of my year. I'd just like to say it's been absolutely brilliant, especially your feedback – some of those ongoing comment discussions just kill me. Thanks for reading us, big ups to NZ Lit, and most of all – Happy New Year!

PS If you're scouting for good holiday reading material, Vantastic is just $29.95 at The Warehouse and PaperPlus. [Wink.]

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I'm sure we've all had enough of elections this year, but if you have a moment to spare, you can help LeafSalon by voting for us in the NetGuide Web Awards.

The link is here, and you'll be asked for your name and email address.

That'll take you to a second page, and you'll see the space for 'Best Blog'. Just put in www.leafsalon.co.nz and you're done!

You can also vote for your other favourite sites, but if time's short, you can just do the one vote.

Thanks, as they say, in advance.

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Today is a big day for LeafSalon. Normally we talk about other folks’ books, but today, we’ve got one of our own.

It’s called Vantastic, it's published by HarperCollins, and it’s in the shops now, just in time for Christmas. As you might have guessed from the cover, it’s about caravan culture in New Zealand - and we've managed to get our mitts on never-before-published photographs, interviews and memorabilia.

We've tried to capture the wonderful feeling of freedom and security unique to the 'home on wheels' - at that time when Kiwis were in love with their Lightweights and Oxfords and Anglos and Zephyrs.

Designers Neil Pardington and Spence Levine of Wellington's Base Two design agency have done a wonderful job in capturing the atmosphere of caravanning. So we're hoping that Vantastic will stir the memories of anyone who has ever hitched up a van to the back of the car, or smelt sausages cooking in the warm air of a beach campsite. And with those campsites on expensive coastal real estate rapidly becoming an endangered species, it is a timely reminder of a way of life that is disappearing fast.

Why caravans? Here’s the introduction that explains it all:

A couple of summers ago, I visited a friend who was renting a house at Muriwai beach, on the coast to the west of Auckland. As I gingerly hacked my way around the overgrown back garden, a cold beer in my hand, I came across a caravan.

It was not a pretty sight: it had been used as a sleep-out and an office, and the bodywork was pocked with rust and dents. Three decades of wind, rain and dust had masked the shine of the painted white aluminium. The tyres were cracked and deflated, bleached after years in the sun. Still, the caravan had charm. The door creaked as I pulled it open, and a hot, musty smell came from inside. I sat down on the threadbare cushions, and then it all came back.

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We're upgrading the software that LeafSalon runs on. And given the nature of such endeavours, there's a chance that things may look a little weird for the next day or two.

If you notice anything going wrong or not working as it should do, please send an email to .

UPDATE: So far, reasonably good. The upgrade is done and the site is working, but some elements, such as the Search results page, are a bit messy. We're working on it.

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Apologies to those of you who noticed strange layout errors on LeafSalon today. Our usually reliable web host reported a 'network performance problem with our upstream provider', a problem which was out of their control.

We were also in the middle of updating our Real Groovy search box (in the column on the right) to accommodate changes on Real Groovy's web site, so confusion briefly reigned.

Everything should be back to normal now. (Fingers crossed.)

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We’ve just returned from a few days relaxing at the wonderful Whatipu Lodge, surrounded by windswept sand dunes, wetlands and wildlife.

So now’s the time to thank all our readers for supporting us during 2004. We read and appreciate all your emails, and are especially grateful to those of you who take the time to add comments to the site.

We’ll be posting more frequently when things pick up again in the New Zealand book scene, but for now, here’s wishing you all a Happy New Year.

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Apologies for the delays in updating LeafSalon recently: we've had persistent problems with our JetStream connection.

Our internet service has twice died without warning over the past few days. Emails and phone calls to Telecom brought little sympathy, and suggestions that it was something wrong at 'our end'.

That's despite neighbours suffering identical problems with their own JetStream. And to compound matters, we were unequivocally told that JetStream is not a 'guaranteed' service.

Unfortunately, JetStream is the only broadband connection available in our neck of the woods. If you're contemplating getting broadband, we suggest you check to see if Woosh is available in your area first, before choosing Telecom's Xtra.

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It looks like LeafSalon is a quite a hit with New Zealand net surfers who also like books.

We've just been told that from July to September 2004, we were ranked #4 in the Hitwise New Zealand 'Entertainment - Books and Writing' industry, based on the number of visits to this site. Blimey, eh!

This is the first time that LeafSalon has been logged by Hitwise, so goodness gracious, we're very chuffed. Not least because the ranking only relates to New Zealand based visitors visiting New Zealand sites - and doesn't include what appears to be quite a large number of overseas readers!

So thank you very much for visiting. But New Zealand literature is after all, worth it…

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Amidst the tumult of everyday life, child-minding, regular jobs, book deadlines and web writing, we forgot something.

LeafSalon is a year old this month. The first entry was on 02 September 2003, about the Waihi Summer Festival Short Story Competition. It probably had no readers but today, we have over 18,000 page visits a month - and rising.

So we'd like to say thanks to each and every one of you for visiting, sending the encouraging emails and posting comments.

We plan on being around for a while, so stay with us for the ride.

—Chris, Kathy and Dee, without whom LeafSalon would not be

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Regular readers of LeafSalon will have noticed two discreet improvements to the site recently.

• You can now add your own comments to the articles. Just click the ‘Have your say’ link at the bottom of an article. You’ll be taken to a mini-page that allows you to post your own opinion on the site. Feel free to use it – people are always curious to know what others think.

• You can also send links to articles to your friends or colleagues. Click ‘Send to a friend’ and you’ll be taken to a page showing the article in full. Scroll down to the bottom of the article, and you’ll find a box where you can enter your friend’s email address.

These new features should help readers, writers and publishers to communicate quickly and easily. Go on: give it a try!

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After just over six months of active operation, LeafSalon is running at over 12,000 page views a month - and climbing. As well as avid New Zealand book fans, we’re getting visitors from as far afield as Finland, Mexico and the Seychelles. And our readership is increasing by a very healthy 20 per cent a month.

Last November, Peter Wells wrote in the Herald:

… for most New Zealanders, the New Zealand novel is still an uninspected motel, somewhat guiltily driven past on the way to more glittering diversions.

It looks like there are more people interested in our uninspected motels than we thought. So we’ll keep plugging New Zealand writers and publishers, and playing a small but hopefully effective part in promoting local literature.

So thanks for stopping by. And do keep those emails coming: we’re always open to suggestions.

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You've probably noticed a paucity of postings over the last couple of weeks.

That's because we headed east to windy Mount Maunganui for a short break during the school holidays.

There's not a lot of news on the New Zealand literary scene at the moment, but we’ll be back to normal in a few days.

Hope you're having a great holiday, and thanks for visiting.

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As we pitter-patter through these pages many of you have asked for information about who we are, so here’s a peek behind the scenes.

LeafSalon is currently a labour of love for Kathy and Chris Hunter, although hopefully that will soon change to a lucrative million-dollar money-making venture. It’s a website to promote and report on the New Zealand literary scene, and to keep readers abreast of key international events.

Kathy Hunter’s background is graphic design. She’s a voracious reader, and when not ferrying carloads of children around or weeding the scleranthus, she does most of the writing for LeafSalon in an inimitable stream-of-consciousness manner.

During daylight hours, Chris is Creative Director at the Sydney office of Rivet, one of the world's top integrated marketing agencies, and by night has been instrumental in putting the website together. He also writes the odd article for print publications.

We hope this satisfies your curiosity. Keep those emails coming in – and we hope you continue to enjoy our reports of the literary goings-on in our small but remarkably literary country.

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