Interview With Jamie Baywood Author Of Getting Rooted in New Zealand

Today it is my pleasure to welcome Jamie Baywood Author Of Getting Rooted in New Zealand to SofiaLovesReading!

Interview

When did you first start writing? 

I had the opportunity to write and perform for Thomas Sainsbury the most prolific playwright in New Zealand. I performed a monologue about my jobs in the Basement Theatre in Auckland. The funny thing about that experience was Tom kept me separated from the other performers until it was time to perform. I was under the impression that all the performers were foreigners giving their experiences in New Zealand. All of the other performers were professional actors telling stories that weren’t their own. At first I was mortified, but the audience seemed to enjoy my “performance,” laughing their way through my monologue. After the shows we would go out and mingle with the audience. People would ask me how long I had been acting. I would tell them, “I wasn’t acting; I have to go to work tomorrow and sit next to the girl wearing her dead dog’s collar around her neck.”

Have you written anything that you were too afraid to let anyone read?

Publishing my book Getting Rooted in New Zealand was easily the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. I barely slept the first half of the year worrying what people would think of my book. Most of the book was written as the events happened; it just took me a few years to work up the nerve to publish.

Publishing my book was my way of transforming poison into medicine. I hope that it can help people that have had bad dating experiences or bad work experiences – make them laugh and not give up hope.

Who are several of your greatest literary inspirations?

May I Ask You Something? by Cyan Corwine is absolutely inspirational.

Traveling alone and being celibate for a year was how Elizabeth Gilbert found her husband in Eat, Pray, Love. I probably took it too literally like an instructions manual, but it worked for me.

I also enjoyed reading Area Code 212 by Tama Janowitz, The Buddha, Geoff and Me by Edward Canfor-Dumas, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins.

Tell us about your featured book 

I consider myself an accidental author. I didn’t go to New Zealand with the intentions of writing a book about my experiences there. I had funny experiences that I had trouble believing were true. I wrote the stories down to stay sane. I wrote situations down that were happening around me and shared them with friends. The stories made people laugh so I decided to organize the stories into a book and publish in the hopes to make others laugh too.

Is there anything special you would like your potential readers to know?

I love making people laugh more than anything else. I love hearing from readers that my book is making people laugh out loud.

The hardest part has been when people don’t understand my humour. I have been in a lot of situations where I had two choices: laugh or cry. I’ve chosen to laugh. I write my experiences from a purely personal standpoint. Compared to other travelers who worked abroad in NZ my experiences have been very unusual. I would highly recommend everyone goes to New Zealand to experience their own adventure.

Where is the one place you’ve traveled where you’ve felt most like you fit in?

I’ve never really fit in anywhere especially at home in California. New Zealand was a relief because for the first time I didn’t always feel like the weirdest person in the room.

What activity or hobby, besides writing, do you find most enjoyable?

I enjoy yoga, pilates and running. I ran 10K over the summer in York, England raising money for a friend with multiple sclerosis.

If you had to explain the concept of “love” to someone who’s never heard of it before, how would you?

I guess it would be like trying to describe the taste strawberry ice cream to someone that has never heard of strawberries or ice cream. The only thing I can say I’ve really learned in the love department is you can’t love anyone else if you don’t love and respect yourself first. You also need respect the person in order to love them entirely.

What do you classify as an “Adventure?”

Getting Rooted in New Zealand could be classified as a funny travel memoir or an accidental true love story within a comedy of errors.

Finish this sentence. “I sometimes find it hard to…”

I sometimes find it hard to believe the stories in my own life. My life has been so strange it sounds like fiction, but it is really too weird to be made up.

Who is your favorite book character? 

The young girl narrating May I Ask You Something? by Cyan Corwine

About The Author

Jamie Baywood grew up in Petaluma, California. In 2010, she made the most impulsive decision of her life by moving to New Zealand. Getting Rooted in New Zealand is her first book about her experiences living there. Jamie is now married and living happily ever after in the United Kingdom. She is working on her second book.

Getting Rooted in New Zealand is available in 

Paperback & Ebook on Amazon

Jamie Baywood can be followed on the following sites:

Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | GoodReads | Amazon

Book Reviews

“Getting Rooted In New Zealand is a diary of a California girl's introduction to a completely different life experience in a new country and never has the phrase `stranger in a strange land' been more relevant than in reading her intriguing and often insightful diary entries! Her observations about both culture and language are a wonderful mix of observation about one person's reaction to the differences that make up the wonderful human race and the minutiae of daily living. I'll be looking forward to seeing if Jamie produces another book about her experiences of coming to live in the UK.” (4 out of 5 stars) Linda Parkinson-Hardman (Amazon Customer Reviews)

"I've got this book and finished read it all so quickly, because I couldn't stop reading it. it's just so hilarious!! I can't wait to read her next book. I highly recommend to read this book for everybody. I absolutely loved it!!" (5 out of 5 stars) S Halls (Amazon Customer Reviews)

“This book is perfect for travel-reading! It's light, in small sections (as a diary), totally hilarious and also quite amazing. So many crazy experiences Jamie Baywood had in one year, some wonderful and some truly horrific, all taken together adds up to fruitful reading indeed. This book is like a rough diamond - I look forward to reading future novels as Jamie becomes more and more polished through life's experiences” (5 out of 5 stars) Anna H(Amazon Customer Reviews)

“Giggle Worthy... It is difficult to write so openly about your life as you have and I found myself keenly reading to see what happened next. All your adventures with those crazy people sounded so dreadful, but provided such amusement in the way you have represented them. You make no real judgment on any person and I can tell that while you respect them as humans, you don't put up with bad behaviour, so that's an inspiration in itself” (4 out of 5 stars.) O. Dale (Amazon Customer Reviews)