Bestselling author writes her way into awards

Media release:

October 17 2016

Bestselling author writes her way into awards

One upon a time in a (half finished) castle out on the Kaipara Habour lived a self-described ‘mad, blind, heavy metal loving chick’, who writes bestselling novels.

True story.

That alternative loving writer is Steff Green, New Zealand’s own New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of paranormal romance, urban fantasy and dark science fiction. Although her genres acquire different pen names (Steffanie Holmes = paranormal romance and S C Green = dark fantasy books) the work is all produced by Steff at her self-designed house, which is modelled around the layout of a castle.

Steff (31) is legally blind having been born with the rare genetic condition Achromatopsia. This means Steff literally sees the world in black, white and grey as her condition causes colour blindness. It also means she has both extreme sensitivity to light and short-sightedness.

Averaging 500-2000 book sales per month, Steff has been writing for as long as she can remember and has written 12 novels to date, all of which are self-published.

This alone is no mean feat, but add in hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, performing as a licensed marriage celebrant for alternative gothic weddings, working part time for a marketing agency, running an off the grid four-acre lifestyle property (run off solar power) and of course her novel writing among other projects keeps Steff’s life extremely full.

It has also seen her nominated as a finalist in the Artistic Achievement category at the 2016 Attitude Awards. The national awards celebrate the excellence and achievements of Kiwis living with disability and chronic health.

Steff’s hard work has definitely paid off and she finds her biggest achievement to date is helping her audience.

“My readers write to me to say that my characters help them through tough times. I've written characters who are in the midst of dealing with grief, or who are being bullied by a friend or at work, or who are looking for the strength to change a bad situation. Sometimes I get letters saying, ‘your book gave me the push I needed to make a positive change.’ I keep all those letters and if I ever start to doubt myself I go back and read them. Hearing from readers that my books made a real difference in their lives is the absolute BEST part of writing,” Steff says.

Her dream was to make it onto the New York Times best seller list and doing so “was pretty damn amazing,” Steff says.

Steff will find out if she has won an Attitude Award at a black-tie gala on November 29 at Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds.

There are eight categories in the 2016 Attitude Awards, with some new awards this year: Youth Spirit, Making a Difference, Emerging Athlete, Sporting Spirit, Spirit of Attitude, Artistic Achievement, Entrepreneur and Employer Award. The overall winner of the Attitude ACC Supreme Award is selected from the category winners and a People’s Choice winner and Hall of Fame inductee are also announced at the awards.

Dan Buckingham, Chair of the Attitude Trust, says: “I take my hat off to the judges for managing to narrow down the record number of nominations we had to just 24 finalists, across the 8 categories. Now I’m looking forward to getting to know the finalists as we travel around the country filming with them and sharing their stories.

Thank you to our fantastic family of sponsors who have allowed us to once again shine a light on some great Kiwis living with disabilities doing some phenomenal things.”

Dan encourages everyone to visit AttitudeLive.com in early November to see short films of the finalists and to vote for the person most deserving of the ‘People’s Choice Award’.

Attitude’s Artistic Achievement award is proudly sponsored by KMPG. Kim Jarrett, Partner at KPMG says: “KPMG is focused on fuelling New Zealand’s prosperity for the benefit of all New Zealanders and so is honoured to be playing a part in this year’s Attitude Awards. We’re excited about celebrating the incredible achievements of Kiwis living with disabilities – particularly in the realm of the arts. We’re very much looking forward to celebrating all three finalists’ artistic achievements and wish them each all the best for the awards.”

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) returns as the principal sponsor of the 2016 Attitude Awards. Other sponsors supporting the awards are: Lion Foundation, Drake Medox, Barfoot & Thompson, Ministry of Health, Westpac, Manawanui InCharge, Ricoh, HealthCare NZ, Air New Zealand and NZ on Air.

ACC Chief Executive Scott Pickering says ACC is proud to be principal sponsor of the Attitude Awards for the ninth year, as well as sponsor of the Supreme Award and the Employer Award categories.

“The Attitude Awards are important because they remind us that everyone benefits when we all look at what we can do, rather than what we can’t,” Mr Pickering said. “This year’s finalists have an impressive list of achievements and ACC is delighted to acknowledge New Zealanders who live life to the fullest, achieve their goals and are role models in our communities.”

For tickets to the Attitude Awards gala evening on November 29 contact Terri Cavanagh at terri@attitudeawards.org or phone 09 378 1565.

For the latest on the Awards and the Attitude TV programme:
Like us on Facebook
facebook.com/attitudetv
Follow us on Twitter
twitter.com/attitude_tv

See behind the scenes on Instagram

instagram.com/attitudelive_/

Watch previous Awards footage at www.AttitudeLive.com

-ends-

© Scoop Media