Mount Roskill alumna and New York Times bestselling author, Nalini Singh, returned to MRGS to give a lunchtime talk in the library recently. Nalini spoke warmly and wonderfully about writing and publishing, and about the messy business of creativity. She left us with some very inspiring and reassuring advice for our young writers.
Nalini Singh is a New York Times best-selling author 30 times over She has written 45 books since her first novel Desert Warrior was published in 2003 and is frequently spotted on the USA Today and Der Spiegel bestseller lists as well.
Nalini speaks three languages – English, Hindi and Japanese – and credits her days at Mt Roskill Grammar for immersing her in a diverse population. “It was such an awesome melting pot,” she says. “I made so many good friends and I got so many opportunities. Living and growing up in Auckland, it’s such a diverse city and I think it’s definitely affected my books. I’ve always had very diverse characters in my books; that just came out naturally, it wasn’t a thing I consciously did. I didn’t even realise that it was something a little bit different until I started getting letters from all over the world saying, ‘Wow, it’s so cool to see someone like me.’ ”
