Fuelled by Kickstarter uprising, blog finds second life

VOYAGES IN AMERICA: A STORY OF HOMES LOST AND FOUND TO BE RELEASED AUGUST 1; FUELLED BY KICKSTARTER UPRISING, POPULAR STUFF.CO.NZ BLOG FINDS SECOND LIFE AS A BOOK

Running three times a week on Stuff.co.nz from July 2011 through to October 2013, James Robinson's Voyages in America was both a critical and audience hit as the author chronicled his move out of Wellington and into the great American unknown. Throughout its run, the blog had an average monthly audience north of 50,000 and a thousands strong Facebook community following along behind it on a daily basis.

Now, buoyed by $15,000 of support on Kickstarter from this army of followers, Voyages in America is coming to bookstores and bookshelves across New Zealand, building from the same sharp takes on American absurdity, the expat experience and traveller's burden that kept readers entertained for over 350 posts across two years.

Big cities. Funny accents. Awful coffee. Bad politics. Voyages in America: A Story of Homes Lost and Found moves from the inner workings of Washington DC during a diplomatic visit from John Key, to the surreal visual delights of San Francisco’s infamous BDSM street fair. With his debut book, James Robinson takes us with him deep into the American cultural abyss. Using blog material as a jumping off point, Voyages in America alternates between homesick and entertained, angry and amused; a story about how the places we come from shape who we are and how even when you can go anywhere, home is still the hardest place to find.

To request an interview with the author or a copy for review, email voyagesinamerica@gmail.com. Review samples will be sent out in the final week of July.

Advance praise for Voyages in America: A Story of Homes Lost and Found

“Outstanding. James Robinson has compressed the vulgarity, thrill and fearsomeness of America into one sweating volume. The highs, the lows, the in-betweens: all of it from the point of view of a sharp-eyed Kiwi. I dare you not to read it in a sitting,” -- Tim Wilson, former TVNZ US Correspondent and author of The News Pigs and The Desolation Angel

"It's a pleasure to have James' voice in your head. He brings a charming sense of New Zealand fair play to his sometimes appalled, often affectionate discussion of what the hell is going on in the US," -- Carl Shuker, author of The Method Actors, The Lazy Boys and Anti Lebanon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Robinson is an expat-New Zealander living in Oakland, California and a staff writer for PandoDaily. After moving abroad in 2010 he worked as a freelance writer for major media outlets in New Zealand and the USA. Voyages in America -- the blog -- ran three times a week on Stuff.co.nz from July 2011 through to October 2013. His work has appeared in NZ in the Herald on Sunday, Dominion Post, Sunday Star-Times, the New Zealand Listener and Metro and in the USA in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, SF Weekly and the Boston Phoenix. He has a Masters of Science in Journalism from Boston University.

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