Amanda Nally
When Amanda moved to Southland in 1987 it was with business degree papers from Massey University under her belt and several years’ experience in the public sector. She continued working in the public sector until 1992 when she left to study journalism. After graduating with merit from the Aoraki Polytechnic in Timaru, she began work for The Southland Times.
Specialising in court and media law, she spent a large chunk of the next decade immersed in crime before striking out on her own in a freelance career.
The first big trial she reported on was that of Rex Haig's, sparking a ten year campaign which along the say took her behind the scenes into Paparua Prison's notorious East Wing and finally ended in 2006 with his murder conviction being quashed as unsafe.
She’s a believer in empowering others and, since keeping things simple comes naturally, she’s a great teacher. Amanda’s tutored in media law, media management and marketing through SIT, NZIM and the Young Enterprise Scheme.
She co-founded a successful PR and marketing practice in Southland in 2003 that formed the basis of Write Answers.
In 2012 the focus became more personal — when Amanda wrote her first biography — with the dawning realisation that books are really just features that allow the writer to step back to see a bigger picture, and better a story.
That private project, titled “An ordinary life” was to change forever the focus of Write Answers.
Her belief that everybody has a story to tell is reinforced by every person she meets.
Genre:
- Adult Non-Fiction
Skills:
- Corporate Writing
- Editing
- Freelance Writing
- Ghost Writing
- Journalism
- Print Media Writing (magazines/newspapers)
- Proofreading
- Public Speaking
- Research
- Reviews
- Subtitling
- Technical Writing
- Website Content
Branch:
Otago/Southland
Location:
Southland
Publications:
Point to Point: The Story of George and Brenda Hicks
Born in the year of the flu epidemic Brenda and George Hicks grew up in the Great Depression, were young lovers during World War II, and raised their family and a business through the 1950s boom time.
Together and apart these courageous New Zealand couple travelled extensively, including visiting South Africa during the apartheid years. And they gave generously – of both their time and their money – throughout very active lives.
"If you stand up to things sometimes the outcome is much better."
This is the story of their first 96-years, as told to Amanda Nally.
Practice Makes Perfect - The Story of Alwyn Stocker
A Write Answers family herstory of Alwyn Stocker who grew up in rural Southland through the depression years. Born, as she says, to nurse. As a young wife and mother in the 1960s she made the near-scandalous decision to return to part-time - in so doing she became New Zealand's first practice nurse and defined a genre.
Just Cause and Effect: Selenium deficiency in New Zealand
The story of the Green Revolution that changed the world and made a nation sick
Take away what you were taught; what you read; what you were told; what you heard … and what you are left with is the beginning of what you can claim to know.
Frighteningly little isn’t it?
For four years I’ve been talking to experts in farming, chemistry, microbiology, food science, micronutrients, soil mapping medicine and history. I’ve attended seminars, I’ve read (extensively) – all because one man had a theory.
A quite compelling theory as it turned out.
Les Hailes was “just a dumb farmer” looking for a writer, having noticed a pattern of events that needed expounding. Once he even travelled to Otago University medical school to share his thoughts – no-one scoffed at his ideas, instead what they said was: “you should write a paper.”
This is that paper.
A summary of the sensibly-peer reviewed works of the doctors, scientists, researchers and thinkers from many disciplines who have been studying and publishing articles for decades, often in the kind of lofty periodicals you and I find difficult to access.
Such evidence-based science contrasts the summary of public opinions and policy clipped from mainstream New Zealand media during the past 30 years.
I’ve included both here, for balance where balance is necessary, and to shine a light on the disturbing disconnect between academic and public knowledge.
With a little help from vested-interest marketing we have been encouraged to interpret science as an open and closed book of known facts.
The truth couldn’t be more different.