Nelson resident John Ewan decided to become a writer when called out in front of his school class to read an essay. “After I had finished reading, the teacher asked me what did I want to do,” John says.  “At the age of 11, you don’t usually know. I certainly didn’t, so I blurted out ‘writer’.” The idea remained and his first paid item was published at 15 (in the Weekly News). By the time he left school he’d had items published in New Zealand and Australian newspapers. But it would be many years before his first book.  “Getting Started in Publicity” (1991) was an inevitable topic seeing one of his favourite books had been “Teach Yourself Writing” and he had spent years in PR, advertising and contract writing.

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