Hawke's Bay's Korie Massey went from dairy farmer to fantasy writer

Korie Massey says milking his cows gives him time to dream and create scenarios for his fantasy novels.

He lives in two worlds - the real world of being a dairy manager on a Te Rehunga farm with wife and two children (soon to be three), and the fantasy world of warriors and goblins and even gothic romance.

His plan is to publish 12 books in his Forbidden World Series and currently he has sold 2000 copies of his two published volumes Berserker (his first) and Necromancer. The latter has sold much better than the first, encouraging him to submit his third to his editor.

Several reasons have contributed to his success, his first novel was self-published at huge personal cost with limited promotion whereas his second was published and promoted for free by Amazon, giving him a wider audience.

As his characters evolve he is starting to gain a following and his proudest achievement so far is to have his books in Dannevirke's Public Library and in his old school, Dannevirke High School.

His parents Derek and Kathy Massey are helping him follow his dream by part financing the first book.

"Hopefully my books will be a pathway to owning my own farm," says Massey.

"It's a different way to do it from the normal process," he said.

In case you thought Massey might have his head too much in the fantasy clouds to be a good dairy farmer, he was one of the 50 from the East Coast honoured for being Grade Free in the last season at the recent Fonterra Awards held at Rua Roa Hall.