About

Jared GulianMy name is Jared Gulian (pronounced GHOUL-eee-in… it’s Armenian). I’m a two-time New Zealand bestselling authorโ€”first in 2013 for my olive farming memoir Moon Over Martinborough (now available internationally under the title An Olive Grove at the Edge of the World), and again in 2022 for my sci-fi thriller The Last Beekeeper.

I grew up in the United States of America, taught in Japan for four years, and immigrated to New Zealand in 2003. I currently live in rural New Zealand with my partner, four magical horses, and a gang of scheming chickens who outsmart me daily.

Full Moon Newsletter

You can join my free mailing list using the ‘Send my starter kit’ sign-up on this page. Your ‘starter kit’ will include exclusive goodiesโ€”a short story about life on our olive farm, my hand-drawn map of Gull Island (the setting of The Last Beekeeper), and an excerpt from The Last Beekeeper.

After that, every full moon you’ll receive recommendations on books I love (I read widely so these are varied), news about life on our tiny olive farm, updates on my various creative projects. (I occasionally send other quick updates on new releases, but that’s rare.)

NOTE: While you can still sign up for the Starter Kit, I’ve paused the Full Moon Newsletter for now. If you subscribe, you’ll receive the regular newsletter when it starts up again.

Living in New Zealand

I’m still not entirely sure how I ended up living in paradise.ย My partner CJ and I are both expat American city boys, and in 2006 we moved to the Wairarapa valley in New Zealand. We live on 20 acres just outside the charming wine and olive village of Martinborough, at the bottom of the North Island.

In 2009 I started a blog called Moon Over Martinborough about our misadventures here. Some of the old posts are still available on this site. The blog became surprisingly popular, won some awards, and led to my first book in 2013, also called Moon Over Martinborough, which was published by Random House New Zealand. It was on the NZ bestseller list for 6 weeks, rising to number 4, and was serialized by Radio NZ.

In March 2018 I released an international edition of that book under the new title: An Olive Grove at the Edge of the World. The global release surpassed my expectations. The new edition quickly hit #1 in three categories on Amazon.com: Rural Life Humor, New Zealand Travel, and Australia & South Pacific Travel. It then went on to become a bestseller in Australia and Canada as well, hitting #1 in Animals Humor on Amazon.com.au and later hitting #1 in New Zealand Travel on Amazon.ca.

This memoir has been influenced by several books I love–including A Year in Provence, Under the Tuscan Sun, All Creatures Great and Small, and A Good Keen Man.

My science fiction thriller series

My suspense-filled, science fiction thriller series was launched in July 2021 with the release of The Last Beekeeper, and the book hit the New Zealand bestseller list. It is the first book in what is currently planned as a two-part series that I’m thinking of as The Vespling Duology.

The Last Beekeeper takes place on a remote island in Lake Michigan, inspired by a real-life place in Michigan as well as my own rural experiences in the Wairarapa. If you’d like to read the first four chapters for free, sign up for my mailing list and you’ll get an excerpt as part of your Jared Gulian Starter Kit, along with a non-fiction short story about our unexpected and often hilarious life on a tiny olive farm.

Since the book came out:

  • January 2022 – Selected as one of four ‘Best Fantasy and Science Fiction of 2021’ by Hedley’s Books.
  • May 2022 – Chosen by the Wairarapa Library Services for a series of events called One Book One Community. The idea was to encourage everyone in the community to read the same book and come together for discussion and activities in order to promote awareness of our libraries and foster a sense of community through reading. It was an honor to be chosen.
  • June 2022 – Hit number 7 on the New Zealand bestseller listโ€”a miraculous feat for a self-published book.
  • July 2022 – Finalist in the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards for Best Sci-fi or Fantasy.

I’m currently working on Book 2 in The Vespling Duology. The working title is The Brood Chamber.

This series has influences from several authors I thoroughly enjoy–including Michael Crichton, and Blake Crouch, Stephen King, and Ronald Hugh Morrieson. As a young reader, one of my early reading obsessions was science fiction and fantasy, and I got absolutely lost in books like A Wrinkle In Time,ย The Star Beast, and The Ship Who Sang. I also thoroughly loved Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall Trilogy, which led me to the original Dragonriders of Pernย trilogy in my teens.

One Book One Community - The Last Beekeeper
One Book One Community poster (click to enlarge)

Where I live in real life

Our 20-acre property has about 500 olive trees and a trout stream just out the bottom gate. Plus we have heaps of other fruit and nut trees — apricot, peach, pear, plum, chestnut, almond, pine nut, feijoa, and even a quince tree. Cattle and sheep graze in the paddocks.

There’s a 2-bay hay shed with a million dollar view, a veggie garden, green house, flower garden, native garden, some very well fed chickens, and some pet kunekune pigs. I’m always posting pictures of the property on Instagram.

For more on how CJ and I ended up here, read my life story as recipe on my blog: ‘Make your own olive oil in 23 easy steps‘.

Where I live on the interwebs

You can find me on social media at the links below, ranked in order of how active I am on them. ๐Ÿ™‚

  1. TikTok
  2. Instagram
  3. Facebook
  4. Goodreads
  5. Twitter
  6. YouTube

You can also contact me using the form at the bottom of this page.

Recommendations

Any books, products, or content I recommend are things that I truly appreciate myself. I don’t recommend things that I don’t feel strongly about. On occasion, I do use affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission on sales to linked products.

Contact

Please use the contact form below to send me an email.

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    70 Comments on “About”

    1. Love your blog and am totally jealous when I read about people living in such beautiful places! We are in Cincinnati which is (sadly) beginning to look like Detroit in some ways. I lived in Grosse Pointe for a couple years; couldn’t ever get comfortable with the total poverty across Mack Avenue with lifestyle closer to lake. I do miss Eastern Market though! & all the great restaurants…

      • Thanks Erin. We used to drive down Detroit’s Jefferson Avenue just to see the line where poverty ended and wealth began. Unbelievable. Detroit things I miss: Greek Town and the films at the DIA.

      • Hi Mr Jared Gulian,

        SoundEagle agrees with Erin. Congratulations to you on your lovely blog, informative writings and new book!

        May you continue your journey of living closely with Nature and discovering its harmony, benevolence and secrets towards greater sustainability and communal spirit!

        Happy July to you, your family and community!

    3. Hiya – great blog – real olive oil is a bit different to the supermarket stuff isn’t it! Sadly not too many olive trees here in Scotland (…yet…)

      • Yes, it’s very different. Actually, the first time we tasted our fresh oil we thought we’d done something wrong, since it didn’t taste at all like the supermarket oil! We’ve learned a lot since then.

    4. Hey, thanks for the blog comment. Your life sounds amazing, really enjoyable blog to read. I’ve always loved New Zealand and always enjoy the wine when visiting family over there.

      • Glad you liked the read. Yes, NZ wine is good stuff. How lucky you are to have family here.

    5. Hi Jared…
      I grew up in the Wairarapa till I was 13…I somehow just stumbled across your “blog’ and read about your river…The memories of my childhood in the sun came flooding back….thank you for that. I remember leaving New Zealand to go and discover what the world had on offer….I was sixteen!! Years spent in New York, London and Sydney…..like yourself……racing around finding out who I was…..now I have returned “home”, although I am now about 30 miles west of you as the crow flies……..and happier than I have ever been…..a loving partner,dog and two cats…….plus everything else that country life in New Zealand has to offer…..be sure to come and visit with us here….and swap some stories…..
      Warmest regards
      Andrew

      • What a nice comment, Andrew. Thank you. Your lodge in Otaki looks great. A perfect place for a holiday!

    6. Hi Jared,
      I am a Brit married to a NZ’er living in Montauk NY, we have a small vineyard in M’boro and return each year for the harvest, I often check in on your blog to see what’s happening in our little town, we love it and miss it, and the olive oil from M’boro just like the wine is very special!
      Best,
      Sally
      ps hope you don’t mind…added you to my blog.

      • It’s very nice to hear ‘the Moon’ is helping you feel connected to Martinborough while you’re away. If you ever need harvest help, let me know. I’d love to experience that – and write about it in the blog!

    7. Hi Jared
      I have just discovered your blog through Benny’s Place and have just spent the whole day at work reading all of your posts (hope the boss didn’t realise!).

      I am a Kiwi (orignially from Rangiora in the SI) currently living in Australia and have been away from NZ for the last 10 years. Reading your posts really remind me of how wonderful NZ is and how much I miss it. You are making me homesick! Luckily I am coming home for Christmas this year so I will get to see all my family, who all still live within 20kms of each other.

      The language you use when you write and all the Kiwi terms and phrases that were/are so strange to you are very comforting for me to hear again. I don’t get to hear our unqie phrases very often and you have really made me laugh out loud.

      Thank you to you and Rick for bringing a bit of comfort to a nostalgic traveller.

    8. Wanted

      6x Moonovermartinborough 250mls Olive Oil

      Martinborough Wine Centre (the best shop in town)

      !Reward Offered!

      Amanda

    9. Thanks Ronald. Yes, we met years ago when we were both new to NZ. Time flies, huh?

    10. Hi Martin – Thanks for that. I suspected something was up when I received a flood of emails from Open Poly students! That’s great. I’ll add it to my list above. Thanks for reading and best of luck on the web writing path.

    11. What magical stories! I look forward to visiting your pages and sneaking a peak at life in New Zealand. Your podcasts are great too! Wow! What fun. Love the chicken story.

    12. Hi there, I love your lavendar aracunas, do you have any pullets available ? Thanks Fenella 021 24333 52

      • Hi Fenella – Sorry we don’t breed chooks, but here are some Lavender Araucana breeders around NZ:

        HSwansson – Carterton, 06 378 7401
        N&C Ennis – Levin, 06 362 6953
        B&M Hogarth – Thames, 07 867 3222

        Best of luck to you. They’re great birds. Although ours do have a tendency to get scaly leg mites. Never mind. The eggs are gorgeous!

        See the post on scaly leg mites in our araucana here:
        https://jaredgulian.com/2009/07/04/chicken-blood-on-my-boot/

    13. Thanks Sasa. Just checked out your blog and it’s gorgeous and well written too. So many places you’ve lived! Some of us are global nomads. Thanks for reading.

    15. Last night I retired early with National Radio playing quietly nearby and apparently drifted off to sleep. At around 2am I drowsily awoke to voices talking warmly and enthusiastically about olives, hills, pigs and chickens, the moon and a beautiful ever changing stream and I thought I was in a world I used to know in my youth, thank you.

    17. Good morning from Reno, Nevada! I read your fabulous interview on WordPress — congrats on your many successes. I’m hoping to ask you a few questions. I’m also in the process of turning by blog into a book … and I’m hoping to pick your brain just a bit. Specifically, I’m looking for website advice — it seems like you may have started on wordpress.com but then migrated over to wordpress.org? May we chat by email? I’m at mikalee.byerman@gmail.com…I would love to hear your thoughts. Again congrats — and many thanks in advance!

      • Hi Mikalee – I’m still on WordPress.com, but I purchased the ‘jaredgulian.com’ domain so that’s now my web address. You can read about domain support for WordPress.com here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/

        My email address is above on this About page. Feel free to drop me a line. I receive a lot of emails so I can’t promise a speedy email response, but I will respond eventually!

    18. Hi, I totally love your writing style and I can very well relate to the joy o living in such a beautiful place close to nature cuz i myself live in Hameenlinna Finland and its lovely to be surrounded by pristine lakes and evergreen woods. I’m glad so many ppl like your blog for this reason and this inspires me to start blogging about Finland! and i bet its much more beautiful;) Do visit when you get free! Tc and good luck for your book.

      • You should totally blog about Finland! Even if it’s not a beautiful as New Zealand. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Actually, I grew up in the Methodist church and my favorite hymn was one set to music by your countryman Sibelius. You would know the tune as Finlandia. The Methodist hymn was called ‘This is My Song’ and the lyrics were this:

        My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
        and sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.
        But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
        and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

        Isn’t that fantastic? And so true. Good luck blogging about Finland!

    20. I’m glad I stumbled across your blog – it’s a great find! It’s really inspiring (and thoroughly interesting) to see how you have adopted New Zealand as your home, especially after leaving behind “pastures” that were far different from where you are now. It takes a lot of courage to transplant yourself like that. I’m an expat too, and I’ve lived a large part of my life in suitcases, so I know the feeling. I’ve actually been to New Zealand (Waikato region) and I know the beauty that exists there is indescribable. I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog. I’m definitely following it. ๐Ÿ™‚

      • Thanks Sindhuja! Yes, it takes a bit of courage (or madness!) but itโ€™s rewarded tenfold, donโ€™t you think? I always say that doors are opening up around us all the time, and itโ€™s up to us to have the courage to walk through. The Waikato is gorgeous. Best of luck to you there.

    22. Amazing that you followed your dreams + moved to heaven! I’ve always had an obsession with New Zealand! I’ve taken a trip there once + fell in love!!!!! Literally one of the most beautiful places IN THE WORLD!!!!!

    24. Hi there! I came across your blog while doing some homework on what New Zealand is like. We are contemplating a relocation from Kentucky, USA to Wellington. I read of number of your stories (or posts?) and enjoyed them. What part of relocating to NZ did you both find easy, and hard? I keep reading around and keep getting mixed signals. I figure at this rate I’ll have to read all I can (good & not so good), factor in a large grain of salt, and go with my gut.

      Anyways — Enjoyed the blog and cant wait to read more.

      Best of luck !!
      Diana C.

    25. I’ve been enjoying your blog since my partner and I did almost the same thing as you–giving up the big American (and Chinese…) cities in favour of the slow life in NZ. But in our case we took over a lodge in Oamaru, on the South Island! Good on you for all you’ve achieved, and best of luck for the future!

    26. I am a librarian at the Masterton District Libary and I cannot wait for you to come speak here on the Saturday 6th July!

      • Thanks! While I’m definitely very happy here, Detroit holds a very special spot in my heart. It’s a great place in spite of its troubles, and full of great people. I even sometimes become nostalgic about Michigan winters — although all that snow is perhaps best viewed at a distance. ๐Ÿ™‚

    31. Wonderful blog! I am new here but I just know that this will be my ‘getaway island’ whenever I feel like taking a break from my life.

    32. Love the idea for this blog Jared, a quiet, modest farm life as a transitional bliss. I am looking forward to reading your book, all the way in Canada :).

      • Yes, it’s a good life out here. This evening I brought in firewood by the light of the full moon. So beautiful. Hope you enjoy the book.

    33. Just finished your book, it was a delightful read. We also live on a small block outside of Christchurch – no olive grove but a handsome rooster who came and took up residence in our pussy willow tree. Origions unknown!! A friend gave us her last old laying hen to keep him company. He still sleeps in the tree – rain, hail, snow, earthquakes and she very sensibly sleeps tucked up in the bales of hay in the shed. You just cant make this stuff up!
      Anyway thank you for sharing.
      Nicky

      • Thank you so much for the nice comment, Nicky. Stories are gifts and you’ve just given me one. I love the rooster in the pussy willow tree! I do find that the hens are often more sensible than the roosters. ๐Ÿ™‚

    34. I met a lovely lady yesterday in my small Oil and Vin store in Midland MI. I believe she is your aunt. Her name was either Margaret or Pearl. She talked to me about you and where you’re living and what you are doing. I was of course, immediately envious! I’m from the U.P. ( you know what I’m talking about) and dream of someday just getting to CA to see the olive groves where my oils come from. I have 2 questions: Can I order your book? Can I order your olive oil? Three ?’s – would shipping be prohibitive? I am looking forward to read all of your blog, gazing at your photos and imagining. Thanks Jared!

    35. Hi Jared

      I just finished reading your book.
      Totally loved it.
      How do I get to read the blog?

      Ta, William ๐Ÿ™‚