Last night as my deadline for this blog loomed and my inbox housed a friendly reminder of that fact, I turned to my good friends Penelope, a musician and Katie, a writer and told them they were going to help me out.

Katie was more interested in ice cream but Penelope's Virgo sensibilities kept us focused on the task at hand. What follows is a little Q&A about New York City from the perspective of a writer, musician and producer.

First things first, where are you from Penny?

I'm from East Coast Australia. I was a flight attendant, met a boy on my annual holiday, went back to my base in Bahrain to resign and have been here since.

That was in 1998.

Katie: I grew up in rural Pennsylvania in a small house surrounded by three cornfields. I moved to NYC when I was 19 to attend Fordam University at Lincoln Center to earn my English degree and work in publishing. That was ten years ago.

Ila: I'm from Auckland and I left home thinking I'd take a little trip and come home when the money ran out. I headed to the States first, to my Dad in Canada, back to a very nice man in New Jersey and then to the UK with fifty pounds to my name and my Mum waiting to lend me the rest. A few years later I was married to the Jersey boy and have been living in the States since 2001.

What are you doing here Penny?

I'm in a band that's based in NYC. I would describe our music as disco synth pop - electronic. The music industry is much bigger in the States and Europe and we're more accessible to the scene but ironically enough the music scene in Australia has been going off lately. My lyrics are heavily based in Fantasy Land, dreams, mysticism. All very non- worldly ideas. The whole idea being escapism. There's enough going on that people need escape.

Katie? I'm in NYC right now because I circled back after living in San Francisco for a bit. I'm back to work on grad school applications and research my first novel. It's about a young girl coming of age in two small east coast cities that are both experiencing massive sociological events because MLK Jr. has just assassinated. She is trying to figure out herself while the world is trying to sort out itself.

Ila? I'm a little confused by that question right now because I would like to stay in one place instead of traveling all over for work but I don't know how I'm going to be able to afford to do that. Right now I want to develop a TV show, put on any one of the many photographic exhibition ideas I have floating in my head, collaborate on a book, put my cards and crafts out there and interview New Zealand artists and interesting people from home. Making all of these creative pursuits pay in place of a career in Television is the challenge.

What was New York City like when you first got here Katie?

When I first got to NYC it fed me because I'd never travelled and NYC is like travelling because you're around every kind of person you can imagine. When I arrived I started working collaboratively with every artist I could but I was drawn to feminist driven work which is currently what I do. NYC was perfect. It pushes you to do your absolute best because everyone around you is doing theirs. I felt like I could pursue my academic, pursue my business and purse my creative side which is the essence of NYC. Multi-tasking.

What was your first experience P?

When I first came to NYC I was all scattered. There was no focus on how to achieve my goals and I didn't know where to begin. NYC is overwhelming. There's so much stimulation. It's coming at you from all angles. After awhile you filter and pick things and in my case you find someone to collaborate with and you focus. You start thinking everyone else is doing it so why can't I? In Australia there's the whole tall poppy syndrome which makes it hard to rise up because when you want to rise up there's plenty of people who want to pull you down so you have to deal with that struggle within yourself and your peers. You have to fight ego vs dream. That's how we're trained to think. When you step out of that and you're around enough stimulation and inspiration then you start to go, it's ok to want to keep wanting a little bit more and trying a bit harder. It's positive and I think that's why for example 10 years ago I barely heard an Australian accent and now I hear one just about every day or just about every second day.

Ila: I got here in the summer of 1997 and it was all very romantic until I started running out of money. I got a job in a diner in the East Village that had an eclectic mix of Thai and traditional American food which I had to memorize. I got fired once for not being able to add my cheques up correctly but I begged for my job back only to get fired for the second time. By that time it was winter and time to leave. When I came back in 2001 I found myself an internship at a small TV Production Company while waiting for my work visa to come through. Since then I feel I've spent more time out of New York for work than I have in it. I'd like to change that because I don't think I've ever really fully explored this city from a truly creative standpoint. Working is great but I'm overdue when it comes to seeing where the potential of my own creativity lies.

Penny what did you last see in NYC that inspired you?

The live show of Hot Chip. They're not a NY based band. I think they're from London. They played terminal 5 two nights in a row with a capacity of 4,500 people. It was an awesome live show. To see that many people spend $40 a ticket despite the state of the economy and be lifted into another realm was inspiring. That's what I want to be able to do.

Katie: I saw a group of women speak at Blue Stockings, it's a very famous bookstore on the Lower East Side. One of the speakers and writers that evening was Alice Kates Shulman. Her work is some of the most inspiring to me. I saw her speak and got to chat with her afterwards. One of the greatest things about living in NY is that you're surrounded by the greats. AKS was a pioneer of the feminist movement and you have people flying in all over the world to share their art, to share their knowledge to share their ethnicity. To share their voice.

Ila: I've had two weeks of down time since my last job finished and have been going out as much as I can. Funnily enough everything I've been doing has been about New Zealand artists because so many people are over here right now. I went to the opening of Shigeyuki Kihara's exhibition at the Met, I saw the NYC premier of D'arranged marriage by Rajiv Varma, and attended a talk by London based kiwi artist Rosanna Raymond. At the end of the week Lorene Taurerewa has her art opening and next week is the CMJ music festival. Since I'm not home to see the creativity that is constantly going on there it's a privilege for me to see it here in New York and to meet people who are so accomplished at what they do. Do you agree with Frank when he said "If I can make it here, I'll make it anywhere..."

Katie? I absolutely believe that. Everywhere I go seems so easy after New York. I didn't even realise until after leaving here this was an enhanced way of living. I didn't realise other people were just going off and working 40 hours a week and going home to make dinner. That's not the world I existed in. New York City is not like that. When people ask you what you do you write a list for them. I can tell the best stories of walking in the rain with a coffee cup in hand and it disintegrating in your hand and you keep on going.

Penny: Try unloading your gear in the snow and you're slipping and sliding all over the place and only five people turn up to your gig.

Ila: When you're here you work harder and not just at the job you're doing but on yourself. I'm finding the challenge is not to get in the way of my own success and realise that there are people out there who want to see you succeed as much as you do. Is it possible to make it to the top here

Penny? Absolutely. Basically NY breeds you to be tough skinned, resilient. You can take any blow. If you really want it you'll keep taking it. You keep climbing until you make it to the top.

Katie: I disagree. I told my cousin if you want to get to the top you'll exhaust yourself but if you come to learn from other people you'll make it.

Penny: I believe it's possible to be top of your game here. It takes a lot of strength not to give up. After awhile it does get a little tiresome. It's funny that I say this but I have to take it to the UK to get it heard. You do want to be the big fish in the small pond eventually. Being one of many fish...this pond is crowded. But it's survival of fittest. It's a fight. Ila I'm not a very competitive person so I have to be careful that I don't let that desire to not be better than anyone else cancel out getting things done.

What's the hardest thing about being creative and living in NYC Katie?

Quality of life here is the lowest. Quality of art, culture and intellect is high. I spend all day trying not to be touched by these random strangers but then I miss human intimacy. I think for me as a writer, everyone I speak to, writing is a state of mania. To be writing in a state of mania and living in a state of mania is too much.

Penny? You have to make that sacrifice for awhile and then you have to take it elsewhere. It's like doing an internship. It's like you're doing a serious degree in whatever your field is. As long as you stay positive. You can get hard and bitter here. The closer I get to what I really want, success, the more compassionate I'm becoming. It's hard as an artist. To create you need to be vulnerable but in a city that makes it hard to exist. It's a balancing act to create and be compassionate when you're in mid-town and you want to kill everyone.

Ila? Paying the bills vs finding out what feeds you creatively is my biggest challenge. I don't think what I do isn't creative but I want to do other things that I'm going to have to put myself out on a limb for financially. There's an abundance of inspiration but the real work is finding out how to make it pay and sometimes one gets in the way of the other. What dreams do you have for yourself

Penny? I dream that I can extend my international lifestyle so that I can be back in Aus for a good period of the year and that I can continue to make a living out of my art and that continues to grow. Not just a living but success. Basically doing my art. On an international level. The cost of living is high and everyone else is doing it too so it's a bit of a bun fight. Still, I wouldn't change it. It's a perfect breeding ground for establishing yourself. You come here to be here with everyone who's doing it and it inspires you to do your best. It's definitely an inspirational city.

Katie: I dream that I'll be an activist writer sometimes a scholar and a part time teacher. All of my novels will always hopefully center around feminist driven characters and or plots. The exploration of voice is of great interest to me. In particular women. I think the experience of finding my voice in NY and in California has allowed me to come into my own. I always said I would truly start to work on my own things in my 30s. Since I started this year I'm actually ahead.

Ila: I dream that I won't leave it til the last minute to write my blog. No I dream that I keep on coming up with ideas that excite me and find people to collaborate with because I've learned I can't do it on my own and that's not a bad thing to know about myself.