Book Launch

My third collection of poetry, Marriage for Beginners, is being launched by Aileen Kelly at La Mama Theatre, 205 Faraday Street, Carlton on Sunday, 22nd November at 3.00pm. Light refreshments will be served and the book will be available, of course, at the special launch price.

I'd love to see everyone there!

Come over

to the dark side and read about Peter Bakowski - tomorrow's featured reader at The Word Tree.

Check out -

Radio National, The Book Show - Ramona Koval interviewing Lloyd Jones about his short story collection, The Man in the Shed. Jones' comes up with a slightly new definition of the short story in this interview - but listen for yourselves - it's interesting to hear an author talk about short stories and the writing craft required by this exacting form.

Also have a look at children's writer, Kirsty Murray's, blog about ceramics, history and parallel importation.

It's been a long time

between blogs! But I'm back with some news. First of all a blog to watch. Secondly - for those of you who don't know, my novel, The Wish Pony, was awarded CBCA Honour Book, Younger Readers. The winner was Glenda Millard with Perry Angel's Suitcase and Morris Gleitzman was the other Honour book with Then. The awards ceremony was held at Sea World on the Gold Coast, oddly appropriate for me as that is where my latest sequence of poems ends!
Thirdly - Jane Gardam has a new novel out, The Man in the Wooden Hat. Yes, it's a companion novel to her masterpiece, Old Filth. How wonderful! Can't wait to read it.

Hey there

Tomorrow in Myth and Symbols we'll be looking at Sherman Alexie's wonderful short story, 'What You Pawn, I Shall Redeem', so Nicki, Denis, if you're reading this it would be wonderful to have you along - and anyone else who wants to brave a 9.00 am class.

Poem of the week - learning, 'The Cinnamon Peeler's Wife' by Michael Ondatje. I thought it was about time I learnt another love poem and I particularly like this one. Dorianne Laux wrote a poem, obviously inspired by it, with a female voice - 'The Shipfitter's Wife' and I wrote one 'The Auditor's Wife' inspired by Laux's poem. The Year of Learning Poems continues....

Workshopping tips

I wrote these for Writing for Children, Picture Books last year and have rediscovered them after some prompting from my Gippstafe colleagues.

Different people have different approaches to workshops and are capable or want to give different levels of feedback. The biggest rule is really to respect the material the writer presents. It's not up to the workshop to do a massive structural edit, rewrite the story or, indeed, to do a close line-edit. Participants in the workshop make suggestions - always acknowledging the story as presented. These suggestions should have the common aim of wanting the material to live up to its best possible potential.

So, for example, comments on grammar could be just 'check your grammar, there are some wonky bits' as opposed to anyone going through and doing a line-edit on the story. Structural comments could include, 'it seemed to me that the resolution was a little too open-ended' or 'the characters seemed a little flat and could have been better developed'. Those general comments should be backed up by more detailed explanations: 'I think it would be wise to have the resolution stem from the actions of your protagonist, rather than by chance' and 'Perhaps some more details about how your character identifies with their family would help us understand her more.' It's always a good idea to go from the general to the specific as people tend to comprehend that more readily.

Check out the Year of Learning Poems

over at my other blog.

Bad news for writers

check it out here

Good opportunity for novelists!

Check it out here!

The Word Tree

I think I'm just lurching forwards at the moment, from Word Tree to Word Tree - that will soon settle because I've had to take leave without pay from Box Hill Tafe just to fill some of my own work commitments. So, look for more writing-related and reading-related posts soon.

In the meantime - The Word Tree leafs again -
Saturday 4 July, 3.00 - 5.00 pm
featured reader - Kristin Henry - ideal date as Kristin was originally from Chattanooga and has been described as having a voice like slow molasses.
Burrinja Cafe, 351 Glengern Road (cnr of Matson drive, Upwey
melways 75 B12
Limited open section
$3.00/5.00
Look forward to seeing you there.

Great news from Liz!

Liz Corbett's short story, 'Beyond the Blackout Curtain', made the shortlist of twenty stories in the Bristol Short Story Prize. There were 1729 entries! The shortlisted twenty will be published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology.

'Beyond the Blackout Curtain', has since been picked up by a small start up Melbourne literary magazine [untitled].

Liz's short story, 'Silent Night', was short listed for the Allan Marshall Short Story Competition.

Congratulations Liz!

Sick!

Hi everyone - I've picked up some cold/'flu thing in Sydney and have been sick ever since I got home. I won't be in to teach tomorrow. Sorry about that - I hate missing two weeks in a row, but really can't manage teaching yet.

We'll catch up with all the workshops, book reviews and short story analyses next week. In the meantime, think about archetypes. Can you choose one of the following archetypes to write a story about - or move them from one archetype to another during the course of a story? Or, alternatively, can you name or use one of them in your novel?
1. The Innocent
2. The Orpahn
3. The Warrior
4. The Caregiver
5. The Seeker
6. The Destroyer
7. The Lover
8. The Creator
9. The Ruler
10. The Magician
11. The Sage
12. The Fool

These are from a book called, Awakening the Heroes Within - Carol S. Pearson. You can read more about the archetypes here. But you can also use your own intelligence and intuition to think them through - and think about their dark sides, as well. It's often the dark side of someone that pushes the story through into the light.

Grammar tests and information

I know, I know - grammar is booorrrrinnnngggg! But, really, it's simply a tool of communication. And it's essential to know the rules before you break them so you've got a good idea why you're breaking them and what it is achieving for your writing.

Here are some fragment exercises.

Read this on active and passive voice.

Read this on parallel construction and do the test at the end.

Read this on subject/verb argreement and then do this quiz.

Write lots!

one of the new faces of publishing -

the internet has opened up a myriad of different publishing opportunities for writers. Instead of the old photocopied broadsheets handed out at various poetry venues, there are now ezines. check this out. Amazing new publishing worlds...

Interesting where the humble blog can go....

Here's where one went!

Watch and be inspired. The Julie and Julia bit of this began life as a cooking blog. Julie cooked. To be more precise Julie cooked her way through Julia Childs' classic, The Art of French Cooking.

Be inspired.

The Word Tree - on again!

Yes - at long last, The Word Tree is on again. Saturday 2 May, 3.00pm @ Burrinja Cafe, 351 Glenfern Road, Upwey - cnr. Glenfern and Matson Drive. Featured reader, Michelle Leber and a limited open section where you can strut your stuff. Enjoy an afternoon in the Hills and some damn fine words.

Synopsis guidelines

Sorry this has gone up so late. I've been ill all week an unable to do anything much at all. On the holidays, too! Check out this article for good synopsis guidelines.

Hope everyone had a great break and see you all next week.

Protest!

Every reader, writer, teacher, librarian and Australian should be writing to the Productivity Commission, the Prime Minister, Education Minister, Minister for Culture and the Arts (do we still have one, do you think?) and anyone else you can think of to protest the dim-witted changes the Productivity Commission want to make regarding removing the restrictions on the Parallel Importation of books. This directly effects everyone.

Cheaper books are one thing. But the changes suggested by the Productivity Commission in all its stupidity will destroy Australian publishing, the potential of Australian authors to earn money and the potential of our culture, heritage and unique literary voices to be lost to the reading public.

The Productivity Commission has not taken in to account the Children's Book Industry at all in its Discussion Draft. So a huge reading public, with no political voice - our children will be disenfranchised if the parallel importation restrictions are removed. The Australian Children's Book Industry is a healthy one. Marginalised - as in, few reviews, little recognition and so on - but healthy in terms of readers, sales and writing talent.

The end result of the lifting of parallel importation restrictions for the Australian public would mean that we'd be swamped with remaindered books. That is, books that haven't sold because no one actually wanted to read them much. This in return for fewer opportunities for Australian authors, no opportunity for first time authors, the demise of a number of small publishing houses, a lack of representation of Australian culture and history in the books being published and far less Australian books being published. Jobs would be lost in the publishing industry.

Is this what you want?

A very good breakdown report of the whole issue can be found here. Read it and protest by writing letters - these must be received by 17th April. Get your typing fingers flying! Please note, that though the Commission prefers to receive submissions by email, it's better to send hard copy letters to the Prime Minister et al. They are taken more seriously than emails.

If you need more information on how to submit,this is directly copied from the government webpage:

Copyright Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of Books
How to make a submission

This is a commissioned study and the Commission invites interested people and organisations to register their interest and make a written submission.

Each submission, except for any confidential information (see below), will be published on the Commission's website shortly after receipt, and will remain there indefinitely as a public document. Copyright in submissions sent to the Commission resides with the author(s), not with the Commission.
Preparing submissions

The following notes may assist in preparing submissions:

* There is no set structure for submissions and participants may comment on any matter they consider relevant to the topic. This could range from a short letter outlining your views on the topic to a more substantial document covering a range of issues. Where possible, you should provide data and/or documentation to support your views.
* Under certain circumstances the Commission can accept material in confidence, including commercially sensitive material. Any such material should be provided under separate cover and clearly marked 'IN CONFIDENCE'. You should contact the Commission for further information and advice on this matter.
* Each submission should be accompanied by a submission cover sheet (which includes the address to which the submissions can be forwarded). The Commission prefers to receive submissions by email. However, submissions can also be accepted by post or fax. Track changes, editing marks, hidden text and internal links should be removed from submissions before sending to the Commission.
* For submissions received from individuals, all personal details other than name and state/territory of residence (e.g. home address, home phone number) will be removed from the submission before it is published on the website to comply with privacy laws.

Please lodge your submission with us by Friday 17 April 2009 so that we can make full use of it in our final research report.

Quotation

"I like all forms of writing, from articles to motion pictures, but of them
all I prefer the novel. In a day of increasing taboos, I think it may represent the
final redoubt of a truly free enterprise. I like the feeling that it is up to me,
that make or break, it is all mine." - Bud Shulberg

What are your taboos? Write a list of all the things you wouldn't write about.

(Yes, I know that means you're actually writing about them. That's the point, silly!)

if you missed it the first time...

here's the link to a great article on punctuating dialogue

Writing exercise for Monday:

Begin a story with a prophecy. (This can be a funny prophecy, made by one friend to another, a serious prophecy, a light-hearted prophecy...completely your choice.

Saki Quotes

Check out this page for some great Saki quotes. I particularly like:
'A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.'

All you ever wanted to know about world building

but were afraid to ask! Here. Have fun.

Links to Lorrie Moore

Thanks to Melissa who provided these links to Lorrie Moore. And this one.

A note on formatting - when you hand in (or submit) short stories or excerpts from novels, make sure that you have a running footer that states your name and the name of the story. It's very easy to pages to come loose and out of order and this saves a lot of confusion. Also make sure you number your pages - it is surprising how many people forget to do this!

ha!

Just finished the editing on a small 2500 word story for a new imprint, Aussie Gems and guess what? Had to correct nearly every bit of dialogue punctuation. I clearly have got into the habit of putting a comma after my dialogue tags whether or not it's the end of that sentence! So, don't despair - just keep on checking that you're doing the right thing.

Welcome to any Gippstafe students!

Hi there - Gippstafe students officially started their online courses this week - welcome to any who have stepped across to check this out.

I know I had a list of things to blog for everyone, so I'll make a little start on it.

Check out www.goodreads.com for a quick n'easy way of keeping track electronically of your reading. This also connects you to a larger reading network. If you've succumbed to the procrastination machine that is facebook, you can do a search for all your reading friends.

For punctuating dialogue check out this article.

Thanks to Stewart and Denis for being the first up to workshop in Novel 2! Good to get a handle on what you both are writing. And for everyone who participated in the character chair exercise - thanks - great to hear about your central characters and I hope you learnt something more about them, too.

Writing exercise: (for your writer's journal)
Write a letter to your character's younger self from one of their parents. You know those letters that parents sometimes write to be opened on yoru eighteenth birthday or whatever? You can make it quite specific - it could be a letter written after an argument, for example, or before a big event. It could be a celebratory letter. It could be a pull-your-socks-up letter!

Happy writing...

First one to comment

gets a prize! come on guys, comment! Hope you are all having a happy writing week.

Writing Exercises

Create a character who is obsessed by something - firearms, D & D, family history, collecting china, travelling. What would it take for them to give up their obsession? Who in their lives might resent their obsession? Explore these potential conflicts.

Your character goes home after being away - for a wedding or Christmas, a funeral or an anniversary or to celebrate a birth. During this weekend, an old family feud erupts.

What is your (fictional) family's secret? Who finds it out and how? What are the ramifications of this?

Your character is stuck somewhere with someone she/he doesn't like. Gradually over the time they are together a different story emerges...

Novel 2A students - can you please all choose a chapter from a favourite novel - one that you feel has taught you something about the writing craft. Photocopy the chapter for the next class and write a half a page on what it's taught you. Thanks - these will form part of next semester's resource book.

Okay people - the rain (yes, you heard me correctly!) has cleared so I'm off to buy noodles. I'm sorry I couldn't magically wave the clouds in victoria's direction....

Townsville

is hot and humid. I walked for over half an hour to find a supermarket which closed the instant I approached the doors - 5.58pm is the closing time of North Ward's BiLo on a Sunday. How bizarre! However, on the way back to the hotel I was rewarded with a tree full of the most beautiful little birds - chlorine blue backs, green breasts, rufous under-wings and a bright yellow around the eye. They had honey-eater beaks, I think. There were about thirty of them. Also some of the big black cockatooes that eat the palm nuts down on the Strand - they look shabby until they take off, revealing a huge bright orange V on their wings.

But I'm not actually writing this to tell you about the bird life of Townsville but to alert the crime readers amongst you to a wonderful book -
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. I daren't start the next one of his Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire, because I won't sleep until I finish it.

Larsson was a Swedish journalist. He delivered the three manuscripts of the trilogy to his Swedish publisher and shortly after that died. He was only in his early fifties. The book features a wonderful team Mikael Bomkvist, an investigative journo and Lisbeth Salander - a feisty and mysterious computer hacker. The plotting is brilliant as two stories unfold side by side. Read it!

Not daring to start the next Larsson, I've begun reading Qiu Xiaolong's When Red is Black. Qiu Xiaolong is a Chinese poet and crime writer living in America. I met him at the Brisbane Writer's Festival a few years ago - that's how I was introduced to his work because the Festival sends you copies of the other panellists works. Although I don't find his books unputdownable, they are fabulous, too. There's a lot of commentaary about China and politics, official hierarchies, customs - historical and contemporary, food and his Chinese police detective (a poet) quotes Chinese poetry throughout. What's not to love?

So there you are, crime fiction lovers - head straight to your nearest bookstore!

Homework!

Short Story 1 students - read Peter Goldsworthy's List of All Possible Answers. Create characters using your own lists - a list of To Do's on the 'fridge, a list of loves and hates on MySpace, a list of fears, a wishlist, a hit list. Read 'How to Get Ideas' in the resource book. There's an interview with Peter Goldsworthy talking about his new novel, Everything I Knew, here.

Novel 2A students - read the piece from Peter Carey's His Illegal Self. Again this is a piece which switches point of view, though it's written in the third person. Also read 'Plot and Character' (page 23). Answer the questions on p. 22 regarding your character/s. Read the interview with Peter Carey here.

The Poisonwood Bible

I'm so pleased The Poisonwood Bible got such a good hearing in Novel 2 - it is one of my all-time favourite novels, ambitious in scope and hauntingly memorable. Just checked my copy and the mother, Orleanna Price, does haver her own sections:

Listen, little beast. Judge me as you will, but first listen. I am your mother. What happened to us could have happened anywhere, to any mother. I'm not the first mother on earth to have seen her daughters possessed. For time and eternity there have been fathers like Nathan who simply can see no way to have a duaghter but to own her like plot of land. To work her, plow her under, rain down a dreadful poison upon her. Miraculously, it causes these girls to grow. They elongate on the pale slender stalks of their longing, like sunflowers with heavy heads. You can shield them with your body and soul, trying to absorb that awful rain, but they'll still more toward him. Wihout cease, they'll bend to his light. p.217.

Read an interview with Barbara Kingsolver here. It's interesting what she says about handling the five different points of view.

Here's a more recent inteview with Bill Moyers.

For students in Short Story who want to read a review of Swallow the Air, try this link.

I'll be putting up homework and work for the week I'm away later this week, so watch this space! It might be slightly erratic over the next few days as I'm battling a computer virus. Grrrr.

Dust off those short stories...

for the Alan Marshall Short Story competition. Closing date 20th February - you can do it, you know you want to.

Flash Fiction!

This looks like an interesting site - publishing both out of copyright stories, genre stories and pieces by new writers. Check it out here.

This is a clever idea.

And an article about how to write it.

A success story from the UK.

Science Fiction flash site - with some good submitting rules.

Hope you enjoy looking around!

Welcome everyone

Hi people and welcome to the brand-new writing blog. I'll be posting regularly to this - competition details, web-based writing resources, writing exercises and oher snippets of stuff relevant to the writing life. If you're new to the world of blogs, you don't need to be a blogger to make a comment.

I love the beginning of the teaching year - it's nerve-wracking to walk into a classroom full of new faces or log onto a discussion board full of new names, but it's also invigorating.

I hope you all learn lots this year, do a whole heap of writing and reading and have an enormous amount of fun along the way. Do comment on the blog - but keep it nice, please. I particularly love it when someone actually puts a writing exercise in the comments! Looking forward to meeting everyone next week (for on campus classes), cyber meeting students from GippsTAFE at the end of February and renewing any old acquaintances.

Exercise - what do beginnings mean to you? Are you someone who has a new year's ritual? Do you celebrate chinese new year? Write about beginnings for ten minutes. Go!