Oh, Starman.
You’ve finally fallen to Earth.
I guess I knew
You were always going to.
But not yet.
Not now.
Not now, Starman.
Oh.
Month: January 2016
Spoken word in Ballarat
A new literary event is coming to Ballarat. The first of the spoken word events, Mr Barnaby’s Sunday Reads, is on Sunday January 17, from 2pm, at Babushka bar — one of my favourite watering holes in the city.
The idea is for readers and writers to gather and share some of their favourite works, or works in progress. Kick back and talk writing and literature. A salon for writers and readers, and a way to help local writers get to know each other. A literary soiree, in the words of the local paper!
There will be a few “headline” readers at the session to get the ball rolling — locals Simon Carroll, Kirstyn McDermott, Amber Wilson, myself, as well as Melbourne’s Talie Helene, will be sharing some “spooky” reads — and an open mic section where anyone can get up and read/perform a passage, to 5 minutes (about 500 words).
Cost is $5, with all proceeds going to Babushka’s gofundme fundraising campaign to help give the bar a kickalong. There’ll be a lucky door prize and raffles, too.
After this, the event is to shift to a monthly Thursday night, with the first slated for February 18, 6-8pm, also at Babushka. More details on that once we’ve had the Sunday Reads.
PS: if you’re a writer in the Ballarat region looking to connect with your community, you might like to check out the Ballarat Writers group.
In Your Face … and then some
This anthology will not be an easy read, but it will be a rewarding one.
FableCroft Publishing is putting out the book, entitled In Your Face. The stories, publisher Tehani Wessely says, “will be provocative and/or confronting but with a firm purpose – they are pieces that will perhaps make readers uncomfortable because they are a bit too hard-hitting or close to the bone, but which interrogate these themes and ideas, and make a point about the world we live in”.
Writers in the anthology include Sean Williams, Cat Sparks, Kaaron Warren, Kirstyn McDermott and another dozen or so who are bound to get under readers’ skin — for good effect.
My story, ‘A House in the Blue’, is one of the current selection. It’s a fairly blunt response to the hideous health policy pursued by the soulless Abbott Government, since rejected, but sadly one that seems to still lurk in the shadows of government budgets. It is set in my climate-changed Brisbane, which is really where the speculative element kicks in. I suspect American readers wouldn’t find the rest of it that far fetched, and sadly, the climate element probably isn’t either, given the way our federal government continues to shy away from taking action. It’s possibly the angriest story I’ve written.
The reason for this blog post is to point you in the direction of FableCroft’s Pozible campaign, being conducted through January to take the anthology further.
Says Tehani, “This campaign is designed to expand the number of excellent stories we are able to include in the book from 12-15 to at least 20. As our goal is always to pay our contributors what their efforts deserve, our stretch goal once we reach our target will be to increase the amount we are able to pay per story.”
Check out the Pozible, which essentially allows preorders with other goodies besides. As Tehani has noted, the book is coming, it’s just how many writers get to be involved that hinges on the Pozible.