Oct 31, 2014

A prayer for the small things– Poetry and an Update

2014-01-14 16.05.49Busy four weeks as you may be able to tell from the slow post count.  I have been working full time, helping manage the downward decline of our 18 year old cat, trying to read Aurealis Award Submissions and reading the odd review title as well.  This weekend should see some reviews of books I finished weeks ago.  Until such time I shall inflict some poetry on you.  I subbed this to an Inkermann and Blunt anthology and sadly it didn’t make it.  So here it is:

 

A prayer for the small things

Oh, say a prayer for the small things
for in all things, small things matter.

Oh, say a prayer for love’s gentle touch
for too much is made of passion.

Oh, say a prayer for a stranger’s smile
for while here, such joys are fleeting.

Oh, say a prayer for an unkindness spared
for where unkindness lives, it festers.

Oh say a prayer for a listening ear
for to hear a sorrow, helps heal it.

Oh, say a prayer for a considered word
for once heard, words have no master.

Oh, say a prayer for the small things
for in all things, their sum’s the larger.

 


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Galactic Chat 58 - Ken Liu

  You can download here or stream  above.

In this week's episode David interviews Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Ken Liu.  They talk about the short story form, the difficulty in translating from Chinese to English, Ken's translation of the Chinese sci-fi masterpiece The Three Body Problem by  Liu Cixin and Ken's own epic fantasy novel series called The Grace of Kings.  

You can find Ken at his website.

 

Credits

Interviewer: David McDonald

Guest: Ken Liu

Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts

Post Production: Sean Wright

 

Feedback:

Twitter: @galactichat

Email: galactichat at gmail dot com

 


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Oct 30, 2014

Twelfth Planet Press – New Subscriptions Tab

12pp-newpink-webLG_thumb[5] Released on to the interwebs yesterday:

 

Twelfth Planet Press offers a curated experience of fiction that seeks to interrogate, commentate, inspire or provoke thought by way of the Twelfth Planet Press Tab Subscription.

Want to make sure you maintain a complete set of Twelfth Planet Press books?

Let us do the admin for you. Subscribe to have every book automatically sent to you on publication.

Choose where to start, whether to exclude any particular titles, or select ebooks or print only.

And when your tab runs out, we'll send you a friendly email with the option to renew.

 

Check out the subscriptions page here.  It’s well worth a look as I have found that TPP consistently produce a good product, paper or digital.

 


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Oct 17, 2014

Galactic Chat 57 – Karen Miller

You can stream from the above player but it’s a long interview. 

You can download from the Podbean site instead here (right click and save as). 

In this week's episode I chat with Karen Miller or KE Mills as she is known for her Rogue Agent series.  Karen Miller has written for the media properties Star Wars and Stargate in addition to creating three of her own fantasy universes and populating them with books.  

Her latest foray into fiction is the beginning of an epic five book series called The Tarnished Crown.  If you enjoy the deadly politics of A Song of Ice and Fire and a take no prisoners approach to character death you should enjoy this latest offering in Book 1: The Falcon Throne.

Karen and I talk about what it takes to write for media properties, the difference in writing fantasy and epic fantasy(in terms of author workload) and the importance of fitness if you are considering a long term career as a writer.


This interview is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013.  Please check out this page for more great writing from Australian women.awwbadge_2014

 

 

 

 

 


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Oct 10, 2014

eBook Review – Kaleidoscope by Alisa Krasnostein & Julia Rios (Eds.)

KaleidoscopeI can’t remember at which point I forgot that this collection was diverse YA and just plain enjoyed the read.  I’d backed this particular project out of a belief in the publishing team, the writers they managed to bring on board and the idea that a diverse world is a better world.

So I am biased, but bias can only get you so far if the product is lacking.  Thankfully (though I can’t say I honestly doubted the editorial team) Kaleidoscope, is not lacking, far from it.  Sure there were stories that weren’t “my thing” (two from memory that I just couldn’t get into) but on the whole this project seemed to have a coherence, flow and quality that I have come to experience more in single author collections.

I can’t comment on some of the stories due to Aurealis Award Judging commitments but I will draw your attention to stories that in light of current discussions around YA in Australia, struck me as pertinent:

  • Tansy Rayner Roberts, Cookie Cutter Superhero, really buried any idea that YA fiction can’t interrogate complex issues.  Tansy came out swinging in this story and never really let up.  I kept saying to myself “Oh, she didn’t just…yes she did.”  You can view this one as a critique of the comic book industry its sexism and lack of diversity. This story doesn’t “make nice”.
  • “Happy Go Lucky” by Garth Nix is another interrogation of complex issues, this time refugees.  I read this as Australia, in the form of Scott Morrison is attempting to give himself the power to effectively do what occurs in this story.  Very timely.
  • Having some awareness of issues around the Filipino Diaspora, I found End of Service by Gabriela Lee, to be very clever and very subtle.  Yet again we have another story that looks at exploitation, pair this sort of story with a critique of vulture capitalism and you can approach another complex issue from fiction and non-fiction standpoint.

So there were stories that focussed on broad issues and included diverse characters as part of the backdrop i.e. not every main character had to be the diverse character and not every story was about that diversity.  Some stories mentioned gay characters in passing, as in John Chu’s Double Time, where there’s a one line mention of the male coach’s boyfriend. Others like Garth Nix’s Happy Go Lucky had gay parents as secondary characters. There’s no reason why any author couldn’t do this in an effort to present more diversity.

All the stories though, put story first or  entertainment first, Karen Healey in Careful Magic takes an OCD witch in training, which would have been interesting just as an exploration of that condition in a contemporary world with magic and turns it into a edge of your seat story of suspense.  John Cho meshes short term time travel with figure skating and overbearing parents; high concept meets human story.

Only one thing is better than finding a character that you can identify with, who is just like you. That thing is having other people see and perhaps gain insight and understanding into what it means to be “different”.  Kaleidoscope, should achieve this, it has for me.

If you are critical of YA fiction I’d like to have you read this collection.  If you can find stories that tackle diversity better than this collection, I’d also like to know. On reflection I am content to say that if this collection is anything to go by, Kaleidoscope is evidence that some of the best diverse fiction is being written in the YA category.


awwbadge_2014This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2014.  Please check out this page for more great writing from Australian women.

 

 

 

 


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Oct 3, 2014

Galactic Chat 56 with Tiny Owl Workshop is live

You can stream the show above or download from Podbean here.

This week Galactic Chat reporter Helen Stubbs chats with Sue Wright of Tiny Owl Workshop.  Tiny Owl Workshop are the new small press outfit from Brisbane responsible for a number of quirky and popular projects such as Napkin Stories, Krampus Crackers and Pillow Fight.

They talk about starting a new enterprise from scratch, how each of these projects got their inspiration and what's in store in the near future.

You can find Tiny Owl on Twitter and Facebook or at their website.


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D6 Issue Three is live

dimension-6-download_badge_white_bg

Just click on the badge to the left and you will be taken through to the Dimension 6 page where you can download your copy of Issue One (in Mobi or epub format). Or you can click here if the image isn’t showing in your browser.

What is Dimension 6 and How did it come about?

Short answer - a collection of free fiction, free from a price tag and free from DRM but containing the some of the cream of Australian SpecFic Writing.

Long answer – read Angela Slatter’s interview with Dimension 6 publisher Keith Stevenson of Coeur De Lion Publishing.

 

 

Issue 3 features:

‘Shark-God Covenant’ by Robert Hood
You never make a deal with the Devil. But what about the child of a god?

_________________________________

‘The Last of The Butterflies’ by Steve Cameron
Let me tell you a story about when I was young and the world was a very different place.

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‘New Chronicles of Andras Thorn’ by Cat Sparks
Just like his uncle, Andras Thorn wanted adventure and excitement. Unfortunately he found it.

 


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Oct 1, 2014

City of Masks Giveaway

maskI reviewed City of Masks by aussie author and poet, Ashley Capes.  If you have a totally strange and unnatural aversion to poetry don’t worry this is a stunning debut from Ashley into the commercial speculative fiction genre.

You can enter the giveaway here at Goodreads.

 

 

 

 

 


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Writ. Poetry Review is Live

shot_1393622253215 After some teething problems that extended the launch time a little longer than expected, Writ. Poetry Review is up and running.  The site is reasonably minimalist, designed to showcase art and words.  It also looks as though it’s been designed with tablets and mobile phone access in mind. 

They feature a poet every issue and that poet gets a selection of their work shown and an in depth interview.  Then you are treated to a number of other poems, some from new or emerging poets and others from luminaries in the field.

The feature poet in the Alpha Issue is Scott-Patrick Mitchell. Some other names you might recognise are: Mark Tredinnick, Zenobia Frost, Nathan Hondros and Benjamin Dodds.

The Alpha issue features a number of poets (some 30 odd poems) and artwork.  I am pleased to find myself in very good company.

Enjoy Writ. Poetry Review

 


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