thoughts on ewf

So the Emerging Writers’ Festival has been and gone. The festival sold out which is pretty amazing, though they re-opened door sales at about midday on Saturday so I think most people who wanted to go and left it to the last minute still got access. David Ryding, the Assistant Directors and all the volunteers put on an excellent and interesting festival. I was impressed.

Programming
I thought the programming was really diverse and interesting for it - the focus was firmly on the craft of writing and covered a real variety of genres, including theatre, lit fic, poetry, comedy writing, zines, performance and comics. And there was a good mix of panels, workshops and conversations.

One of my complaints about the MWF is that the pricing doesn’t allow me to pop into different sessions and discover new writers and ideas, but the weekend pass system of the EWF did, and it was great. (Unfortunately though I didn’t get to as much as I wanted to because I had panels on the Saturday and the zine fair on Sunday.)

A few of the panels got a bit contentious (sadly I missed them!) which means people were pretty engaged with the topics. And by all reports most panels had a lot of discussion going on in them, by the panellists and audience. Like I said, the variety of stuff on really seemed to work.

I thought having a final session where people can Q&A the festival director and suggest ideas for next year was an awesome idea, but sadly it seems like David Ryding and I were the only ones as he was the only person who turned up! (I was packing down at the zine fair.) I guess everyone put their suggestions onto the feedback forms…

Venue
The Town Hall is a pretty amazing venue but I still think its one failing is that it feels all closed off and inaccessible. The Porticoe Room was a central meeting point but it didn’t seem to be used much by festival-goers. The Town Hall doesn’t really encourage lounging around and mingling; it’s so formal. I loved the Scrabble and 48 Hour Play Generator at the BMW Edge though. That’s a great venue.

Festival Hub
The festival bar, FAD Gallery, was an awesome idea and made up for the lack of hanging out points at the Town Hall. On both days the bar was full of festival people, it was really fun and I met lots more people there than at the EWF. Some people complained about its vicinity to the Town Hall and I agree that it felt like a bit of a pain, but the bar was so cosy and writerly that I think it was worth it - plus I had some really good conversations with people walking to and from the bar, so it wasn’t all bad.

Ambassador’s Program
I think this was an awesome idea and seeemed pretty successful. A few ambassadors were more prominent than others but I guess you gotta expect that. Their session ‘Seven Enviable Lines’ was the festival highlight for me. It was really entertaining to hear their different (and same) points of view and advice… which included ‘don’t get drunk and be a wanker at public events’ (doh), ‘don’t wear your pajamas to work’ (doh) and ‘always be prepared for panels’ (doh).

Vibe
The atmosphere at the festival (and bar) was really vibrant and relaxed. I like these smaller festivals because they are all about discussion and the exchange of ideas, rather than the cult of the author, so it’s easy to be apart of the action.

Zine Fair
The zine fair was sadly much quieter this year than it was last year. I don’t know if that’s because of the cold or because it was Mother’s Day or because everyone ziney was at the festival panels but it just wasn’t buzzing.

‘It was good.’

L.

thoughts on format

I’ve just gotten back from Format: a festival of words, in any format, an event that was apart of the Adelaide Fringe. It was excellent. Here are my impressions.

Zine Fair
Format kicked off with a zine fair, starting at midday on Saturday. I arrived at the venue at about 11 and was pretty much the first one there, the standard MO for me. The zine fair was taking place in an art gallery and some of the sculptures had been moved to make way for the trestle tables. The trestle tables were mostly joined up which was good, meant that all the stallholders were close together and able to chat lots. I shared my table with the Unley Young Writers Group. They were high-energy and fun.

indie publishing discussion

Last night’s Publishers With SPUNC session at the VWC was a really interesting discussion. Donna Bennet was chairing and the audience were very willing to participate and ask lots of questions, which was great - it makes it engaging for the panel!

After Tiggy, Jeff and myself introduced ourselves and our publications we started a chat about independent publishing as it relates to writers. So, what opportunities are out there, how to submit, what to expect in regards to payment, what a publisher looks for, that kind of thing. We also spoke at length about how vital it is to support the industry, by buying independent magazines/journals and going to events etc, and discussed the potential opportunities the digital revolution might offer to writers (and indie publishers).

After the initial introductions I was surprisingly relaxed and enjoyed the discussion immensely. Lots of people stayed for further conversation afterwards as well and commented on how much they enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too. I only wish I could be there for next week’s discussion.

indie books in the mail

In the last two weeks or so I ordered three books from different independent publishers online, and thought that it might be interesting to blog about them.

Strawberry Hills Forever, Vanessa Berry: Local Consumption Publications

I’ve been meaning to buy this book since I met Vanessa at the National Young Writer’s Festival last year, and Sticky had sold out when I asked about it last time I was in. The book is a collection of writings from Vanessa’s zines.

The LCP site is very pretty, with minimal information and some very cool ‘atmospherics’. They have two titles listed, and for a moment I hesitated about which to buy because they both look awesome, but went with Vanessa’s. To buy, the site has a downloadable order form or you can click through to paypal. LCP sent an email pretty much straight away confirming the order and the book arrived a few days later.

I love the old-fashioned wallpaper look of the cover, it’s very cute. The type is small and typesetting particularly attractive. With the book divided into sections with little zine-like drawings at the start of each one, I wanted to start reading immediately. I’m halfway through and it’s a fascinating read and surprisingly weighty (I guess I thought it would be a little lighter). Good stuff.

This book was $24.95 including postage which is a pretty typical price and well worth it. I would definitely buy more from LCP if this is representative of the quality of their list.

Swallow the Sound, Krissy Kneen: Eatbooks

Another book I’ve been meaning to buy for a while. The Eatbooks site is kinda functional and groovy-looking and is also home to an Eatbooks online journal. The buying is one-click, hit the paypal button and get directly transferred to that site. The book arrived in a few days and I was surprised by what a slim volume it is. It contains three stories, a foreword and an afterword. I can’t decide whether I like the cover or not, but it is very handsome.

The margins on the page are very wide and a little distracting, but the writing soon blocks out any intrusions. I was on the tram when I opened this and started reading immediately. It’s seriously good erotic writing.

Author Krissy Kneen and Christopher Currie are the publishers at Eatbooks, and I’ll be directing anyone who argues that self-publishing is daggy or badly-written to this book: its beautiful writing and polished presentation is very professional. Krissy also notes in her foreword that: “This is just the beginning. There will be more… Like Nin, I want to sell my fantasies to a select group of collectors.” A series of little books, yay - one of my favourite things.

This book cost $14.95 with $1 postage, which seems a little expensive given how small it is, but after reading Krissy’s words I do think it’s worth it. I would buy the next one, and would give one as a gift.

The Black Stone of Moto/The Argyle Star, Marlow: Pocket Book Publishing

I found these little books via this blog and have spoken about the publisher’s model here.

I’m not uptight about internet security but even I found the process of buying this book a bit intrusive. Rather than link directly to paypal, I was required to register for the Pocket Books site first, including giving compulsory personal details like phone number and date of birth - which seems like a bit of a palaver just to buy a single book. After registering with the site you get transferred to paypal after all. The order was confirmed by email quickly and arrived the quickest of the books, in two days.

My thoughts on the pocket book is that it’s unfortunately not very attractive, but of course that’s a matter of taste. My understanding is that each book will have the same design but different title so they’ll all match; something prettier would feel more collectable. Also, it seems a bit lazy to have all the books completely identical. The book does, however, have two stories opening up on different sides, a snazzy feature that I’m very much into.

The stories are genre fic of the adventure-romance ilk, something I’d probably flick through if I was on a tram or stuck somewhere. I’ve not read it yet so I can’t comment on the quality of story. Both stories were written by ‘Marlow’, but credit wasn’t given on the front of the book or the imprint page, but printed on the title page.

The cost was $12 including postage which is an ok price, though I probably wouldn’t buy another one because of its look and because genre fic short stories aren’t really my bag.

L.

brunswick bound

When Metropolis installed a fiction section (at last!), they did a fantastic job of it. The first time I perused the fiction shelf, I felt like giving a round of applause - the titles they stock are, with very few exceptions, awesome. Their fiction section is not big, especially in comparison to the size of the store, but it is exceptionally good.

The way I feel about the fiction section at Metropolis is how I feel about Brunswick Bound as a whole. Not only is it my local, as it were, it has seriously fantastic stock, and not just in the fiction section. When I was in there I had four or five books in my hands before I knew it and could easily have grabbed loads more. The sections that really stood out to me were the cooking, politics/environment and fiction stuff but it’s all good - Rob and Susie have made really intelligent stock decisions and it’s obvious that they know their books.

The way the books are displayed is fantastic too. It’s a visually beautiful store, starting with an appealing and colourful window display, with piles of books everywhere and just the right amount of clutter. An inviting kids section at the back and two big leather armchairs complete the picture. Plus there’s a gallery dedicated to text-based art upstairs, curated by the inimitable Arlene Texta Queen. It’s just awesome. It’s currently my favourite bookshop - and it’s run by lovely people who are keen on supporting indie media as well. Top stuff.

Brunswick Bound is at 361 Sydney Road and yet to create a website but you can read other reviews here and here,or visit their Facebook page.

L.

catherine deveny girl crush

I almost wet my pants when I heard that Catherine Deveny was bringing out a book. In a good way. Catherine Deveny has a girl crush on Julia Zemiro, I have a girl crush on Catherine Deveny. Well, it’s more like a woman crush but let’s not over-analyse shall we?

Despite having a quote from Rove on the cover (Catherine what were you thinking?) I bought it.

And, as expected, it’s awesome.

It’s like having a whole year’s worth of A2s in your living room all at once. It’s like a bible of common sense. It’s the TV Guide for people who don’t own a tv (me). It’s feminist ranting and it’s funny!

And it’s a bargain. I picked up a copy at Brunswick Bound (Catherine’s local independent bookshop, ahem) for $19.95, where I learnt that the publisher had already sold out of their first print run (it launched about a month ago).

It’s not my fault they print them, Catherine Deveny, Black Inc.

L.

launched

Well Friday night was launch night of The Sex Mook. I flew up to Canberra and emerged to find a city awash with water… it looked like monsoon season except cold. Eeek!

We got a really good turn out of dedicated souls though, probably about 70 people milling around in the very grand foyer of the Australian National Library, of which you can see none in this picture of me shouting:

It was great to meet (and re-meet) some of the contributors at last and put faces to the names and words. A few of the contributors did readings which went down a bomb, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so much uproarious laughter at a book launch before. The sight of Jack Heath doing an impressive reading about the grotesqueness of his penis was right up there with one of the most hilarious things I’ve EVER seen. It was awesome. Note to self, next time take a video camera to these things.

Jools and I were really chuffed that the mook looked so damn hot on display at the library. See for yourself:

And now the Australian National Library are the mook’s second awesome stockist. I saw one lady buying a massive hardcover art book along with our humble little mook, which made me giggle, not that I was hanging around the counter pestering people into buying it or anything. Really. In the end we sold 20 mooks, which was nice.

The best part was seeing people standing around reading the mook, people were laughing and pointing stuff out to each other which is really heartening. They liked it!

L.

acquired reading

In the past month or so I’ve acquired a goodly amount of reading materials, even more than normal. Zine fairs and launch party madness weeks are good like that. I was going to do a round-up of the last month’s purchases but the task is just too massive. So here is the reading matter I acquired in the last week:

The Lifted Brow
I’ve heard great things about these guys and they are a lovely bunch, too. I haven’t read it yet but I can’t wait to dip in. It looks hot (I love text-based design) and it comes with a cd of music. I’m listening to it now and it sounds good. I love that the mag has a recipe for dahl, I’m hoping I’ll be finally able to lift my own attempts from ‘grey muck’ to ‘tasty soup’. A steal at $15.

Happy Family
A ‘boring ass literary supplement’ that is actually not boring at all. And while any zine - or ‘magazine sampler’ as it’s titled - with a story called Dildo Story will automatically become a firm favourite of mine, the writing is good and there is nice drawings and even a joke (one). There is also a Medical Dissection Diary Entry that is equal parts gross and fascinating. The author described himself to me as ’surly’ at one stage at TINA; I think ’slightly odd in a very nice way’ would be more apt. $5 cheap and very much worth the effort. (No website unfortunately but you can email Happy Family Publishing at the above email address.)

Nanoworks
This is the anthology put together in 3 days at the NYWF in Newcastle on the weekend, a fact that escaped me until just then, when I was cruising The Program. I went to Open Office a few times to make zines but they always seemed to be shut, or shutting… such is life. It’s an entertaining read and a great idea, a nice memento from a busy festival. It was free and I don’t think it’s available anywhere, unless the nice people at Voiceworks have saved a few copies.

Manic Times
Despite the fact that the Manic Times event held at TINA was a massive, stinky sweatbox that I didn’t attend due to aforementioned smell and heat, I like the Manic Times. It’s my kinda reading and it’s nice to have an ‘alternate view’ that’s so accessible. Not sure where/how it’s getting distro’d but it’s a steal at $3, though I do wonder if it’s quirky content would appeal enough for me to buy it every week… after all, isn’t that what the internerd is for? Cruising the site just now, I notice that you can subscribe and that in doing so… ‘you’ll receive free access to special subscriber-only parts of the Manic Times website, including the ability to download a PDF of the entire edition each week. That’s a $19,000 value! Free!’ Is this for real (one never can tell)? What’s the value in being able to download a full pdf if you’re getting the paper copy in the mail? Why not make a seperate ‘online only’ subscription to save paper for those people that are just subscribing to get the pdf? *cough* Anyway… do check it out.

mother [has words]
A Perth zine, with messy pop-inspired style illustration that I like (after all, Vignette and Kill Design have been having a visual affair for some time now)… but in places I find it too messy to understand. This from a person who often skips over too-heavily-italicised text (more than two sentences and I go a bit cross-eyed), mind you… you may find it easily digestible. It’s a mish-mash of words and interviews and pictures and some other stuff. It also comes with a recipe - for ’sticking stuff to things’ and a quite-random crossword. I have no idea how much it costs because I traded.

aim to Disappoint
As I think I mentioned earlier, this was my favourite grab from the TINA zine fair. I’m not really into comics but this one got me. I started with a simple flick-through in the festival club and ended up reading the whole thing through from cover to cover and guffawing a-plenty. It looks great too (oooh, glossy cover) and even has a LIST. Few things excite me more than a well-executed list. Its author (is that the right word for a comic artist?) seems like a great guy too. I highly recommend it. $6 from The Plastic Age. At the very least check out the site. Go on.

Ghoti Intro
Another comic! But one that I feel may be too geek for me. At any rate, it has an alien doing the finger sign which made me snigger lots. It’s a compilation of a few different artists from what I can gather and I reckon it’d be worth checking out if you’re into that kinda thing, especially as it’s free. It was given to me by a lovely guy with a t-shirt that I really dug, and that’s a sterling recommendation if I’ve ever heard one. Their web address isn’t working as far as I can tell, or maybe it’s just me. It looks like www.ghotidz.com or www.ghotids.com on the back cover if you’d like to investigate. (I did find this pic while I was looking though. A rooster on a goat, geddit? Lolz.)

Things a Killer Would Know
Paula Doneman’s look at serial killer Leonard Fraser. Not very well written (gushing cliches abound on every page) but I do like a bit of true crime, me. I bought this as a bit of light reading on the way home from TINA. ‘For him, rape, sodomy and murder were like making a cup of coffee - easy, natural and addictive.’ With blurb copy like that, how could one resist?

T-world: the journal of t-shirt culture
I got given two issues of this particular gem by its creator. Now, I’m no sneaker freaker-style t-shirt addict but seeing as they pretty much form the basis of my whole wardrobe I was interested in having a flick through. And it looks awesome. Colourful, excellent design (seriously, hot) and more t-shirt fashion than you could poke a pair of pants at. Makes me want to upgrade my look from ‘plain tees that cost under $10′ to ’something more hip’. And someone in one of the mags called Bape some kind of pretentious moron. Now, I think Bape has nice t-shirts and I have a particular friend who looks hot in Bape, but I say no to a world where a t-shirt can cost several hundred dollars. The brains behind T-world is Melbourne-based and a lovely guy. Another steal at $15.

Also, I won’t review them but I got a copy of The Monthly and the VWC Newsletter in the mail. Rock on.

L.

NYWF roundup

I have returned from the National Young Writers Festival tired, happy and a little sunburnt. Here’s my low-down of the event:

Vibe
TINA in general was a lot more chilled than I expected it would be. The sun was shining in Newcastle when I arrived and a few likely-looking sorts were floating around town and hanging in the park but the throngs of creative young hipsters that I had envisaged were absent. There was a really nice vibe actually. After grabbing a program and getting my bearings (park, festival club, King Street, Hunter Street, Darby Street) I began the festival with a much-hyped Blue-Tongue ginger beer in the festival club. I did not love it. Straight lager for me thanks. The relaxed vibe continued throughout the weekend, and I spent as much time hanging in the park as I did at various festival events. All the southerners were wandering around looking pale and happy, yay for sunshine.

Panels & roundtables
I facilitated a panel and a roundtable (more on them later) and popped into a few others, mainly in the festival club. The events were well organised and generally started on time and were well-miked (except for the Watts Gallery, where I facilitated a panel where supposedly the sound didn’t work; why no one said anything during the actual panel I don’t know). The venues were mostly great. The Watts gallery in particular was a lovely environment to have panels in but like the Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne, the Town Hall feels a little weighty and important and… stuffy, perhaps. I fully support having panels in the Festival Club because it’s fun to wander in for a beer and end up hearing someone speak that you otherwise wouldn’t have gone to see but I wonder how disheartening it is for the panellists to see people talking and walking in and out during their discussion. Some of the panels and stuff had a few too many people on them I thought - one I did had six panellists and me which was a little difficult to manage because no one got to speak really in-depth on anything.

The programming itself was a bit hit and miss for me. There were a few things that really caught my attention and most were on Sunday (except ‘how to stop writing your first novel’ which I missed due to lateness and ‘google myspace and I’ll come on your facebook’ which I caught most of and was excellent). Unfortunately that was when I was at the zine fair; not sure who thought that having a ’state of publishing in Australia’ panel on at the same time as a small press and zine fair was a good idea.

Speaking of programming, whoever programmed the Radio National broadcast on Sunday night got things a bit mixed up - four high-energy music acts followed by a book reading. Vanessa Berry held her own in a noisy, drunk, hyped-up room of punters but I think it would have worked better if she were first.

Possibly my favourite session was an afternoon reading up in the Long Room of the Festival Club. Quite a few authors did extended readings from their work, which was really nice. It’s great to hear more than a sound bite for a change, and to be able to get into the characters and events in the reading. Highlights for me were Chris Currie and Shane Jesse Christmass.

Mega Mega Schmooze Fest & Launch
The schmooze fest was a bit quieter than I thought it would be. I met a few people but mostly I think a lot of us stood around and chatted with people we already knew. Or maybe most of us just already know each other, I don’t know. It was in a lovely location though, on a vaguely Roman-style balcony in the Civic Theatre where there was a cool breeze. I think something a little more structured would have worked well and forced people to mingle more.

The much-hyped Mega Mega Launch was good fun, though I only saw a little of it. Directly following the launch of the sex mook, we went upstairs to do some readings and stuff. Upstairs was very chilled out, with about 20 people, and we spent the rest of the launch flopping on the couches and listening to readings. Every now and then from downstairs we could hear the shouts and clapping and hilarity; I wish I had seen more of it. The format of MML was a good one. It was done as an awards ceremony, with each publication coming down to accept their awards and spruik their books.

I was a little disappointed that the sex mook was launched as ‘Lisa Dempster’s The Sex Mook’ - in fact, it’s Julian’s book and I am just the publisher - and also that the MC (Tom Doig) referred to Julian, Candace and I as ‘Lisa Dempster, Julian Fleetwood and some girl…’ But on the upside, we had Blyth dolls making out onstage and got a big cheer so I think it all went well.

Zine fair
The zine fair on Sunday was absolutely excellent and Ianto Ware did an incredible job organising it. The whole day went really smoothly and there were loads and loads of people around. We got a really great response to our Locus stall and I personally had a great day meeting lots of people and selling a heap of mooks. My favourite pick-ups of the day were a comic called The Plastic Age and some really quite wrong art stickers.

Bike library & open office
There was a bike lending scheme which was awesome. Open office was also incredibly cool but I wish it was open longer hours; every time I went there they either weren’t there or they were just packing up. But it looked fantastic when it was going, I wonder how many people were using it?

Green element
There was no one specifically in charge of green stuff as far as I could tell which was a bit of a shame. I like festivals with a green program, stuff like getting people to put their butts into old film canisters and take their cups back to the bar would have been nice. The festival club was using plastic cups which was a bit of a worry considering the amount of beer that was being consumed; not quite sure what a workable solution to this would be though. I noticed there was a real lack of bins. There weren’t really many extra bins around and not many recycling bins.

People
This is really hard to write without name checking a whole bunch of people and potentially looking very pretentious or else leaving someone out. But basically I met a whole bunch of lovely, hilarious and talented people and hung out with some lovely, hilarious and talented people that I already knew. If I hung out with you on the weekend and I was smiling, I’m talking about you. (Hi.) It was absolutely the times spent just chilling and chatting with new and old friends that made my festival experience so much fun.

Food & drink
Hurrah for the Hare Krishna’s who sustained me for most of the weekend with their tasty $7 dinner plates of vegan curry/dessert/lemonade. The gals who were running the festival bar must have been exhausted at the end as they seemed to be there the entire weekend without break but they were always smiling.

I’d like to fill this blog with links from the festival but their site doesn’t appear to be working. But here is the link if you want to check them out and start planning ahead for next year.

L.