Brisbane Writers Festival reading

Just a quick post to say thank you to everyone who came out for the One Book Many Brisbanes reading at Brisbane Writers Festival today.

We were up against some stiff competition so I (and all the other panellists) really appreciate it.

It was an interesting session -- it would have been good if there had been time for questions.

A couple of things that really resonated with me:

* Jennifer Barrett's story about how, with bare days to go until the competition closed (having decided she'd never finish her story in time), she had a dream where her husband was holding up a copy of the book. He said: "Why do we have all these copies of the same book?" The book he was holding up was the previous year's OBMB edition! She found the competition details and realised that 20 copies of the anthology was part of the prize! Then she took a day off work to finish her story.

* Rena Frohman used her $6,000 to buy 'time'. A brilliant idea. She bought 20 Thursdays off from work, and says she has had a very productive 15 weeks so far.

Now, I have to get off my backside and finish my story for this year's competition!

Reminder: One Book Many Brisbanes reading

If you're at a loose end tomorrow morning, come along to the One Book Many Brisbanes reading, from 10am at State Library Queensland.

I'll be doing a reading/talk alongside other One Book Many Brisbanes authors Jennifer Barrett, Isabel D'Avila Winter, Rena Frohman and Alexis Hailstones.

If you can make it, I'd love to see you there.

More details are available at the Brisbane Writers Festival.

Macabre: now available for pre-order

It has been a long time coming, but Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears is now available for pre-order from Brimstone Press.

It features stories from Australia's dark past, the 'masters' such as Terry Dowling and Kaaron Warren, and more fiction from upstarts (or, as Brimstone puts it, 'the new era') such as myself ('Feast or Famine').

Black: issue 2 on sale now

Featuring a heap of stuff, including Rob Hood going head to head with the George A Romero at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Also, from me, coverage of Sydney Supanova (including a Q and A with Supernatural star Jared Padalecki, behind the scenes on Hellboy 2, and a stack of awesome cosplay photos) and a feature about the flash mob/zombie lurch phenomenon.

If you don't see it on the shelf at your local newsagents, as for it by name!

You can also order it via the Black Magazine website.

'Import/Export' in Artworker magazine

My short story 'Import/Export' has been published in issue 2 of Artworker magazine in the More Than Words feature.

More Than Words involves an emerging creative writer interpreting an artwork.

In this instance, I applied some sf with a twist of Steinbeck to Sam Smith's video work 'Street Shift', which won this year's $10,000 Wilson HTM National Art Prize.

I was an interesting experience for me. I'd had this idea bubbling in the back of my brain for a few month's, and then I saw 'Street Shift' and - click!

You can view some of Smith's 'Street Shift' and then read 'Import/Export' here (PDF - my story starts on page 14).

This was my first commissioned piece of writing - thanks very much to Kate Eltham at Queensland Writers Centre for setting it up for me.

And if you're not a member of QWC, I suggest you join so that you too can be in the frame for projects such as this!