Some time ago I started a blog to chart the creation of a new novel. The idea was to follow the ups and downs in writing—the long drawn out pauses between frantic flurries of activity that make up the writing of a larger work into something that might be something of a success.

That same novel, now titled None of the Other Flies Follow My Crooked Lines, has been shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards in the unpublished manuscript category.

Wahoo! They even plonked my name on the front page of the site after JM Coetzee and David Malouf. How’s that for strange?

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The Emerging Writers Festival takes place in Melbourne next weekend 10-11 May 2008. You can catch me at two panel sessions.

Everyone wants to hear what I’ve got to say . . .

So how are writers getting their work out there? Looking at the various innovative ways writers can use to get their work out as well as better ways of accessing the traditional methods.

Featuring Julian Fleetwood, Alice White, Karen Andrews & Benny Walters. Hosted by Simon Groth

10:00AM - 11:00AM
Sunday 11th of May
Yarra Room, Melbourne Town Hall
2nd Floor, Cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, Melbourne

Competing for attention

Why do writers enter competitions? Are they worth the effort or just a convenient way to set yourself a deadline? This session will also discuss the judging of the Arts Hub Reading Room. Learn why judges choose the way they do.

Simon Groth, David Blackman, Ella Holcombe & Samuel Wagon-Watson. Hosted by Benny Walters.

1:45PM - 2:45PM
Sunday 11th of May
Yarra Room, Melbourne Town Hall
2nd Floor, Cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, Melbourne

Best of all, the tickets are cheap! See you there.

In preparation for the Emerging Writers Festival, Melbourne radio 3RRR will host a discussion among festival people (including me) on their retro-titled show Max Headroom.

For people a long way from the Paris End of Collins Street, you’ll be able to stream the show directly from the 3RRR web site.

The show will broadcast on Thursday 8th May at 7:00PM.

The title of this post is not just a time, it’s also a job. Twenty entries make up the long list in the Emerging Writers Festival Reading Room Competition. I have copies of each and my job is to take those twenty and reduce them to ten. In the best reality TV style, it’s time to cut the fat.

The job of a competition judge is a peculiar one, especially when you’re assessing completely different styles and forms as in this comp.

I’ve judged competitions before, most notably one of those 100 words competitions where I was one judge of about six or seven. The job there was to bring a shortlist to the judging meeting and start arguing. I wasn’t quite prepared for the depth of conviction everyone had for their selections and how hard each would go in to bat for their picks. I had to attempt to convince the others to agree with my choice. I don’t remember who won, but I think my pick scored runner up.

The Reading Room is a little different. I still don’t have the final say, but, being half way up the East Coast of the country from the action, I won’t be entering lock down with the other judges. In fact, I’m not even sure who else is judging. That’s electronic communication for you.

I’m already beginning to lean towards a couple of pieces, but I’m taking my time with this. I mean, how exactly do you equitably compare short stories with poems with visual art? Maybe I should go with Oscar® type categories: Best use of white space, Best exclamation in a single word sentence, etc.

This year’s Emerging Writers’ Festival is being held 9 - 11 May in Melbourne. A full program will be released this Friday, but in the lead up to the festival, I’ll be judging entries to the associated Reading Room competition.

The competition calls for entries responding to a stimulus image that you can see on this page.

Submissions must fit on a single A4 page. They may be, but are not limited to, short stories, essays, reflections, poetry, scripts, cartoons, street art or song lyrics. All submissions must include text.

Entries close on the 14th of April.

So, to all you writing readers, get cracking.

http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au

The new series of mini shots by Vignette Press is now available. For anyone who wants to stick it to the mainstream publishing industry’s indifference to the short story form, I suggest visiting their site.

You can even download a pdf of the latest mini shot for nowt.

Hello. I’ve redesigned the web site. Why did I do this? I don’t rightly know, except that it always used to bother me that the journal and the shop were always completely new sites under the one umbrella. When I started blogging, I realised I could set the whole site up around a blog and unify the design. More on that later.

All the old features are still here. Hemmingway of course still opines and harangues in equal measures, so feel free to chat to him.

The Emporium is still the best place to buy short stories as digital downloads, but the shop has also expanded to offer copies of books and journals featuring my short fiction. These are extremely limited in stock and out of print everywhere, so this is pretty much the only place you can find these treasures.

I guess this design can be summed up in one word: DARK.

I tried a whole bunch of design experiments before arriving at this (one was an attempt to make the site look like a grandmother’s wall of bad artwork), but this was the first design I came across that didn’t really look like a blog (which was my priority - that two-column/three-column crap was not for me). Design-wise, there are still a few little tweaks to work and I haven’t yet tested in every conceivable browser and connection speed, but I felt it was close enough to go public. Any comments or whatever, feel free to leave a comment after this post. I guarantee I’ll read it.

The Emporium and the site in general have been featured briefly in a column in the Age “A2 Culture and Life” Section, Saturday 24 June 2006. Alas, the column was not published on their web site, so no link. But, in any case, hooray for mainstream media!