He Writes

The Focus and The Freak, Concentrate

Posted by The Author on 15 Apr, 2012 in He Writes | Comments Off

I’ve been working for some time with the eminent Vancouver-based writer and sibling of mine, Darren Groth on a series of short young adult novels. The first of these is now available on the Kindle platform.

I’m often asked how we go about collaborating on a work of fiction. While all books are collaborative to some extent, shared authorship duties are relatively rare in our game. To be honest, it took us quite a while to figure out a collaborative approach that worked for us. We tried a few approaches unsuccessfully. Although our styles of writing are not that different from each other, the trick is finding a way to make them flow together. What we realised is that every project needs a champion and, while sharing text is relatively easy, a story’s vision can’t be doled out in a 50/50 split. Concentrate, a young adult novel, marked the first time we worked as a writing team, each of us taking on roles as necessary to serve the story. Here’s how I described the process three years ago:

We have tried collaboration before a few times. We tried taking alternate chapters. We tried taking on different characters. Nothing really worked and I consigned the whole endeavour to the ‘revisit one of these days’ file. Little did I know Darren was hatching his own variation on the concept.

What we eventually hit on was taking alternate drafts. The result was similar to writer-editor only with the editor taking a far more active role adding character layers and additional narrative. Our model was less ’50 per cent text each’ and something more like what Joel and Ethan Cohen do: share the writing credits where one or the other might take the lead on any individual project. Seems to work well for them. Why not us? We are already brothers after all.

Column Inches

Posted by The Author on 14 Nov, 2011 in He Writes, Stuff That Happens | Comments Off

I’ve started a regular column in Brisbane newspaper the Courier-Mail pointing to cool or interesting things in the booky-technology area: apps, audiobooks, webby things, and so on.

It appears to be a print-only experience thus far, but locals can check it out in Saturday’s LIFE section.

Each column includes links so, if you can’t get a copy of the paper, you can at least see what’s piquing my interest this week via the link timeline.

Muted (R)evolution

Posted by The Author on 10 Sep, 2011 in He Writes, Stuff That Happens | Comments Off

A small piece pondering the impact of digital on street press and the music industry generally has been published in the September issue of Meanjin (volume 70, number 3).

You have to knock. If you’re supposed to be there, someone will let you in. The exterior broadcasts little; only a small sign in the window marks the name of the magazine.

‘Hi,’ he says. ‘Come on in.’

Inside, the walls groan with the weight of history hanging from them. Posters old and new jostle for the limited space available: Powderfinger bidding farewell to the world, the Smashing Pumpkins touring their new album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. To the left, a reception desk curves away from me around the corner of the room, overlooking the entire area. No one sits behind it. To the right, stacks of papers line the wall by the front door without any discernible order to them: the reformed Saints here, the Residents there. There’s at least fifteen years of history lying at my feet, almost discarded on the floor.

It’s available in all good bookshops or you can buy a copy online over hereabouts. Go buy it. Go on.

Regurgitator interview

Posted by The Author on 12 Aug, 2011 in Digital Publishing, He Writes | Comments Off

I recently interviewed Quan Yeomans from Regurgitator about their new record Superhappyfuntimesfriends (which I recommend you buy).

The article from the interview is published over at TOM Magazine, but I thought I’d add a few choice quotes from Quan that didn’t make it into the final text and that have some relevance to writing and publishing.

On working from home:

We did an EP in the studio and we just weren’t particularly blown away by the sound quality or the experience and we were left wondering why we spent the money. The technology has grown so quickly, you can’t tell where things are recorded any more. It’s really about getting the performances down. There are better producers and better mixers out there, but then 90% of the people don’t care as long as it’s a good song. Home is the ideal environment to record in for the both cost and control. As long as you have deadlines, then I think it’s a really great way of doing things.

On the influence of digital and the subsequent need for ‘artefacts’ among fans:

The reality now is that there’s less panic about selling the physical form than there used to be. It’s more that these are limited edition artefact for fans who need the thing in their hands and it’s really great to see the artwork in multiple forms. It’s great for an artist to see. If you want the artefact, then we’re happy for you to support us. But we’re also happy for you to have the music for free if that’s what you want. That is the state of affairs right now. Data is uncontrollable, take it if you want it, download it if you feel like it. Come to the live shows (which is how we survive right now). That’s the state of affairs.

Recent scribbles

Posted by The Author on 28 Jul, 2011 in Digital Publishing, He Writes, Stuff That Happens | Comments Off

I recently wrote a couple of pieces for The Book Shed and for the Small Press Underground Networking Community (or SPUNC to you and me). I’ve only just noticed that both of them contain the word ‘dead’ in their titles. What’s interesting about that is that I submitted both pieces untitled. The titles were chosen by the published blog editors.

Does that mean anything? Probably not, except that any mention of dead things in discussion of digital publishing will likely make the headline.

I See A Pattern Forming

Posted by The Author on 11 Jun, 2011 in He Writes | Comments Off

I’ve been working on and off on a collaboration with fine art photographer Bronwen Hyde that we have called I See A Pattern Forming.

The premise of the project is simple. Bronwen and I find individual works—visual and text—that work together. Sometimes we will use previously created pieces; sometimes they will be newly minted. Sometimes the link between the two will be obvious; sometimes it won’t. It’s going to be a lot of fun seeing how things progress.

Though it begins life as a blog, we have an eye on a options to take it into the real world later on.

Bronwen created the cover image for the first series of ‘mini-shots’, a single-short-story magazine from Vignette Press, which included the gorgeous shot for Coda you can see here.

Click through to I See A Pattern Forming.

Keep checking back with the site regularly for updates. We hope you like it.