Here it is
It’s been a long time coming, but Here Today is now available in both print and digital.
The novel was shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards in the emerging Queensland author category.
Astrid Reinhart is a stand-in therapist seriously out of her depth. Martin Finn, a successful novelist whose stroke has left him with the rare ‘locked-in syndrome’, wants Astrid to help him write his story — one letter at a time. Featuring stories published literary journals, Meanjin, Overland, and Island, Here Today is an affecting and sometime comic reflection on life with an unexpected twist in its tail. Like the stories of its characters, Here Today is a novel that demands to be heard.
Download the novel for your preferred ereader for free or order a print copy for US$17.95 plus postage.
Read MoreNew novel available soon
For some time now, I have been working on making download-ready editions of my first novel Here Today. Like the short story collection Saccades, it will be available in multiple formats simultaneously. All digital editions will be free to download and share, published under a Creative Commons licence. The print edition (of which I have a test copy I’m mildly in love with) will be sold at near cost. I’ve tried many different models of digital publishing over the years and I’ve found this to be the one that works best for readers. No shopping cart, no credit cards, just instant fiction. For all those who have downloaded Saccades in such a fashion, I hope you have enjoyed it.
Saccades was really my test case for this novel. The idea was to iron out any kinks and make Here Today as seamless a process as possible. It hasn’t worked out that way. Actually, Here Today has been an incredibly long and arduous process. Where the attitude behind Saccades had a suck-it-and-see approach with cheerful abandon, Here Today has been bogged down in the arduous process of making sure everything is right. I’ve been through about eighteen versions of the cover and obsessed over every instance of italics in the text. And that’s just for the print version. All those ebook editions need a patient hand, especially now I know much more about ereaders and their various eccentricities.
I’ll post more (much more) about Here Today when it’s released at the end of this month.
As my daughter used to say, ‘I’m very exciting!’
Read MoreBook, launch, media, new, digital
It’s been a busy few weeks and there is little sign of things slowing down any time soon, so allow me to wallow in that desultory refuge of the most vile corporate hacks: the dot point.
- Off the Record: 25 Years of Music Street Press is available now in all good bookstores. Check the web site for details on where to get it online or walk into your favourite independent bookshop and demand it on the shelves in great quantity.
- We are holding an official book launch with John Wilsteed of the Go-Betweens as the official book launch launcher. It’s at Avid Reader in West End on Wednesday 10 November at 6:00pm. It’s free to attend, but you’ll need to book with Avid Reader.
- We had a great discussion with Richard Fidler on ABC Brisbane last week. You can listen to it here.
- A new novel exists in a rough-as-bags 20,000 word draft. I can guarantee it will include a Hofner bass, a car named Cedric, and a C90 mix tape.
- I’m about to get even more insufferable on the topic of digital publishing because I have just taken up a new post as the manager of if:book Australia.
New story published: Polysomnogram
The kind editors at Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k) have once again confirmed their taste and style, choosing to publish my story Polysomnogram in their august electronic pages.
A polysomnogram is a test performed on people with suspected sleeping disorders; in this case narcolepsy.
Polysomnogram is an exploration of the ideas and techniques I would use for my second novel, None of the Other Flies Follow My Crooked Lines. Juggling work and a young family, I found my writing hours relegated to the hours of eleven and three. I suspect stories about sleep disorders were a natural consequence.
Whenever I told people I was working on a story whose main character has narcolepsy, people often assumed I was writing a comedy. Although the story has what I hope are amusing moments, Ryan’s narcolepsy is never played for laughs, though it is a handy device to rely on when your scene runs out of steam and you need a quick transition to the next.
So? What are you waiting for?
Read Polysomnogram (should be a permanent link).
Enjoy the rest of Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k).
Read MoreReasons for waiting
Okay, I understand that few people will get the Art of Fighting reference in the title, but so what? The important thing is, progress continues on the frightening volume of work underway. And this is more or less a post to remind myself I’m still a writer with a blog.
Fiction does what it does. We write it and we send it out into the world. The rest is up to the world and there’s nothing more to talk about here other than the fact that I am still first and foremost a fiction writer. I can’t help it. It’s what I do. Specifically, novel number four is moving from drawing board to text on a daily basis, except tonight because my computer is in for repair.
Non-fiction? Well, now we are talking something interesting. The big news is a non-fiction project is entering its final phase and with a publisher! A whole lotta detail will follow soon. Promise.
You might have noticed that, despite the lack of a commuter, I am in fact updating the blog. That’s because this update is happening on an iPad. Hmm…intriguing…
See? All kinds of stuff happens when I’m not updating the blog.
Read MoreiPad discussion at EWF TwitterFEST
Alright, so the blog posts have been few and far between of late, but the general level of distraction is declining, so I’ll resume regular broadcasts in the near future when I have something worth talking about.
In the meantime, I’ll be taking part in the Emerging Writers Festival via the jiggery pokery of this here interwebz.
The event is called TwitterFEST and you can attend by…well…twitting.
The topic is focused on that intriguing sliver of glass and metal called the iPad and, specifically around its ability to engage the broader reading public with text in pixels rather than ink. As moderator, I plan to continue my extreme ambivalence towards the device in the hope that a great discussion will follow.
It’s happening on Tuesday 25th May, 2:00pm Australian EST at http://www.twitter.com/simongroth
http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/program/program-by-event/#twitterfest
Read MoreThe Books
