ARD C
something to get your teeth into
ISSUE 269 Alison Whittaker on AI in poetry Jun 2020 – Aug 2020 Gary Crew reflects CEO 1994-97
WQ Cover illustration.indd 1 29/05/2020 5:21 PM CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS Looking for a Publisher?
he Melbourne-based Sid Harta Team appreciates that Tit is a brave step to hand over one’s work to a stranger. Our editors bear this in mind with an assessment that is sensitive while critical, encouraging, and realistic. Sid Harta Publishers is offering writers the opportunity to receive specialised editorial advice on their manuscripts with a view to having their stories published.
Contact SHP at: Sid Harta Publishers specialises [email protected] in new and emerging authors, Phone: (03) 9560 9920 and offers a full range of Mobile: 0408 537 792 publishing options. Web: http://sidharta.com.au We publish: SID HARTA PUBLISHERS: • print editions & print- 23 Stirling Crescent, Glen Waverley Vic 3150. on-demand via Amazon / Lightning Source I’ve now had four books published by Sid Harta. The fact that I have kept on • ebooks for all platforms. coming back indicates that I have been very happy with the services provided, Call us to discuss our service. from the initial manuscript assessment, to editing, book design and distribution. I have enjoyed the collaboration, particularly in editing and design, the final outcome a fusion of my ideas and suggestions made. Many thanks! — Noel Braun author of The Day Was Made for Walking, I Guess I’ll Keep on Walking, Whistler Street, Friend and Philosopher
RECENT TITLES…
Writers Queensland advertisement_2020 June_full page.indd 1 12/05/2020 1:05:09 PM PUBLISHED BY
ISSUE 269 Jun 2020 – Aug 2020 ISSN 1444-2922
Editorial and Production Sandra Makaresz Contents Editor Shannon Horsfall Guest Artist 2 Editorial Green Fox Studio Design 3 Meet Gary Crew CPX Printing & Logistics Printing 4 Machine Yearning By Alison Whittaker Submissions Members can submit Milestones or details of Events or Competitions and Opportunities, 6 Securing an Agent or pitch articles for WQ, by emailing us at By Alison Quigley [email protected] QWC reserves the right to edit all submissions 8 7 Ways to Create Sizzling First Sentences with regard to content and word length. By Pamela Rushby Advertising Advertising rates, deadlines and dimensions 10 6 Tips for Researching Your Novel and other information on how to advertise in By Tara East WQ is available at qldwriters.org.au/advertise. For advertising enquiries please contact 12 Emigrant [email protected] By Jane Smith QWC members enjoy a reduced advertising rate. Before booking an advertisement potential advertisers should read QWC’s 14 Thirty Years of QWC Advertising Terms and Conditions at By Craig Munro qldwriters.org.au/advertise
16 Writing a Business Strategy Staff By Lynne Lumsden Green Lori-Jay Ellis Chief Executive Officer 18 Challenge Accepted Winners Charlie Hester Discord and Harmony Social Media Officer Love at first sight Craig Cauchi Livestream Officer Meredith Taylor
23 Chasing the Wild Pineapple Financial Officer By Lesley Synge Callum McDonald Sophie Bafekr 24 NED Makes Legal Deposit Easy Samantha Tan By Robyn Hamilton Project Officers Management Committee
25 Member Milestones Kym Hausmann Chair 26 Writing Competitions Ann Wilson Vice Chair 29 QWC Membership Benefits Vacant Treasurer Carleton Chinner Secretary Sandra Makaresz Andrea Brosnan Sarah Thornton Angela Samut Judy Gregory Ordinary Members
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 1 ISSN 1444-2922 ISSUE 269 PUBLISHED BY
Editorial GUEST ARTIST Sandra Makaresz Shannon Horsfall Editor
Cover Illustration Biography:
Shannon Horsfall is undertaking her Honours degree in Creative Writing at USC. She is the award winning author-illustrator of Was Not Me and Nomax (both Writers often find solace in the world of imagination, but for some it hasn’t HarperCollins), and the illustrator been an easy escape to make of late. Uncertainty, fear, and misinformation Dear Santa My of (Scholastic) and have meant that many writers find themselves unable to focus, unable to Unicorn Farts Glitter (Hachette). achieve their best work. And I’m sure writers are not alone in this feeling. She has published short stories, With so much attention focussed on matters pandemic I do hope this issue poetry and flash fiction in the USC of WQ brings you a few moments of escape. anthologies 2018 and 2019. In 2017-2018 she illustrated Issue Reading Alison Whittaker’s article on AI in poetry was a challenging experience 259 of WQ Magazine for QWC. for me. I felt excited by the possibilities of poetry and wanted to put pen to paper. At the same time I was terrified to ever go there again, after her knowledgeable discussion of an aspect of poetry I’d never considered.
In celebration of the Queensland Writers Centre Quills, our many past CEOs and Chairs, we have reflections from Gary Crew and Craig Munro. We’ll continue to feature these in issues to come, where you’ll pick up unexpected gems like Gary’s advice on what is and is not writing.
Reading these two past Chairs’ work was an important lesson in remembering. This year we have had what seemed to be unforgettable bushfires that quickly slipped from the mainstream conversation as a virus stole our attention. Our memories are captured in the stories we tell and we hope you find support for your stories through the community of writers you’ve chosen to be part of at Queensland Writers Centre. Get involved, be part of something special and write the stories that you will be remembered for.
The Queensland Writers Centre, Management Committee and staff present WQ in good faith and accept no responsibility for any misinformation or problems arising from any misinformation. The views expressed by contributors or advertisers (including advertising supplying inserts) are not necessarily those of the Management Committee or staff.
2 WQ Meet Gary Crew QWC Chair, 1994–1997
Gary Crew is Professor Emeritus, Creative Writing, at Underworld, in 1994. I remained as chair of QWC from the University of the Sunshine Coast. Among his many 1994 until 1997 when, overwhelmed by my commitment awards, he has won the Australian Children’s Book to teaching and studying my doctorate at USC, and my of the Year Award four times, the American Children’s personal involvement with writing, I had to resign. Book of Distinction, the Wilderness Society Award for Environmental Writing, and the Royal Zoological Society At 73 years of age in 2020, and as a Professor of Creative Whitley Award. He lives on the waterfront of Bribie Island. Writing who has published over 90 novels, novellas, short stories and illustrated books internationally, it is probably As a Brisbane based author in the 1980s, I was a regular expedient to share a little advice. visitor to QWC, then based opposite Albert Park, Wickham Terrace. Brisbane was a lonely place for an emergent author Emergent writers should read widely, opening their minds in those days, so I often dropped in to seek advice from Dr to new ideas, new styles and new structures. And they Robyn Sheahan-Bright, the first QWC Director. Robyn had should write, write, write―constantly honing their craft. been my much-admired publisher at Jam Roll Press. Having a glass of red while watching the sun set is not writing; it’s thinking about writing—there’s a big difference. In 1994, with an MA from UQ, a dozen publications, and a Similarly, a great idea does not a novel make. Add to the few national and international literary awards, I moved to constant practice of writing the hard-earned attribute of Maleny. Within six months the newly opened University of persistence, and the would-be author may have a chance. the Sunshine Coast contacted me, asking if I would begin their Creative Writing Program. I agreed, also agreeing Given that the writer succeeds in producing a finished to undertake my Doctor of Creative Arts in Creative work, it’s devastating when the treasured manuscript is Writing. Not long after, Hilary Beaton, who had replaced rejected—often curtly. After just such a rejection, I once Robyn at QWC, asked if I would become Chair of QWC. polished off a bottle of brandy and sat in the back paddock, I was astonished (and flattered), but agreed. The now celebrated Queensland author, Steven Lang, who opened moping, until my wife wisely said, ‘What’s your next trick? the amazing Rosetta Bookshop in Maleny, agreed to join Get up and fix it!’ Yes, irrespective of numerous failures, QWC and accompany me on my trips to Brisbane. By this I have been blessed with success. But yes―I admit—the time, QWC was housed in Lower Edward Street. Meetings older a writer gets, the more rejections hurt, especially were held on Saturdays and parking was hell. when the publisher rejecting your work is half your age.
Admittedly, most meetings were taken up with approving Ouch! mundane administrative issues (insurance, rent), but a great deal of energy was also devoted to establishing workshops Let me close by saying that QWC’s assistance in all matters for emergent writers, with workshops conducted by the relating to writing has continued to improve since my day. growing number of local writers. While Queenslanders In 2020, QWC’s policy of providing access to the skills of venerated their iconic peers such as David Malouf, experienced writers across a range of genres is a very Jessica Anderson and Jenny Wagner, serious publication positive initiative. Much has changed in publishing since had begun among QWC’s rising younger membership, my (prehistoric) time as Chair, but the Queensland Writers namely: Nick Earls, James Moloney and Venero Armanno. Centre is equal to the task of facing whatever changes I was honoured to launch Veny’s first novel, Romeo in the publishing brings in the future.
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 3 Machine Yearning
By Alison Whittaker
It is a fact — a totally indefensible content was created and distributed. The fake AI scriptwriting was much and highly subjective one — that Including, regretfully for this poet and less devastating than an earlier poetry has a particular smell. It is a many others, a brief and humiliating revelation made on the border of warm, stale and thin book. It is the flirtation with altlit — a literary genre Web 2.0 and 3.0. Popular twitter day old scraped toast of the literary that tried to capture in poetry and account @horse_ebooks, known world. It is also the smell of when I fiction the new lexicon and mode of for coining the new ode of the entered Grolier Poetry Bookshop, communicating in chats, on social information age ‘Everything happens Boston’s only dedicated and nearly media, and in early computer-assisted so much’, was revealed to be a human silent poetry store, after nearly a year accessible content generation. and not a bot piecing strings of words of waiting only to supress a sneeze together. The sudden appearance of two minutes into my browsing, Now, we are moving quickly into Web the author destroyed the magic for unleashing a loud if scentless fart 3.0, a vast mode of hyper connectivity many — where’s the reader’s delight and immediately leaving in shame. not just between ourselves mediated in drawing profundity from bullshit if by technology, but by technology the profundity was already made? @ For so long, poetry has been mediating itself without human horse_ebooks soon became inactive. something in the organic. First, contact in the Internet of Things. a performance of sound and It makes sense that poetry is now Why doesn’t, in the world of bot conversation, transforming through moving into artificial intelligence, or personal assistants, this kind of rich memory from generation to the act of curating through algorithms, AI writing in scripts, fiction or essay generation and held by the land and around the same time that two bots yet really exist, even if only to parody venue themselves. Then, as writing. created by Facebook were shut down or mimic other pieces? Because Then, as mass produced and more for developing a sinister language algorithms, now and not forever, find easily accessed writing. Moving, as it between themselves beyond human it hard to get narrativity, character were, between high and low culture comprehension. Poetry is, I think, and complex concepts. These are poetry has taken itself wherever probably the first literary mode that’s the central mode of nearly all writing. language has. There can be, I think, done so well, and in interesting ways. Except, and it’s not hard to guess what no language without poetry. It makes I’m about to say, in poetry. Poetry is both sense, then, that poetry has moved You don’t have to look far on the about taking conventions of language into the digital a long time ago. internet to see the following flavour to their very borders, and coming of content — ‘we read this bot a up with the same kind of profundity With Web 1.0, it was centrally thousand hours of Real Housewives detachment as @horse_ebooks. organised resources and shared transcripts and here’s what it wrote’. Poetry is very well suited indeed to publications not always dynamic to They were, regrettably, revealed to be artificial intelligence and even just plain their readers. In Web 2.0, poetry mostly hoaxes — people pretending scraping and curating from bots. I say moved into the call and response to be algorithms pretending to be this as someone who obviously knows of the new distributed way that humans, for algorithms. nothing about computers, but as a
4 WQ poet who is increasingly interested in Rondels, and Indrisos from public and clearly identifiable as curated computer-generated and -aggregated twitter accounts on request. Would tweets, don’t really score. Others, language tools. you like to see Scott Morrison’s Sonnet having grown more sophisticated, are on the Commonwealth’s response to surprisingly clear, disarmingly simple, On the more serious end of using COVID-19 and other continent-wide and moving. algorithms to write poetry, I have used disasters? Of course you would. tools designed for the administration Other tools, like bot or not (botpoet. of the internet, in its vast com) offers a Turing test for poetry. conversations between algorithms, to The test is an existential one for both create poems as social commentary In assist poets and machines — if everything with that same sense of detachment. by Scott Morrison happens so much, are we at risk of For my legal poetry series (in my being made redundant by profound second collection BLAKWORK, and for Over the next few months. A hea… nonsense machines? Probably scholarly journals and serial literary Swinging into action. not. What is a poet but a curator of publications), I made pieces using We’ve got ahead, we’ll stay ahea… nonsense? What do these machines a trigram ranker. These tools are Please listen to the evacuation… offer us but more nonsense to designed for people to optimise their curate? What more are we really, than websites rankings on google — get To simple & reliable services.… an algorithm, forever optimising? enough key phrases in your website, Security Committee of Cabinet… see your curated web presence rise The size of our Apprentices… in search engines who seek them The future of Australian net… out. For me, I used it to rank the fifty most common three word phrases Involved in fighting these fires. in legal decisions — then presenting In Tasmania and has set his… them as a poem about how courts From the devastating bushfires. think through small concepts and legal language, revealing a subtle way Lest We Forget of expressing power in law that often Contact with local authorities. goes underattended to. And practical programme get…
For others, the writing is a fun way to reveal to people the possibility of poetry Pentametron, a bot invented by Ranjit in the way the internet is structured Bhatnagar, scrapes Twitter for iambic around tiny pieces of heavily stylised text to place in sonnets. In just one and intimate writing. One popular tool, year, they had written together over poetweet.com.br, generates Sonnets, five hundred sonnets. Some, childish
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 5 Securing an Agent
By Alison Quigley
You’ve ‘finished’ Netflix. You’ve read beta readers who aren’t immediate intend to query. Before considering every book in the house. Now you’re family, critique partners, and a couple which agency you’ll approach, decide left with a disquieting feeling you of professional editors. It pays to have on your assessment criteria. Are you should be furthering your writing a consensus that the work is polished chasing a larger agency? One that is career. You might be sitting on a enough to send out. new or well established? Is there one completed manuscript that’s ready to that espouses a particular style of submit, but the Covid-19 pandemic literature that matches yours? Would Step One. has left you wondering whether there’s you prefer one that is renowned for any point sending it out to agents. matching novels with movie deals? A Prepare five documents before you good starting point is a basic online start – a Query, opening pages, a The good news – at least from UK, search. For example, “New York literary short biography, a 1.logline and two Australia and the US – is that agents agencies: top fifteen” will land you at kinds of synopsis (a 300-word and are still reading queries and signing websites like https://writingtipsoasis. 600-word version). The most crucial up new authors. For reassurance on com/top-literary-agencies-in-the-us/. are the Query and the opening pages. this point, check out the Manuscript You can also learn about new agencies Some agents only ask for a Query. For through a free online subscription Academy podcast from Amy Elizabeth advice and examples of queries a great to Query Tracker. Also consider Bishop (https://manuscriptacademy. starting point is Query Shark (https:// subscribing to the free, abridged com/ourpodcast). queryshark.blogspot.com). version of Publishers Lunch, which lists upcoming book deals in America and With respect to the UK markets, For free or discounted advice on your internationally, along with the agency Jericho Writer’s Harry Bingham opening pages, it’s worth considering and agent who secured the deal. reports, “Optimism is hard-wired into Manuscript Wishlist (MW). From agents, so they are still looking at time to time MW invites writers to For speedier results, consider buying queries and are still picking the good submit their opening pages for a Guide to Literary Agents 2020, which uns out of the slush pile.” free assessment by an American has the advantage of a Literary Agent agent. For more, visit https://www. Specialties Index. If you’ve written a What follows is a five-step plan to manuscriptwishlist.com/2017/03/ thriller, for instance, you’ll immediately secure the ideal agent for your novel. new-the-first-pages-podcast/. secure a list of more than one hundred It involves almost no financial outlay agencies actively seeking this genre. and can be broken down into small Step Two. steps, handy for those with a busy Step Three. home schedule. Before embarking Prepare a table in Word or Excel, with on the plan, ensure your manuscript columns titled Agency, Agent, Agent Research your agents and their has been critiqued by a sufficient Interests, and Action.2. Make the rows interests. Your Query will list number of independent appraisers – as deep as the number of agents you comparison titles. 3.Who agented
6 WQ those novels? Recall the authors tackling one hundred queries in a your work – and who knows? – you Securing who inspired you to write your novel single headlong rush, break the task may even secure a competing offer. and take note of their agents. Does down into workable increments. Divide your novel incorporate a sport, your list into four batches of twenty- Step Five. an Agent hobby or occupation that matches five and set a deadline to query these with an agent’s stated interest? To agents over two weeks. Pause before Review your results. If, after one find out, it’s worth not only reading launching into the next batch and take hundred queries, you have no an agent’s official profile but also stock of your efforts. Is your Query requests, consider professional5. input. what’s on their Twitter feed, LinkedIn attracting requests? How do you If money is an issue, consider joining an profile, Manuscript Wishlist and know when to leave off hoping? While online discussion group such as Jericho #MSWL. If your novel is strong on most agencies acknowledge receipt of Writers’ Townhouse, whose members setting, consider targeting agents your query, not all agencies reply with offer free advice on submissions. from specific geographical regions. an outcome. Larger agencies receive Does your manuscript fit within a up to one thousand queries per week Perseverance is key. Find a writing buddy who is also querying. Suffering well-specified genre? Free online and are too overwhelmed to offer through this pandemic is burden databases that match genres with individual replies. Increasingly, agents enough. Support from your writing agents include Manuscript Wishlist, set up a cut-off period, after which the submission is deemed to be rejected. friends could make all the difference. Agent Query, and AgentMatch from Jericho Writers, with a free trial period. In the Action column, you’ll record your submission date and results. Step Four. If your Query was rejected, note the Alison Quigley is a two-time Varuna date and details. This is important so residency recipient, has twice been Set deadlines. Keeping to a schedule that you don’t query an agent twice awarded an ASA mentor fellowship and has recently received a RADF manuscript buffers you from the psychological but also if you want to re-query that development grant for her gymnastics effects of rejection.4. Once your list agent after a decent lapse of time. The murder mystery The Trophy Room, now amounts to one hundred agents, Action column will tell you which work under consideration by agents. She can prioritise which ones you’ll query is still being reviewed. If you do receive be found at www.alisonquigley.com, on first, according to a numerical ranking an offer of representation, notify Instagram as alisonquigleyauthor and of your own devising. Rather than those agents who are still reviewing Twitter at alisonquigleyau.
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 7 ways to create sizzling first sentences By Pamela Rushby
What’s the most important sentence in your story? All pretty compelling, yes? Except one. I slipped that in there because I don’t like it at all. I think it’s weak. Dull. The first! It’s ‘The three backpackers were breathing heavily.’ B-o-r-i-n-g. And I can say that because I wrote it. It’s the When a potential reader picks up your book in a bookshop first sentence of my ya novel Circles of Stone. It makes me or library they’ll glance at the cover. Possibly read the blush now. I’d never use that as a first sentence again. blurb on the back. Then, if they’re still attracted, flip the book open and read the first sentence. So how could I have made that stronger – a sizzling first sentence? One way is to locate the first really dramatic The first sentence. incident in the book and make that the first sentence. Put it right up front. Hook the reader, then explain what’s Now, you have probably not (unless you’re an author/ going on in flashbacks. illustrator) designed the cover. Probably not written the blurb on the back. So that first sentence is your first In Circles I was 2000 words into the story before something opportunity to grab your reader – and keep them reading. exciting happened: the discovery of a centuries-old mummified body in a bog. That’s where I should have begun! Which means that first sentence needs to be a sizzler.
Here are just a few first sentences that I desperately wish But there are many different ways to start a story, I’d written. You probably have favourites of your own – and I’ve collected seven of them. and I’d love to hear them. • A character does something – action! • The small boys arrived early for the hanging. (The Pillars • A character says something – speech, dialogue of the Earth, Ken Follett, Penguin Random House 2016) • The writer makes a statement - a thought, an • I’ve been collecting bugs since I was ten: it’s the only observation way I can stop their whispers. (Splintered, A.G. Howard, Amulex Books 2013) • A character feels something – sensory experience, using any of the senses • King Constantine IX of Regia had been killed three times and was bored with it. (The Beggar Queen, Lloyd • There’s a surprise – a statement that’s out of the Alexander, E.P.Dutton 1984) ordinary
• The three backpackers were breathing heavily. (Circles • The reader is asked something – a question of Stone, HarperCollins 2003 ) • Something is described – a setting, a person, but it • I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. (I Capture the Castle, must be vivid Dodie Smith, St Martins Griffin 1948)
8 WQ ways to create sizzling first sentences
And here are a few examples:
Action I didn’t hesitate. I shot him. Pamela Rushby Dialogue ‘So, Sabrina, just when was it you discovered I was born in Queensland, Australia, more years ago than I care that you were destined to kill your one true love?’ to divulge. I grew up (mostly) in Ipswich, though my family spent a couple Thought It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a of years in Penang, Malaysia. High school years were in Ipswich. single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in As long as I can remember, I’ve been a reader. And ever since want of a wife (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen) encountering, at the age of about six, a photograph of Enid Blyton, seated at her desk in an English country house, dogs at Senses, feeling He knew there was something about her feet, probably engaged on rattling out another Famous Five that room, it was the way he shivered and a cold sweat adventure, I decided that that was the life. I wanted to be a writer. broke out under his arms whenever he passed it. I achieved it after taking the long way round of working as an Surprise, shock I never thought my favourite cousin advertising copywriter, a publicity officer and a pre-school would try to poison me on my sixteenth birthday. teacher; studying ancient history, journalism and art history; and writing and producing for television. As technology changed I Question When you start a new school you know it’s also wrote and produced multimedia. not going to be a barrel of laughs, but do you expect to be Along the way I got married, had two children (both now grown charged with murder on your first day? up) and travelled whenever and wherever I could. I now live in Brisbane with my husband and son (our daughter is Description Dusk drew in, sleet hissed furiously against married, also a writer, and she and her husband have produced the cabin walls, and much closer than they would have a delightful daughter and son). There’s also six or seven (it’s hard liked, something suspiciously like a wolf howled. to tell, they all look alike) free-loading scrub turkeys that peck at the back door for handouts. Want to try it for yourself? Here’s a short scenario: I write full time, and do my best thinking while swimming laps in the backyard pool. It’s 79AD. You’re living in Pompeii, in Italy. You’ve noticed some slight earth tremors in the past few days, but these What’s your first sizzling sentence? happen often in Pompeii. Nothing to worry about. Then, without warning, you hear an ear-splitting roar. You turn Pamela Rushby has had over 200 books published, both to see the mountain behind your town has exploded. A in Australia and overseas. Her books and scripts have huge black cloud is climbing up into the sky. won many awards. Her historical fantasy middle-grade novel, The Mummy Smugglers of Crumblin Castle will be Now, choose a way to start: action, dialogue, statement, published by Walker in 2020. It is guaranteed to have a feeling, surprise, question, description. sizzling first sentence.
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 9 6 Tips for Researching Your Novel
By Tara East
with me. I was complaining about 1. Know your topic this to a friend one night and she immediately whipped out her phone Before you start reaching out to and fired off an email. It turned out, primary resources, familiarise yourself she went to school with someone with the topic you’re researching. Give who owned a funeral parlour. A week yourself full permission to go down later, I got my interview. the online rabbit hole. Experiment with different keywords and make sure that you have a notebook (or 3. Making contact word document) handy to record reoccurring terminology or any If your existing network cannot help questions that arise. you, you can ‘cold’ email resources The internet makes discovering directly by finding their contact Look for newspaper articles, feature new information easier than information online. Make sure your stories, interviews or fact sheets. email is professional and polite; you’re ever, but primary resources offer You can also read blogs, essays, asking someone to give up their time insight and details you won’t find interviews, and memoirs. If you find a for no personal benefit. anywhere online. Sometimes the useful article or web page, be sure to best primary resource are people. make a record of it so that you can In your email, be sure to include If your protagonist is a surgeon, return to it later. your name, how you found them for example, a primary resource (article, interview, website), why you would be memoirs or blogs written would like to interview them, some 2. Use your existing network by surgeons. These resources are information regarding your project, useful starting points, but you will your background/bio, and the kind of Before you start emailing random gain far more insight by interviewing questions you’d like to ask. strangers, consider tapping into a surgeon. your existing network. Ask family and friends if they know anyone 4. Prepare Speaking with an industry professional relevant to your research. You may can provide unique details. Plus, you’ll be surprised to discover that you and Spend some time thinking about be able to ask questions that pertain your ideal resource are separated by what you need to know before the directly to your novel. only six degrees! interview. Ideally, you’ve already done extensive background research, so The following six steps will guide you I once spent two years trying to find an use your time with your interviewee as through this process. embalmer who’d be willing to speak a way to fact-check your information.
10 WQ For example, if you are writing a police the best and worst parts of their job? If it feels appropriate to do so, ask procedural set in Australia, but most As you warm up into the interview, the interviewee if they’d be open to of the information online pertains to ask them about any unusual cases checking any of the scenes relevant to American procedures, then ask your or events they have been involved in their profession or if they’d be happy interviewee to clarify local workplace or any interesting workplace stories for you to email them for clarification policies and processes. they’d like to share. or further details.
You’ve chosen this interviewee for If they are working in a high-stress or Ideally, you want to leave the interview their expertise, so don’t be afraid to unusual job, ask them how they feel knowing that you can contact this ask for advice or clarification on any about the work and how it affects person again if any additional relevant technical plot points you are them emotionally and mentally. You questions arise (and they will!) during struggling with. Layout scenarios you will have to use your judgement before the writing process. are considering writing about and ask asking these personal questions as them what would realistically happen not everyone will be comfortable Finding the right professionals to in that situation. If there are any answering them. If the person works interview can take a little time, but scenes where believability is an issue, in a harsh or physical environment, it’s well worth the effort. The details ask the interviewee if what you have you can ask them how their work has gained through these interviews can written is possible. affected them physically. assist in adding credibility, authenticity, and intrigue to your book. A primary The kind of details you are looking for resource will provide you with insights 5. Focus on details will change depending on the topic that the internet can’t, and it is these and the person you are interviewing. details that will take your work to the Details¬¬-these are something a Think about the tactile details (sound, next level. primary resource can provide that touch, sight, smell, taste) you need to online sources can’t. know to make a scene come alive. Tara East is a doctoral student with four If you are interviewing your resource degrees in communication. She maintains in their place of work, make sure that 6. After the interview a weekly writing advice blog & vlog at you pay attention to the surroundings. taraeast.com. Her debut novel, Every Time What is the layout of the building? Being polite and professional is a He Dies, is available now. What is the quality of light like and good habit regardless of who you how does it smell? Is it busy, loud? are speaking to. If you carefully How does the place feel? Sombre, prepare for your interview, ask good stressful, hectic, calm? questions, act courteously and thank your interviewee for their time, it’s far Ask the interviewee for specific details. more likely that you will build a good What is their typical day like? What are rapport.
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 11 Emigrant History – it’s all in the detail
By Jane Smith
A few years ago I was on holiday at – or desperate enough – to risk a long- doctors involved (the third, Irish-born the beautiful Stradbroke Island when haul voyage to a strange and exotic Patrick Walsh Mallon, survived). I visited the historic cemetery at land, far from all that was familiar. Dunwich (I love cemeteries; so many Some had survived the horrific voyage I learned the Emigrant was the second stories there!). Where the shady only to die at the quarantine station. government-assisted ship to bring ground slopes away to the bay, I came I wanted to know more about them; free settlers directly to Moreton across twenty-six unnamed white they must have had stories to tell. And Bay. The scheme was designed to crosses in two rows. At one end of what of the survivors? What became attract young, healthy, ‘respectable’ the crosses were two graves bearing of them? immigrants to the settlement which inscriptions explaining they were the had been struggling to grow since final resting places of two doctors I decided to find out. I wanted to the convict establishment had closed – George Mitchell and David Keith write their stories – not just names eight years earlier. The Emigrant, Ballow – who had died caring for the and dates, but the fleshed-out, real, commanded by Captain William Henry passengers of the typhus-stricken human stories. I wanted to bring to life Kemp, set off with 276 such travellers ship Emigrant, back when Stradbroke the conditions of their voyage: the dim, from England and Ireland. Island housed a quarantine station. airless, cramped, stinking steerage When typhus broke out on board, the At the other end of the crosses was a quarters where deadly disease lurked, emigrants – despite rigorous sanitation plaque listing the names of those who and the long, agonising months spent routines – didn’t stand a chance. The had perished during the 1850 voyage in leaking makeshift tents at Dunwich, cause of typhus (a bacterium carried and quarantine. watching companions die one by one and wondering who would be next. by lice and fleas) was unknown in The plaque lists the names, ages, 1850, and a cure was a long way off. It places of origin, and – where known So my research began. An earlier was known that it thrived in cramped – death dates of the victims. There researcher, Kay Bothwell, had conditions like army camps, gaols and were 48 deaths in total: the ship’s compiled data about the incident: ships. 25-year-old Irish surgeon, Dr Mitchell; shipping records, a bibliography, In researching for Ship of Death: The Brisbane’s surgeon and acting birth, death and marriage records, Tragedy of the ‘Emigrant’, I learned some health officer Dr Ballow (who ran the etc. It was an excellent starting point. fascinating facts. For instance, on long- quarantine hospital when Dr Mitchell From there I searched Trove and fell ill); a sailor; the ship’s cook; and 44 online databases, scoured archives haul voyages, matrons were employed emigrants. and libraries all around Australia to guard the reputations of the young and the United Kingdom, and found ladies. Strict rules forbade fraternising Reading the plaque was sobering. It descendants with stories to tell. I even between single women and men – and struck me as terribly sad that all we travelled to Plymouth, England (the yet, after the ordeal ended, at least knew about those people was a few ship’s port of departure); to London; ten couples amongst the passengers statistics. Yet these were real people; and to Edinburgh to track down married! (I wonder if the matron’s people who were adventurous enough information about the three main death facilitated this.) Through
12 WQ researching the suicide by drowning What a nightmare. Despite fear, hardship and grief, they of a young woman in quarantine, made it through as a community – and And yet, then as now, acts of kindness I learned that one of the methods we will do the same. kept people going. Residents of sometimes used to resuscitate a Moreton Bay sent newspapers and drowning victim was to tickle the anus quoits to keep the emigrants informed Jane Smith is a librarian and author with a feather! And through following and entertained. Some emigrants with a particular interest in history. Her up on the fate of six children orphaned distinguished themselves with their publications include the non-fiction by typhus, I learned of the dreadful selflessness – like Mary Connor, an ‘Australian Bushrangers’ series and the conditions in nineteenth-century illiterate young Irishwoman who cared Sydney orphanages. for the orphans, or like poor David ‘Tommy Bell: Bushranger Boy’ historical Hobbs, a young carpenter who worked fiction series for children, as well as the It’s all these facts – the details – that day and night repairing buildings and adults’ biography Captain Starlight: The bring history to life. The stench of making coffins. I say ‘poor’ because Strange but True Story of a Bushranger, steerage (think of vomit and dirty the rest of his life would be blighted by Impostor and Murderer. Jane’s Captain nappies), the cramped prickling of alcoholism and loss. But many survived the 18-inch-wide berth with its straw and thrived, becoming successful Thunderbolt was shortlisted for an ABIA mattress, the strains of the hymns businessmen, mayors, politicians – in 2015, and Shoot-out at the Rock was a typically sung during a funeral at sea. and even a Supreme Court Judge. CBCA ‘notable’ book in 2017. The finger-pointing in the media and the good captain’s distress.
With the Covid-19 pandemic and the experience of isolation now so real to us, the passengers of the Emigrant have been much on my mind. Their six-month ordeal was both tedious and terrifying. Their conditions were uncomfortable, and communications with outside minimal. While in quarantine, the emigrants themselves worked as butchers, storekeepers, launderers – and nurses, though hospital attendants had to be persuaded with payment and alcohol, for they would all fall ill at some stage. They had no Netflix to entertain them or Facebook or Zoom to keep connected with friends and family.
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 13 Thirty Years of QWC
By Craig Munro
I became inaugural chair of the QWC had was the South Australian Writers within a world class cultural precinct. after working on the original steering Centre which had begun a few years In no other Australian state do committee which met monthly in earlier. South Australia’s population is writers have access to such a creative the boardroom at UQP. At that time concentrated in Adelaide so they were environment across the full spectrum a number of writing groups were able to offer centre-based services of artistic expression. The QWC is now active in Queensland and most to all their members which was not part of a vital nationwide network of were represented on the steering possible in Queensland. writers centres supporting literary committee. The Literature Board creativity in ways the original board of the Australia Council and Arts Alongside the Brisbane Writers could never have envisaged three Queensland both provided financial Festival, the QWC supported and decades ago. support and the QWC was extremely showcased the work of Queensland fortunate to secure Robyn Sheahan- writers at a time when readers were Craig Munro was founding chair of Bright as inaugural director. embracing Australian books as never Queensland Writers Centre (1990-1991) before. UQP’s literary publishing and is an award-winning biographer. The centre began operating in early program had accelerated during As the inaugural fiction editor at the 1990 from an old, disused public the 1980s and in 1989 the Press University of Queensland Press, he service building in William Street which established the David Unaipon Award worked with many emerging writers who proved to be less than ideal but was to provide publishing opportunities have since become celebrated authors. the only space available to us near the for a new generation of Indigenous His new book Literary Lion Tamers will be published next year. city centre. The first AGM was held in writers. This award continues thirty its meeting room one hot and humid years later as part of the annual evening, with traffic roaring past on Queensland Literary Awards and has the freeway just outside. It was a led to the State Library’s Black&Write memorable AGM, not least because training program for Indigenous two inebriated members turned editors. In that time university creative up late and disrupted proceedings writing courses have also played an before being asked to leave. increasingly significant role, and the QWC has developed professional I was QWC chair for the first year and workshops and other programs remained on the board for several that have provided invaluable more years. One of the challenges opportunities for writers and writing we faced in that pre-internet era was communities throughout the state. regional outreach, and Robyn worked hard to establish links with writers and The centre has found a natural home writing groups outside Brisbane. In in the State Library and benefits 1990 the only writers centre model we immeasurably from being located
14 WQ WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 15 Writing a Business Strategy – A Guide for Beginners
By Lynne Lumsden Green
Grab a piece of paper and a pencil one article a week by December. To and write down these headings: do this, I need to develop a pitch/ query at least once a week. To do that What are your long-term I must develop relationships with the goals? Where do you want to 1. editors of my target markets. be in five years?
What are your short-term Can you see how setting a goal leads 2. goals? What do you want to implementing a series of logical to achieve in the next six actions to achieve that goal? When months? I achieve my short-term goals, I am What has worked best for you working towards achieving my long- 3. in the past? What hasn’t? term goals. That’s how you construct your business plan. If something For the past couple of years, I’ve What can you learn from your isn’t working for you, try something been fine-tuning my business successes? 4. different. Once, I used to send off one strategy as a writer. At a recent short story at a time and be crushed writing conference, I discovered What can you learn from your if it wasn’t accepted. I had no plan. that many writers, even those with 5. failures? Then, I tried working smarter as well years of experience, find setting Your answers are the start of your as harder. business goals daunting. It isn’t. It’s business strategy. only frightening because it seems This goal setting and organisation complex. By taking it one step at a Let’s look at part of my business helps me stay on track and is time, your business strategy can be strategy as a stepping off point. beginning to pay off. Over the past two made simple and understandable. For 2020, one of my goals is to years, I’ve had the goal of achieving get more paying gigs. This means I 100 rejections a year. This meant I need to write nonfiction articles for had to send off ten to twelve short magazines, as well as short stories for stories a month. I’m getting to be a paying markets. From January, as part better writer and better at submitting; of keeping proper records, I’ve been and achieving more successes and keeping a monthly fiction spreadsheet acceptances. This strategy also separate from my nonfiction contributes towards my long-term submission spreadsheets. I started goal of becoming published by a by wanting to sell an article a month, traditional publisher. I have nothing but I am hoping to increase that to against self-publishing, but my heart
16 WQ yearns to be published in a hardback As you can see, my business strategy same time, don’t drown them with book with a lovely cover. Not all goal is tailored to my goals and that is enquiries, they have their own writing setting has to be practical. how you can put your business goals to achieve. If you are part strategy together. What do you want of a writing group, ask your fellow As writing is my business, I try to keep to achieve? It isn’t a complex plan to members for pointers; it’s also polite to a schedule. I spend an hour or so take over the world; it’s just a map of to be prepared to return the favour every morning on mail, updating my where you are going and where you when asking for help. files, and researching new markets. have been. Don’t forget to update it This part of my business strategy won’t regularly, I recommend a minimum of Once you have a good idea of your be changing any time soon. I then once a year. map, write it down, and you have spend an hour every day on social started putting together your business media. I recently had over 400,000 Still daunted? Don’t have enough strategy. Now it’s up to you to set people come through my Steampunk information to make up your mind? your goals. Don’t forget to be brave. Sunday page on Facebook; a ready- Time to do some research into your Take risks. Having a business strategy made audience for my writing! You genre, your writing community, doesn’t mean it has to be boring. might want to do writing courses or and delve into finding the markets attend more conferences, or join you might want to submit to. Don’t a writing group, so don’t forget to be afraid to ask questions of more include those in your business plan. experienced writers; but at the
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 17 Challenge Accepted Winners
Winners of the Queensland Writers Centre/Brisbane Early Music Festival Competition 2020
st Discord and Harmony PLACE 1 By Rosetta McGee
Rosalina sucking up to rich patrons like Papa. I was five when my My brother is a clot. A clot with no sense of timing – which parents were killed by robbers. Farmer Luca took me in, but all subtle and educated ears agree is the most important let me tell you he didn’t stand for laziness -- he was quick element in any musical ensemble. Dannazione it vexes me with a switch to the backs of my legs. Still, he gave me plenty to hear him in the next room endlessly rehearsing with his to eat and clean straw every month to sleep, and I learned to Banda danzante veneziana, getting it wrong time after time, work hard. When I was 15 I escaped to Venice. and speaking of time, why can’t they agree on one? How can anyone dance when the tabor is spewing up endless Rosalina trochees that are so uneven no one knows when the next I was raised at the Ospedale della Pieta and had violin and one is about to start. It’s only two beats, a long and a short. singing lessons with the divine Maestro Vivaldi. When the Is that so hard? At the same time the timbrel is jangling and Medicis visit Venice they always come to our performances tapping through its fussy fancy flourishments, and his blasted and my playing captivated them, so they sponsored me. recorder is completely taken up with its own importance. Things were going quite well until Papa brought Hugo home. Playing the right notes isn’t everything, after all! A swineherd! He was rabidly jealous when he saw how my violin brought me favours. So every time I was asked to play, Hugo he just happened to be passing through the room with A sharp-tongued viper. A bossy know-all. She thinks she his horrid little stick. How can a swineherd be a musician? runs this place with her flouncing skirts and her screeching Only by playing the most irritating instrument, the recorder. violin. Merda I’ve had enough of that little mignotta. Everyone Sounds like a sick parrot. knows she’s from the orphanage and just because she saws away all day long at that contraption of catgut and horsehair Hugo doesn’t give her the right to look down on me. It has the voice of angels, from the cool celestial tones of the great bass to the cheerful cherub of the sopranino. I Rosalina apprenticed myself to an instrument maker and sought out Banda danzante veneziana – hah! He’s not from Venice at all. a good teacher. Just because I know how to use an axe and And he’s not my brother either, we were both adopted. He a scythe doesn’t mean I can’t interpret the genius of Rameau came from Lughetto, that horrible village up the road. What and Lully with sensitivity. My teacher told Papa about me our guardian saw in him I’ll never know. Well, that’s wrong, and he took me into his protection. I’ve put together a I do know – it was his smarmy smile and his wheedling little consort, just me and a tabor and a timbrel, and we’re whine. Papa is a pushover for syrupy fawning. When Hugo sounding pretty good. If it wasn’t for that bitch in the next presented himself some of the women actually fainted at his room everything would be heavenly. supposed beauty. Beauty! Hah. A pretty lip and a mop of blonde hair do not equal beauty. Rosalina Last night was the most disastrous development yet: Papa Hugo ordered me to play in Hugo’s band. Me and my beautiful new Some of us worked hard for our good fortune, shoveling Guarneri violin – playing with him and his stupid recorder. shit and chasing goats and wrestling hogs – yes, and even I tried to reason with Papa: it won’t give me enough time
18 WQ image: Freepik.com
to practice, recorders are mere accompaniments, there is limelight with her pouty lips and her tiny ankles. Che cazzo no suitable music for it, I would be alone in questionable sono rabbioso. company -- but he wouldn’t hear any of it. Then I tried my sweetest smile, giving him kisses and telling him how much Rosalina I loved and respected him, thanking him, praising him, and First rehearsal. They smell. But then, they are men aren’t I even threw in a few tears – niente. You will play in Hugo’s they? band. Hugo Hugo First rehearsal. She didn’t say much, just held her nose in the But here’s the latest pox in this stew: Papa has decided that air as always. She thinks because she can play in tune we she’s going to play with us! With my own Banda danzante should all bow down and kiss her feet. veneziana – a violin! I told him it would wreck the timbre, Rosalina she doesn’t know our repertoire, we use different tuning, We are sorting out the tempo and rhythms – grazie deo. It’s it would be impossible to keep together, I would rather eat still a load of slop overall (what did I expect anyway?), but sheep dung. Nothing worked – she tossed her black hair swapping parts makes an interesting change. around and scrunched up her pretty little face and stuck out her tongue at me! And all she plays is that damned Vivaldi! Hugo I wish she would get over him and try out some of the Lully, Women! She’s making me crazy with all her damn ornaments which we find is so much more refined and elegant. But no and sforzandi and tenuti. Where does she think we’re going – it’s Antonio Antonio Antonio day and night. with this anyway? Rosalina Rosalina Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse. Papa is giving How have I lived without Lully? He is a genius. a ball and not only do I not get to be presented, not get to wear a new ballgown, not get to eat sweetmeats, not get to Hugo meet and smile and chat with eligible men, not get to hear Vivaldi called in to our rehearsal yesterday and made some the latest gossip, not get to dance – not that dancing to THAT very astute suggestions. There may be something there. band would be very enjoyable -- not only that, but I have to be seen in public, and be heard in public, playing with that Rosalina clumsy, off-beat mob of losers. My life is over. The way his lips embrace the mouthpiece makes my heart race. Hugo Papa is putting on a ball in two weeks and he expects us Hugo to provide the music all night long, for dancing, for dining, Why do I get so damned hot and sweaty every time she for mingling – which would have been fantastic, what an looks at me? opportunity to be seen and heard by all the best families – but now we have to drag her along so she can steal all the cont...
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 19 Challenge Accepted Winners
Winners of the Queensland Writers Centre/Brisbane Early Music Festival Competition 2020
nd PLACE Love at first sight 2 By Rosemary Stride
Rosalina The bowl gleams, ribs curving expectantly towards Wonderful discovery! The violin doesn’t require me the fine-grained soundboard; a dark neck stretches out to take a breath to start playing, but today by chance I across the forest-green velvet on which the instrument breathed at the same time Hugo did. And like a consort of reclines. I can’t take my eyes off it. My fingers ache to angels, we started playing at exactly the same time – AND stroke its silky contours, depress the strings against the at the same tempo. Even the timbrel seemed to be in the ebony fingerboard, bring the lute to life. moment. The effect was heavenly, and it lasted well into The price tag snaps my reverie. Weekend shifts at the the second page. I was quite breathless. In a good way. I coffee shop won’t finance such indulgences. My meagre think. savings are being put aside for university next year. I try being stern with myself: tell myself my classical guitar Hugo is quite good enough for the Senior Music and Drama A strange moment at today’s rehearsal. I started playing performance. But, but, but. That lute’s beautiful. It couldn’t as usual, and I expected everyone else to come in late, sound anything but enchanting. And no one else has one. as usual, and have to hurry to catch me. After all, I’m the Most of the class wouldn’t know what it was. Until last leader. But she wasn’t late – she was exactly with me, and school holidays, nor would I. exactly in my tempo. I was so surprised I glanced up and We were visiting relatives in Canberra when my parents she had a mysterious hint of a smile on her lips. Have her spotted a flyer for a concert by the Song Company and lips always been so red? an English lutenist called Nigel North. It was a revelation. I loved the Renaissance music, especially the pieces by John Dowland. The clarity of the notes, underpinned by a delicate resonance, delighted me. By the end of the evening I was hooked. One day, I promised myself, I’d learn to play the lute. Feste, the clown dressed in motley, court jester in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is my allotted role. I’m one of several. Each of us will sing a song from the play and accompany him or herself. It’s our final music assessment — vital that I do well if I’m to get into the Conservatorium next year. My performance needs to stand out. When we draw straws for the songs I get lucky. I draw the one that closes the play — When that I was and a little tiny boy. I’ll have the stage to myself and the choice of setting is mine. Numerous tunes have been used in the four hundred years since the bard wrote the words, and the original music has been lost. My teacher suggests I might like a modern setting. I don’t. I want to sound
20 WQ image: Freepik.com
authentic. I want something I could accompany on a lute. for her once or twice before she passed away.” But that is to be a surprise. “For the rain it raineth every day.” The instrument’s dark pegboard beckons as I pass on Mr Davies’ eyebrows shoot up. my way home the following week. And this time I notice “It’s a line from a song in Twelfth Night,” I explain. “Says the rose. It’s a Celtic knot design, a symbol of eternity, of life’s always a mix of happy and sad. Like your story.” unending love. So apt. He smiles as I describe my role and how I need it to be “Beautiful, isn’t she?” special. I jump. The shopkeeper’s been watching me from his “Come back on Friday, Nick. I’ve an idea.” door. The week drags. I use the time memorising the lyrics, “Love the wood. That dark honey with a pattern through adding and re-adding every dollar and cent I have, hoping it. What is it?” to come up with a larger figure. My parents nag: I’m “Figured maple. Birdseye pattern.” distracted, not answering questions, forgetting things. “Spruce soundboard?” Dad decides I’m in love. I am. Just not the sort he has in mind. “Yes. Fine-grained. Good resonance.” On Friday, Mr Davies is waiting. “Attractive contrast with the maple and the dark neck.” “Come in, Nick. No customers. You’re not disturbing “Black walnut that.” He puts out his hand. “Tom Davies.” anything.” His grip belies his years. He ushers me towards the back of the shop, past “Nick Morgan.” violins, violas, cellos, double basses. Right at the back I “How d’you know about lutes?” spot a mandolin and several brightly coloured ukuleles. “Heard one a few months back. Been wanting to learn Children’s instruments. ever since. I play guitar but the lute sounds better.” “I see you cater for everyone, Mr. Davies, but I don’t Mr Davies’ white moustache crinkles. He pushes his see any other lutes.” He chuckles and pulls back a curtain glasses up his nose. “I sell all sorts of string instruments, behind the counter. old and new, and do repairs. But I’m with you, Nick. “Voilà!” On his workbench lie two, big-bellied lutes. “Had Lutes are special. Don’t often get them though. Certainly these a while. Pegs need replacing. They get out of shape not ones as lovely as that. It’s Renaissance style with six after a while, which makes tuning difficult. No match for courses.” the beauty in the window, but I’d be happy to teach you on “Where’d it come from?” one of them in return for help on Saturday mornings. Say “Elderly gentleman had it custom-made for his wife. half an hour after we shut at twelve?” My nod’s emphatic. She was ill. They’d met doing Renaissance literature at “Used to teach. Too old and crabby now. But you seem university, and both had roles in one of Shakespeare’s keen and if you master it quickly maybe you’d like to plays. The old guy said she fell in love with the music borrow one for the performance?” I open my mouth, but before she even looked at him. But he only got to play it cont...
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 21 he continues. “And I could ask the old gentleman if he’d The timbre of this lute holds a subtle warmth which thrills reconsider the price of the one you’ve been ogling.” me. It’s a warmth I see reflected in Mr Davies’ eyes. Why take on extra work? Surely Sunday mornings at the “The gut strings do that,” he smiles. coffee shop are enough in such an important year? My I continue, entranced, until a note twangs and I freeze. parents are unimpressed, but I don’t explain. It could all “Don’t worry,” he reassures me. “Try not to press down come to nothing. Instead, I try to placate them by asking too hard with your thumb. Use a smooth, sideways for help finding a setting for my song. Not an easy task. movement.” Nothing sounds authentic and I’m considering other I try. Again, and again. Until the tone sounds golden, options when Dad finds Arthur Deller’s version of Feste’s honeyed. song, accompanied on the lute. It’s perfect. Except that “Well done, Nick. Shall I ask if you can borrow this lute he’s a counter tenor. I’m not. Dad promises to help me to for your performance?” transpose the melody down a little, to suit my range, but I’m worried the accompaniment might be a little low for My grin hurts. the lute. Waiting in the wings, the play seems endless. It’s been Saturday mornings have become the highlight of my shortened, but everyone must have their chance to shine. week. I dispense cakes of rosin, replacement strings Drama and music students. My song isn’t until Act Five, and pegs, take in instruments for repair, sweep the after everyone else has left the stage. I’ve performed before, but I’m nervous as a novice. I listen for my cue floor, make coffee, refill the sheet music stand and while keeping a close eye on the lute recumbent in its update advertisements for lessons. Nothing’s too much open case. Curious glances dart in my direction, but mid- trouble; my courtesy never wavers. And when it’s over, performance is no time for questions. I’m a fraction late I get my lesson. Mr Davies has helped me adapt the entering with Malvolio’s letter, but it seems only moments accompaniment, and I’m getting used to the different before Orsino is leading the cast off-stage in pursuit of the hand position. So much more intimate than the guitar. humiliated, yellow-stockinged steward. I retrieve the lute Resting my little finger against the soundboard, thumb and take my seat on a low stool, stage right. folded into my palm I feel I’m cradling something precious, A few introductory chords still the laughter. Silence fragile. Plucking the strings with my finger pads instead of cloaks the auditorium in velvet. Clear as a bellbird, the lute a plectrum I’m as one with the instrument. fills the space with delicious harmonies, complementing “Would you like to try the lute in the window?” my tenor perfectly. My love for this instrument pervades “Really?” Can’t believe my ears. As instructed, I’ve been every phrase. practising on my guitar with the third string tuned down a Moments pass. No one moves. And then the studio semitone to suit the lute music, but it always takes a few erupts. My parents are clapping, my peers cheering. At moments to readjust to the genuine instrument. Still, Mr the rear of the auditorium stands an elderly man wiping Davies must think I’m doing well. his eyes with a handkerchief. Mr Davies. And at last I I run my fingers over the silken maple, pluck the first understand. The lute is his; it’s the one he played for his bar of Feste’s song, and immediately hear the difference. wife.
22 WQ Chasing the Wild Pineapple Susan Hawthorne, Woman on a Mission
Chasing the Wild Pineapple pays tribute to Thea Astley, author of Hunting the Wild Pineapple and founding member if the Queensland Writers Centre.
By Lesley Synge
When I read Susan Hawthorne’s the Whitsundays) won the 2019 opinion piece ‘COVID-19 and the Queensland Literary Awards People’s impact on small publishers’ in Arts Choice Queensland Book of the Hub (31 March 2020) I knew I’d Year Award. In 2014 a new edition found my next Queensland writing of Judith Wright’s classic The Coral elder to highlight. Susan’s advocacy Battleground (1977) was released in for the small press sector of the which she protested oil drilling on the publishing industry struck a chord Great Barrier Reef. with me, as it will for many, so I tracked her down to Mission Beach A much-awarded writer and poet in on the Cassowary Coast where she’s her own right Hawthorne has written lived with her partner Renate Klein nine poetry, three fiction and four since 2004. Photo of Susan Hawthorne by Lariane non-fiction titles to date. Having Fonseca Interestingly, Hawthorne worked weathered cyclones Larry and Yasi, with Thea Astley herself when with Hawthorne is determined to prevail. Penguin in Melbourne (1987-1991). One can only wish her, and all intrepid She admires Astley’s books ‘in which publishers, heartfelt good wishes for the reader can feel and hear and the vortex. almost smell Queensland.’ Drawn to writers and works from the margins, Lesley was born under the Tropic of Susan co-founded Spinifex Press Capricorn. She writes in many genres, in 1991.The press will celebrate its always with a passion to connect and 30th year in 2021, an extraordinary share insights into the human condition. story of survival in itself, especially She welcomes invitations to give author when considering its feisty mission talks, to mentor individual writers, and to statement: an independent feminist teach writing across the community. press who publishes innovative and Lesley holds teaching and writing controversial books with an optimistic qualifications from University of edge. (It is currently not seeking new Queensland (BA, Dip Ed, MA). She has also manuscripts.) studied writing for stage, film & TV.
Space permits mention of only two of a swathe of Queensland writers and subjects published by Spinifex. Adani: Following its Dirty Footsteps by Lindsay Simpson (who lives in
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 23 NED Makes Legal Deposit Easy
By Robyn Hamilton
If you are a Queensland writer who self-publishes in In addition, NED offers commercial publishers a range e-form, or perhaps a Queensland publisher of e-formats, of access and reuse options to protect their revenue or indeed someone who contributes to e-publications streams, along with the ability to specify an embargo in the workplace, or to your favourite club or society, period before open access is available. Deposited files your e-publications are likely to qualify for legal deposit. are protected and preserved for posterity for the use of future generations. The concept of legal deposit will be a familiar one to many publishers and self-published authors in Queensland. It On 29 April 2020, National and State Libraries Australia is the requirement under the Libraries Act 1988 (Qld) that (NSLA) announced that NED had received its 100,000th one copy of any new publication published in Queensland deposit. At the time of writing, publishers in Queensland (physical or digital) must be deposited with the State Library have deposited 3,942 books, 540 serial titles and 135 of Queensland, whether it is a book, serial publication music scores to NED. Writing Queensland is a fine example (such as a newsletter, annual report, magazine or journal), of a recently deposited e-publication. Its record in the map, music score or videorecording. State Library of Queensland’s One Search catalogue links to its National edeposit record in Trove, maximising the Happily, legal deposit is now easier than ever. reach and accessibility of its past issues All Queensland In 2017, the Australian national, state and territory libraries titles deposited are now part of the State Library of (NSLA) joined forces to develop a single system to simplify Queensland’s collection and can be found by searching the legal deposit of digital publications across the country, One Search and Trove. and in 2019, NSLA launched the National edeposit (NED), Fulfilling legal deposit requirements by uploading your an online service for the deposit, archiving, management, e-publications to NED is now an easy step-by-step task, discovery and delivery of e-publications Australia-wide. and we encourage you to give NED a try. We particularly Now, you need only deposit once to fulfil legal obligations encourage submission of any e-publications which form in all Australian jurisdictions. For writers and publishers a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure that we this efficiency means wider reach for your publications. preserve and make accessible a rich documentary record For library users this means better and faster access to of this unique time in Queensland’s history. more legal deposit e-publications than ever. For more information: The process of depositing with NED is easy and intuitive, and https://ned.gov.au/resources/about.htmlhttps://www.slq. straightforward instructions on the NED platform enable qld.gov.au/how-do-i/contribute-state-library-collections/ you to create an account and upload your files. A variety of publishers-and-authors file types are accommodated. Most importantly, NED also enables you to clarify your copyright, select any preferred For enquiries about NED or legal deposit in licencing conditions, and indicate the level of access you Queensland: would prefer for the e-publications you are submitting. [email protected]
24 WQ Member Milestones
Andrea Baldwin and the K W George June Perkins Boonah Brisbane Folk History Project K W George’s novel Sargasso was June Perkins Boonah Morning poem Andrea Baldwin and the Brisbane Folk shortlisted in the ASA/HQ Commercial will be included in the In Your Hands, History Project have independently Fiction Prize. Red Room Anthology. Her full poetry published their twelve-year labour collection Illumine is due for release in of love, ‘Brisbane Folk: Folk music in J A Henderson June. By Robyn Hamilton Brisbane 1950 to now’. J A Henderson’s 30th book has just Susan Reynolds come out on the 1st of May. A Town Stuart Barnes Called Library is a teen/young adult Susan Reynolds was shortlisted in the Stuart Barnes recently had two of his novel. Caledonia Novel Award this January. poems published in the May issue of Pamela Jeffs Danielle Ringrose POETRY (Chicago). Pamela Jeffs was nominated for an Danielle Ringrose has been shortlisted Andrea Cabanas Freitas Aurealis Award in the category of ‘Best for her gothic fiction short story ‘Hey Collection’ for her short story collection Siri’ in the Stringybark Stories Short Andrea Cabanas Freitas had two scripts titled ‘Five Dragons’, published by Four Story competition. finish among the 100 shortlisted for Ink Press. a screenwriting competition. (https:// Sharmayne Riseley filmfreeway.com/get-it-made). Being Garth Jones among the 100 best scripts was a great Sharmayne Riseley’s short story achievement. Garth Jones was long listed for the ‘Retired’ will be published in the Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Stringybark Stories anthology ‘Close to Diane Clark Development + Publication Heaven’ available mid May. Competition 2020. Diane Clark was awarded a second Robin Storey place in the Sydney Hammond Kerry Lown Whalen Memorial Short Story Competition with Indie author Robin Storey has just an entry called ‘A Life Lesson’. Kerry Lown Whalen’s short story published her crime/suspense novella ‘Buxton’ was highly commended in the ‘Obsession - A Crime of the Heart’, Raymond W Clarke Stringybark Short Story Award. It will be her eighth book and the third book in published in the Stringybark anthology her Noir Nights series. Available at all Raymond W Clarke published his first ‘Close to Heaven’. e-book retailers. novel in the YA genre, The World of Bernadette O’Callaghan, and a political Silvana Nagl Rosemary Stride thriller, The Beresford Campaign, in Silvana Nagl has recently had her Rosemary Stride had her short story ‘A April 2020. short story ‘Who are you calling Wog?’ Light in the Window’ highly commended Aiki Flinthart published in ‘Allsorts - Stories from in the Stringybark Short Story Award. Under the Southern Cross’ Anthology. It will be published in the anthology Aiki Flinthart has been signed by ‘Close to Heaven’. Australia’s best-known literary agent, Kali Napier Sharyn Swanepoel Selwa Anthony, and has had her Kali Napier is a recipient of the ASA historical fantasy tapestry novel Award Mentorship program. Sharyn Swanepoel has been named “Blackbirds Sing” put under contract by a finalist in the Romance Writers of Bolinda Audio Publishing to be turned Kenneth Pakenham Australia Sweet Treats competition and into an audio book. be included in the annual anthology. Kenneth Pakenham’s memoir was published by Indie Mosh The Trauma Banquet: Eating Pain, Feasting on Life/
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 25 Writing Competitions
2020 Rose Frankcombe Short Story Competition Closes 31st July 2020 Short story competition open to all writers for an original, previously unpublished work. The theme is ‘Flora or Fauna’, the submission needs to be between 1200 – 1500 words. Entry is $10 for a maximum of two entries and there is a first place prize of $200 and a second place prize of $50. http://www.swwtas.org/249437482
Stuart Hadow Short Story Prize 2020 Closes 1st June 2020
The Stuart Hadow Prize is an annual short story competition run by FAWWA in honour of WA writers Lyndall Hadow and Donald Stuart. Each year, the contest attracts high quality entries from around Australia. In 2020, the first prize is $1000 and a week of unpaid residency at Mattie Furphy House in Swanbourne, second prize is $300, and third prize is $100. Entries should be a maximum of 3000 words and costs $15 for one entry, maximum of three entries per author.
https://www.fawwa.org/writing-competitions
2021 NWF Joanne Burns Microlit Award Closes August 1st 2020
The NWF Joanne Burns Microlit Award is an annual competition. This year’s theme is pulped fiction and encourages writers to play with genre. Writers are encouraged to manipulate some of the well-worn tropes in literature, film or culture and create their own generic blends or experiment with fictionalising non-narrative forms. Submissions of up to 200 words are accepted and entry is $10 - $15 for up to three submissions. Finalists in the award will be offered publication in the annual Spineless Wonders’ microlit anthology edited by Cassandra Atherton.
https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/2021-nwf-joanne-burns-microlit-award/
Literary Taxidermy The 2020 Competition Closes June 4th 2020
The Literary Taxidermy Competition is a short story competition with a twist. Submissions must be 2500 words or less and must use the chosen opening and closing lines. There are two options for this year’s opening and closing lines, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The entry fee is $10USD. First prize is $500USD and a complimentary copy of the forthcoming 2020 Literary Taxidermy Anthology, runners-up will receive a USD $50 cash prize, and both the winner and runners-up will be published in the forthcoming 2020 Literary Taxidermy Anthology.
https://literarytaxidermy.com/
Fish Publishing – Lockdown Prize
Fish Publishing’s Lockdown Prize is a writing competition that will donating 30% of all it’s donations to Oxfam to support their Coronavirus Aid. The competition asks for a poem (maximum 19 lines), pocket prose (maximum 100 words) or a haiku/senryu. The theme is Coronavirus – a writer’s response to the strange times of 2020. Nine pieces, three from each genre will be published in the Fish Anthology 2020 and the winner from each category will receive an online writing course from Fish Publishing. Online entry is 10 Euros ($17AUD).
https://www.fishpublishing.com/competition/the-lockdown-prize/
26 WQ AAWP/SC Creative Nonfiction Prize 2020 Closes June 30th 2020
The Australian Association of Writing Programs in partnership with Slow Canoe Live Journal presents a competition for creative nonfiction writers. The competition asks for unpublished, narrative driven nonfiction up to 3000 words, this can essay, memoir, article or a hybrid form of writing. Entry is $20, first prize is $500 and fully subsidized fees for AWWP’s annual conference in November as well as the opportunity to work with Slow Canoe Live Journal. http://www.aawp.org.au/news/opportunities/
ACU Poetry Prize Closes July 6th 2020
This prize was founded by the initiative of the University’s Office of the Vice President in support of the importance and significance of poetry in Australian culture. This year’s theme is generosity. Poetry submissions can be up to 80 lines and entry is $25. First prize is $10000, second prize is $5000 and third prize is $3000. https://artsandculture.acu.edu.au/initiatives-and-prizes/acu-prize-for-poetry
Environment Prize 2020 Closes July 3rd 2020
In honour of its former patron, Bob Walshe, who passed away in March 2018, Sutherland Shire Environment Centre holds an annual Writing for the Environment Prize. The competition is for Australian writers 25 years or younger, there are two categories up to 18 years old and 19-25 years old. The theme is ‘I am Earth’, submissions should be original and unpublished, fictional and between 800 – 1000 words. First prize for each category is $500 and the second prize $100 for each category. https://ssec.org.au/event/call-to-writers-rd-walshe-memorial-writing-for-the-environment- prize-2020/
10 July: The Richell Prize of Emerging Writers
Unpublished writers of fiction and narrative non-fiction are invited to enter for the chance to win cash prize, 12 month mentorship with Hachette and more.
31 August: Aesthetica Creative Writing Award
Enter your poetry and short fiction into this international literary prize for the chance to win a cash prize and publication in Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology.
WWW.QLDWRITERS.ORG.AU.MAGAZINE 27 28 WQ QWC Membership Benefits Membership form To join the Centre please complete the information When you become a member of QWC, you become part of a vibrant writing below or join online at qldwriters.org.au. community with access to a wide variety of resources and information. Please complete and return to: Writing Queensland (WQ) magazine Queensland Writers Centre, PO Box 3488, Exclusively for QWC members, the quarterly WQ Magazine features South Brisbane Queensland 4101 | F 07 3842 9920 | articles from industry professionals and writers. [email protected]
Members-only programs and services Applicant’s details (costs apply) Name ______The Writers Surgery offers members 90-minute consultations to discuss Organisation (if relevant) ______their projects (including grant applications) face-to-face, by Skype or by Postal Address ______telephone with an experienced editor or published author. ______Year of the Writer series is a suite of master classes to help you plan, write and edit your novel. ______Postcode ______The Novelist’s Boot Camp is an intensive weekend of brainstorming, plotting Telephone ______and practical exercises to get your novel started and well on its way. Email ______Advertising discounts Members receive a discount on advertising in WQ and our weekly Please indicate New member Renewing e-newsletter, a fantastic way to promote your business to an engaged, educated readership of thousands, with wide interests in culture, music, food, family and travel as well as reading and writing. Duration and type of membership
One Year Two Year QWC Member discounts Print PDF* Print PDF* Full membership $79 $79 $149 $149 QWC members receive discounts on QWC’s annual program of work- Concession $59 $59 $109 $109 shops, master classes and industry seminars. Passionate (5 yrs) $349 $349
Presentation of your membership card will also provide you with discounts at the following places: Youth (26 and under) - For details go to: expressmedia.org.au
Bookshops • 10% discount at: Organisation $150 $150
Byblos Bookshop, Mareeba (discount on second-hand books Overseas supporter $50 (no GST) $90 (no GST) only); Dymocks, Brisbane City; Dymocks, Townsville; Folio Books, Brisbane City; The Jungle Bookshop, Port Douglas; The Library Donation $10 $20 $50 Other _____ Shop, SLQ, Brisbane; Maleny Bookshop, Maleny; Mary Who, (Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible) Townsville; Riverbend Books, Bulimba; Rosetta Books, Maleny; The Written Dimension Bookshop, Noosa Junction; The Yellow Door Payment Books and Music, Yeppoon. Please find enclosed my payment of $ ______Mastercard Visa Cheque Money order Other discounts Card number • Author Photos by Profile Portraits Australia: $110 for 3 low res photos(normally $150); $140 for 3 high res photos (normally Expiry date ______/ ______$195). Contact Giulio on 0417 604256 [email protected] / profileportraitsaus.blogspot.com.au (mileage costs may apply) CCV # (last 3 digits on back of credit card) ______Cardholder’s name ______• Developmental editing and manuscript assessment services by Totally Edited: 10% discount. Contact Richard Andrews at totallyedited.com Signature ______• La Boite Theatre tickets $25 (preview) $39 (in season). *PDF option means that you receive WQ as a PDF copy into your inbox, not • Olvar Wood Writers Retreat offers a 10% discount to QWC members on all their writer services: olvarwood.com.au as a hard-copy magazine. All prices include GST. Donations are welcome and are tax deductible. QWC has a no-refund policy. Provided three • $5 memberships at Dendy Cinemas working days’ notice is given, participants may use the paid funds as credit towards the cost of attending another workshop, seminar or event (space permitting). All credit must be used within 30 days of issue. ARD C
something to get your teeth into
QUEENSLAND WRITERS CENTRE Level 2, State Library of Queensland, Stanley Place, South Brisbane qldwriters.org.au Postal address: Contact details: Connect with us: PO Box 3488 07 3842 9922 Instagram: instagram.com/qldwriters South Brisbane [email protected] Twitter: @qldwriters Queensland 4101 Fax: 07 3842 9920 Facebook: facebook.com/qldwriters
WQ Cover illustration.indd 1 29/05/2020 5:21 PM