Two Announcements and a Bottle of Champagne

I suppose the time has come to announce a couple of BRILLIANT things that have finally happened in my writing life:

1. My story "Kafkaesque" is soon to be published in Etchings 9. I have just seen the proofs and they look fantastic! I am proud and honoured that my story was selected by Etchings fiction editor Glenys Osborne, whose debut novel Come Inside was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize in 2010.

2. My story "Exhibition" will appear in Best European Fiction 2011, published by Dalkey Archive Press and edited by Aleksandar Hemon. I've known this for a while but now that my words of wisdom are officially up on their website, I can also officially announce it to the world!
World, please note - yes, please note, that my work will be in the same anthology as Nora Ikstena from Latvia, a whole list of talented authors across Europe, and -wait for it-- Hilary Mantel, author of Man Booker prize winner Wolf Hall.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to put on the highest heels that I can find and open that bottle of champagne...

Author Talk

Click here to read a fun "author talk" I had with my micro-novel "partner" and good buddy Michael K. White from Colorado. We had a lot of laughs sending e-mails back and forth to each other in summer, and the result is ( I think) delightful...

Thanks Mike and Dorothee (of BluePrintPress) for a very enjoyable experience!

High Heels, etc.

I've been ogling high heeled shoes in shop windows.
I've been reading Simon Van Booy and thinking about his life as a single father.
I haven't been doing much writing.
This is my first post in ages.

I sometimes wonder if anyone actually reads or cares about what I write in this blog.
Feedjit tells me people from around the world actually do "visit"... Would be nice to know who these anonymous visitors are!

...and the Ugly

My broken ankle looks swollen and ugly. I can't wait till I can walk straight again.

Meantime, (just to make the world a little less ugly) I've had a few acceptances. One from a print magazine in Australia I submitted to over a year ago! (More details later)

And my little tale "Traveller" up this week in A-Minor magazine.

The Good and the Bad

The bad news is - it's been a godawful summer during which I crashed my car and broke my ankle.

The good news is - my story "Sparrow" has been shortlisted for the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition Prize. You can see the shortlist here. 22 stories out of the 849 entries for the competition have been shortlisted, and I'm so happy mine has been selected. Congratulations, all!

The Republic of Love

So here it is. I am thrilled to announce the publication of my first micro novel "THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE".

Micro novels are hand-made books that fit in an airmail envelope. Their size and page count is defined by standard airmail format and weight: 24 pages, Din A6.

"The Republic of Love" is one of two micro novels published by Blueprintpress this summer, the other one being "My Apartment" by Michael K. White. Both micro novels are offered as signed author copies, hand-made limited editions. They will arrive at your doorstep with international air mail, and are available as single volumes, or as bundle. See order details here.

And here is the "blurb":
In flashbacks and dream-like sequences, parts of a woman's life unravel before us, but we are never certain what is real and what is not in "The Republic of Love "... details, author info, excerpt.

YAY!!

I Write Like ...

... Chuck Palahniuk.

To be honest, I have never been interested in him and never read any of his books. So, out of curiosity I googled him and found his official site. One of the writing tips he gives is the following:

"...Use writing as your excuse to throw a party each week - even if you call that party a "workshop." Any time you can spend time among other people who value and support writing, that will balance those hours you spend alone, writing. Even if someday you sell your work, no amount of money will compensate you for your time spent alone. So, take your "paycheck" up front, make writing an excuse to be around people. When you reach the end of your life - trust me, you won't look back and savor the moments you spent alone..."

I thought about this: The Loneliness of the Short Story Writer. Writing full time must be a dreadfully lonely business. I don't write full time, but every time I really get stuck into it, I have an awful feeling that I'm becoming anti-social.

I got a long e-mail earlier today from a dear friend who is starting out a new job in South East Asia. She wrote she's finding it difficult that she can't communicate with the locals because she does not speak their language. Makes it even more difficult for her "a person like me who considers communication the essence of existence, the most valuable component of life and the best present one can get."

I wondered what different people would consider the "best present" - and what that would be for a writer.