Workshops Byron Bay 5 and 6 May

Hosted by Northern Rivers Writers Centre, I'll be running a couple of workshops at Byron Bay next week.

The YA supersessions are happening on the Wednesday. Not sure if there are any places left for these. You get 40 minutes' consultation on your project-in-development, of which I'll have seen the synopsis and first chapter beforehand.

On Thursday I'll be running a 6-hour workshop called Twist in the Tale, all about short stories. First half will be write-like-the-wind exercises, then in the afternoon we'll have a critique session of stories you submit before the event, which are circulated to me and all the other participants. I believe there are still a couple of places left for this one.

April–May shenanigans

Bit of a gap since my last post; can you tell I was a bit blogged-out, after the blog tour? I had nothin’, for a while there.

Now I’ve got something, but it’s secret. Perhaps you’ll twig to it if I tell you I have to wait until 15 April to tell you (but if you do twig, I can’t confirm it).

But something else is happening on 15 May that I can tell you about, and that’s the uploading of a podcast at Terra Incognita, of me reading a story called ‘Flower and Weed’, which is an out-take of the selkie novel I’ve been working on since July last year. Although the novel itself will definitely be YA, this story is an adults-only episode, which happens slightly to one side of the main story. Same setting (Rollrock Island), some of the main characters (Messkeletha and Trudle, and Dominic Mallett is mentioned), same undertones of sorrow and rage, magic and mystification. If you haven’t read ‘Sea-Hearts’ in Coeur de Lion’s novellanthology X6 (available here) this will give you a taste of what’s to come. Anyway, Thursday I went up and recorded it in my (nice, quiet) Writing Room; Friday I went back and rerecorded the last section, which had been spoiled by some noises outside. It’s very different reading into a microphone, from reading to a roomful of people, let me say. And listening back to yourself is also very strange—do I really sound so prissy? When it’s up, I’ll let you know, and those of you who know me can tell me!

I’ve been proof-checking up a storm: over Easter I checked White Time, which is coming out from David Fickling Books in the UK. And last week I went through my newest short story, ‘The Miracle Aquilina’, which is coming out in Jonathan and Marianne’s dragon anthology, Wings of Fire, along with a whole slew of dragon stories from a stellar spread of writers! I’m a bit overawed sitting among them.

Right now I’m down on the South Coast, having a lovely leisurely weekend of books and birds, beach, stars (the Milky Way is very milky down here, and even with (a) the naked eye and (b) my piddling little binoculars you can see a breathtaking number of stars), kangaroos and fish (we’ve done some very basic snorkelling). Weather is gorgeous, although a bit of a wind’s getting up—good thing we went for our swim early—and we’re rounding off the 2 days by going and seeing Justin Townes Earle at Milton Theatre tonight.