The Voyagers Book Tour of New Zealand: The Press Release

The Unexpected in an Unexpected Form

IP presents Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand

Speculative poetry! Never before has a unique anthology like this been released, and New Zealand is leading the way.

Voyagers is where poetry meets the essence of science fiction: aliens, space travel, time travel and the end of the world - as well as concepts you may not previously have thought of as science fiction. The result is a brilliant insight into the world of science fiction that will have the reader speculating right along with the poets.

Voyagers will be launched on a tour of the country at events in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Paraparaumu, Auckland and Devonport from 14-24 October.

Voyagers Tour Schedule

14 Oct: Dunedin Library, 5:30 pm
15 Oct: Circadian Rhythm Café (Dunedin), 7 pm
16 Oct: Madras Café (Christchurch), 5 pm
19 Oct: Wellington Central Library, 5:30 pm
20 Oct: Paraparaumu Library (Kapiti Coast), 5:30 pm
22 Oct: Auckland Central Library, 5:30 pm
24 Oct: Depot Artspace (Devonport), 6:30 pm

The tour will feature some of New Zealand’s most well-known names: highly acclaimed and award winning poets such as Alistair Paterson, Raewyn Alexander, James Dignan, Iain Britton, Rachel McAlpine, Harvey Molloy, Michael O’Leary, Stephen Oliver, Jenny Argante, Michael Morrissey, Sue Wootton, Michael O’Leary, Andrew Fagan, Jenny Powell. Marilyn Duckworth, Helen Rickerby, Thomas Mitchell, Janet Charman, Anna Rugis, James Norcliffe, David Gregory and Owen Marshall among others.

Wellington-born writer, editor, publisher and critic Mark Pirie is one
of the editors of the anthology. Pirie initiated, co-edited and produced the literary magazine JAAM (Just Another Art Movement) from 1995-2005, and currently edits the HeadworX New Poetry Series and the poetry journal broadsheet.

Tim Jones, the other editor, is also a poet, short story writer and novelist. His most recent books include the short story collection Transported (Vintage, 2008), which was longlisted for the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; the poetry collection All Blacks' Kitchen Gardens (HeadworX, 2007); and the fantasy novel Anarya’s Secret (RedBrick, 2007).

The new publication follows hot on the heels of IP's first New Zealand releases, Harmonic by Stephen Oliver and the Text + Audio CD by Stephen Oliver and Matt Ottley, King Hit. Based in Brisbane, IP is Australia's most innovative independent publisher. It publishes about 24 titles per year and is one of the few independents regularly supported by the Australia Council.

IP’s Director, the noted author Dr David Reiter, whose most recent books are Primary Instinct, a satire on the education system, and the children’s novel Global Cooling, will spearhead the tour, which will also showcase New Zealand authors Iain Britton's new poetry collection Liquefaction and Euan McCabe's sports memoir The World Cup Baby.

For more information regarding Voyagers or to schedule an interview before the tour begins, please email info@ipoz.biz or call +61 (0)7 3324 9319. During the tour, Dr Reiter can be contacted via SMS to his mobile +61 (0)412 313 923 or email to reiterdr1@me.com.

4 Unrelated Topics A Writer Can Shoehorn Into One Blog Post

Apparently blog titles with numbers in them, like "6 Writing Lessons From Jane Austen", are very effective in attracting traffic. So I thought I'd try one.

Kapiti Date Added To Voyagers Book Tour

The Voyagers Book Tour of New Zealand has added an extra date: There will now be a Voyagers event at the Kapiti Library on Tuesday 20 October. Up and down the country, Voyagers poets will be reading their poems in the home towns. I'll be taking part in the Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington events, and I hope to see you somewhere along the way!

Pat Whitaker Launches His Latest Book

Kapiti Coast author Pat Whitaker launched his latest book, Returning, in Otaki on Sunday 27 September. I had hoped to make it to Otaki for the launch, but a slavering monster called Huge Backlog Of Work snuck up and stuck its claws in me, so Pat, I hope it went well! Anyway, follow the link to find out about Returning and Pat's other books.

JAAM 27 Hits The Shops

The latest issue of literary magazine JAAM, edited by Ingrid Horrocks, has recently been released, and it's now hitting the independent bookshops that stock it. I have two poems in this issue, "Family Man" and "Over Islands", and within its pages you will find some superb poetry, creative non-fiction and fiction, a good deal of it written by people whose names have appeared in this blog over the two years of its existence. You can find out more about this issue over at the JAAM website.

Rachel Walker's cover image, and Anna Brown's cover design, for this issue are particularly striking, too:


(image courtesy of Helen Rickerby)

Belletrista Is Launched

Belletrista.com is a new website dedicated to celebrating women writers from around the world. To quote from its introductory statement:

Welcome to the first issue of Belletrista, a nonprofit, bi-monthly magazine celebrating the wonderfully varied literary work from women writers around the world. Whether you are a seasoned reader of international literature or someone just beginning to travel beyond your literary shores, we think you will find something, from far or near, in this issue, to intrigue you.

The editor of Belletrista is Lois Ava-Matthew. I met Lois, and many of the other contributors, through LibraryThing, the combination social networking site/personal cataloguing system for booklovers. An interview with New Zealand author Eleanor Catton is one of the features of the first issue.

Although all the writers being celebrated are female, not all the reviewers are, and I am contributing a review to the second issue. If the first issue is any guide, subsequent issues should be well worth reading.

You can follow Belletrista on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Belletrista (and while you're at it, you can follow me on Twitter as well: http://twitter.com/senjmito)

Three Changes I'd Like To See To The Author's Fund

Former talkshow host and media consultant Brian Edwards has kicked up a storm with his suggestion that public libraries are just a form of theft. I disagree with him: I think public libraries are great, and I like it when people borrow my books from libraries.

All the same, those borrowings do, potentially, represent foregone income: some of those people might have bought one of my books instead of borrowing a copy from the library. The mechanism that is designed to compensate New Zealand authors for holdings of their books in libraries is called the Author's Fund, recently renamed the Public Lending Right. I have previously blogged about how it works.

Here are three changes I'd liked to see to the Public Lending Right to make it work better for authors. There may well be valid arguments against all these proposals, and if so, please leave a comment and tell me what those arguments are. I'm keen to know.

1. Payment for borrowings. Currently, the Fund recompenses authors for each copy of a book they have written held in a New Zealand library, with some restrictions, provided at least 50 copies of the book are held in New Zealand libraries. The payment to the author is the same whether the book is never borrowed, or is frequently out on loan. I would like the scheme changed so that there is a basic per-holding fee paid, plus an additional fee per number of times the book is borrowed.

2. Aggregation. Many books, such as poetry collections, do not attain the magic mark of 50 copies held. If you're in the unfortunate position of having written 10 books, each of which has 49 copies held in New Zealand libraries according to the sampling methodology used to determine such things, you don't get paid a cent. This seems inequitable to me. I would prefer that, if payment is to be based solely on holdings, then it is the total holdings of works by an author that is used as the basis for calculation.

3. Count, rather than sample. In the era of online union catalogues of book holdings across (most) New Zealand libraries, why is a statistical sampling method still being used to determine the holdings of books? Why not simply write a script to count total holdings, and even total borrowings? (A few libraries already report the latter in their online catalogues.)

So there we are. Three modest proposals. They may well be bad proposals - if they are, please tell me why. But even if they are never implemented, it still gives me a good feeling to check a library catalogue and find that one or more of my books is on loan.

Recognition And A Steaming Heap Of Disney Money: On Stranger Tides

Recognition, and a steaming heap of Disney money. That's what I hope Tim Powers gets for the use of the title, and presumably at least the basic plot, of his 1987 novel On Stranger Tides as the basis of the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, due out in 2011.

I enjoyed the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and endured the next two. (I got a sore buttock about half an hour into No. 2.) But I couldn't escape the nagging feeling that it had all been done before, and better, by American fantasy author Tim Powers, and where was the evidence that he was getting the recognition, and a decent slice of Disney's pie, that he richly deserved?

On Stranger Tides is a novel about a pirate named Jack Shandy who joins up with a crew of pirate desperadoes to fight another, even more bloodthirsty, crew of pirate desperadoes in the Caribbean. Voodoo abounds, and the dead as well as the living crew pirate ships. Is this ringing any bells?

The motor that drives the plot of On Stranger Tides is the quest for the Fountain of Youth, supposedly discovered in Florida by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. So, by the time POTC 3 creaked to a close, with the Quest For The Fountain Of Youth writ large as the plot of a possible sequel, I was just about ready to embark on a lone battle for justice against Disney's flotilla of lawyers.


Therefore, I'm pleased that Tim Powers is getting the recognition he deserves, and I hope that Hollywood makes good rather than bad use of his source novel. Whatever else happens, a bright spotlight will be trained on Tim Powers and his work. This is good, because he has written some excellent books, many of them meticulously researched, and highly entertaining, secret histories.

If Thomas Pynchon had a recognizable sense of humour, was a Catholic, wrote gonzoid alternate history novels, and could confine himself to a reasonable number of pages, he'd be something like Tim Powers. My favourite among all Powers' novels is Philip K. Dick Award winner The Anubis Gates, in which a contemporary man travels back in time – thanks to a convoluted plot involving Egyptian gods – and ends up, via encounters with Lord Byron and the memorable Dog-Face Joe, as a minor Victorian poet. There is an immortal moment in the book in which our hero, believing himself alone and friendless in a strange time, is transfixed as he hears someone whistle the melody of Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" and realizes he is not the only time traveler at large in early 19th century London.


Byron and his coterie reappear in The Stress of Her Regard; King Arthur and beer collide in The Drawing of the Dark; and Powers' series of California novels, such as Last Call, retell the myth of the Fisher King in Las Vegas and LA. I mentioned earlier that Tim Powers is Catholic, and under the surface glitter of his novels are painful depths of sin, guilt, and the pressing need for redemption; Jack Shandy is not the only one of Powers' heroes with a past he'd prefer to forget.

Tim Powers might be perfectly happy with his life as it is, and the attentions of Hollywood might be the last thing he wants. He might shun recognition and give away the steaming heap of money. But, if nothing else, I hope that the news from Hollywood turns a new generation of readers onto his novels. Try one - I don't believe you'll be disappointed.

The Voyagers Book Tour Of New Zealand

This is a post for New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week, though I'm pushing it a bit because it's really about speculative poetry.

With the lights barely down on Fantastic Voyages, it's time to announce the next bit of book promotion I'm going to be involved in — although I am not responsible for organising it, which is a mercy.

Interactive Publications, the publishers of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand, which I co-edited with Mark Pirie, are organising a book tour for it, and for their other titles by New Zealand authors (such as Liquefaction by Iain Britton). Not all the dates and details are finalised yet, but here's what we have so far:

DUNEDIN

Dunedin Library from 5:30 pm on Wednesday 14 Oct
Circadian Rhythm Café from 7 pm on Thursday 15 Oct

CHRISTCHURCH

Madras Café from 5pm on Friday 16 Oct

WELLINGTON

Wellington Library, 5:30pm on Monday 19 Oct

(Note: this is a couple of hours before Helen Rickerby is the guest reader at that night's New Zealand Poetry Society meeting. Make a poetry night of it!)

Kapiti Library, 5:30pm on Tuesday 20 Oct

21st: Other North Island events

AUCKLAND

Auckland City Library, 5:30? pm on Thursday 22 Oct
Depot Arts Gallery, Devonport, 6:30pm on Saturday 24 Oct

PLEASE NOTE: Details are subject to change without notice, although I'll keep this list as current as I can.

The events are concentrated on the venues where there are substantial numbers of Voyagers poets available to read, but there are two tantalising days between the Wellington and Auckland events. If anyone thinks that a Voyagers event might be a starter in their town on those days, please get in touch a.s.a.p. and I'll pass this on to Interactive Publications.

I am taking a week off work to go on the South Island leg of the tour, and will also be at the Wellington event. I'd love to accompany the whole tour, but family and work commitments won't allow that this time.

Fantastic Voyages: Credits, Thanks and Podcast

Fantastic Voyages: Writing Speculative Fiction went very well last night, in this reporter's opinion - and also in the opinion of my fellow panelists. Under the expert chairpersonship of Lynn Freeman, Helen Lowe and I each read from our work, and fielded questions from Lynn and from an audience which included many writers and readers of speculative fiction. Some people told me afterwards they felt inspired by the event, which makes me very happy!

Anna Caro, initiator of New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week, very kindly recorded the event after our original recordist wasn't able to attend. You can find the podcast, and a brief report of the event, on Anna's blog.

I'd like to thank everyone for their support and help: Random House New Zealand; Unity Books and in particular Anna and Cameron; Toi Poneke/Wellington Arts Centre and in particular Will; chairperson (and spec fic enthusiast) Lynn Freeman; my fellow panelist Helen; all those who came along on the night and the many others who couldn't be there but sent their best wishes. Thank you!

UPDATE: Jenni Talula has written a report of Fantastic Voyages on her blog that made me feel very happy. And Sally McLennan has added a lovely report, with photos.

Like A Virgin, Published For The Very First Time

This is a post for New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week.

I think New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week is an excellent idea, but that hasn't meant it has been easy to decide what to post for it. I started the week with a post advertising Fantastic Voyages, this Thursday evening's speculative fiction event in Wellington, and I thought I might dip into nostalgia for my next post, and talk about the first time I had a speculative fiction story published.

The year was 1986 (and you can imagine for yourself a portentous voiceover in which I say things like "As the Voyager 2 space probe made its first contact with Uranus [I'm not making this up, folks], the Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov sinks in New Zealand's Marlborough Sounds"). By then, I was what might be called a "technical virgin" as an author of fiction: I had had several poems published, but no fiction, though I had written a few science fiction stories, and made a few unsuccessful submissions to overseas magazines.

Somehow – I no longer remember how – I discovered a call for submissions for an anthology of New Zealand science fiction and fantasy stories for high school students, edited by Bernard Gadd, to be called I Have Seen The Future. I had a story that fitted the word limit, called "Statesman". I submitted it, it was accepted, and I became a published author of speculative fiction.

I was pleased to be published. I was pleased to be paid – from memory, $50. But my overall emotion, I recall, was relief. At last I could call myself a published author! It was a short but intense moment of excitement, over almost before it had started, but at least I no longer had that particular hurdle to overcome.

So the publication of "Statesman" went down as my first fiction credit, and, slowly at first, more credits accrued. "Statesman" didn't fit the theme of my first short story collection, Extreme Weather Events, but, retitled "Going to the People", it was included in my 2008 collection Transported.

Yet I hadn't actually looked at I Have Seen The Future for years, and I had no memory of who else had stories in it until I opened the book when writing this post, and got some surprises.

The following authors have stories in I Have Seen the Future:

Michael Morrissey, Apirana Taylor, Owen Marshall, Bernard Gadd, Bill Manhire, Elizabeth Meares, J Edward Brown, Sally Whitlock, Dianne Armstrong, Tim Jones, Margaret Beames, Craig Harrison, James Norcliffe, Russell Haley, Albert Wendt.

At the time the book was published, the only names from this list that meant anything to me were Albert Wendt and Craig Harrison. But, looking back, I'm pleased to see that my first story was published alongside work by such a collection of New Zealand literary luminaries.

What's striking is that many of these authors are best known as poets. Perhaps it was these writers that Bernard Gadd, a poet himself, knew best. But it does illustrate the point I make from time to time that there has never been such a hard and fast dividing line between speculative writers and literary writers in New Zealand as one might think. These days, science fiction stories are being published in The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories. It's great to have speculative fiction work published outside New Zealand, or in New Zealand's growing roster of speculative fiction outlets, but it's not the only route to publication.