- Last Harvest – Matt Cowens
- Rescuing the Airmen – Tim Jones
- Hunting Ythan – Mary Brock Jones
- The Mistress of Fishes – O.J. Cade
- Max's Black Box – Grace Bridges
- In a World Full of Birds – I.K. Paterson-Harkness
- Insomnia – Kylie Thorne
- The Spectre Spectrum – Debbie Cowens
- Carving Out a Life – J.C. Hart
- Kiwi or Queenie – Jennifer Compton
- Emptying Roesler – Simon Petrie
- Tapping the Skin of the World – Anna Smith
- Doorway – Rebecca Harris
- Monocarpic Colony Blues – Elizabeth Gatens
- Harvesting the Gyre – Jonathan James Todd
- The Origami Tree – A.J. Fitzwater
- Evacuation – Fran Atkinson
- Splintering – Anna Caro
- Mother's Milk – Dan Rabarts
- Cave Fever – Lee Murray
- Coat – Grant Stone
- Ren – Toni Wi
23 April 2013
3rd Birthday Communal ‘Jazz’ Tuesday Poem: Scratch
The third anniversary Tuesday Poem "Scratch" is now online; I had the honour (and challenge) of supplying the final stanza! Tap your feet to the Tuesday Poets' polyrhythms here:
http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/3rd-birthday-communal-jazz-poem.html
18 April 2013
I Belong To The Regeneration
I'm happy to report that my short story "Rescuing the Airmen" has been accepted for inclusion in Regeneration: New Zealand Speculative Fiction II, which is being published by Random Static and launched at Au Contraire 2013, this year's NZ National Science Fiction Convention
The Table of Contents is below. There are a lot of fine writers in there - quite apart from being pleased that I have a story in the book, I'm looking forwards to reading it!
You can check out Random Static's other books and products as well, including two other anthologies that I have stories in, A Foreign Country and Tales for Canterbury.
Table of Contents for Regeneration
Random Static Ltd is pleased to announce the table of contents for
Regeneration: New Zealand Speculative Fiction II. Once again, we have a
fantastic range of stories by talented authors, and we look forward to
sharing them with you.
08 April 2013
Tuesday Poem: Revenant
When they pulled me from the water
I had scarcely finished breathing
My fingernails dripped blood and sand
My slack-jawed face had turned the blue of ocean
They pushed and pulled my heart to action
I stumbled from the cooling sand
and ate the proferred wafer
All along my neck and arms
the hair stood up in terror
I knew you would see nothing
My eyes still blink
my lips still speak my
feet still strike the pavement
We laugh and smile
and in your speech I
hear the kelp pods cracking
But in the moonless dark of night
avoid the outer windows
I walk beneath the summer rain
and see the green mouth closing
In my wake the crusted salt
dissolves upon the grass blades
Credit note: "Revenant" was published in my first poetry collection, Boat People (2002).
Tim says: I tried this idea - a fantasy/horror transfiguration of the time I nearly drowned in 1989 - as both a short story and a poem. I never got anywhere much with the story, but this poem made it into my first collection. If I was writing it now, there are some things I would do differently, but I like the lurching rhythm that gets going for a while in the third stanza.
The Tuesday Poem: Is particularly worth checking out at the moment, as the jazz poem the Tuesday Poets are collectively writing for the third anniversary of the Tuesday poem is growing vaster than empires, and a good deal quicker.
01 April 2013
My First "Book Watch" Column For The New Zealand Herald
A couple of months ago, Nicky Pellegrino, who edits the New Zealand Herald's books page, contacted me after seeing my two-part summary of my 2012 reading (Part 1 | Part 2) to ask whether I would be interested in writing an occasional "Book Watch" column for the Herald on Sunday: short comments on 3 or 4 books I've read recently, with no restrictions as to the genres covered.
That seemed to fit pretty well with the fact that I keep track of my reading on LibraryThing, so I said "yes" - and here is my first column. Only the first three of these pocket reviews were published in the Herald, but as I really enjoyed Wolves Eat Dogs I have posted that mini-review here too.
Book Watch Column 24 March 2013
This novel by US author Dorothee Kocks was the first book
published by Dunedin-based ebook publisher Rosa Mira Books. It is a
beautifully-written story of Revolutionary France, post-revolutionary America,
and the invention of pornography as a commercial genre. The central character
Chjara, a Corsican virtuoso of the glass harmonica, is vivid and engaging. I wasn’t always convinced by the
actions and motivations of her American lover Henry, but that’s a minor flaw in
this fine novel which was a pleasure to read on my newly-acquired Kindle.
Already an accomplished playwright and short story writer, Sugu Pillay
is now showing her strength as a poet. Born in Malaysia, she now lives in the
South Island. Flaubert’s Drum, which is her first poetry collection, is a very
interesting and wide-ranging set of poems that moves between Asia and New
Zealand, between epic and earthquake, between the turtles of Chendor Beach and
the schist of Lindis Pass. I especially enjoyed the final section of the book,
which does a lovely job of tying the book’s strands together. Technically
accomplished and often moving poetry.
Gareth Renowden is best known as a journalist and science blogger – in
particular, for the Hot Topic blog on climate change. With The Aviator, Book 1 of a planned
series, he turns to science fiction. In a world in which runaway climate change
proceeds unchecked, airship pilot Lemmy (no relation to Motörhead) and his AI
and human companions tour the world from their base in the Marlborough Sounds,
visiting the communities springing up in parts of the world made newly livable
and experiencing the terrible consequences of runaway climate change throughout
most of the world. If you like the great near-future science fiction novels of
Kim Stanley Robinson, I think you will enjoy The Aviator.
Martin Cruz Smith made his name with his
first novel featuring melancholy but determined Russian detective Arkady Renko,
Gorky Park. This is the fifth Renko
book, and it's outstandingly good. Renko is the classic good cop in a bad
place: dogged, incorruptible and determined on uncovering the truth whatever
the cost to himself. In this book, the bad place is the Zone of Exclusion
surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Smith does a great job of putting
Renko in the path of the teeming wildlife and the secretive humans that live in
the Zone. Highly recommended even if thrillers aren’t normally your thing.
26 March 2013
Tuesday Poem: Ford Madox Brown, The Last Of England
“THE LAST of England! O’er the sea, my dear,
Our homes to seek amid Australian fields,
Us, not our million-acred island yields
The space to dwell in. Thrust out! Forced to hear
Low ribaldry from sots, and share rough cheer
With rudely-nurtured men. The hope youth builds
Of fair renown, bartered for that which shields
Only the back, and half-formed lands that rear
The dust-storm blistering up the grasses wild.
There learning skills not, nor the poet’s dream,
Nor aught so loved as children shall we see.”
She grips his listless hand and clasps her child,
Through rainbow tears she sees a sunnier gleam,
She cannot see a void, where he will be.
Credit note: The name of this poem is actually "For the picture, 'The Last of England'". Ford Madox Brown wrote it in 1855 to accompany his famous painting. It exists in a couple of versions; this version hangs in the Birmingham (UK) Museum and Art Gallery.
Tim says: Ford Madox Brown began work on this painting in 1852, when emigration from the UK was at its height - according to Wikipedia, over 350,000 people emigrated that year, from a country whose population is much smaller than it is now.
I have this painting as a black and white illustration in a book, and had always imagined that the couple in the foreground (modelled by Ford Madox Ford and his wife Emma; their children also appear in the picture) were staring back at England. In fact, the white cliffs of Dover are in the top right of the picture, and the couple are looking resolutely away. When my family and I sailed out of the English channel in 1961 on our way to New Zealand with a boatload of assisted immigrants, I imagine the emotions felt by the adults on board may have been somewhat similar.
The Tuesday Poem: Moves between cultures.
20 March 2013
Words On The Wind: Wellington Central Library, 6pm Wednesday 20 March
I'm looking forwards to taking part in this reading at Wellington Central Library tonight:
And I also enjoyed taking part in this interview with Sally Dunn for the Nelson Mail: Beyond Infinity: Writing Science Fiction.
12 March 2013
Tuesday Poem: Media Advice To The Disgraced CEO
Don't try to sell your story. That would only remind the public
of the millions in bonuses, the failed investments, the workers
turned out on their ear. Don't try to sell your story,
but make sure you have a story to tell.
It's hard to appear contrite - we know. Think of yourself
as an actor playing a part. Mention a disabled relative you've
(quietly, anonymously) been helping out. A cause
you're passionate about: animal rescue, flower shows.
That first interview is crucial. Show them
you're not a monster but a man. A monster doesn't care - a man
makes mistakes, has made mistakes. You admit mistakes were made.
You're only human and you got things wrong.
And as for your latest bonus: you offered to return it,
but the company said no. So what you're going to do is,
you're donating it instead. (Animal rescue, flower shows. A hospital?)
But for this interview, you wouldn't have told a soul.
Remember contrition? Now you have to show it. The interview
is hard for you, and by the end you're dabbing at your eyes.
The public will swallow any grade of bullshit
that is packaged with a redemptive tear.
Credit note: This is a new and previously unpublished poem.
Tim says: You might think that this poem is inspired by recent events, but I couldn't possibly comment.
The Tuesday Poem: Is ready to rock.
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