An Interview With Laura Solomon

Laura Solomon has an honours degree in English Literature (Victoria University, 1997) and a Masters degree in Computer Science (University of London, 2003). Her books include ‘Black Light’, ‘Nothing Lasting’, ‘Alternative Medicine’, ‘An Imitation of Life’, ‘Instant Messages’, ‘The Theory of Networks’, ‘Operating Systems’, ‘Hilary and David’, In Vitro and ‘The Shingle Bar Taniwha and Other Stories’. She has won prizes in the Bridport, Edwin Morgan, Ware Poets, Willesden Herald, Proverse Hong Kong and Essex Poetry Festival competitions.

Laura's poem Janet Frame’s Adversaries Have Their Way. Janet is Lobotomised and Spends Her Life Selling Hats in Oamaru. was my Tuesday Poem this week.

Laura, you are best known as a writer of fiction, and in vitro is your first collection of poetry. Have you been accumulating the poems in this collection for a while, or have they all been written recently?

I wrote the poems between 2006 and 2009.

For those who don't know your work, how would you describe your poetry – does it follow a particular style or poetic tradition?

Fairly experimental, but also quite lyrical.

While I was reading in vitro, I noted down descriptions like 'clinical', 'forensic', and 'disenchanted' – though, lest this make the book appear too gloomy, many of the poems are also very entertaining! But do you think these adjectives can fairly be applied to these poems?

Some of the poems are quite bleak or severe in subject matter, but lightened up with comedy.

I see that you have published several novels as e-books in Hong Kong. Was it a difficult decision to have them published in e-book format, and are you happy with the result?

Happy with e-book for Hilary and David, not sure yet whether the sequels to Instant Messages are going to be ebook or normal printed book yet.

I have the impression – forgive me if I'm wrong – that you, like I, write fiction that doesn't fit neatly into the categories that New Zealand publishers, and perhaps other international publishers, are comfortable with. Do you ever think "Oh, if only I'd written good old realism", or, "time to get cracking on that paranormal romance"?

No, I just write what I feel like and hope for the best.

How do you think the publishing scene overseas compares to the New Zealand scene, particularly in its hospitality to work that doesn't fit neat category definitions?

Just the same, difficult to break into UK market, none of the agents or publishers seem interested, so I just keep entering UK competitions from NZ. Seem to do better in comps, than just straight submitting to agents and publishers, not sure why.

Which (if any) poets would you describe as influences on your work?

Atwood, Rich, Plath.

How about writers of fiction?

Atwood, Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson.

If you have the opportunity, what direction(s) do you see your writing heading in next?

That’s a secret!! ☺

Book availability

Laura's collection in vitro is available from HeadworX, and there are more publication details of Laura's other books on Beattie's Book Blog - check the first comment.

Tuesday Poem: Janet Frame’s Adversaries Have Their Way. Janet is Lobotomised and Spends Her Life Selling Hats in Oamaru., by Laura Solomon

 

What good would she have been anyway,
left the way she was, full of dotty ideas, half-crippled by madness?
There’re enough raving lunatics in the world,
we don’t need one more curly-haired crazy,
lolloping about the streets, spilling prophecy.

What good would she have been anyway,
claiming to be from her Kingdom by the Sea,
perching on gravestones in the Otago Cemetery,
staring into the far distance,
like somebody who could see something we couldn’t?

And see her there, so happy, all her pain chopped out, eradicated,
along with all her brilliance. Smiling, always smiling – so what if the eyes look dead?

It’s not visionaries the world needs, but hat sellers.

She was something that could not blend in,
too many sharp angles, too many gaudy colours,
and gawd that hair,
but anything, you’ll find, can be reduced to black and white,
anything can be shoved into a box,
it’s just a question of how much has to be chopped off
in order to get it to fit.

After all, anybody can write a book. It’s retail work that’s tricky,
all those numbers to add up and subtract,
when you tally up at the end of the day (that’s if they choose to grant you such power),
all those hats to keep in those tidy little piles,
same colours, same shapes, all together, all neat,
a place for everything. Everything in its place.

All those people to so faithfully serve.

Don’t ask me who made the mould – somebody else, a long, long time ago.
Who cares now, when that thing was created, or how?
we all managed to squeeze ourselves into it,
so why shouldn’t she be forced to do the same?

Who cares what she could’ve or would’ve achieved,
left to her own devices?

The important thing is that we maimed her while we had the chance,
before she grew too big for the boots we wanted her in.

O please now, children, don’t make a fuss,
She could’ve been one of the greats, they said,
now she’s one of us.

Note: This poem is published in Laura Solomon's collection in vitro (HeadworX, 2011). Look out for my interview with Laura later this week.

You can read all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem blog - the featured poem is on the centre of the page, and the week's other poems are linked from the right-hand column.

Good Things Happen Too

 
When I'm not doing my day job, I spend a lot of my time dealing with and thinking about things that aren't good - plans to fuck up the climate or fuck up our communities (and the climate) in the name of profit and an outdated, Father Knows Best view of this country's future.

Bad things happen in the writing side of my life too - rejections, bright ideas that don't work out - but lots of good things happen too, and it's always great to come back to them and see how different projects are progressing.

So, here are some good waves that are on the crest of breaking.

Slightly Peculiar Love Stories

Penelope Todd of Rosa Mira Books has pulled together a remarkable range of authors to contribute to this anthology, which does what it says on the tin: love stories, with a twist. I'm delighted that my story "Said Sheree" - a love story, with literary funding - is included in that number.

Slightly Peculiar Love Stories will be available as an ebook very soon. In the runup to its release, Penelope has been running a series of guest posts by the anthology's contributors on the Rosa Mira Books blog. They make entertaining reading, and great tasters for the book!

Tales For Canterbury

I've blogged about fundraising anthology Tales for Canterbury, which includes my story "Sign of the Tui", before. It's now out in the world and doing very well. There are a couple of excellent reasons to buy it: one is the continuing need for donations to Christchurch earthquake relief, which is where the book's proceeds will be going; and one is the excellence of the stories.

I've banged on about this topic long enough, so instead of paying attention to me, I suggest you check out this reader review of the anthology from LibraryThing or listen to this recent Radio NZ Arts on Sunday interview about the anthology with two of the authors represented, Amanda Fitzwater and Matt Cowens.

Then I suggest you head straight over to the publisher's website and get yourself a copy.

Today Is Deadline Day

 
A quick reminder, folks: today is the final day to submit poems to "Eye to the Telescope 2", the online anthology of speculative poetry from New Zealand and Australian poets that I'm editing. Submissions close at midnight today, New Zealand time.

I'm looking forward to reading all the submissions once the deadline has passed - if you want to make sure yours is among them, check out the first issue of Eye to the Telescope and the submission guidelines.

Tuesday Poem: 256 Words For Snow, by Mary Cresswell

 
I’m inclined to tow the line, you opined, dismantling
            the spyglass and putting it into the icebox we
            kept for that season.

I stormed out.

This was not what I had in mind as, armed only with
            a memory stick, I considered possible forays
            into the outside world. The blizzard clattered
            frozen water and blazed around the windows.

Exercising demons is not one of my skills, but I
            excepted this. Perhaps the hexagonal flakes
            will cease their incessant fall upon the
            coruscating rink.

Perhaps none of this is true.

I put my ear to the wall of the cabin and ascertained
            that what I heard was sound. The shape is
            troped in the shaven ice, you cried, and we
            will all be quashed.

Nonsense, I snapped, cutting your fine Italian
            hand off at the wrist and tossing it across
            the estuary. We must swing through the
            slush fund, take what we can, and proceed
            according to precedent. There is no other way.

The ship rocked, as if in answer.

You began to nibble my ear lobe, and I leaped
            back. Outside outside, I cried and cried. You
            collected the tears as they rattled down like
            crystal beads into the bilges. We dragged up a
            try-pot and commenced fire.

A full moon shone as the storm moved north-
            northwest, seeking a kinder sunset. As we
            sank our starveling selves into the pleasures of
            the boil, I elucidated the stars: The Dog and
            the Bear. The Dipper. The Dongle, the Bilge
            Pump.

We dined on fried snow and were glad.

Credit note: "256 Words For Snow" is published in Mary Cresswell's new collection Trace Fossils.

Tim says: After I interviewed Mary about her new book recently, I've had the pleasure of reading it - in fact, I just finished it tonight, and I enjoyed it very much. There are a lot of tremendous poems in there, but this one really popped out for me. Of all the many things I like about it, the thing I like about it most is that it mentions memory sticks and dongles - but then, I'm known to be easily amused.

You can read all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem blog - the featured poem is on the centre of the page, and the week's other poems are linked from the right-hand column.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2011: Congratulations To The Winners!

 
The 2011 Sir Julius Vogel Awards - New Zealand's annual awards for science fiction, fantasy and horror - were awarded at Queen's Birthday Weekend at ConText, New Zealand's 2011 national Science Fiction Convention.

I didn't attend the Con, and didn't have anything on the ballot, but I am glad to see some friends and familiar names among the winners. Congratulations, one and all! Here's the official press release announcing the results, with some links I've added.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards for New Zealand Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

2011 Results Announced

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ) is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Categories and winners in each category are listed.

Professional Awards Section

Best Novel - Adult

Joint Winners:

The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe (Orbit)

The Questing Road by Lyn McConchie (Tor Books)


Best Novel - Young Adult

Winner : Summer of Dreaming by Lyn McConchie (Cyberwizard Publications)


Best Short Story

Winner: High Tide At Hot Water Beach by Paul Haines
(A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction), Random Static


Best Novella/Novelette

Winner: A Tale Of The Interferers – Hunger For Forbidden Flesh by Paul Haines
(Sprawl Anthology)


Best Collected Work

Winner : A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction
Edited by Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan, Random Static


Best Professional Artwork

Winner: Frank Victoria – Tymon’s Flight cover
(HarperCollins Publishers Australia)


Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form

Joint Winners:

This Is Not My Life – Pilot Episode

Directors: Rob Sarkies & Pete Salmon
Executive Producers: Gavin Strawhan, Rachel Lang, Steven O’Meagher & Tim White
Producer: Tim Sanders
Associate Producer: Polly Fryer

Kaitangata Twitch – Pilot Episode

Production Shed TV
Producer: Chris Hampson
Director/Executive Producer: Yvonne Mackay
Executive Producer: Dorothee Pinfold, Jan Haynes
Associate Producer: Margaret Mahy
Writer: Gavin Strawhan, Michael Bennett and Briar Grace-Smith
Actors: Te Waimarie Kessell, George Henare


Best Professional Publication

Winner: White Cloud Worlds Anthology
Edited by Paul Tobin


Best New Talent

Winner: Karen Healey


Fan Awards Section


Best Fan Production

Winner: Doctor Who Podcast
Paul Mannering
Broken Sea Productions


Best Fan Writing

Winner: Jacqui Smith
Musings From Under The Mountain and Novazine Contributions


Best Publication

Winner: Novazine
Edited by Jacqui Smith


Special Awards


Services to Fandom

Winner: Ross Temple


Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

Winner: Simon Litten

Tuesday Poem: The Stars, Natasha

 
Natasha, fundamentals are strong,
key indicators steady.
Leave your books, Natasha,
let your computer
draw patterns on its screen.

Walk with me through the heavens.
Along cold orbits
the spendthrift stars
squander their assets on light.
The World Bank

is unamused; the IMF
is noting down their names.
So take my hand
let's drift away
into the cosmic background.

Credit note: This poem, included in my first poetry collection Boat People, was republished in Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand, edited by Mark Pirie and Tim Jones (Interactive Press, 2009).

Tim says: With eight days to go until submissions close for my latest venture in speculative poetry, I thought I'd post a speculative poem of my own. It was written when World Bank- and IMF-inspired economic "reforms" were devastating the post-Soviet Russian economy, and laying the groundwork for the kleptocracy that runs Russia today.

Nevertheless, it's more of a love poem than anything else...

You can read all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem blog - the featured poem is on the centre of the page, and the week's other poems are linked from the right-hand column.