Tag: Tongues of Ash

Flash Frontier, Frankfurt, Two Kinds Of Monster, And The Octacon Reunion

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I’ve decided this year that writing comes before blogging, and that, while I’ll always aim to put up one blog post per week, I may not always put up a second post.

That means that, when I do put up a second post, there will be lots to talk about – as there is today.

Flash Frontier

Michelle Elvy is a new – to me! – and energetic figure on the New Zealand literary scene, and I have enjoyed becoming involved in a couple of projects in which she is a prime mover.

Firstly, I have a story in the first issue of Flash Frontier. This is a new New Zealand literary magazine, edited by Michelle Elvy and Sian Williams, that specialises in flash fiction – very short fiction, which in the case of Flash Frontier means an upper limit of 250 words. I don’t often write flash fiction, but I can tell you that it is lots of fun to write, and that Flash Frontier is looking for more of it!

My story “The Beginnings of America” is one of 16 stories in the first issue, which also carries this interesting interview with Graeme Lay, who edited several NZ anthologies of short-short fiction.

Frankfurt

Another Michelle Elvy initiative, this time with Dorothee Lang, is the Frankfurt Book Fair 2012: An Aotearoa Affair – A Blog Fest from Kiel to Kaitaia.

It’s an excellent blog which brings together work from New Zealand and German writers, some translated, in the leadup to the Frankfurt Book Fair – and you can join the blog and get involved in its many projects.

I was very chuffed that my poem The Translator was selected as the first of the blog’s Weekly Highlights, and it has since been joined by work by Marcus Speh, Emma Barnes, and Patrizia Monzani, with more to follow!

Helen Lowe also mentions this Blog Fest on her blog – with good reason, as the German translation of her novel The Heir of Night is being published in 2012. Congratulations, Helen!

Two Kinds of Monster

The blog tour for my 2011 poetry collection Men Briefly Explained is not quite over yet! Bookiemonster has published a pair of interviews on her blog this week that form part of my and Keith Westwater’s blog tours:

Keith Westwater Interviews Tim Jones About Men Briefly Explained

Tim Jones Interviews Keith Westwater About Tongues Of Ash

The Octacon Reunion

In 1982, a science fiction convention was held in Dunedin that changed lives and changed underwear. It went down in history as Octacon, and now, thirty years later, those who experienced Octacon for the first time are condemned to relive every agonising moment. What’s more, it is even possible for others to join them in their communal madness. Look upon the mighty Octacon Reunion Poster, ye mortals, and despair! (Or, if your motto is ‘nil desperandum’, contact 2012octacon@gmail.com for further details.)

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

Tuesday Poem: Video Poems from the Book Tour + Radio Interview

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I was going to resume normal Tuesday Poem service this week, but instead, here is some YouTube video from the Men Briefly Explained / Tongues of Ash book tour, plus a radio interview I did for Radio New Zealand’s “Arts on Sunday” programme.

If you think “I would love to buy one of the shiny books featured in this video”, here is how to do so:

Video Poems from the Book Tour

These video highlights from our Wellington event at the Wellington Central Library and our Eastbourne event at the Rona Gallery and Bookshop include (a) Keith Westwater reading (actually, this is the whole vid) …

… and (b) Tim Jones reading:

Radio New Zealand interview

Sonia Sly of Radio New Zealand interviewed me for the “Arts on Sunday” programme on Radio New Zealand. Here is the interview in mp3 format:

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/art/art-20111113-1435-chapter_and_verse_-_tim_jones-048.mp3

Next week, I promise, I’ll have an actual Tuesday Poem up on my blog! In the meantime, you can check out this week’s Tuesday Poems here: http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

The Load-Out

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The Men Briefly Explained / Tongues of Ash book tour is over. I’m back in my home, Keith is back in his, our publisher David is back in Australia, and the roadies have loaded the last of the gear into the trucks … OK, I may have made that last part up. They actually loaded the gear into pantechnicons.

We travelled from Dunedin to Auckland via Christchurch, Wellington, Eastbourne, and Paraparaumu. Along the way, we slept under hedgerows, in deserted fields under the stars, and in the houses of friends. At our performances met up with real-life friends and friends from the Internet. We sold books. We signed books. We read organised sequences of words from books. We got in cars and planes. From the planes, we could see clouds. From the cars, we could see election billboards. We saw John Key a lot. We didn’t see Phil Goff. We saw Annette King, though – she came to our Wellington launch.

We didn’t have contract riders, but if we had, they would almost certainly have stipulated only macrobiotic food, a room set aside for meditation at every venue, and the removal of all the brown M&Ms.

Actually, I like the brown M&Ms.

Tim reading at the Rona Gallery launch event in Eastbourne. Thanks to Sally McLennan for the photo.

Sometimes, I read before Keith, and sometimes, Keith read before me. Sometimes, David read before both of us. I quickly discovered which poems from Men Briefly Explained worked well in front of a live audience, and which didn’t. I attended an excellent voice workshop for poets a few days before the tour started, and in tribute to this, I used my voice quite a lot on the tour. By our Auckland gig, it was showing definite signs of wearing out.

Seriously for a moment: though it was tiring at times, I enjoyed the tour very much. The physical touring is over, but now there’s a virtual tour to think about. Watch several other spaces!

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

My Book Tour Hits The North Island – And Adds A New Kapiti Coast Event

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After a damp but enjoyable South Island leg, the book tour to launch my new poetry collection Men Briefly Explained and Keith Westwater’s prize-winning debut collection Tongues of Ash has reached the North Island – and we have added a new book tour event, this coming Saturday at 1pm at Paraparaumu Library.

This one has been added at very short notice, so it would be great if you could let Kapiti Coast folks who may be interested know about it.

Here are the remaining tour dates. I hope to see you at one of them!

  • Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
  • Kapiti Coast: Saturday, 29 October, Paraparaumu Library, 1pm
  • Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

It’s On! The Men Briefly Explained and Tongues of Ash Book Tour Begins Today

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No Tuesday Poem on my blog this week, but no shortage of poetry, because the Men Briefly Explained and Tongues of Ash book tour begins today!

Once more, here is the itinerary – STOP PRESS – now with Saturday’s Kapiti Coast event added:

  • Dunedin: Tuesday, 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
  • Christchurch: Wednesday, 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
  • Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
  • Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
  • Kapiti Coast: Saturday, 29 October, Paraparaumu Library, 1pm
  • Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

You can sign up to attend the tour on our Facebook events page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=188416554563635

Some lovely Tuesday Poets have kindly posted poems from Men Briefly Explained on their blogs this week – you can check them out by going to the Tuesday Poem blog and looking on the right-hand menu. Don’t forget to check out this week’s hub poem and all the other excellent poems featured on the right.

If you can’t make it to one of the tour dates, here is …

How To Buy Men Briefly Explained

You can buy Men Briefly Explained from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook.

Likewise, it is available from Amazon.co.uk in paperback and ebook formats.

You can also find out more about it, and buy it directly from the publisher, at the Men Briefly Explained mini-site.

Men Briefly Explained is also available in a range of formats from eBookpie and for the Kobo.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

Poetry Tour Preparations: The Physical Tour … and the Virtual Tour?

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The Physical Book Tour: It’s All On

It begins in a fortnight. And appropriately enough, it beings on a Tuesday.

“It” is the book tour Keith Westwater and I are embarking on to launch our new poetry collections: Keith’s first collection Tongues of Ash, and my new collection, Men Briefly Explained.

Here are the stops on the tour:

  • Dunedin: Tuesday 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
  • Christchurch: Wednesday 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
  • Wellington: Thursday 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
  • Lower Hutt: Friday 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
  • Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

If you live in one of those places, I hope you’ll be able to make it along – and, whether or not you can make it along, please tell your friends in those centres!

Some other things you can do:

It’s worth noting that Dr David Reiter, the publisher of Interactive Press and a noted poet in his own right, will also be in attendance and reading from his new collection My Planets. As he is an international poetry publisher who has a track record of publishing collections by New Zealand poets, he may be someone you want to get to know.

The Virtual Book Tour: Under Construction

On hearing about the physical book tour, two writer/bloggers have kindly offered to host stops on a virtual book tour to follow the physical one. I’m grateful to those people, I think this is a great idea, and I am keen to line up more stops. So, if you would be interested in your blog hosting a stop on the virtual book tour, please get in touch by emailing senjmito (at) gmail.com, or say so in the comments below.

Hmmm, you may be wondering, what is a virtual book tour? Well, it involves a series of bloggers hosting interviews with or guest posts by a writer with a newly released book, according to a pre-arranged schedule. Not long after setting up this blog, I was one of the stops on the virtual book tour for Tania Hershman’s debut short story collection, The White Road and Other Stories, which serves as a good model.

(Note: Some of the links in this 2008 post no longer work.)

I don’t have Tania’s impressive stamina for answering a lot of questions in a short time, so I thought – and one of my generous prospective hosts has suggested – that I could use the “Five Questions With…” format used in the tour for Tales For Canterbury. That makes the load a bit lighter on everyone.

So. If you can come to one of the launch events, please do – I think you will enjoy them. And if you’re interested in hosting a stop on a virtual book tour, please get in touch.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

IP Picks 2012

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IP Picks is Interactive Publications’ annual writing competition for unpublished manuscripts. It is open to Australian and New Zealand citizens and residents.

Keith Westwater’s Tongues of Ash won the 2011 IP Picks Award for Best First Book, and my new collection Men Briefly Explained is also published by IP. Keith and I will soon be joined by IP Press Publisher Dr David Reiter for a post-World Cup book tour – check out the details, or sign up for the tour venue nearest you on Facebook.

Here is the information IP has sent me about IP Picks 2012.

About IP Picks

Now looking ahead to its eleventh year in 2012, the IP Picks Awards provide guaranteed royalty publication to the best book-length manuscript in five categories: Best Fiction, Best Creative Non-fiction, Best Poetry, Best Young Adult / Junior Prose, Best First Book.

First Place Winners of each category are awarded publication. Highly Commended entrants are given a short reader’s report valued at $299, offering editorial advice on how to improve the manuscript. Commended entrants will receive a summary of the judging panel’s report on their entries. There is no guarantee of publication for Highly Commended or Commended entrants.

The competition is open to citizens and residents of Australia and New Zealand.

The Fiction category is for manuscripts up to 80,000 words and can include short story collections, short novels and novels written for adults. Any form of fiction is eligible, including science fiction and fantasy.

The Creative Non-fiction category is also for manuscripts up to 80,000 words based on real-life experience and research, but written with literary flair. Biographies, memoirs, travel literature, histories and inspirational self-help books are examples.

The Young Adult / Junior Prose category seeks manuscripts up to 70,000 words. Novels or creative non-fiction works intended for young adult (18 and under) or junior audiences (12 and under) are welcome. Picture books are not eligible.

The Poetry category is for complete collections in any sub-genre, including verse novels, verse plays, special forms such as haiku, or a a mixture of forms, minimum 48 A4 pages.

The Best First Book category can be in any genre (excluding Young Adult / Junior Prose), but the author must not have previously had a book-length manuscript (48 A5 pages or longer) published by a recognised national publisher. Authors who have self-published with only local distribution are eligible to enter under this category. There is no age restriction, but if you are under eighteen years of age, you must have a parent or carer co-sign your entry form.

You may enter a single manuscript in two categories, but you have to pay two entry fees.

How Is It Judged?

IP Picks entries are adjudicated in-house by our Editorial Board.

Each entry is blind read by at least two judges. The judges first form a long-list of entries through a ranking system adjudicated by our genre editors. Next, the Board compares entries on their lists and compiles a short list from the rankings. The short-listed entries are read again by the Board, which, at that stage, includes the Director. Finally the Board meets to decide the winners and commended entries. At that meeting, the Board may also recommend that the Director offer publication to certain of the commended entries.

We then contact the winners and commended entrants and post the results on our website in IP eNews, our online newsletter, as well as circulating the results to all State writers centres.

Deadlines and Fees

IP Picks opens on 1 October and closes on 1 December each year. Entry packages must include:

  • two printed copies and one digital (on CD or floppy disk) copy of the entry (if you are entering in more than one category, you only need to submit two printed copies and one digital copy to cover both categories).
  • a completed entry form – type or print in block letters
  • the applicable fee

Download the required Conditions and Entry form in Word format or as a pdf file for further details on the submission procedure and to enter the competition. If you have trouble downloading the form [Adobe Acrobat Reader® required], email us for a copy, or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to IP, Treetop Studio, 9 Kuhler Court, Carindale 4152, Australia.

We charge a reading fee, currently set at AUS $66 per entry. This must be included as a cheque or money order, with your entry. Included in the reading fee is an IP title of your choice (must be a title from our Interactive Press, Glass House Books, IP Kidz or IP Digital imprints). If you enter more than one category, you must pay a fee for each entry, and for that you receive an extra title of your choice.

At the time of submission you may also ask to have a short report written on the publishability of your manuscript. The discounted fee for that report is AUS $249 GST-inclusive, or AUS $199 for students or concession card holders (must provide photocopy of student card or concession card).

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

Tuesday Poem: Evensong In A Graveyard Of Villas, by Keith Westwater

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The pines on the ridge are about to cede
their colour to the night. Once more
light’s absence will shroud this place.

Not even car-lights on the highway below
(such is their need for road when it’s dark)
re-mark the trees – their placement

their particular explanation of green.
Soon the evening will lay claim too
to vestiges of villas which once stood

in the bush beneath the pines –
orphaned lawns, homeless paths
rhododendron that flower

among five-finger, tree fern, rata.
These last artefacts mark the bones
of grand abodes. These and a plaque

at the site of each home
listing its name, its history of dwellers
its date of sacrifice to the road.

Credit note: “Evensong In A Graveyard Of Villas” is from Keith Westwater’s debut poetry collection Tongues of Ash.

Tim says: In late October, Keith Westwater and I will be embarking on a book tour to Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Lower Hutt and Auckland to launch our respective collections, his Tongues of Ash and my Men Briefly Explained.

I met Keith when we both did the IIML Writing The Landscape course, run by the wonderful Dinah Hawken, in 2003. “Evensong In A Graveyard Of Villas”, the penultimate poem in the penlutimate section of Tongues Of Ash, is a fine example of his landscape poetry, and anyone who knows me will know that I am in full agreement with the last line!

The Tuesday Poems: You can check out all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem Blog – this week’s hub poem in the centre of the page, and all the other Tuesday Poems on the right.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

October Book Tour To Launch Men Briefly Explained and Tongues Of Ash

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It’s all on! The Interactive Press book tour for my third poetry collection, Men Briefly Explained, and Keith Westwater’s prize-winning debut collection Tongues of Ash, starts in Dunedin on Tuesday 25 October and ends in Auckland on Tuesday 1 November. Here is the tour poster:

For the benefit of Google and of those, like me, whose eyesight is not what it was, here are those details again in text format:

  • Dunedin: Tuesday, 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
  • Christchurch: Wednesday, 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
  • Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
  • Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
  • Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

You can also see these, and signal your attendance, on our Facebook events page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=188416554563635

To celebrate the occasion, Keith Westwater has launched his own website.

Dr David Reiter, the publisher of Interactive Press and a noted poet in his own right, will also be in attendance and reading from his new collection My Planets. As he is an international poetry publisher who has a track record of publishing collections by New Zealand poets, he may be someone you want to get to know.

We will be doing lots more to publicise individual events over the next seven weeks, but if you just can’t wait that long to get your copy of these books, or if you live where you can’t get to a launch event, you can already purchase both books from Amazon in paperback and Kindle ebook formats, as follows:

Tongues of Ash: paperback and ebook
Men Briefly Explained: paperback and ebook

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

Available On Amazon In Paperback And Kindle Ebook: Men Briefly Explained And Tongues Of Ash

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STOP PRESS: Men Briefly Explained is now available on Amazon in print and Kindle ebook formats!

Print: http://www.amazon.com/Men-Briefly-Explained-Tim-Jones/dp/1921869321/

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Men-Briefly-Explained-ebook/dp/B005HRYM32/

Keith Westwater’s Tongues Of Ash is also available on Amazon in these two formats:

Print: http://www.amazon.com/Tongues-Ash-Keith-Westwater/dp/1921869267/

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Tongues-of-Ash-ebook/dp/B005HIV6J4/

Now, back to our regular programming:

In late October, Lower Hutt poet Keith Westwater and I are setting out on a book tour to promote our new poetry collections, my Men Briefly Explained and his Tongues Of Ash.

You can use this link to pre-order the paperback versions.

The Kindle versions are not yet available, and so the “Buy Kindle” links on these pages do not work yet. They will be updated once the Kindle versions are available.

Both books are being published by Interactive Press of Brisbane, who published Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand in 2009.

Almost all the events on the book tour are now confirmed, and we’ll be releasing the tour details once all events are confirmed – but we start in Dunedin on Tuesday 25 October and end in Auckland a week later, winding through Christchurch, Wellington, and Eastbourne en route. Watch out for more details soon!

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!