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One among millions

18/8/2018

I find that now I'm one among millions, rather than one in a million.
When I started my professional writing career – it’s a long time ago – there were few of us who could call themselves fulltime writers. I started in radio as a copywriter, and since then have been a freelance writer, contract writer, editor, education writer, playwright, then an academic writer during the years I was an academic.

Apart from my salaried years in academia, it was a low and intermittently paid career. The stereotype of writers and artists starving in garrets contains some truth.
The picture is different now, though for most the low financial return remains the same.
Storytelling is now in vogue in a big way – everyone, it seems, has a story they want to tell. At the same time, technology has opened the publishing business to anyone who wants to see their by-line on a cover, be it paper or digital.
Figures on how many books are currently being published per year seem to agree it’s around the 2.2 million mark. Yes, that’s millions! More than 6,000 every day.
Despite the fact that the majority of these books will sell very few copies, sometimes only a couple of dozen, and comparatively few will pass the 200 mark, the number of hopeful new authors is also increasing by the day.
A recent poll in UK revealed that the most popular choice of most desired job was that of an author, with 60% of respondents choosing it from a given list.
It seems all these wannabe writers aren’t readers. If they were, they’d know that almost every author who’s made any sort of name for him or herself has said what an exceptionally hard job they find it. For all but a handful there’s no glamour attached to it, and most probably almost no pay. Apparently that’s not a deterrent.
I guess it’s human nature that most people believe they’ll be the one among millions who is the exception to the rule.

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NZ National Poetry Day

14/8/2018

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Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day #NZPoetryDay announces its largest ever celebration of poetry today, with more than 130 events programmed to take place around New Zealand.
Held annually on the fourth Friday in August, National Poetry Day sees award-winning poets join poetry enthusiasts from all over the country in a marathon programme of poetry readings, performances, workshops and competitions.
On August 24, poetry will be making news – and noise – in dozens of cities, towns and rural areas across New Zealand. Expect to encounter poetry in expected and unusual places – on public transport, street posters and footpaths; in cafés, bars, bookshops, and libraries; and at schools, university campuses, retirement villages, marae, theatres and community centres.

The day will include appearances by 2018 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards poetry category finalists Briar Wood and Sue Wootton in Auckland and a workshop with winner Elizabeth Smither in Christchurch. All four 2018 Ockham poets, including Tony Beyer, feature in Phantom Billstickers’ countrywide super-size Poetry on Posters campaign and will also be filmed for a social media campaign celebrating poetry.
   New Zealand Books Awards past poetry winners Jenny Bornholdt, Kevin Ireland, Anne Kennedy, Bill Manhire, Greg O’Brien and Brian Turner will also take part in events around New Zealand. Alongside established poets, emerging voices and student poets will take part in open mic sessions and spoken-word performances. There will be a host of poetry contests for writers of all ages and many of the programmed events will be open to the public and free admission.
   Among the scores of events taking place from the far north to the deep south are: Rodney District’s live human art/poetry installations and poems written on the sand, to be captured by drone and made into a movie; the ‘love letters to Auckland’ event – a multimedia performance by poets, rappers, storytellers and dancers; Taranaki’s ‘Pop Up Poetry’ exhibition of poems on sticky notes; Wellington’s ‘Where the Wild Words Are’, in the company of local poets who promise to bewitch, berate, busk and bewilder; Nelson’s ‘Poetry Fridge Door and Poetry Generator’; Christchurch’s ‘Speed Date an Editor’; Dunedin’s gala poetry evening; and Central Otago’s evening of poetry on the theme of rivers with Brian Turner, Michael Harlow, Jenny Bornholdt, Gregory O’Brien and Liz Breslin. There will even be an international poetry event at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
   For full details about all the events taking place on Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day, including places, venues, times, tickets and more, go to: http://www.nzbookawards.nz/nationalpoetry-day/calendar-of-events/.
   Established in 1997, National Poetry Day is a popular fixture on the nation’s cultural calendar and one that celebrates discovery, diversity and community. For the third year in a row, Phantom Billstickers support National Poetry Day through their naming rights sponsorship. In the lead up to August 24, they will bring poetry to New Zealand communities with a mighty street poster campaign.
#NZPoetryDay | facebook.com/NZPoetryDay | twitter.com/NZPoetryDay

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I feel quite distraught

13/7/2018

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Thoughts inspired by my reading

Oh dear, oh dear, I feel quite distraught. Someone just ejaculated in front of me. Really. Right there on the printed page.
     It’s not as though it hasn’t happened before, but I still find it poor practice. Yes, I realize that authors of some classic works of the past did it. Victor Hugo for one. And Charles Dickens was an inveterate user, with his characters given to ejaculating on right, left, and centre of his pages. Messrs Smallweed, Mantalini, Brass, Pickwick, and Richard Swiveller did it, as did other ‘gentlemen’ including Sir Leister Deadlock and Lord Frederick Verisopht. Even the kind-hearted Miss Betsey Trotwood was wont to let forth an ejaculation from time to time.
     So really, perhaps I shouldn’t be so squeamish, but when a book’s characters squeal, shriek, remonstrate, intone, or spit, I can’t help wishing they’d take hold of themselves and simply ‘say’ something.
     I’m a little mollified to find I’m not the only one to object to all these variables which are, to my mind, on a par with the adverb.
     I’ve never read any of Elmore Leonard’s books – westerns, and crime fiction not being my usual reading fare – but he must have had something going for him, and I am more inclined to do so since I read that the third of his 10 Tricks for Good Writing was “Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.”
     It’s a shame he died a few years ago. I feel I’d like to write and ask him what he thought about the habit of Mr Pickwick et al.

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I'm not alone - staunch readers wanting books

3/7/2018

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Oh, have I been waiting for this! Or something like it. Anything that addresses a complaint I’ve had for a long time. And, unfortunately, one that seems to be a growing concern.
I’m a book buyer, and for some time now I’ve been more and more picky about what I spend my ebook-purchasing dollars on, and what I read. Murders – not for me. Serial murders – definitely not. Especially when it’s a case of women as victims.

Now I find I’m not alone. At times I thought I must be, but today I came across notice of the inaugural Staunch Book Prize, that is open to thriller genre books in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered.
The website elaborates –
“We launched the Staunch Book Prize because we felt that there’s just such an overload of violence towards women in fiction. When women in the real world are fighting sexual abuse and violence, or being murdered because they’re women, the casual and endless depiction of women as victims sits uneasily alongside their fight.”
Bravo to the Staunch organizers. I’m looking forward to seeing the shortlisted titles, then the winner in November. You can be sure some of my book-buying budget will be directed their way.
More details of the book prize here - http://staunchbookprize.com/about

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People meander too

25/5/2018

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After I wrote and posted the piece How fast should one saunter? (this blog 16 March 2018) someone wrote to me and said she noticed that characters in books also meander a lot.
I hadn’t noticed that so much, but I’ll watch for it in future to see if, when it occurs, it’s appropriate to the context.
I hope so, because I have no problem with people meandering if that’s their intention and there’s no pressing reason for them to get somewhere more directly.
Centuries ago it was appreciated that some tended to wander in this way, as did the Maeander River that took a winding scenic route through fields and olive groves in its journey from the Anatolian plateau to the Aegean Sea. Supposedly, both the river and those following its example arrive at their destination relatively stress-free.

The Welsh poet William Henry Davies was probably a fan of meandering –
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
(W H Davies, Leisure)

I’ve been aware of the benefits of meandering since schooldays when a teacher, with a grin, explained the word’s meaning in relation to the pleasure of walking with his girlfriend – “we go the long way, me-and-’er.”

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April 19th, 2018

19/4/2018

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Turn/click, turn/click...

2/4/2018

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Thoughts inspired by my reading

I’m speaking here as a reader, rather than an author, and reminding myself to remember these words when I have my author’s hat on!
I’ve just read a book that annoyed me. Another book, I should say, because I’ve read others that have irked me similarly. If you’re an author, you may want to know why.
    Here’s how it goes –
   I’m holding the book – either in print or digital form, it doesn’t matter. I take a look at the cover and absorb what’s on that. I turn or click, and expect to see a title page. It’s there, good.

     Turn/click – another title page. Why?
     Turn/click – publishing details. Good. I find those useful.
     Turn/click – Now I want the story to start, but no.
     Instead, there’s a plethora of other stuff first.
Dedication, a page or more of thanks to anyone who has even sneezed in close proximity to the manuscript. Yes, I understand the author feels indebted to them all, but if it’s more than a line or two, please put it at the end where the rest of us can ignore it if we want to.

Then comes –
     Preface – rarely necessary, and if the content is a long explanation of why the author felt moved to write the book, usually to be ignored.
     Prologue. In most cases this should simply be chapter one.
     It’s 32 turns/clicks before I get into the stuff I want to read. In the past I’ve written serious non-fiction books and included some pre-pages I thought were necessary, but this one’s a novel, for heaven’s sake!
   The one I'm looking at now is also an ebook but that’s not the problem, I love ebooks. I feel just the same when I find this in a tree book – actually even more so.

Yes, I know that in the case of an ebook, in my case my kindle,
I have the chance to start at the beginning without bothering with the
pre-pages, and that on its own should tell you something. But I’m in
the business. I want to see the cover. I want to note the publishing
details too. Strange of me, perhaps, but I do.
Then I want to start the reading.
Don’t make me turn/click over page after page. I may just decide to click the home button and select another title.

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How fast should one saunter?

16/3/2018

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Thoughts inspired by my reading

Despite common comments about the frenetic pace of life these days, it seems there are still a lot of people with time to saunter. There must be – I’m finding proof all the time in the pages of books I’ve read recently
Characters saunter down the beach, across the lawn, along the promenade, over to the couch/sofa, into the kitchen/bathroom, and particularly back to the office. And that’s all quite understandable.
Cats also saunter frequently through the pages, and that’s fair enough too – I have a couple and I’m quite used to that sight.
But other animals that seem to be more likely to stalk or otherwise move with more menacing intent are sometimes also said to saunter through a scene. Perhaps it’s just as well for the character sharing the page.
Nurses and doctors on duty, I read, saunter down corridors, and waiters saunter over to take orders when surely the alleviation of a patient’s pain, or a customer’s hunger, suggests they should move more quickly and purposefully. Detectives saunter on their way to make an arrest – presumably a ploy so the arrestee doesn’t catch on and saunter off faster.
It seems too, that though the verb alone is sufficient to portray a stroll or walking with a leisurely gait, some people can’t simply saunter. Characters in books I’ve read recently saunter away, both casually and causally; they saunter easily, erotically, gracefully, idly, lazily, listlessly, and slowly.
But perhaps I’m being too picky – at least they don’t usually saunter rapidly or at speed.

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New page

8/3/2018

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There's a new page on this site -
see Review index on the ribbon, beside FlaxFlower.

Use the list to locate books reviewed on the FlaxFlower page.
Either browse the list, or use your search facility to find
a book title or author.
Note the month of the review and locate the corresponding month
in the archives column on the right-hand side
of the FlaxFlower page.

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An action fraught with consequences

21/2/2018

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Thoughts inspired by my reading

Apparently everyone grabs everything these days. No longer do people simply pick up anything. If my reading is an indication of present-day trends, everyone’s so motivated by instant acquisition that they feel the need to seize things – snatch them, capture them, and clutch them in tight grasp.
In books I’ve read recently characters have grabbed, clothes, cell-phones, the arms, sleeves and hands of others, books, keys, bags, flowers, and all manner of other objects and devices.
I wonder if there’s a food shortage when all sorts of food is grabbed also – biscuits, bananas, Chinese take-out, a greasy burger, as well as drinks including coffee, wine, tea, and a round of beer. Even, strangely, a plucked chicken. It makes me wonder, does no one select, choose, or simply pick up a cookie any longer?
Coffee seems to be particularly affected, whether it be in coffeepots, plungers, or cups. Now I am an enthusiastic coffee drinker and the very thought of a long black, or occasionally a cappuccino, is enough to excite my taste buds. However, the thought of grabbing a cup, let alone a whole brimming coffeepot, fills me with worry. Surely it’s an action fraught with consequences.
As well as the hands, shoulders, arms and hair of others, characters grab their own or others' stomachs, crotches and, believe it or not, ass. It seems the Me-Too movement hasn’t percolated to the fiction pages yet.
Given appropriate circumstances, I can see that someone may well want to grab their purse, a cigarette, a machine-gun, shotgun/rifle/spear, a wrench, or a condom – all of which I’ve also encountered in recent reading. And I suppose I can accept that, particularly perhaps when associated with some of the former, a person might grab a moment, or a breath.
I have a little more difficulty when I read that characters grab cabs and taxis, one grabs an elephant, and another hobos. Go figure.
And I thought my reading preferences were somewhat on the literary side of the spectrum. It’s just as well I don’t grab books classified as popular or sensational.

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One among millions

NZ National Poetry Day

I feel quite distraught

I'm not alone - staunch readers wanting books

People meander too

April 19th, 2018

Turn/click, turn/click...

How fast should one saunter?

New page

An action fraught with consequences

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