Category / Writing Events

by Melissa Watts

Why I’m a bit smug this week

This is a big week for me.

On Saturday I was invited by the Art Gallery of Ballarat to be part of the ‘entertainment’ for their fantastic garden party. The garden party was part of the Capturing Flora exhibition and I was invited to read my poem inspired by the collection (more on that later). For pics and a review of the night see Amy Tsilemanis’s blog. Amy is the host of the Tinderbox radio program at Voice FM Ballarat.

Wednesday was a rehersal for the Artists Inspire Artistry recital and a quick trip in to visit Dave and Miles at Voice FM, Accessing the Arts program to discuss all things Ballarat Writers.

  Tonight I’ll be attending the launch of Eclectica, an anthology that I have 2 pieces published in. Then I’ll be dashing over to see Tor Roxborough at the Ballarat Writers reading night at the library. Eclectica is an anthology of work by University of Ballart students and Ballarat Writers members. I’ve seen the proofs and it looks great, it’s available in hardcopy or free e-book (although one of my pieces is missing from the e-book due to formatting difficulties).

 

Friday is the big Artists Inspire Artistry recital (then again Tuesday). It is collaboration between the Art Gallery of Ballarat, the University of Ballarat and Ballarat Writers. A selection of aspiring writers have developed a range of poetry and vignettes inspired by the Capturing Flora exhibition, this style of writing is known as ‘ekphrastic’ writing. Annette Chappell from the University of Ballarat has mentored the writers as they develop their written work in response to an artwork from the exhibition.

The writers interpretations of the botanic art has been fascinating. A booklet containing the images with the new writing has been produced and will be available for purchase at the Gallery. Tickets are available to the Artists inspire Artistry event on Friday November 9 and Tuesday November 13, which includes a free copy of the book and a roving recital of the poetry. For details and tickets visit http://www.capturingflora.com.au/programs-and-events.aspx

If you’re in Ballarat I’d love to see you there!

by Melissa Watts

Writing Projects

It’s taken me a while to write about some of the writing projects I’ve been working on but I’ve had some great chances to get some of my work published recently.

Earlier this year I wrote a short story to the theme of  ‘The Book as a Material Artefact’ for the journal Ex Parenthasis. 

I was lucky enough to have my story Tashkent’s Koran published along side work by E A Gleeson, Amy Tsilemanis, Jade Standing and Nathan Curnow.

 

In the next few months I will have a poem and short story published in the PWE Anthology from the University of Ballarat. More on that as it happens.

 

I’ve also just found out that I’ve been selected to participate in a fantastic writing initiative between Ballarat Writers Inc and the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Here’s a little about it:

The event is called ‘Artists Inspire Artistry: Reflections on Botanical Art’, and it is part of the Art Gallery’s ‘Capturing Flora’ exhibition, which opens on 25 September. The event aims to celebrate the beauty and rich diversity of Australian flora and its expression by botanical artists from the early explorers to the present day. It will present a collection of new poems and written works recited by their authors in front of the artwork of their inspiration as part of a ‘roving’ recital around the exhibition. We are scheduled to give not one, but TWO recitals of the new works – on 9 and 13 November.

So my novel is being neglected a bit, but I’m enjoying the new inspiration!

by Melissa Watts

It’s that time of year again and I am busy trying to promote the 2012 Ballarat Writers and Illustrators Festival.

With a swag of Australian children’s and young adult (CYA) writers, illustrators and publishers attending the weekend of Sept 1-2, it’s bound to be a success. This year the even runs over 2 days with a literary evening on the Saturday night.

We also have a new location –  Ballarat’s iconic Mechanics Institute, where Mark Twain once spoke.

Our panellists will be discussing issues vital to emerging and aspiring writers and illustrators, with a focus on how the industry is adapting to new technologies and where to find new audiences. Writers, illustrators, editors and publishers will participate in panels addressing new media challenges, new opportunities for fiction and non-fiction, creating characters and adapting illustration in the digital age. A major feature of the festival is the ‘first page’ competition. Attendees have the opportunity to have their work critiqued by a panel of publishers in the festival’s final session.

The program for the day can be found here.

The panellists for the day can be found here.

It’s really not that far from Melbourne so if you are free come up!

 

 

 

by Melissa Watts

Cops and Robbers – Writing Crime

I’m busy publicising Ballarat Writers next fantastic workshop and thought some of you may be interested –

August 11 – Cops and Robbers; writing the perfect crime scene with Jarad Henry

Saturday August 11  10am – 4pm
Member – $75 / Non Member – $100
Click here to book

Ever wanted to write a crime novel or short story? Chances are you’ll have at least one detective wandering your pages.  But how do you get the procedure right? What about dialogue? Do we call them perps or crooks? You don’t want an Aussie detective to sound like a character off the set of Law and Order, do you?  And what about the crime scene? Who strings up the plastic tape, who calls in homicide and the coroner?

In this interactive workshop you’ll learn to the ins and outs of real life police drama, as well as how to walk, talk and investigate like an Aussie detective.  Most importantly, you’ll learn how to apply this to your characters, giving your stories the essential ingredient of every great crime writer; verisimilitude.

Jarad Henry has worked in the criminal justice system for more than twelve years. He has a degree in criminology and regularly speaks about crime trends at conferences and seminars. Jarad’s debut crime novel, Head Shot, was short listed for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and for the Ned Kelly Awards Best First Crime Novel.

His second novel Blood Sunset won the Fellowship of Australian Writers’ Jim Hamilton Award, and was short listed for the Vogel Award. It was also runner up for the reader’s choice award in the 2009 Summer Read. Pink Tide is the third in the McCauley trilogy and will be out in mid 2012.

by Melissa Watts

Ballarat Writers and Illustrators Festival

 I’m pleased to report that this weekend was a great success for the Ballarat Writers’ and Illustrators’ festival for 2011. This year’s theme was ‘words and pictures’ with a focus on Children and Young Adult authors and illustrators. A dinner on the Friday night kicked off the festival in fine form. Dominic Brine from ABC Ballarat was the MC for the night with Maureen McCarthy  as the keynote speaker.  I was lucky enough to be on a table with authors Ebony McKenna, Nicholas Brasch, editor Catherine McCredie from Penguin Books and illustrator Dave Hackett. The mood of the room was inspiring as a range of professionals within the industry shared a few drinks, a fantastic 3 course meal, and countless stories.

It was hard to leave for the night, but my job the following morning was to kick off the festival by interviewing our keynote author Maureen McCarthy. This was intimidating; it was my first public interview, besides the work I do with Voice FM. I read Maureen’s novels when I was in high school and in the lead up to the festival I refreshed my memory by reading Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude get a life, Rose by Any Other Name and Careful What you Wish For. Her novels are great and there were plenty of questions that I could have asked, but I wanted to make sure that the audience got a lot out of it, whether they were novelists, illustrators or picture book authors. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed doing it.

By the end of the day my head was spinning with all the fantastic panels. There were 26 panellists and each panel was loaded full of tips, tricks and advice. One of the days highlights was the montage of images that Simon Swingler produced. He had been silently animating in the corner throughout the panel discussions and then produced a computer animated image of each of the panellists (I’d love to track down the one he did of me – it was fantasic.)

Ballarat Books was a fantastic sponsor, making sure a great collection of each authors work was available. It was a great festival and something I’m happy to have been involved in. The festival committee consisted of Alice Barker, Jill Blee and Nadine Cranenburgh, who should be congratulated.

by Melissa Watts

Tim Pegler

Over the last few months I have been helping Ballarat Writers to prepare for the Ballarat Writers and Illustrators Festival for 2011. As part of this I have prepared by reading  the novels of young adult author, Tim Pegler. Continue reading →

by Melissa Watts

Workshopping

A few weeks ago I attended a Ballarat Writers workshop run by Alison Arnold from Text Publishing and Cath Crowley, young adult author. The day previous Cath Crowley had won the Prime Ministers Literary Award for Young Adult writing, for her novel Graffiti Moon. The class was instantly excited when Alison told us about Cath’s success, and I have to give her credit for turning up so bright eyed the day after the announcement (if that was me I would have had a champagne headache to say the least.) Continue reading →

by Melissa Watts

Geraldine Brooks in Melbourne

Last week I went to see Geraldine Brooks in an event organised by Readers Feast bookstore. I am a big fan of Geraldine Brooks and it was fantastic to see a full house. It was located in the Collins street Baptist church which meant I was able to see the front clearly (at my height this is exciting). I was intrigued by the general demographic – in a full church I could only see 9 men around me, and I was left feeling very young by the end of it. The full house did endear me to the fact that people not only buy historical fiction, but they come out on a freezing Melbourne night to hear about it.

Geraldine herself was eloquent and kept her confidence with the range of microphone issues that occurred throughout the night. I enjoyed hearing about how the characters speak to her, once she finds the initial historical fact that catches her interest. She called it “collecting the string” of the story, imagining the story from the fact.

The one thing I can’t stop thinking about is the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. Geraldine used the example that she wanted to use the work foetus but was sure that that word would not have been used in 1600. So she used the thesaurus to identify the correct word for the correct period. Originally published in printed form, the thesaurus has now been incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary Online. According to Wikipedia work began on the collection in 1965 and was completed in 2009. It sounds like such a fantastic resource for writers of historical fiction.

by Melissa Watts

Writing Events

I’m feeling invigorated at the moment by a range of different writing activities going on around me.

Last Thursday Tim Pegler and Leanne Hall were guests at the Ballarat Writers reading night. Both spoke fantastically about getting their work published for the first time, the act of writing and spent some time reading from their novels. I’m going to track down Leanne’s novel This is Shyness –  it sounds mysterious, a certainty to lose yourself in it. I was able to purchase Tim’s books and spent last night reading Game as Ned in it’s entirety. I can’t wait to get onto Five Parts Dead, his most recent novel. (I also found out that Tim grew up in the same small town that I did, which has motivated me – if he can write a novel so can I) Both Tim and Leanne are guests at the Ballarat Writers Festival in September. Continue reading →