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And the winner is …
May 1, 2013Oh boy, there’s so much happening here at Busybird HQ at the moment and May is going to be the biggest month as we open our doors to the public today at our studio gallery. Our own Les Zig is now officially our Publications Manager and he’ll be keeping you all up to date with what is happening.
BUT, for some of you reading this post, you may not care so much about any of that because you’re waiting to hear about our [untitled] short story competition. So, here are the results. We’d like to congratulate these people:
First ($500): ‘The Regatta’, Luke Thomas
Second ($250): ‘The Human Child’, Adrienne Tam
Third ($125): ‘She’s All Broken’, Peter R Hill
Commended: ‘Rollerbaby Queen’, Venetia Di Pierro
Commended: ‘Niall’s Edge’, Suzannah Marshall Macbeth
These stories will be published in issue 6 of [untitled] which is due out in June. Prizes for the competition will be presented at the launch, date to be advised.
I’d like to thank our editing committee (Les Zigomanis, Daniel Kovacevic, Jodie Garth, Helen Krionas, Danielle Gori, and Beau Hillier) for their dedication to reading all the stories entered into our competition.
The Short List
April 15, 2013After much deliberation, we’ve narrowed down the stories to this shortlist for the [untitled] short story competition for 2013. Winner will be announced on 1 May.
Congratulations to these people:
‘Hope Corporation’, Tim Napper
‘Niall’s Edge’, Suzannah Marshall Macbeth
‘Rollerbaby Queen’, Venetia DiPierro
‘She’s All Broken’, Peter R Hill
‘Slipway’, Kate Elkington
‘Start at the Beginning’, Grant Wales
‘The Human Child’, Adrienne Tam
‘The Regatta’, Luke Thomas
The Right Tools
April 9, 2013How many of you out there have a favourite pen to write with? Any type of art form (writing, painting, photography) has tools available to create the art. And some of us get a little OCD about our tools. I like a particular pen with a particular type of lined paper. The lines can’t be too bold and the paper needs to be smooth. I’ll search through shops for the perfect notebook and I have a good collection of them scattered around the house.
Same goes with a camera. The body of the camera needs to have a certain weight and feel in my hands. Despite the iPhone having a very good camera, I can’t seem to manage very good photos with it and I think it’s because, to me, it doesn’t have that camera feel. And yet, Kev can produce top quality shots every time. In fact, you’d be amazed that they’ve been taken on an iPhone.
So what’s my point, you may ask?
Surround yourself with the best tools to suit the way you work. Be indulgent. Don’t hold back when you create the best conditions to help you produce the best work ever. If this means searching the country for the perfect notebook or hanging onto that old camera for sentimental reasons or if you like to burn essential oils while you work. Do it.
Creating art is as important as having the finished product. This creation is a journey in itself. And if your tools aren’t doing it for you, then get cracking and experiment with them. Go to workshops, join a writing group, go on an expedition. Take an art class, ask questions, explore.
The world is waiting …
Blaise
Stretch yourself
March 26, 2013As an artist of any kind, you should stretch yourself often to improve your skills. By doing this you learn new techniques and sometimes come up with great solutions to something that you’re already working on.
But how can you do this?
Trying out different writing techniques is well worth trying. This was brought back to me this week after teaching year 8 students flash fiction at Warrandyte High. To try to make it a little more interesting, I decided to make the students write in the Steampunk genre. For some this was well out of their comfort zone while others dived right in. This was quite difficult because the word limit was 100 words.
By giving yourself a challenge (this works equally in photography, art or music) you are looking at your craft from a different angle. It also really puts you into a creative space.
So, if you write prose, why not try your hand at some poetry. Or if you are a non-fiction writer, try to write a fantasy. Any time you play with words you are adding to your creative well and you may surprise yourself by coming up with an idea that you can use in your normal arena.
Go and listen to some poetry or music, attend a workshop or visit a gallery. These are all great ways to inform your craft.
Blaise
Life Happens No Matter What
March 19, 2013
You might wonder why you’re looking at a goat … Meet Ernest. There’s only one reason why Ernest is in this post, and that’s because the picture makes me smile. We’ve been a bit sad here at Busybird over the past few weeks. We’ve had to farewell two special ladies who had their lives cut much too short.
Tracy was a contributing author to our [untitled] anthology, as well as partner to Mal who is one of our early team members. We are saddened by this loss because Tracy leaves so much behind and many more pages to write.
And then there was Christine (sister-in-law to our chief editor) who was a HUGE supporter of everything we did and one of the two people who inspired us to publish Journey: Experiences with Breast Cancer. Both these ladies will be greatly missed.
So why the gloomy post?
It’s times like these that allow us to reflect on our own lives, how we live with others, what we are doing with the short time we have on earth in this life. It’s also a chance to look at how grief and reflection can shape our own selves and find some way to make sense of things. This is where writing, art, music can help to heal our soul.
As my sister-in-law says, ‘Savagely make it count.’
Blaise