Tim Jones's Blog, page 53
May 31, 2010
Tuesday Poem: Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an agèd wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed the dim sea: I am...
May 29, 2010
SoCNoC: Southern Cross Novel Challenge
The Southern Cross Novel Challenge is the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of NaNoWriMo: a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of June. And if that is too much, there's also HalfNoC, 25,000 words during June. If this sounds like you, check out all the details at the Kiwi Writers site. (Thanks to Travis Couttreau for the info.)You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books...
May 24, 2010
Tuesday Poem: Impertinent To Sailors
Curved over islands, the world
dragged me south in a talkative year
slipping Southampton
as the band played a distant farewell.
It was better than steerage,
that assisted passage: ten pound Poms
at sixpence the dozen, promenading
in sun frocks, gathering for quoits,
angling, in an understated way,
for a seat at the Captain's table —
while I, a child, roamed decks, became
impertinent to sailors.
And the heat! My dear, there never were
such days — rum, romance,
the rudiments of ska...
May 23, 2010
The Saturday Serial: Win A Day With Mikhail Gorbachev, Part III
Part III: The Politburo
The Politburo had traditionally met in a sombre, marbled room, sitting six to a side along a massive table. Mikhail felt that this arrangement wasn't conducive to increased productivity and efficiency, so had done away with the heavy table and got everybody to sit in a circle on the ground, on cushions lovingly sewn in one of the more obscure Central Asian republics. The older Politburo members weren't entirely happy about this a...
May 21, 2010
The Saturday Serial: Win A Day With Mikhail Gorbachev, Part II
Part II: Arthur C. Clarke
"Arthur C. Clarke, eh, Viktor? How do you rate him in comparison with Asimov?", Mikhail, a subscriber to Analog, asks his security chief.
"Well, as an SF writer, I think Clarke's got the edge. He brings a real quality of transcendence to his best work, so that it attains a numinous quality which belies his claim to be a writer of hard SF. Expedition to Earth showcases this well, I feel - stories like 'Second Dawn', 'Encounter ...
May 18, 2010
Submission Opportunities Roundup
Here are three bits of news of interest to writers and publishers - two about poetry, and the third for science fiction writers - plus a couple of other interesting items. Thanks for two of these items go to Helen Lowe and her weekly email Poetry News - if you'd like to subscribe to this, please contact snowscape (at) paradise.net.nz
International Literary Quarterly
The International Literary Quarterly is still seeking work for its forthcoming New Zealand feature. Stories and poems should b...
May 17, 2010
Tuesday Poem: Family Man
Family Man
My double relishes his freedom to move
through narrative and time. You'll find him
in the trunks of burned-out cars,
in the cat seat of history, riding pillion
as the motorcade fails to take the bend.
On the red carpet, just behind the stars,
he whispers poison in each lovely ear.
He's the sine qua non, the ne plus ultra,
the hand chained to the plague ship's tiller,
the indispensable figure of the fifth act.
But now he's taken to hanging round the house,
not picking up...
May 14, 2010
Saturday Serial: Win A Day With Mikhail Gorbachev, Part I
I've posted a number of my published short-short stories on this blog, but I've held off from posting longer works. Then I had a bright idea: how about serialising a few stories?
So, for the next four Saturdays, I hope you'll enjoy "Win a Day with Mikhail Gorbachev! A Melodrama in Four Parts", which was included in Best New Zealand Fiction 4 and then collected in my second short story collection, Transported. I'll add links to Parts II-IV as they are...
May 12, 2010
Voyagers: More Good Reviews, Another Award Nomination
More Good Reviews for Voyagers
Joanna Preston has given Voyagers a good review in the May issue of "a fine line", the magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society. Joanna says:
More than 70 poets have work in Voyagers; from...
May 10, 2010
Tuesday Poem: An Alien's Notes on first seeing a prunus-plum tree, by Jane Matheson
by Jane Matheson
This is a device for recycling air
...so intelligently functional in its design
yet aesthetically pleasing in its line.
These delicate rose-petalled flowers...
so soft to stroke, you can do it for hours!
It is wondrous too
that in the heat of the summer sun,
these flowers become
marble-sized ruby-red rounds
of delectable fruit-flesh.
Humans call it a prunus-plum tree
I would very much like
to take it back with me.
This ...
