Tim Jones's Blog, page 8

My First Three Books Now Available As Ebooks: Extreme Weather Events

As I posted a month or so ago, Headwork has made my first three books available as ebooks through Lulu.com. Time to look at them individually:

Extreme Weather Events


Tim Jones – Extreme Weather Events



Extreme Weather Events was my first short story collection. It was published in 2001 by HeadworX, as part of their now-discontinued Pocket Fiction Series. There are twelve stories in Extreme Weather Events:

Maria and the Tree
Wintering Over
The New Land
Flensing
The Kiwi Contingent
My Friend the Volcano
The Pole
The Lizard
Tour Party, Late Afternoon
Black Box
The Man Who Loved Maps
The Temple in the Matrix

To introduce a few, “Wintering Over” is set in Antarctica, where an isolated scientific party has an unusual visitor from the past: Titus Oates, that very gallant colleague of Captain Scott who went for a walk, and proved to be quite some time indeed. “The Pole”, also set in Antarctica, rewrites the struggle to be first to the South Pole. “Black Box” sees strange developments on the Wellington skyline, while “My Friend the Volcano” blows her top in Taranaki.

"Flensing" and "The Lizard" are pretty much the only two horror stories I’ve ever written. "Flensing" is set in South Georgia, which gives it a slight edge, I think. And "The Temple in the Matrix" pokes a few toes into the interstitial pond in a William-Gibson-meets-HP-Lovecraft-uptown kind of way.

The book got some good reviews and I still come across satisfyingly dog-eared copies in public libraries. Now you can buy it from Lulu.com.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 Abroad.

Takahē 89 Is Out And I'm Guest Poet

In late 2016, then-poetry editor Joanna Preston of takahē magazine asked me to be a guest poet for a forthcoming issue, and now that issue has been published! I really like the cover:



While I haven't seen the issue yet, I'm expecting the following poems of mine will appear in it:
Messiaen among the DinosaursComposerThe Leningrad SymphoniesThe Home of Country MusicEarly Summer MusicThe Hired HandThey are all on a common theme (with variations), and as might be apparent from many of the titles, that theme is music. My musical tastes run from Schoenberg to Stormzy, but as I haven't a shred of musical talent, I'm much better suited to writing about music than making it. My first three collections all feature poems about music and musicians, but I took a break from that theme for my latest collection New Sea Land.

I was delighted to be asked to be the guest poet for takahē, and especially pleased that "The Hired Hand" was among the poems they accepted, as it's the longest poem I've written (84 lines) and my most sustained attempt at narrative poetry. Below, as a teaser for the issue, is the first stanza of "The Hired Hand". Subscribe to takahē to see the full poem and all the other fine work in this issue.

The Hired Hand [first of six stanzas]

I

The news breaks along the Oregon Trail, their van
panting up I-84 in the thin continental air,

coverage intermittent, Suzie snoring
last night’s last three drinks away.

Whether to call, or text, or let things
simmer for a while. Whether to bang her head

against the dashboard. Whether to look at the road
instead of synching and resynching her phone.

Boise: gas, toilet, then McDonalds. Suzie mumbling
like a broken boxer, mountain light stinging her eyes.

Then as coffee takes hold: “An album and a reunion tour?
And they didn’t call you about it? Again?”

“They might have kind of called,” she says.
Suzie calls her a fool and takes her hand.


Read the rest in takahē 89!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 Abroad.

My First Three Books Are Now Available To Buy As Ebooks, Thanks To HeadworX

Tim Jones – Extreme Weather Events



Tim Jones – Boat People



Tim Jones – All Blacks’ Kitchen Gardens


My first three books were all published by Wellington publisher HeadworX:

Extreme Weather Events (short story collection, 2001)
Boat People (poetry collection, 2002)
All Blacks' Kitchen Gardens (poetry collection, 2007)

Other than a few copies of each that I produce with a flourish* to put on the sales table when I do readings, these books have been long out of print. But I'm pleased to say that, through the tireless work of HeadworX publisher Mark Pirie, these books and a number of other have now been made available as ebooks in epub format, and you can buy them at Lulu.com.

(Epub format won't work on an Amazon Kindle without version conversion, but it will work on most other ebook readers, laptops and tablets.)
Find out more about epub formatYou can buy these books, plus cricket anthology A Tingling Catch, edited by Mark Pirie, which contains my poem "Swing":

Mark Pirie – ‘A Tingling Catch’: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009 
For a full list of the books by HeadworX authors available on Lulu/com, visit the HeadworX shop.

Books by the following authors - including hardbacks, paperbacks and ebooks - are currently available:
Alistair Te Ariki Campbell
Alistair Te Ariki Campbell and Meg CampbellTony ChadAndrew Fagan
Michael O'LearyAlistair Paterson
Mark PirieVivienne Plumb
Jenny PowellHelen Rickerby
Harry Ricketts
MaryJane ThomsonF W N Wright
That's quite a list, and shows what a great contribution HeadworX has made to publishing New Zealand poetry and fiction.

With all but one of my published books now available in at least one format, this seems like a good time to run through them all, from oldest to newest - so over the next few months I'll put up a series of posts that take you all the way from Boat People (2001) to New Sea Land (2016).
*for a given value of flourish.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 Abroad.

Here Is Where We Wash Up: "New Sea Land" reviewed by Kay McKenzie Cooke in Landfall Review Online

My latest poetry collection New Sea Land has got some good reviews already, but I'm particularly happy about the excellent review by Kay McKenzie Cooke that has just appeared in Landfall Review Online.

Kay reviews both my collection and another fine collection from Mākaro Press, I am Minerva by Karen Zelas, which I recently read, and recommend.

Talking about New Sea Land, Kay says lots of nice things, but I especially appreciated this comment:

This is a passionate, sincere collection of poems on a concerning subject, but nonetheless peppered with playful aspects, twists and turns. Jones has lightened the load of concern and care that the subject of ecological disaster engenders, with welcomed measures of humour and well-constructed, imagined worlds, both past and future.

It's great to get such a good review which engages with both the content of the collection and the intention behind it - all the more so when the review is by a poet and author I greatly admire. Thanks, Kay!

How to get a copy of New Sea Land

New Sea Land is available in selected booksellers nationwide (the link is to a directory of booksellers).

If the book isn't in stock at your local bookseller, you should be able to order it using this information - especially the ISBN:

ISBN 978-0-9941299-6-3
Publisher: Mākaro Press
Paperback, 150x190mm, 74pp poetry collection
RRP $25

and overseas readers can also order the book from Mākaro Press.



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 Abroad.

Aotearoa Reads Podcast / Vote for Helen Lowe in the Gemmell Legend Awards

The New Zealand Book Council were kind enough to ask me to take part in their Aotearoa Reads podcast series, and the podcast I took part in, the second in the series, went up this week. Check out both Aotearoa Reads podcasts - I think you'll find them interesting:

PODCASTS Aotearoa Summer Reads: Reading Memories and Ambitions: Catherine Robertson talks with Matariki Williams (curator Māori, Te Papa and founder of Tusk) and romance writer Angela Bissell about their memories and ambitions for reading Aotearoa writers  Aotearoa Summer Reads: Reading influences and inspirations: Catherine Robertson talks with writer, editor and creative writing tutor Tim Jones, and founder of Mimicry journal Holly Hunter. The trio discuss Aotearoa books that inspire and influence them.
During that second podcast, I mention that there are many highly successful New Zealand authors who are mentioned less often in the literary conversation here than they should be, because their work is published overseas. One such author is Helen Lowe, whose novel Daughter of Blood has been longlisted for a Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy alongside authors such as Guy Gavriel Kay, Brandon Sanderson, and N. K. Jemison.

If you'd like to support Helen, here's how to vote for Daughter of Blood to make the shortlist. Voting closes Friday 31 March:

1. Go to http://www.gemmellawards.com/award-voting-2017/

2. See the heading “Vote for your favorite Legend award nominee (2017 longlist)” 

3. Scroll down the list of titles until you reach “Daughter of Blood by Helen Lowe”

4. Click in the circle to the left of the title.

5. Go the bottom of the Legend Award list of titles and click “Vote.”


And it's done! [image error]

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 Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Passport

Not all the poems I wrote for my latest collection New Sea Land made the cut - some because they were't quite good enough, some because they didn't fit the theme. "Passport" is one of the latter (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!), but relevant nevertheless.

Passport

Need to travel, passport —(expired, but still potent)not where I was sure it was,a rectangular light-blue absence.
Frantic search, pilesof ancient documents disturbed,dead boxes exhumeddust sneezing the room
house turned upside downpassport stubbornly unfoundany record of citizenshipvanished, my birth certificate —
from another country’s system,in another country’s name —
trapped in a cul-de-sac,and the clock ticking.
Two tentative phone callssolitary queuing downtown,new forms, new photosand it’s sorted in time
the new dark-blue rectangleclutched to my heart,a stateless life in departure loungesnow the least of my fears
but I wonder:
what if I couldn’tsort it with a phone callwhat ifI was running from, not running towhat ifthe guns were coming, and the boats were leavingwhat ifI had no choicewhatwould I dowhatwouldn’t I do
to get away?
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 Abroad.

The 2017 National Flash Fiction Day Competition Is Open!

The 2017 NFFD competition is open!
Submit February 15 – April 30Send your best 300-word storyCash prizes Two categories

Adult (19+)First Prize: $1000Second Prize: $400Third Prize: $100Judges: Michael Harlow and Emma Neale
Youth (18 and under)First Prize: $200Second Prize: $100Third Prize: $50Judges: Fleur Beale and Heather McQuillan
Winners will be announced June 22 at the NFFD celebrations, and all winners are invited to attend and share their stories.
EventsAuckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Northland Wellington
Competition entry details here.
https://nationalflash.org 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 Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: How We Walked Back The Bad News

The report was detailed, unambiguous
And powerful. That was their first mistake.
The second was its clear alignment with the views
Of certain interests, who had been banging on
About this issue for far too long. We were tired
Of listening to their whining. It’s not the sort of thing
A go-ahead country wants or needs. It’s
Negativity, and our polling has shown New Zealanders
Have had enough of that. The All Blacks
Are winning, while across the nation
Dairy herds continue to grow. Rebounding sales of trucks
And utes are all the proof needed to show
That we are on the right path.

Paul Henry and Mike Hosking were our first line
Of defence, manufacturing contempt,
Their intellectual attainments formidable, their scorn
Something only the most practised of politicians
Could be expected to withstand. The report’s authors
Were like lambs to the slaughter, their clothes, their manner
Betraying deep discomfort. And it was soon established
That the authors were academics, a potent critique
In itself. Henry attacked the way the authors dressed. Hosking
Went after the source of their funding. The report’s message
Was lost in the shemozzle. In the morning papers, the
Prime Minister’s photo opportunity with Beauden Barrett
Took pride of place, while on the business pages the report
Came under sustained attack. NBR even suggested
That a sulphurous whiff of economic treason
Might hang over the whole affair.

The report had been discredited without its findings
Ever being discussed. At their respective institutions,
The authors were called in by deputy vice-chancellors
For a quiet word. The importance of academic
Reputation was repeatedly stressed. Funding,
It was implied, could rapidly be redirected
To research efforts more in tune with the nation’s
Wants and needs. Science communication
Was plainly something that should be best be left
To communicators rather than scientists.

A storm in a teacup, a seven days’ wonder
That failed to last even one news cycle. No surprise
That around the Cabinet table there was a general air
Of self-congratulation. The public of New Zealand
As polls and focus groups repeatedly reveal
Do not want to hear bad news, and as the guardians
Of the public mood, let there be no doubt that we,
No matter how great the temptation, no matter
How pressing the need, will not waver in our resolve
To provide ever-more-elaborate circuses
Well after we’ve scoffed the last of the bread.


Tim says: Most of the poems in my latest collection, New Sea Land, were written in 2015 and early 2016. While working on those poems, though, I did take the occasional detour: I wrote some poems about music, a number of which will be appearing in a forthcoming issue of takahē, and I wrote some political and satirical poems that were a bit outside scope for New Sea Land.

"How We Walked Back The Bad News" is one of those poems. It's dedicated to all the scientists who bravely stand up for the truth of what the data tell them against the spin, mismanagement and ridicule of bureaucrats, University senior management, and politicians.

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 Abroad.

Dan Davin Literary Foundation – Short Story Symposium 1-3 September 2017

Here's a callout I'm really pleased to share:
The Dan Davin Conference on the New Zealand Short Story – its traditions and departures – will be held in September.

The conference is an opportunity to celebrate Southland-born author Dan Davin as one of the fathers of the modern New Zealand short story, and the development of the New Zealand short story to today.

In conjunction with the Dan Davin Annual Lecture, the two-day conference will be held in Invercargill from September 1-3. Author Vincent O’Sullivan is working with the Foundation to develop the conference programme.

The short story has always been of significance in New Zealand literature, and continues to be an important form of writing. Papers of 25 minutes are invited on any aspect of the tradition, its contemporary practice, and on the work of individual writers.

Some of New Zealand’s foremost writers of the genre including Owen Marshall, Dame Fiona Kidman and Tracey Slaughter will attend. Janet Wilson will also be key note speaker. It will be the first conference for many years devoted entirely to the short story and its place in New Zealand literature.

The conference will include an opportunity to experience the unique south, as well as attend the events which will be held in two outstanding southern venues.

Enquiries and abstracts of up to 200 words can be sent to the Dan Davin Literary Foundation, PO Box 29, Invercargill 9840, or dandavin@xtra.co.nz

[Note from Tim: There will be a mixture of formal academic papers, and informal papers - in other words, writers, readers and critics as well as literary academics can submit papers!]

We also welcome expressions of interest of attending the Symposium and can provide assistance with discounted accommodation.

As part of the Symposium we have an opportunity for visitors to see and experience some unique Southland experiences. And it is our hope that these experiences might be a catalyst for writings inspired by the south whether it be short story, poetry or blogs.

Rebecca Amundsen
Chair, Dan Davin Literary Foundation
Tim says: A few years ago, I was invited to take part in Southland's annual Dan Davin Literary Festival - an experience I enjoyed very much, for the discussion, the hospitality, and Becs Amundsen's excellent organising skills. Now the Dan Davin Literary Foundation has organised this Short Symposium, which looks like a really good opportunity for writers, readers, critics, academics - and who knows, maybe publishers and booksellers! - to get together and discuss the form.

I'm hoping to attend, provided I can sort out a potential clash of dates - and I hope you'll consider attending too!
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 Abroad.

Booksellers NZ Says Very Nice Things About "New Sea Land" In New Review

It's a relief to post about writing again - and in this case, to highlight a very positive review of New Sea Land by Elizabeth Morton, published on the Booksellers NZ blog.

Elizabeth Morton says:

You can lick the salt off this poetry, half expect sand to spill from the centrefold. Tim Jones’ latest collection, New Sea Land, is part history, part rattling fortune-telling. It is a slap on the face by a wet fish, a digging up of heads-in-the-sand. Jones has spied a calamity from the shoreline, an oncoming deluge. History is repeating on us, and this time the tide is coming in full.

and:

The world is falling apart at its seams. This is a New Zealand where climate change is playing out. The sea floods Lambton Quay, rolls over childhood homes, and meets householders at their doorsteps. People are left with new geographies of which to make sense. Jones gives us a periscope to a time where myopic vision has crystallised into something tangible. It is only once the impact is ostensible that we realise we ‘backed the wrong horse’.... This is poetry that knows what’s coming, and insists you ‘keep your life raft close at hand’.



I'm delighted not only to get such a positive review, but also that Elizabeth Morton has 'got' what the book is about. Thanks, Elizabeth!

As Booksellers NZ says, New Sea Land is available in selected booksellers nationwide (the link is to their directory of booksellers).

If the book isn't in stock at your local bookseller, you should be able to order it using this information - especially the ISBN:

ISBN 978-0-9941299-6-3
Publisher: Mākaro Press
Paperback, 150x190mm, 74pp poetry collection
RRP $25

and overseas readers can also order the book from Mākaro Press.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 Abroad.