Janis Freegard's Blog, page 24

Interview with Mark Stephenson – No Second Chance

Mark Stephenson is a Wellington writer whose first novel No Second Chance has just been published by Steele Roberts.  No Second Chance is the story of Anna, who arrives in Wellington in 1947 as a survivor of the holocaust.  As well as being a story of survival, courage and betrayal, it's also a story of love and hope.  Anna forges a new life in a new place, but the past is always with her.

Mark grew up in the United Kingdom but moved to New Zealand in 1985 to work as a junior doctor in Invercargill.  He has lived in Wellington since 1989 where he works as a GP and writes part time. He lives with his partner, a daughter and two dogs.  Mark's short stories have been published in JAAM, Takahe, New Idea, Viola Beadleton's Compendium of Seriously Silly and Astoundingly Amazing Stories and Washington Square.

Recently I interviewed Mark about his beautifully written new novel, and about writing generally.

Mark, when I first met you, you were writing short stories.  What led you to write a longer work? 

Yeah, this novel started life as a short story, which was published in Takahe way back yonks ago. For some reason I just kept thinking about the characters and the reasons behind their actions. I gradually filled in the details of their lives and fitted them into a historical context, which wasn't there in the original story, or not so much of it. Then I started thinking about the next generation, and the next one after that, and the consequences for them as well. So it became a story of how historical events can break apart a life, and a family, and eventually how the characters might come back together again.

What was different about writing a novel, compared to writing short stories?

It took a lot longer…!

But seriously, it's easier in a way as long as you can stick to the task. You can develop characters and themes and plot along the way whereas in a short story it all has to be done in a few sentences, or words even. A short story is way easier to finish though.

You've chosen a very challenging subject.  What made you decide to write Anna's story?  Is she based on a real person?

She is not based on a real person but some of the events I've written about have certainly happened to people. The situation and conditions in the camps are real but the characters and the way they interact in the novel are imaginary. I've been interested in those stories of survival since I was a teenager for some reason and have read some historical accounts. Many survivors keep their stories to themselves till they are much older, and some things probably go with them to the grave. I have often wondered what it would be like to survive, come back to a 'normal' life and how your mind would deal with it.

One of the most dramatic events in the book occurs in New Zealand, late in Anna's life. This is based on an actual happening that occurred not far from here. It set me thinking… why would anybody do that? That's really where the story came from – I started to fill in the gaps.

Do you have a regular writing routine?  How do you juggle writing with your work as a GP?

Well, kind of. I have a regular bit of time off in the week when I write. Sometimes I spend most of it staring at the blank screen.

You held an NZSA mentorship while you were writing No Second Chance.  How do you think that helped you?

It helped me a lot, basically by getting a lot of feedback on the text and how I was writing, seeing the recurring faults in my writing. I realised I had still a lot of work to do on the manuscript even though I thought it was already well drafted. I learnt a great deal. My mentor was encouraging while being honest about the bad bits, and there always are bad bits. She also praised the good bits, which I enjoyed more, strangely enough.

What are your writing plans now?  Will you stick to novels?

At the moment I'm sticking to novels. I've written a draft of another one, possibly a second draft. It's very different, though also historical, this one is set in sixteenth century Aotearoa before European contact and has a teenage boy as protagonist.

Finally, do you have any advice for first-time novellists?

I tend to think a lot and write little. I advise them to do the opposite.

No Second Chance  can be bought from  Steele Roberts and Unity Books, or any bookseller will order it for you if you ask.

 

Spec Fic Poem for Spec Fic Blogging Week

This week is Spec Fic blogging week, organised by the Speculative Fiction Writers of New Zealand.   Here then, is a science fiction poem I wrote:

lovesnog in blue



I love the cool smoothness

of your tentacles

your triple eyes of Terran blue

let me fondle your mandibles

palpate your maxillae

under the idling moons

through the singing times

through the trembling times

through the wildwinterstorm times

I will love you with

my strobilating polyps

my many radulae of Terran blue

Janis Freegard

Image via Wikipedia

The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider

Image via Wikipedia

A quick update on Alice:

Alice Spider is a character who's been haunting my poetry since I was about eighteen.   She's appeared in prose poem sequences in Turbine and AUP New Poets 3 (Auckland University Press) and danced her way through JAAM 28.   Now Alice has infiltrated the latest issue of Anomalous Press, alongside many entertaining international writers.  Anomalous Press offers audio alongside its text.  Downloadable versions are coming soon, but in the meantime, it's all online.

Tuesday Poem – Thread of Pearls by Lady Ise

Image via Wikipedia

Thread of Pearls

Hanging from the branches

Of a green willow tree,

The spring rain

Is a

Thread of pearls.

Lady Ise (Ise no miyasudokoro, c. 875 – c. 938) was a Japanese poet in the Imperial court.

Tuesday Poem – Flowering Room, by Saradha Koirala

Lilium Nepalense – Photo by Denis Barthel

Flowering Room

In the lounge your angles

were acute and wrong.

You bent too slowly

towards the slivers of light

you could steal early morning

if I left the curtains wide.

On the fridge you learnt

stretches and poses,

salutes to the sun

which rose and rose

unobstructed and sure

until early afternoon.

When the Venetian blind

crashed down one evening,

its slats and strings so tangled

and dinners upon dinners

layered sticky on its once-white,

I propped it in the laundry

and you offered up

a strange bright lily

from your warm-damp soil

and butterflying leaves.

Saradha Koirala

Saradha Koirala is a Wellington-based poet and English teacher.  This lovely  poem comes from her collection Wit of the Staircase, published by Steele Roberts in 2009.  The poem reminds me of a cactus I've had for decades, which has only flowered once – in a sunroom in Mt Vic.  But it also makes me think of other types of blossoming – how anyone might flower in the right conditions.

Click on the quill for more Tuesday poems.

Eye To The Telescope

Yayoi Kusama. Singapore Biennale. Image via Wikipedia

 

The second issue of the online journal of speculative poetry Eye to the Telescope, featuring Australian and New Zealand poets, is now live.  It's been edited by Wellington writer Tim Jones and contains my poem 'Yayoi Kusama Goes to Iceland'.

I'm in excellent company: other poets in the journal include Raewyn Alexander, Helen Rickerby, Stephen Oliver, Laurice Gilbert, David Reiter, Cy Matthews, Catherine Fitchett, Alicia Ponder and Joe Dolce (better known for the song 'Shaddup You Face').

Poetry & Gender in New Zealand Publishing Part 2

Last year, I posted about a little survey I'd undertaken of publishers' websites.  I looked at the gender of poets published in 2009 by AUP, VUP, Steele Roberts, Seraph Press, Earl of Seacliffe Workshop, Cape Catley, Titus Books and OUP (the ones that sprang to mind).   I was interested to discover that, of the 31 books I found, 18 (58%) were by women and 13 (42%) by men.

Well.  Subsequently, I discovered that the Journal of Commonwealth Literature very conveniently publishes (amongst other things) an annual round-up of all the poetry books published in New Zealand during the year.  This included publishers I hadn't been aware of at the time, such as Soapbox Press.  Thanks to the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, I was able to get a much fuller picture. 

The real balance was the opposite to what I'd found: of 74 poetry books published in 2009, 42 (57%) were by men and 32 (43%) were by women.  Most of the presses I'd inadvertently excluded were small presses publishing one or two volumes apiece.  However, one publisher (Kilmog Press, which makes truly beautiful handmade books) published 12 volumes in 2009 – surpassing all other publishers on the list, for which they are to be commended.  Only one of these books was by a woman, though, which skewed the results significantly.  (Maybe Kilmog Press will have an entirely different profile for 2010, but the results aren't available yet, so we will just have to wait and see.)

Focusing on the three major poetry publishers in New Zealand (with 8 books apiece): Auckland University Press and Victoria University Press each published 5 women and 3 men; and Steele Roberts had 4 of each.

So how does all this stack up against the previous year?  2008 looks a little different for the big three: AUP published 2 women and 6 men, Steele Roberts  5 women and 7 men; VUP 3 of each.   But if those two years are typical, the gender balance looks as though it might even out over time. 

The other publisher with significant numbers in 2008 was the Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop (1 woman, 4 men), followed by Headworx (1 woman, 2 men & 1 joint publication by a woman and a man); Original Books (2 of each) and Soapbox Press (1 woman, 3 men).  The grand total for 2008 was 32 books by women (36%) and 55 by men (63%), with the remaining 1% the joint publication (by Meg Campbell and Alistair Te Ariki Campbell).

What can we conclude from this?  Female poets are well represented overall with the major publishers; male poets seem somewhat over-represented with the smaller presses.  Is this because small presses are more likely to be run by men, who prefer poetry by men?  Are men more confident about putting together a collection and submitting it?  Are women more likely to do MAs in Creative Writing* and therefore more likely to approach a university press?  Who knows.  You can expect another exciting instalment of this next time I get my spreadsheets going.

* I rather think they are, which raises another interesting question – why?  Do male poets think they know it all already?  Are female poets more open to the idea that they might still have a lot to learn?  Are men more likely to take the alternative, small press route?  I think there's a thesis in here somewhere and if someone would like to pay my mortgage for the next few years, I'd be happy to take it on….

National Poetry Day Poem – Stranded in Paradise, by Helen Rickerby

Stranded in paradise

When we hit tarseal again

I feel like the island

had tipped up

to send us rolling down-

hill heading for home

but not even halfway

between the end of the earth and Kaitaia

we hear a noise

and a clunk, and a hiss 

We stop to check 

It's flat 

Up ahead are houses

Cars rush past like flies

We trudge along the verge 

The sun has already melted the tar

my Paihia jandals already ruined 

Intimidated by the large white house

we try the neighbours

with the cars and the dogs

'No landline,' they say, 'try the white house' 

The white house peers down from its hill

the driveway is two lines

of white stones 

I let you go first 

They don't ask us into the house

but bring the phone out

They tell us they once visitedWellington

like another country, this mythic south 

We phone the AA and return to our car

I am homesick

for the first time

In the hours we spend waiting

the sun climbs higher and hotter 

We sit in the car, there is nowhere else

each passing vehicle shakes us with jealousy

When the AA man comes

pulled from his family, pulled from Kaitaia

we pretend to not be embarrassed

that we can't fix it ourselves

City folk, we can't help it

 

"Stranded in Paradise" is from Helen Rickerby's sequence of poems Heading North, published in handbound volumes by Otago publisher Kilmog Press.  It's a beautiful book, inside and out.  The poems follow a couple travelling up the North Island to Cape Reinga and back – part road trip, part love story, with the presence of a bovine goddess in the background.  In this poem, I especially like the idea of the island tipping people up and rolling them home again.

Helen Rickerby is the author of two other collections of poetry: Abstract Internal Furniture (2001) and My Iron Spine (2008) (both with HeadworX).  She is also co-managing editor of JAAM literary magazine and runs Seraph Press, a boutique poetry publisher. Helen lives in Wellington, works as a web editor and blogs at Winged Ink.

Happy Poetry Day, everyone!  There are more poems at the Tuesday Poem hub.

Slightly Peculiar Love Stories

New Zealand e-publisher Rosa Mira Books has just released "Slightly Peculiar Love Stories", an anthology of 26 love stories.  The writers come from New Zealand, Israel, Hong Kong, Argentina and Athens, the UK and the US and include Tim Jones, Tina Makereti, Maxine Alterio, Claire Beynon, Bryan Walpert, Sue Wootton and Craig Cliff.  My own contribution is my short story "Mill" which won the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award in 2001.  I'm delighted to be in this beautiful anthology, in such fine company.  Congratulations to editor Penelope Todd, who has done a wonderful job.

 

SPLS authors

where to buy a copy

Explosions

Suite Gallery (which recently moved from Newtown to Cuba St) has a cute little gallery space in Oriental Bay, just opposite the boat sheds & Martin Bosley.  It used to be a garage.  It looks like this:

If you're in Wellington, you have until 17th July to get down there to see some really good photos of explosions by my friend Geoff Short.  If you like staring into flames, finding shapes in clouds, or setting fire to things, you will like these.  They've been on display in Paris, Beijing, Switzerland, etc and now they have arrived in Wellington just in time to warm you up on a cold winter's night.  If the gallery's closed, you can still get a good view through the window. 

One of them looks like this, only much bigger, and consequently even more exuberant:

Untitled Explosion, Geoffrey H Short

 
Go and have a look.