Angela Meyer's Blog, page 7

Review: Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame in Readings Monthly

I reviewed Owls Do Cryby Janet Frame (released with a new foreword by Margaret Drabble in the Text Classics series) forReadings Monthly, with the book still ringing in my head (hence the style of the review).When I read Frame I am reminded, too, that a writermight deliberately eschew grammar rules, in aid of rhythm or mood (and that’s the only nod I’ll give on here to something that happened last week). Here’s an extract:

‘[Frame]pierced the world with her eyes and her senses and we’ll always...

Interviews in The West Australian and Tincture

Picture by William Yeoman for the West Australian.In theWest Australian this week:

In the West Australian:

‘I thought of (Captives) as a pillbox of stories,’ Meyer says. ‘There are different coloured pills – a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one—and they produce different effects and maybe you can’t take too many at once. And they’re a little dark and a little strange. But I think they have to be that way to get across those ideas of fear and that we’re captives within our own minds. We ca...

LiteraryMinded is seven; Captives is born; writing-work balance

I missed my blog’s birthday. For the first time. You can imagine why. Something else I’ve written has just been released, my tiny book of short fictions,Captives.

Actually, there’s more to it than that. I haven’t felt like I’ve had a proper chance to let publication wash over me, that now when I say to someone ‘I’m a writer’, and they ask, ‘what’s your book?’ I have an answer.

It’s just that I’m back in extraordinarily-busy-saying-yes mode… That’s why I truly missed my blog’s birthday. I’m work...

Flash fictions: key words and after-images, on Booktopia

On theBooktopia blog today, I discuss flash fiction and short fiction; my own and others’ stories, intentions and possibilities. Here’s an extract:

In a short story, every word must count. What is left out is as important as what is left in. The writer must create and maintain a particular tone, or mood, and create a piece that feels whole (not a fragment) but that may evoke much outside its confines. With my own very short stories (also called flash fictions or microfictions), I want the char...

Signing a contract for an unfinished manuscript, on Writers Bloc

Click here to read my piece onWriters Blocabout signing the contract forCaptivesbefore it was finished, and the ensuing writing process (while travelling).Here’s an extract:

I wrote a few of the stories around sessions at the Edinburgh International Book Fest, including a couple which are postmodern or referential. This reflects the fact that, like the narrator of Rabih Alameddine’sAn Unnecessary Womanwho knows Lolita’s mother better than she knows her own, I don’t like to separate out my ‘rea...

Angela Meyer (ed), The great unknown (Review)

Angela Meyer (LiteraryMinded):

Reblogging this fantastic review of The Great Unknown from Whispering Gums, a blog I’ve read and admired for quite some time.

Originally posted on Whispering Gums:

Courtesy: Spineless Wonders

The great unknown is a mind-bending collection of short stories which explores, as editor Angela Meyer says, “the unknown, the mysterious, or even just the slightly off.” I was, in fact, expecting more horror, thriller even, which are genres that don’t really interest me, but...

Detachment, surfaces, excess: No Limit by Holly Childs

Hologram is a new venture publishing novellas by writers under 30. Hologram is associated with Express Media, a fantastic organisation that provides support and development opportunities for young Australians in writing and media.

The first book to be published by Hologram is No Limit, by Holly Childs. It’s about Ash, who is stuck in Auckland due to a volcano, or the apocalypse—she’s not sure. Ash is seeking her cousin Haydn but then is dragged in aimless directions, encountering people and pl...

Captives available for pre-order!

In her first book of fiction, writer and literary journalist Angela Meyer demonstrates her gift forpainting vivid pictureswith a few adroit, restrained brush strokes.

—Jennifer Peterson-Ward,Books+Publishing

You guys…

My first fiction book is being published in May:Captives. It’s a petite, dark collection of flash fiction, with a cover and layout beautifully designed by Sandy Cull. Here’s the blurb:

Captivesopens with a husband pointing his gun at his wife. There’s a woman who hears ‘the hiss of...

The Great Unknown authors: PM Newton

This is the twelfth post published in conjunction with the release ofThe Great Unknown,where authors share their experience of writing eerie stories for the anthology.The Great Unknownis available fromBooktopia,Readings,Avid Reader,Fishpond(free shipping worldwide) and all good bookstores. You might also want to add it to your shelves onGoodreads.

PM Newton is the Sydney-based author ofThe Old SchoolandBeams Falling(which I am currently enjoying). Today, she tells us about the nightmarish nort...

Chairing panels and interviewing authors on stage: a few things I’ve learnt

Short story session @ Bellingen Readers & Writers Fest 2012 with Marele Day, Robert Drewe and Charlotte Wood

It’s been five years since I first wrote a piece like this, and after seeing the topic come up in an author’s Facebook thread, I figured it was time for an update.

I’m sharing what I’ve learnt about chairing and interviewing authors on stage, particularly through watching good, mediocre or bad sessions at festivals, not just due to my own experience chairing panels at writers’ festivals...