If you are a regular visitor to this site (does this site even have any regular visitors? I think not.) Then you might have been wondering whether I had died. It’s been far longer than my usual monthly panic-posting, and that’s just because I have had plenty of other things to panic about. Some of which you might even actually be interested in.
- Tomorrow, 18 February, the wonderful SameSameButDifferent Literary Festival is hosting their Gala night on the wide world of the internets. Because it seems like everyone lives on the internets.
I’ll be part of the “Queer Inspiration” event, where I am supposed to be doing a response to something, but mostly will be responding to the aggregation of deeply crap gay fiction that I was supposed to like reading as a teen. Somehow it is less cynical than that sounds, I promise. - Next Wednesday I am hosting a workshop for the NZSA on how to make your flash fiction better. (Spoiler: it involves editing the shit out of it.) We’ll do some creativity exercises, and then you’ll play with your own work while I tell you to experiment and figure out how to make your 500 words into 300. Because there’s only one thing I think you need to do for Flash Fiction – and that’s make it shorter!
- On Friday, March 4, I’m talking to the Auckland branch of the NZSA about self-promotion, which is going to be a case of do as I say and not as I do when I tell everyone to update their websites regularly.
- I’ve been asked to judge the youth category of National Flash Fiction Day, which is a massive honour.
- Annnd, I’m reviewing some books, and planning for some school workshops, and I’ve got a couple of festivals coming up – all of which will involve a lot of driving and even more hoping that covid isn’t going to ruin the party.
I don’t know how this has all come about, nor what has happened to my professional aspiration to take more naps.
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash