Return to Elyora

img_0974I’m ecstatic to finally announce the release of the paperback edition of Elyora this  Valentines Day.

For those who follow me on Twitter and Instagram, you will have seen a flutter of mentions late last year, but thanks to some health bumps, it’s taken until now to get it all to come together the way I want it to.

REWIND

As some of you know, the novella was first published in Review of Australian Fiction’s Rabbit Hole special edition on the 23rd of December 2012, under the editorial stewardship of the very awesome Lesley Halm. Sean Wright encouraged me to to find a paid home for Elyora, which I did. But when I sold the manuscript in early 2013, the publisher insisted on a title change to make it less parochial and the addition of a new opening section to ensure it would hook the thriller readers it was slated to be marketed to. To compound it all, I signed the contract for River of Bones the day before Elyora was announced as an Aurealis short-listed work. And as a final nail in the coffin, the ebook was only ever available via Kindle.

To able to use my paperback rights to return the manuscript to its original narrative form,  to joyfully and proudly market it as ‘Australian gothic horror’ and to have it in a medium accessible by everyone, well it makes me a very happy author.

A BIT OF GOTHIC HORROR FOR VALENTINES DAY

I’m launching the paperback on the 14th February.

The book  will be available here (and for those that buy here, there will be something in your copies that I was unable to print in a mass market copy!) or via the usual online bookstores.

The novella is $11.99 (including postage anywhere in the world) and can be purchased by clicking here.

As special thank you, I’ll ship an original Elyora-based poem square with the first five books pre-ordered.



When Jo, Hal and Benny arrive in Elyora the absence of takeaway coffee is the least of their problems. At each other’s throats and without transportation, phone service or somewhere to stay, they accept the hospitality of the enigmatic Lazarus at the original Elyora homestead.

As day turns to night, the sanctuary of the rambling house becomes a terrifying alternate reality of memories peeling back onto themselves to expose secrets and paranoia dating back to 1942.

To escape Elyora and return to 2012, Jo must remember who she is and find Benny and Hal before they succumb to  the same fate as those who came before them.

BUY THE NOVELLA

 

Post-It Note Poetry 2017

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Four years ago, while we were writing Post Marked: Piper’s Reach, I dared Adam to write a bad poem every day in February. Adam dared back – the poem had to fit on a post-it note.  Post-It Note Poetry was born as a monthly adventure. From humble beginnings in 2013, Post It Note Poetry has grown, and now commands international participation and the generous stewardship and curation of S.B. (Sean) Wright. (A big wave to our friends at Hartlepool Libraries in the UK!)

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2013

The participation guidelines are pretty simple:

  • commit to producing a poem daily in the month of February.
  • give yourself permission to write as well, or as badly, as suits.
  • poems must fit on a post-it note (they come in a variety of sizes and there are various apps and program that will emulate a post-it note or found poetry techniques of a suitable size).
  • photograph or screen capture the poem.
  • post to social media with the hashtage #pinp17.
  • get involved by sharing the poetry of other participants via your favourite social media platform or by joining the FaceBook community.
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2014

Follow @seandblogonaut or @jodicleghorn to keep abreast of what’s going on during the month. Sean has a dedicated Twitter timeline for it.

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2015

In 2016 I was able to test drive my poem squares for #pinp16. I’ll be pushing the boundaries again with #pinp17 to create a basis for a new project I’ll be launching in the next few weeks. I’ll be posting pics here every few days, but Instagram will be my main haunt.

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2016

For more info see:

Post-It Note Poetry 2017 – Participant Guidelines

Post It Note Poetry – Permission to Write (Badly)

The Moon String

I’ve been wanting to experiment with images that I’ve collected via Instagram and pairing them with fragment poetry. Yesterday I took the leap.
The above is the digital mock up of this…

…which in time, I hope, will become a physical poem in its own right, based on the digital.

Art goes round and round. And the words swirl in a dervish with it.

Image: Remedios Varo