Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

In publishing rules are just guidelines. We give you these guidelines to help you (believe it or not). We’re not trying to make your life harder; we are trying to show you how to succeed. These guidelines are what you should generally follow, but there are times you can break the rules.

A great skill for a writer to have is to know which you can bend and adapt, and which needs must be met. Read on…

4 RULES YOU CAN BREAK

• Anything that is contradicted by multiple people at top levels – Have your go-to sources (Writer’s Digest, ME!, KidLit411, Debutante Ball, Writers in the Storm, Pub Crawl Blog, Query Shark, Jane Friedman, Girl Friday Productions, Susan Spann etc) and trust those who have years of industry experience at the top levels–we all agree on the important things. However, there will be things we don’t agree on. Therefore, trust your…

Love & Friendship should be an easy sell.

It’s Whit Stillman’s version of Jane Austen.

That alone should get you into the cinema.

It’s a wonderful film; witty, warm and generous-hearted, but also spiky and tart and filled with a plethora of zingers.

It’s also cinematically an undiscovered Austen and after so many versions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility and Emma that have, it’s refreshing to see something new.

Love & Friendship is an adaptation of young Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan, believed to have been written in the mid 1790s but revised up to a fair copy prepared in 1805 and finally published by her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, in 1871.

Set in the 1790s, earlier than most Austen tales, Love and Friendship concerns beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) who has come to Churchill, the estate of her in-laws, to wait out colourful rumours about her dalliances…

As a non-profit website dedicated to the support and promotion of Australian made films, Cinema Australia rarely gets the opportunity to throw cash at crowdfunding projects. Trust us, if we had the money we’d be executive producers on almost every new Australian film calling for supporters through the myriad of crowdfunding platforms available on the interwebs.

That’s why we’ve launched this feature – The Crowdfunders – which will shamelessly plug projects calling for your dollar. It’s just another way for us to do what we love doing most – supporting Aussie cinema!

Here’s our latest plug…

The City at Night

Written by Tyson Peters, The City at Night is a dark comedy that explores the relationship of two people struggling with depression who act as each others negotiators as they stand on the ledge of a roof.
‘We hear the narrative of people on street level every day – I want…

Warner Bros. is obviously where Ben Affleck is happiest.

The Accountant looks to be a solid thriller with an interesting premise.

My thoughts on the trailer:

Lots of people can write. Lots of people can (and do!) query their writing. But what does that group of people who get published do differently? Other than persistence, here are my FIVE SECRETS to set you apart from the pack–and join your peers getting published!

1. NETWORK

Notice I didn’t say “develop a platform” which is a plus, but isn’t going to score you a book deal by itself. By network I mean:

• Join a critique group
• Join a writing association (ITW, RWA, WFWA etc.)
• Spend time on one social media site that suits your interests and personality (choose one! you don’t have to do it all) and build a community
• Engage with other writers who have agents and if you become friends and have similar writing style ask for a referral to their agent

2. KNOW YOUR BRAND, HAVE A PLAN

I get it, I do; you writers are creative people…

A few months ago I was invited by Cafe Dissensus to guest edit a special issue on Female Genital Mutilation in India. A topic close to my heart, for reasons that will become evident when you read the editorial here and the other stories in this issue. The extraordinary transformative power of grief in the shared narratives of over a dozen women from all walks of life and all corners of the world, stunned me. Naturally stories like these cannot be told without a backlash. The Facebook page dedicated to ending the practice of mutilating young girls has been attacked by those who perceive their control is slipping. Men and women whose only recourse seems to be heckling, post daily diatribes against the women who have taken on legal and religious establishments in India in a bid to end this horrendous practice. Australia, U.K, Canada and the U.S.A have legislation…

I’m really looking forward to participating in this year’s  Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival  on the long weekend in June. I’ll be in 2 events on Friday and 1 on Saturday, as well as being involved in the Write Advice Curtin Writing and Publishing Flash Mob, also on the Saturday.

On Friday morning I’ll be talking with Chinese poet, essayist and translator, Huiyi Bao, about her book of essays on Irish culture as well as her research into religious poetry. She’ll read some of her poems, talk about her translations of the work of Margaret Attwood and Elizabeth Bishop, and how her book has become a best-seller in mainland China.

Later that day I’ll be talking with Rosemary Sayer about my book In Love and War: Nursing Heroes. Rosemary and I were part of a really enjoyable conversation at the Perth Writers Festival and I’m looking forward…