PersonalIt’s been an interesting couple of months, since I moved away, moved on and wound up in a new relationship. Of course this has been conducive to my narrative process; new feelings to tease out and draw upon, different locations to provide inspiration for atmosphere, thematic etc and the strangest of characters to experience, get to know, love, live with and laugh with. New beginnings are like that, streams of inspiration that skip and slide over stones of the past, polishing them with passing time until they become nothing but a memory, smoky and brilliant. In retrospect you think of things to say, things you could have done, should have done and stopped doing years ago, before it got too hard.
I’ve been doing a bit of that. Thinking of things I could have said, screamed, cried or calmly replied and not just to Jake. Drama, life is has been rife with it but I’m okay with it now, because I can use that as well.
I’m working on one serious piece at the moment. One. Singular. I started it for Harmless because Becca asked me to, and when Becca asks something of me, I have trouble saying no. Mainly because I don’t want to say no. This piece grew inside my head and on the page, it became bigger and brighter, so I was selfish and kept it for myself. Maybe I’ll break the market with it on the local level after its finished and I’ve tweaked it a little, but I will submit it here for a time. Not so much for you people, although chances are I like you all on some level, but for Becs who I’m writing it for and for those who need something to carry them through the darkness. Isn’t that why we write after all? To inspire people, to give the marginalised and silent a voice in the void. Sure, we write to perfect our craft, to perfect genre, atmosphere, characterisation, setting, dialogue and all of the agents that cobble together a fluid piece of prose. But there has to be something more than that, there has to be a spark, even if it is just entertainment or excitement.
And it’s with that ideology in mind that I begin to plot my next story, prompted by the polls I’ve had going all week. Vampire Fiction. I can’t believe out of all of the things you guys could have responded with, vampire fiction seems to be the ruling class. So I’ll write some blood sucking fic for you guys, hopefully you’ll get a kick out of it.
The idea I have springs from Crime Fiction (purely for `
fleet21) and Urban Narrative, so it shall be interesting to mix fanged fiends into the brew. Hopefully it won’t drain the life out of my cult like readership. No pun intended, har har har.
Oh yeah, I’m in love.
It’s grand. It’s great. I want to go back to Sydney and be in his bedroom, chilling out and watching movies, with his arms tightly around me.
These are the pics I took at Taronga Zoo, on my handy Viewity Phone (ex-boyfriend has my good camera):
[link]And these are some pics of myself and my man:
[link]dA Lit (Warning: This may contain a rant).#Seniors DebateI try not to get involved with debate in the seniors chatroom for a variety of reasons: a) I’m opinionated b) Opinionated people and #seniors don’t always mesh particularly well c) Too many people can take what you say the wrong way and bend it to their agenda.
So when a debate arose surrounding dALit, I was hesitant to participate (at first), but then I thought about it for a while.
We’re a stratified bunch, aren’t we?
As the debate progressed, I found myself getting increasingly passionate about the cause of the literary dA world, how it is ignored by the administration and the ways in which lit submission has been left behind. So now, I am passionate about this cause called dALit, no longer can I rest on the laurels better known to me as cynical senior member, I must throw down my walking stick and hold a proverbial megaphone to my lips.
What do you guys think? My watchers, my fellows, my enemies, my friends. What are your thoughts?
Does it strike you as right that it has taken dA eight years to implement some extra html tags to “better assist” literature submissions? Considering websites like Wordpress and even my University posting board have submission processes that are more suited to the written word and from my understanding of code, easy to put in place?
Our choices right now are two: PDF uploads (which nobody can really be bothered to access due to the various internet speeds out there) or text submission with basic HTML tags.
S-A or Storm-Artists has a submission system that allows the writer to insert hyperlinks, images, help tags and emoticons. It also allows for bold, italics, underlining and the traditional left-centre- right alignments.
(See here)If S-A, a comparatively younger site to dA can get its nuts together and smack a basic yet effective lit submission process into place, there should be no excuse here. I have no desire to convert to S-A and only created an account to prove a point. But it is the very fact that I need to create superfluous accounts on websites I’ll never use to cement the point that dA’s Lit submission process IS lacking, well it is damn right appalling.
During the #seniors debate, I was told that we should be happy with what we have and stop complaining. I wager it’s easy to say that from the comfortable branch of a VA atist on dA, submission is geared toward VA. Sales are geared toward VA. Most of the front page is VA. Most DD’s are VA - which I do understand. So, I think it is quite rich to say be happy with what you have when your art form has the status quo.
It was also mentioned that dA writers bitch the loudest. I heartily agree. But I don’t agree now, as I didn’t agree then, that writes bitch the most. We rattle our chains the loudest because we have reason, we have grounds and we have the power of the written word. On a text based communication medium, hell hath no fury than a pissed off Australian writer.
Now I understand that dA is a business, it operates to satisfy its investors, the majority being visual artists of some medium. But literature is not some back water boondock town in comparison, we have a definite presence on this site - obviously, if we’re so damn loud - so the parallel to the culinary arts mentioned by a fellow senior in debate is not only insulting but also factitious. Although, the culinary arts is a mixed media application. The recipe is WRITTEN and the result is VISUAL.
Writers are investors too, dA. There is nothing stopping CR or MN from rallying together and putting a literary based project into play. My University manages to pump out two anthologies every year without any hassle and in the technological era we find ourselves in, there is no excuse for dA not to deliver some kind of celebration of the literary format. They are quite content to make T-Shirts, Plush Toys, Mugs, Prints, Mouse Pads etc all publicising and venerating dA’s fantastic visual artists; it would be nice to see a little appreciation for the hours we all spend on our poetry and prose.
Anthologies, Visual Lit, a quarterly dA Lit mag showcasing new talent and old.
No, there is nothing stopping me from doing this all myself, besides maybe time, University, work and life. But this is their job, this is their site and it needs to start catering to the lit kids a little bit more. They need to show the initiative and communicate with the community they represent or show an impetus to change for the better in favour of textual submission, including journal entries.
And no, I don’t believe one should pay for the rights to use these submission tools, as the critique system - if you could call it that - stands as a subscriber only feature.
Now, I don’t expect for this to be received particularly well and I do expect some comments telling me that I’m being naïve, that it all takes time, that I should be patient, that it’s all not that bad etc etc etc
I might be a little idealistic in thinking dA could get off their arses and refine the submission process. True.
I might be negative in saying that dA operates to serve the Visual community more so. True.
I might be impatient in desiring some kind of opportunity for exposure through dA sponsored publications. True.
But I know for certain that I am not alone in my idealism, impatience or perceived negativity.
GroupsTesting for groups has landed, and literature is represented in the form of #
Writers-Workshop. Please, go check this group out, it has been one of my favourites (if quietly) since its creation years ago. It caters to every writer, poet or prose monkey and rattles the cages of your imagination, creativity and technical prowess. Go and support Becca, Trev and Jobie as they declare lift off and WW blasts out of this stratosphere.
=bekkia’s Comp: The FalloutA while ago, I agreed to do a series of critiques for the winners of the Summer Tell Me a Story Contest. So I need your help, should I do the long ones or the short ones first? Long or short? Medium, long or short? Which?
[link] Go here and help me choose.
Well, that's it from me folks.
Writing Journal Coming Soon... 
NaNo updates!
dA Love
Throw myself head first into a canyon with nothing but a huge piece of elastic as a lifeline. 
) thank ^
to Josh!!! 
