Here at Elwood Writers we usually like to publish one blog post per month, at least. But we’ve been so busy putting together our new program for Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio, among other things, that we missed September. Oh well, consider this September’s post, an interesting piece from Barry about the joys of writing. Or the pain of writing. Or both. Maybe sometimes it’s just easier to read. So, happy reading.
EW
I was enjoying a Marie biscuit and strong lungo yesterday morning when a new blog post from Barry’s website popped into the Elwood Writers mailbox. In the post – linked over there👉– Barry writes about an upcoming episode of Vision Australia Radio’s weekly literary program Cover to Cover, featuring the work of Elwood Writers. We don’t yet have a broadcast date for the program, but it’ll be sometime after the material goes to Cover to Cover‘s producer/presenter Tim McQueen in early October.
Elwood Writers has been contributing stories to Cover to Cover since 2015, featuring in roughly one special episode each year. Our first program, appropriately titled ‘Starting Over’, was broadcast in episode 38 of Cover to Cover on 11 January 2015. If you fancy a bit of a blast from the past, you can listen to that or any of the episodes featuring our work by clicking here. We’re always grateful for the invaluable support of Tim and the Cover to Cover team, and everyone at Vision Australia Radio.
Until my coffee break was pleasantly interrupted by the happy ping of that email notification yesterday, October had felt a long, long way away. And now? Well it’s closing in, but is still six weeks away – and I remember the six-week school holidays used to go on and on and on. We’ll be sure to provide more info about the radio program between now and October. To stay in the loop, make sure you’re subscribed – it’s free, and means you’ll never miss any content.
EW
The second half of 2024 got off to a flying start for the Elwood Writers blog yesterday with a fascinating new post from Helen, all about the power of the spoken word.
And the momentum continues today with this update on the Elwood Writers anthology Every Second Tuesday. We recently decided, for administrative reasons, to close our account with IngramSpark, the printers and distributors of the anthology. It takes 45 days for the closure to fully take effect, so the title is slowly being withdrawn, bit by bit, and by the end of July Every Second Tuesday will no longer be available from the usual channels. For now, it can still be purchased print-on-demand or as an e-book from some platforms (click here to view an example), but this is unlikely to be the case for much longer. The situation might even have changed by the time you finish reading this post!
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might be familiar with the voyage of Every Second Tuesday. Having discussed it for many months, Elwood Writers started to put an anthology together in early 2019, working on structural edits of the pieces in the second half of that year. In early 2020, Barry copy-edited the manuscript – when finished, he declared that no one would ever find a single typographical error in the entire anthology! So far, no one has challenged his bold claim. We’re forever grateful to David Grigg at Rightword Enterprises for his tireless and patient collaboration on designing and publishing the book, and creating a beautiful finished product. Lee Kofman launched the anthology in a glittering online Q&A event hosted by Melbourne bookseller Readings in December 2020. In the same month, the ever-supportive Tim McQueen of Vision Australia Radio generously dedicated an entire episode of Cover to Cover to the anthology. Other radio appearances included an interview on 3CR’s Published…Or Not, and readings on 94.9 MAINfm’s The Quiet Carriage. There have been many other events along the way, too many to list in this brief post, as well as wonderful reviews, a panoply of supportive readers and booksellers, and plenty of warm glows. And one of the best things is that we distributed or sold our entire print run, which means we’ve never had to remainder or pulp a single copy.
None of this means that Every Second Tuesday is disappearing. Far from it. The anthology will continue to grace the shelves of many public libraries in Australia (and maybe even beyond), as well as the shelves of any bookstores that might still be holding stock – although most of the bookstores we supplied sold out very quickly.
The upshot of this quick (ish) update is that if you’re late to the party or you’ve been here forever and still don’t have a copy of Every Second Tuesday, then you’ll need to act quickly if you’d like to get your hands on it because opportunities to buy the book are dwindling. We hear it’s a very good book, so you won’t regret it. The clock is ticking …
Happy reading,
EW
P.S. If you miss the boat, or you end up kicking yourself at the end of July because you didn’t get hold of a copy, then there is a small chance that all may not be completely lost – but more on that later.
The podcast for last week’s episode of Cover to Cover has just dropped, and you can access it by clicking here. It’s also available to stream wherever you usually get your podcasts, including over at Spotify. We’ve downloaded the episode from our preferred platform – you can too, but to save you the work the sound file can be accessed by clicking here. Why a sound file? Because podcasts are available only as long as the platform hosts them, whereas sound files are forever. Sort of. Anyway, there’s many ways to listen. (And very few excuses not to. But no pressure.)
This episode of Cover to Cover was broadcast on Friday 2 February, repeated Sunday 4 February. For information on the content of the program, visit our 23 January blog post here.
It’s a hugely entertaining program, and well worth your time.
Happy listening.
EW
A quick reminder that in about 15 minutes you’ll have another chance to catch Friday’s episode of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio, featuring work from Elwood Writers, including our stories published in the latest issue of 20 Artists magazine. That’s 1:00pm local time, but you can listen live wherever you are in the world (click here), unless you’re asleep or busy or not in the mood. There’s more info in the post linked above. Hope you can join us. You’ve just got time to make your favourite beverage.
And if you can’t join us today, don’t worry, there’s always the podcast, which we’ll share on this site as soon as it’s available.
Happy listening.
EW
In December, 20 Artists launched Handwritten Issue One, the inaugural literary edition of their magazine: 20 literary pieces by 20 Port Phillip artists includes work by all three Elwood Writers. This is 20 Artists’ fourth print publication – previous magazines have featured visual arts and photography.
The pieces from this latest issue are now available at the 20 Artists website. To read Helen’s poem ‘Behind the Mask’, click here. For Margaret’s ‘A Pocket Handkerchief at the Edge of the World’, click here. And for Barry’s short story ‘Portrait’, click here. You’ll find all 20 authors and their stories by clicking here.
20 Artists is supported by the City of Port Phillip Cultural Development Fund.
And a quick reminder: the Elwood Writers stories from the magazine will feature in this Friday’s episode of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio, produced and presented by Tim McQueen. In print, online, and on the radio – how good is that! Click here for more info on the radio broadcast.
Happy reading.
EW
It’s been a radio-themed start to 2024 for the group, and that looks set to continue into next month as a selection of our work features in the 2 February edition of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio.
The lineup includes our pieces from the latest edition of 20 Artists magazine, published in December: Barry’s ‘Portrait’, ‘A Pocket Handkerchief at the Edge of the World’ by Margaret, and Helen’s poem ‘Behind the Mask’.
Also included in the program is a re-broadcast of Barry’s short story ‘Gray’ from Broken Rules and Other Stories (Transit Lounge), with a new introduction. And we’ll be sharing the hour with Julie Koh, whose story ‘On the Road’ is taken from New Australian Fiction 2023 (Kill Your Darlings).
As always, you can listen to Cover to Cover on the radio if you’re in Australia, or online from anywhere in the world. And if you happen to miss the show, we’ll be sharing the podcast the following week.
Tune in on Friday 2 February (repeated Sunday 4 February) – listening details can be found on the Vision Australia Radio website – just click here.
Thanks as ever to Tim McQueen and the team at Vision Australia Radio for continuing to support and encourage Australian writing in all its many forms.
More information on our stories in 20 Artists magazine can be found by clicking here.
Happy reading and listening and writing.
EW
On 24 November last year, Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio reached an important milestone: episode 500 of the program. In the introduction to that week’s broadcast, producer and presenter Tim McQueen points out that over the last ten years approximately 1500 stories have been read on Cover to Cover, by about 500 different authors.
Tim and the team are always keen to promote Australian authors, and Elwood Writers has enjoyed a tremendous amount of support and encouragement almost since the program began. We’ve created the material for a number of special themed episodes, starting with, appropriately enough, ‘Starting Over’ for episode 38. On many occasions we’ve had the opportunity to visit the studios and read our work on-air. And we even get a mention in this anniversary episode. And, our very own Helen McDonald gets her very own shout-out as the program’s most-read author in 2020. Quite an achievement – well done to Helen!
We wrote a blog post to publicise episode 500 last year but in the end-of-year festive flurry we neglected to share the podcast of the program after it had been broadcast. We’re remedying that right now – you’ll find all the links you need below.
Click here to go to the podcast of episode 500. You can listen directly, or download the audio file for later, should you so wish.
Click here for an audio file of the episode.
For more information about the work of Vision Australia Radio, click here.
If you’d like to revisit our November 2023 blog post about episode 500 of Cover to Cover, click here.
You’ll find recordings of all the themed episodes that Elwood Writers has created for Cover to Cover by clicking this link here.
Thanks as always to Tim and the entire team at Cover to Cover and Vision Australia Radio for all their valuable support – it means a great deal and is very much appreciated. And huge congratulations to you all on reaching 500 episodes. Here’s to many more episodes, and many more milestones.
Happy listening, reading, and writing to everyone.
EW
Happy New Year from Elwood Writers.
Tune in to Vision Australia Radio (VAR) this Friday at 1:00pm (AEDT) for another chance to hear our tribute to Jennifer Bryce on Cover to Cover (CTC), originally broadcast on 4 August last year, and now featuring in The Best of CTC 2023.
As always, you can listen on the radio if you’re in Australia, or online from anywhere in the world. Details can be found at the VAR website – just click here for more info.
First post of 2024, and the new year is less than 12 hours old. We’re hitting the ground running. Jenny would be proud.
Here’s hoping for a safe and peaceful 2024.
EW
This Friday marks the 500th edition of Vision Australia Radio’s weekly literary program Cover to Cover. Produced and hosted by Tim McQueen, the program delivers book readings and short stories to an audience not just in Australia but across the globe.
Elwood Writers has a long history of contributing to Cover to Cover, starting with our very first dedicated broadcast – appropriately titled ‘Starting Over’ – back in January 2015. That was episode 38 of Cover to Cover. Our latest program was a tribute to our much loved and missed co-founder Jennifer Bryce (episode 484), which aired on 4 August this year.
Many congratulations to Tim and the entire team at Cover to Cover. Happy 500th episode! We’ll be listening.
EW
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