Two on the Shelf

Helen was browsing in Stoneman’s Bookroom in Castlemaine last week, and spotted something rather exciting. In the middle of the second shelf in the photo below is a copy of the Elwood Writers anthology Every Second Tuesday. Helen sent this pic to the group, and we ran our eyes along the shelves, absorbing the host of excellent authors whose company we’re keeping. And, thanks to the orange Transit Lounge logo on that singular green spine, we quickly spotted another reason to cheer, nestled quietly on the left of the top shelf: Barry’s Broken Rules and Other Stories. So it’s a double hooray! for Elwood Writers and its members.

Stoneman’s Bookroom, Castlemaine, Victoria (photo: Helen McDonald)

Thanks for your eagle eye, Helen, and for capturing the moment. And a huge thank you to Stoneman’s for supporting writers and writing everywhere.

In the literary world, being on the shelf is definitely a very good thing. Mind you, it’d be even better to be off the shelf and in the hands of an eager reader. Don’t forget to keep supporting your local bookshops and libraries. Especially the smaller independent booksellers who might be struggling a bit at the moment. If you want them to still be around this time next year, go and browse their shelves. And maybe take a punt on a book you might not otherwise have thought to read. Its author might turn out to be a favourite.

Whether you buy or borrow your next book, happy reading.

The story behind ‘The Americans’ — Barry Lee Thompson

‘The Americans’ – the fourth story in Broken Rules and Other Stories – is an homage to the annual summer holidays I used to take with my parents when I was growing up. We would spend two weeks every year in a seaside location, usually in the UK. For many years Bournemouth, on the south […]
The story behind ‘The Americans’ — Barry Lee Thompson

We enjoyed reading this, Barry’s latest blog post, where he discusses the inspiration behind his short story ‘The Americans’, the fourth of the seventeen tales in his collection Broken Rules and Other Stories.

Elwood Writers met yesterday for its regular fortnightly workshop, and Barry reminded us that he’s exploring the background to each story from the book in turn, which means the next under the microscope will be ‘Gray’. We look forward to hearing how this one came about.

If you’d like to read all four posts so far in this series, you’ll find them together at this link here.

Happy reading.

Australian Short Story Festival 2021

Barry took part in two panel discussions at last year’s Australian Short Story Festival from Adelaide. COVID restrictions meant that participants and attendees from interstate and overseas could not be there in person, and sessions had a Zoom component.

Masculinity with Wayne Marshall, Barry Lee Thompson and Dominic Carew was on Saturday 6 November 2021.

Writing The Family with Barry Lee Thompson and Katherine Tamiko Arguile was on Sunday 7 November 2021.

Video recordings of both sessions are below:

Masculinity with Wayne Marshall, Barry Lee Thompson and Dominic Carew | Saturday 6 November 2021

Writing The Family with Barry Lee Thompson and Katherine Tamiko Arguile | Sunday 7 November 2021

For the full selection of ASSF 2021 videos, visit the YouTube link here. The ASSF website says these videos will be available till July, so they may be taken down by the end of this week.

Happy watching!

Currents

One of the longer pieces I’m currently working on takes a fresh look at the dynamics of ease/unease in online spaces such as those described in ‘Twitch’.
from “The story behind ‘Twitch'” at barryleethompson.com

In Barry’s recent blog about the background to his short story ‘Twitch’, he talks briefly about a story he’s currently writing that shares similar themes. It’d be interesting to hear more about this new story sometime. Come to think of it, it’d be great to hear a little about what other members of Elwood Writers are working on at the moment. But only those who want to share. Writers don’t always like or feel comfortable discussing current work, for a variety of entirely understandable reasons. Oh, hang on just a moment, there’s a call coming in … why, it’s Jennifer Bryce – what a nice surprise! What’s that, Jennifer, you’d love to tell us about a project you’re working on? Well, we’d love to hear about it, so please go right ahead, in your own time. Absolutely no rush.

And now that a forthcoming blog post has been successfully solicited, let’s continue with the current project of spending this wintry Melbourne Saturday afternoon in the warmest way possible, all cosied-up with a good book. The Evenings by Gerard Reve, if anyone’s interested. But first let’s pop the kettle on and open up the cookie tin.

Have a peaceful weekend, everyone.

Glittering Ceremony

Broken Rules and Other Stories (Transit Lounge, September 2020)

Here at Elwood Writers we enjoy a good old celebration and relish any chance to get dressed up to the nines, so we’re excited to have the opportunity to remotely attend the Queensland Literary Awards ceremony, which will be live-streamed from State Library of Queensland at 6–7:30pm on Thursday 9 September.

We’re really looking forward to cheering on the finalists in all the categories. The evening will be particularly thrilling for us because Barry’s book Broken Rules is on the shortlist for the University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection.

If you’d like to be a part of this year’s awards ceremony, click here and scroll down the page to register for the live stream. It only takes a few minutes. And you won’t have to dress up on the night, unless you want to. You can wear whatever you want. As far as we know.

Congratulations and good luck to all the finalists. Every one a winner.

The Queensland Literary Awards are supported by the Queensland Government, through Arts Queensland and State Library of Queensland. The Queensland Literary Awards also receive funding from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund. The commitment of sponsors is critical: Griffith University, The University of Queensland, University of Southern Queensland and The Courier-Mail. Philanthropic support through the Queensland Library Foundation is gratefully received from Jenny Summerson and Susan Hocking and Ian Mackie, and their family, through the Hocking Mackie Trust at APS Foundation.
State Library of Queensland

New-Year Highs

While last year was taken up with the production and launch of our anthology Every Second Tuesday, each of us was also busy working on our individual projects. We all rounded off the year on personal highs.

Jennifer’s short story ‘The First Day’ was awarded a Highly Commended in the Port Stephens Literature Awards 2020.

Margaret’s story ‘Pastry Fever’ appeared in the Fall 2020 edition of Door Is A Jar literary magazine (Issue 16). Door Is A Jar is a US publication of poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, drama and artwork.

Helen was excited to have her poem ‘In deep blue’ selected for Democratic Poetic | Poetry Matters Issue 40 December 2020, a gathering of the journal’s finest poems from 2006 to 2019.

The successful launch of Barry’s first book Broken Rules and Other Stories in September was followed by the publication of Every Second Tuesday, and Barry is already planning and writing his next book.

The creative spirit surges. Watch this space throughout 2021 for more Elwood Writers news.