oh, and what is it with Amanda le Bas de Plumetot? I don't think I've ever seen a story of hers in a magazine, yet she constantly wins/places in writing competitions. (ie, beating me!) perhaps I should try to track something down. and what a great name. I sometimes wonder if it's real.

er...thank God I made my blooper on my blog, not in person. Robert Drewe, while I do in fact read his columns, is not the author of Corfu. That's Robert Dessaix. oops. I suppose I'd better find a Robert Drewe book quick smart and read it before I, I hope, get to meet him at the launch or email him with my thanks.

/blush/

Hooray me! after an oddish experience at the Verandah launch Saturday night (I told my editor she looked like a barmaid, which I meant as a compliment - she was dolled up like a 1940's bar chick, and she was behind the bar), I have received word that the story that ran in Verandah last year has been chosen to go into Black Inc's best stories of 2005 collection, which of course they call "2006" so as not to seem dated. and chosen by Robert Drewe, no less. so I emailed the editor immediately, gushing about how much I like Drewe's work (well, I've read Corfu and I read his columns in the Saturday paper). who knows if there's any cash in it: it's just nice to be chosen for a "best of" collection, not to mention the entre it gives me to submit for next year's collection. Black Inc, sadly, don't put out a lot of fiction apart from the collections.

hee hee hee

the FAW of WA has been nice enough to give me first prize in their open short story competition. it's kind of a pity they announced it last Saturday and waited until Wednesday to tell me. maybe their pigeon was broken. anyway, there's a $400 prize and the citation included the word "exquisite" and given that it's a proper competition from a proper writing organisation, I feel quite pleased.

there ought to be a rule about using certain tricks. I'm thinking in particular of dead mothers and/or dead children, along with decapitation and using a literal conflagaration as the climax of a story. a book I'm about to finish does all three, and while it's unarguably well-written, I feel suspicious, as if it's too easy. authors should have to apply to a Board of Overused Tricks: Please sir, may I borrow the Search for Identity Through Parentage? I promise only to use a little bit, in the top left-hand corner...

so I drove all the way to Geelong for the zine fair and spent maybe 50 minutes there; did find one stand where the guy's been making collaborative zine projects for 12 years and I might contribute something to him; left a stack of BlueBugs for free, and can only hope that they went to good homes; also left a pile of flyers for the ThirtyPeople project.