MARCH

2015 The KSP News

E s t a b l i s h e d 1 9 8 5

Upcoming Events

2015 Online Course

Practical Creativity From Monday 16 March

with internationally best-selling author Valerie Parv

“Thinking is the ultimate human resource,” Edward de Bono

This fascinating online course leads you through three stages of story creation:

nurturing the spark of your ideas; creating living, breathing people;

and shaping your material to suit your writing goals.

Included are step-by-step ways to access your creative brain and overcome blocks, with the

option of submitting work for helpful personalised feedback from Valerie Parv, an internationally best-selling author who has

sold over 29 million copies of her books. Over the three modules, you’ll develop strong story

ideas and people them with characters you can’t wait to write about.

Three-week course via email

beginning Monday 16 March 2015 Limited places; advance bookings essential: 08 9294 1872

$100 members, $150 others

Workshop at

KSP this

Sunday!

Booking in advance is essential for all workshops and events.

Please see the KSP website for payment details.

9294 1872 / kspf@iinet.net.au

Breaking the Writing Block with Horst Kornberger Sunday 8 March 2015

1-4pm with tea break

$30 members

$45 non-members

This is a workshop for anyone who wants to begin writing or who has started and got stuck. Horst Kornberger offers a step-by-step process that helps writers recover artistic imagination. The imagination is born in stages during childhood and youth. When we revisit these stages through writing, we reconnect with the core capacities we need to bring our work into flow.

Horst Kornberger is a creativity consultant, interdisciplinary artist, poet, writer, lecturer and researcher into the field of imagination and creativity.

Annabel Smith at KSP

KSP Emerging Writer in Residence Report 2014

During November I had the wonderful privilege of being writer-in-residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre. The quiet cabin with its huge desk and beautiful view of the gardens and the city in the distance, as well as the interaction with other writers passing through the centre created the perfect blend of solitude and fellowship to stimulate my creativity.

I used the residency to commence a first draft of my fifth novel, a contemporary family drama, tentatively titled Self/Help, which tells the story of a wife in present day, Perth, descending into depression as she struggles to balance a career with the demands of parenting two children.

The novel engages with themes including motherhood, loss of self-identity for women, the challenges of juggling children and career, mental health, marriage, ageing and the pervasiveness of social media and the internet.

I set myself the ambitious goal of writing 5,000 words per week (approximately four times my usual output) and I managed to exceed this, finishing with 23,000 words of the first draft.

The residency yielded many and varied opportunities to meet members, through visiting groups, social events and mentoring.

My ‘official duties’ commenced with the launch of the anthology Paper Tiger for the Writefree Women’s Writing Group, which has been meeting for almost twenty years. I was struck by the strong sense of community among the women in this group and how this impacted on their confidence as writers.

I especially enjoyed attending the young writers and home schoolers groups. Meg Caddy did a wonderful job of inspiring and motivating the young members, creating a space in which they feel safe to share, nurturing their talents, stoking their creativity and honing their craft. I was impressed by the serious way the members applied themselves to the tasks and the vividness and freedom of their ideas.

The literary dinner was another highlight of my visit. The attention to detail in the organisation of this event is a perfect example of the dedication and commitment of the committee. The food was scrumptious, and Shannon had even gone to the trouble of naming the tables after my novels, which was a lovely personal touch. I read a short extract from two of my published novels - Whisky Charlie Foxtrot and The Ark, as well as an extract from a work-in-progress of which I have almost finished a first draft: Monkey See.

I also delivered a workshop which covered the use of three major social media platforms - Facebook, Twitter and Wordpress (blogging) for the purpose of creating a ‘platform’ from which to connect with readers. Feedback from participants was resoundingly positive, with attendees reporting that they felt inspired and equipped with the knowledge to begin building a professional presence online.

Over all, the residency was a highly stimulating and wonderfully productive experience for which I am tremendously grateful.

Keep in touch with Annabel:

http://annabelsmith.com/

Page 2 THE KSP NEWS

COMPETITIONS,

EVENTS &

OPPORTUNITIES

The Authentically 'Emotional' Author

Saturday 28 March, 1.00pm-4.00pm How do you authentically lend

emotion to characters, without

falling into the trap of cliché,

to best tell your story? Come

to this workshop with Kate

McCaffrey to learn useful

techniques. KSP, $30 members,

$45 others, 08 9294 1872.

Grouch Online Magazine is

currently seeking submissions

of poetry and creative writing.

Details here

Online Poetry Feedback with

Jackson 0406624578. Details

Online Poetry Magazine

Uneven Floor currently

seeking submissions. Details

Highlight Publishing

currently open for submission

of manuscripts. Details here

Summer Supper Club spoken

word monthly performances,

Details here

Creatrix Poetry and Haiku

Journal now accepting

submissions Next deadline

10th May 2015 Details here

Inkerman and Blunt is

looking for love letters Deadline 29th May 2015

Details here

UBUD Writers & Readers

Festival Oct-Nov 2015 Details

Page 3

COMPETITIONS,

EVENTS &

OPPORTUNITIES

My Child Parenting Express

short story competition

$1,000 first prize, closes Tues

31 March. Details here

Henry Lawson Society poetry

and short story competitions

$250-$1000 first prizes, closes

Tues 31 March. Details here

Peter Cowan 600 Short Story

Competition $200 fir st pr ize,

closes 10th April. Details here

QLD Written Championship

Bush Lantern Award 2015

Written Competition for Bush

Verse $200 fir st pr ize, closes

22nd May. Details here

Hervey Bay Arts Council

writing competitions Free to

enter, cash prizes, closes 26th

June for youth and 29th May

for adults. Details here

MEMBER

CONGRATS!

Meg Caddy for being

commissioned to write a

short SF story for Penguin.

Former Young Writer-in-

residence Sophie Overett for

scoring a QLD Literary

Fellowship and being

accepted into the Tin House

Writers Workshop in

Portland, Oregon, USA.

Stephen Lehane Smith at KSP KSP Young Writer in Residence Report 2014

As the car pulled out of the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre, I reflexively patted my pants pocket, checking for my pen, and tried to recall where I’d left my notebook. Then I remembered: I’d packed it in the boot, along with my laptop, and I was in a car travelling with my aunt to her house in Attadale. The car, a maroon Lexus SUV, was so massive that I could barely feel its movement along the road. On either side, the sidewalk was bare, miles and miles of grass and dirt and powerlines. I slipped in and out of the world. One moment I would be watching the flat ground stretch past the window, listening to my aunt talk, and the next I would be deep in a sentence I had written earlier that morning, thinking about how it within the story. Questions came at me thick and fast from my aunt, and my voice answered, stilted, weak, underused.

Of course, I had driven along the same roads ten days before, when I started my residency at the writers’ centre. Then I was a mess of excitement, expectations, and cracked hopes. Sure—it was only ten days of isolation. But driving up that final swerve of road I really felt like I was approaching something momentous. Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Goldfields Trilogy, a series of novels chronicling the Western Australian gold rush, were set in the same time and place as my own novel-in-progress, and so I believed there was some sort of poetic connection between our two works, and that—by splitting my time between writing, editing, and re-reading Prichard’s Goldfields Trilogy—my time at the residency would result in improvements in my novel and writing practice in general.

This, for the most part, was true. The view through the window of my room, which I could see from my writing desk, was of trees and shrubbery, and on the distance, construction workers moving piles of sandstone and other building materials. If I kept my gaze just low or just high enough, I could convince myself that I was in the past, in the world of my fictional novel. Though our rooms were close together, I rarely saw the two other young writers-in-residence. After the first day, I went seventy-two hours without uttering a word to another person. And when I did finally speak to someone, my voice sounded slow and tortured to me, sunk, as I had been for days, under the weight of a fictional world, without the internet or other people for distraction.

But there were moments, sporadic, unexpected moments, where I would feel overwhelmed with pride and satisfaction at the work I was doing, and would realise the enormity of the task before me, the sacrifices I needed to make to become a successful practitioner.

When I finally got back to uncle and aunt’s house in Attadale, where I would be staying for a week before flying back to Brisbane, I ate as much home cooked lasagna as I could then turned on the playstation and opened youtube. I sat there for twelve hours, only turning off the TV when my eyes would no longer stay open. For the next few days, my manuscript languished. I wrote a couple hundred words occasionally, but the fictional world of my manuscript became increasingly distant.

On the last night of the residency, us young writers had gotten together to celebrate, and it seemed so simple then, as we drank cheap red wine and talked about where your novels would end up, it seemed an easy, simple thing to keep writing at the same pace and intensity out in the world with other people.

Keep in touch with Stephen

on Facebook and Twitter

Member

Renewals

winner

Flora Smith

Flora has won a voucher

for a standard $30 KSP

workshop funded by DCA.

Congratulations

Flora!!!

www.storyhouse.org

Hey there! Have you forgotten us? Richard here...I'm sitting looking out at a cold and gloomy day and not a new story to read or put on the site.

Wazza matter? Don't people want to share their work until it's close to contest deadline?

Let me remind you that the purpose of the Preservation Foundation is to share stories with the world, preferably personal stories of you or someone you love.

So, if you aren't ready to send something in yourself please encourage Aunt Sue or Grandfather Jesse to send in that family biography or sketch or whatever. We aren't about prizes, although you may have won one in the past--we are about keeping your story alive long after we are both gone. It will be a treasured bit of history for our grandchildren and great grandchildren to cherish. In fact, my own father, certainly no polished writer, left a great story of his life that is now on the site and has been read by many who found it touching. My sister also wrote a story of our mother which is on the site and brings back her life vividly each time I read it.

So please do me a favor. Start recruiting new writers, especially those who don't have the confidence to share their work without encouragement. I'd really appreciate it if you would and I know how much it can mean to an amateur writer to see their work published. Don't let those manuscripts turn brown and disintegrate in some forgotten closet.

Fern’s Corner With Fern Pendragon, KSP Landscape Committee Coordinator

A monthly segment highlighting an aspect of the KSP garden

During recent wanderings, Fern has noted down a list of birds that frequent the KSP property. The bird bath in the front court yard is a popular spot in this hot weather, with a line up of birds awaiting their turn, squawking down ‘hurry up!’ from the surrounding trees.

Birds listed below. If you have spotted more in your own wanderings, please email us at kspf@iinet.net.au so we can add to this list.

Magpies * Wattle birds * Magpie lark * Fantail * Kookaburra * Galah * 28s * Cockatoo * Ravens

KSP commemorates the Centenary of World War I Pre-order KSP’s Anzac Centenary book Blackboy Hill is Calling by downloading the order form the KSP website or picking a hard-copy up from the Centre. Blackboy Hill is Calling is the never-before recorded social history of Western Australia’s most significant World War I training camp. We join former Blackboy Hill soldiers on their journey preparing for the Great War, with humorous and touching stories of marching, firearms training, camp folklore and sufferance through countless bowls of dreary stew. New research suggests that Blackboy Hill camp training was integral in creating the ‘spirit of mateship’ now synonymous with the legend of the Anzac. Blackboy Hill is Calling is suitable for all ages, and includes optional Teacher’s Notes for educators. Book release date: Late March/Early April 2015. Cost: $15 posted or $10 pick-up. Sign up to the Blackboy Hill Project blog for free updates on this important

Anzac Centenary book written and compiled by KSP-members. To be released

March/April 2015. Funded by LotteryWest. http://blackboyhill.blogspot.comau/

Competitions Secretary Jemimah Halbert

Blackboy Hill Project

Valerie Everett

Public Fund Chairperson KSP Treasurer KSP Clive Aldridge Denis McLeod Christopher Oakeley

Literary Advisory Board Dr Glen Phillips David Caddy Prof. Brian Dibble Kathleen Dzubiel Mardi May Dr Melissa O’Shea Dr Amanda Curtin Juliet Marillier

Board of Management Chairperson Tabetha Beggs Secretary Shannon Kayne Treasurer Robert Perks Committee Tabetha Beggs

Mardi May Valerie Everett Margot Lowe

Coordinator/Newsletter Editor Shannon Kayne

Patron Dr Glen Phillips

KATHARINE SUSANNAH

PRICHARD WRITERS’ CENTRE

Regular Writing Groups

Open for Everyone to Join (Per class: $5 members/$10 nonmembers)

Poetry Writing Group (Poets@KSP) 2nd, 4th Mondays 1.00-3.00pm

Writers’ Circle Tuesdays 10.00-12.00pm

Writefree Women’s Writing Group Wednesdays 9.45-11.45am

Young Writers’ Group (8-16s) Mondays during school term 4.00-6.00pm

Home Schoolers Group (9-16s) Thursdays during school term 10.00-11.30am

Thursday Night Group Thursdays 7.30-9.30pm

Romance Writers Group Fridays 9.30-11.30am

Marathon Writers Group Fridays 12.00-4.00pm

Non-Fiction Writers Monthly 1st Saturday 10.00-12.00pm

Past Tense (Social History) Monthly 2nd Saturday 10.00-12.00pm

Speculative Fiction/Fantasy Monthly 2nd Sunday 10.00-12.00pm

Avon Valley Writers Group Wednesdays 10.00am & Thursdays 7.00pm

NaNoWriMo Support Group Mondays during October and November only,

9.00am - 12.00pm

Katharine’s Place

11 Old York Road

Greenmount

WA 6056

AUSTRALIA

Phone: (08) 9294 1872

Fax: (08) 9294 1872

Email: kspf@iinet.net.au

Web: kspf.iinet.net.au

Find us on Facebook