Thanks to the Women with Whips, sorry WiPS, for giving me a cracking welcome to the Women in Publishing Society and plugging my writing, bake fails, and other obvious shortcomings on their Woman at Work platform! Can’t wait to whip up a frenzy of creative collaborations with these crazy, inspiring women! Just putting the final spit and polish (so far, just spit) on my submissions for this year’s Imprint anthology, Imprint 21, which will hopefully be launched (Covidy wavey things permitting) at an event at the FCC in November!
Category: Books
Seeing Double – my 3 Short Stories are published in Post Magazine!
Double Trouble, Double Vision and Double Dutch collided today when my 3 Terrifying Short Stories about the deranged, sleep-deprived new parents of twins were published in the spectacularly festive edition of the South China Morning Post‘s Post Magazine! It was a deranged way to end a deranged year in which pumping out deranged humor columns for RTHK Radio 3, the SCMP and the odd anthology has been the only thing keeping me SANE (ish). The stories are a complete fabrication. I’ve only hijacked a plane once and I was SLEEPWALKING then so missed the fun part, only waking up for my arrest!
Thanks to editor Chris Wood, Dave Besseling and the SCMP artist who brought the stories to life with eye-catching illustrations! The magazine version was waaaaaayyyyy cooler, but you can still read the online version here: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3159075/3-terrifying-almost-true-new-parent-stories-hong
Shitstorm in a Tea Cup: My First Lit Fest!
I took part in my first lit fest last weekend reading an excerpt from my absurdist short story Shitstorm at the 2021 Hong Kong International Literary Festival! Shitstorm is one of many short stories and poems published by the Hong Kong Writers Circle in their 2021 anthology After The Storm.
The book is now available to buy as an ebook and in paperback on Amazon, in Bookazine and (from next Friday) in my local indie bookstore, Kidnapped in Sai Kung! Even though I had a slight brain fart moment in the Q&A bit, nobody seemed to notice (Brain Fart is my default setting) and I had an absolute blast reading to a live audience, instead of to myself in a poky little studio, imagining the groans of RTHK listeners! Still not sure how I managed to poke myself in the eye with the mic though… At least that‘s never happened in the studio before.
Thanks to Hong Kong Buzz for their little plug of the event and to the Writers Circle for introducing me to some of the best people in Hong Kong and making it all happen! If you’d like to join our Circle, click here! And if you’d like to support the HK Lit Fest by sponsoring an event or becoming a patron, click here!
Proverse Autumn Reception Nov 18!
I had a blast attending Proverse Publishing‘s Autumn Reception at the Helena May last Thursday, mixing and mingling with the winners and finalists of the 2021 Proverse Poetry Prize! Congrats to all and to Proverse for organizing such a fun event! I’m also excited to be interviewing a couple of them for my next series of Mental Ideas, which will broadcast in 2022. S2 explores the relationship between mental health and imagination in a psychedelic way! First up is the incredible Vishal Nanda, who blew me away with his lively speech and inspired poetry book Please Stand Back From The Platform Door. Vishal is a fellow ‘bipolar bear’ (as he signed his book to me), but I’m certain that’s the least interesting thing about him. He is donating ticket sales from his upcoming book launch on Dec 8 to mental health charity Mind. Don’t miss it!!!
After The Shitstorm: HKWC Anthology launches @ HK Lit Fest Nov 12!
Catch me reading an excerpt from my short story Shitstorm in the Hong Kong Writers Circle‘s 2021 anthology After The Storm at a Hong Kong International Literary Festival event at the Hong Kong Fringe Club Nov 12! Admission is free, but you do have to book as space is limited. The anthology will be published the same day or shortly after (definitely in time for Christmas!) and available to buy from booksellers, including Bookazine and Amazon. Bring on the festive fun! (Halloween feels more of a trick than a treat now you have to wear two masks!!)
War of Voices – Voice Your Passion!
After reading my first poem for the first time at the HKU Libraries Reading Club and miraculously resisting the impulse to sing it, more potential peril looms this week when I’ll be sneaking into the studio and recording War of Voices for Dr. Ahmed Elbeshlawy‘s Voice Your Passion poetry channel! The poem will be up Oct 18!
The poem was published by Proverse Publishing and Chinese University Press April 22, 2021 after winning a place in the 2020 Proverse Poetry Prize anthology, Mingled Voices 5.
https://cup.cuhk.edu.hk/MingledVoices5
War of Voices Reading @ HKU Libraries
I will be reading an extract from my (very long) debut poem War of Voices for HKU Libraries at an event organized by Proverse Publishing this Thursday (July 15) from 6-8pm!
The poem was published by Proverse and Chinese University Press April 22, 2021 after winning a place in the 2020 Proverse Poetry Prize anthology, Mingled Voices 5. A film of the event will be available on the Proverse/ HKU websites.
I have to admit I’m a little nervous about this. Not because I’m a nervous public speaker. Just because War of Voices is the first thing I’ve written where I don’t hear my own author’s voice AT ALL! Whose voice do I hear? Unfortunately, it’s Aled Jones’ voice, circa 1980s, when he sang the Christmas hit, Walking In The Air.
Why is this bad? Why do you think!!! Because I sound nothing like an 8 year old choir boy with an angelic voice. I sound, at best, like a cat that’s being strangled slowly to death by a python. So I guess my greatest fear is of breaking into song midway through the reading.
Your prayers that this will NOT happen on Thursday are very much appreciated at this difficult time.
https://www.hku.hk/press/news_detail_22997.html
https://proversepublishing.com/mingled-voices-5
War of Voices – Mingled Voices 5
Woohoo! My first attempt at penning a poem was published April 22, 2021 by Proverse Publishing and Chinese University Press and my copy arrived today! Mingled Voices 5 is an anthology of poems on the theme of ‘Hunger’ by poets around the world that won or were shortlisted for the 2020 International Proverse Poetry Prize.
All the featured poets are incredible and I can only put my own inclusion down to a fortuitous accident or a moment of drug or alcohol relapse on the part of the editors. 🤣 Mingled Voices 5 is available in paperback and as an ebook. It’s free to subscribers of Kindle Unlimited!
The 2021 Proverse Poetry Prize is now open for entries! This year’s theme is ‘Shielding’ open to interpretation any way the poet chooses. Submissions close June 30, 2021!
Also open for submissions by Hong Kong based poets is RTHK‘s annual poetry competition. This year’s theme is ‘White’ and open to misinterpretation any way the reader chooses! Entries close July 12!
Mingled Voices 5 Published April 22!
One little hit of dopamine I experienced last year was winning a place in the 2020 Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology for my first bash at writing a poem! War of Voices is my little rant on social media, populism and propaganda. The anthology, called Mingled Voices 5, will be published by Proverse and Chinese University Press as an ebook and in paperback THIS WEEK (April 22), but is already available for preorder on Amazon!
I’m also writing a humorous short story for the Hong Kong Writer’s Circle‘s 2021 anthology. This year’s theme is After The Storm. I seem to have been mentioned in the same sentence as ‘storm‘ quite a bit recently, which is either profoundly disturbing or deliciously serendipitous. If I don’t blow myself out, the anthology will be launched at the HK Lit Fest and published in Nov!
Miss Adventure in Rantings of a Madman!
I’ve made it into somebody else’s book!! It’s by Dan Davies, has just been published and is called The Rantings of a Madman on Facebook.
I am flattered to be mentioned in a few of his rants after casting him, aged 53, as a 16 year old boy in Miss Adventure meets Motorhead, which was shown on Funny or Die. Thanks to Chicago radio hosts WC Turck and Kerri Kendall for reminding me of our madcap little escapade gatecrashing a Motorhead gig @ Madison Square Garden in their preamble to an interview with Dan about the book last week!
Dan has experienced international success as an actor and screenwriter. He was a recurring guest in the Trolls Anonymous & Death & The Frozen Tundra episodes of S1 of my Mental Ideas Podcast and will be back again in S2! His debut book is really quirky, funny and the first in a trilogy based on his Facebook rants from 2008 to the present day. Enjoy!
RTHK's Miss Adventure 香港電台冒險小姐 