I still blog 10-15 items a day, just as I’ve done for 10 years now on Boing Boing. But I also tweet and retweet 30-50 times a day…. the more media I have at my disposal, the more ways there are for me to work out my own ideas.

Nearly 70 tweets and blogs every day? Truly, Doctorow is a man for the times.

Proving that blogging is alive and well is Queensland Poet-in-Residence, Emily XYZ. When fighting the writers’ demons – the doubts and distractions that plague us all – Emily convinces us that action brings answers! (And she proved it at the recent Speed Poets gig).

Emily XYZ in action at Speed Poets

And have you seen Tom Cho’s beautiful blog? Full of writerly wisdoms, like the ones he offered at last night’s Writing Race:

• "We who write live in a kaleidoscopic world of ever-shifting assessments and judgments, unable to determine whether it is revelation or supreme self-delusion that fuels our most crucial efforts" – Joyce Carol Oates
• "Ask yourself ‘What am I too lazy or afraid to write?”’ – Gerald Murnane (Tom’s former fiction teacher).

You can catch Tom at the upcoming Byron Bay Writers Festival.

Orbit Books creative director Lauren Panepinto gave aspiring artists, science fiction fans, and publishing aficionados a peek into her long process of designing a book cover. This two-minute video captures every Photoshop tweek and edit on the cover design of an upcoming novel by Gail Carriger.

From covers to remixes: Ursula Le Guin discusses literary remixing at Book Cafe, drawing a distinctino between information (content) and art (object), Le Guin challenges the digital influence on concepts of ownership (and plagiarism) of literature. However, her Australian example, if it’s the one we think it is, seems to misconstrue the issue from complex  identity fraud to one of pure plagiarism. Have a read and see what you think.

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So what’s happening tonight at AWMonline? Lashings of writing, that’s what!  We will be joined by special guest Kate Forsyth. Kate’s first book Dragonclaw was published when she was only thirty, and was an international success straightaway. Her books have been sold to 12 different countries and she has been shortlisted for numerous awards. With a BA (Literature) and a MA (Writing) Kate has taught creative writing from primary to tertiary levels for over ten years, so it will be  to write alongside Kate tonight! Join us tonight at 7.45pm AEST to chat with Kate about her craft, and her latest novel The Puzzle Ring, which has been gaining rave reviews all around the world.
 

Non-techno Tentacles

It also gave me time to reflect on my goals about being a member, and sometimes a leader, of various online communities. The incredible benefits of being able to find information and support anytime of day or night, no matter where I am, were brought home to me as I indulged in writerly thoughts far from any screen. Gone are the days when one needed a a head full of knowledge and a parlour full of colleagues to write successfully. Now we need skills more than knowledge – the writing skills of old, sure, but also research and networking skills different to anything known a generation ago, or even a decade.

Speakeasy 2010 will continue to focus on promoting these skills among writers, informing our reader/writers about developments in online communities and digital publishing, as well as providing current news on publishers, agents, competitions, festivals etc. So what’s been happening while I was off snorkelling? Lots!

Over at a Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, Joe Konrath has distilled five years of blogging wisdom into one great post about how to survive and thrive as a writer.

Many writers use online forums as a way to participte in a writing community. If this sounds like you, I recommend a quick look at the 3 tips outlined by the adventurous writer: learn the local netiquette, choose a forum group that requires a level of commitment that suits you, and remember forum communities are a two-way street (not a one-way self-promotional vehicle).

For those writers who made a NY resolution to get the hang of Twitter, check out the inkygirl writer’s guide, which has a comprehensive range of tips and info on planning and practicing effective engagement with the twitterverse: such as using #amwriting and #writegoal to find fellow writers online, tracking your retweeters with tweetmeme, or taking some time to consider an overall strategy for Twitter as part of building your personal brand online.

My 2010 goals for the AWMonline writing community are: to engage with industry experts to provide a range of training and resources for our members; and to work with our A-team of awesome volunteers to provide a totally clean and current database of industry contacts. With so many talented and dedicated writers of all stages and genres in our membership, I know 2010 will be another wonderful and even more inspiring year.

So, what are your writing goals for the year? And, bearing in mind that Konrath suggests we set achievable goals and reward ourselves when we reach them, what are some of the rewards you plan for yourself? Do you plan a simple celebratory meal with friends/family, or a trip to AussieCon4, or an e-reader? The possibilities are endless – and so are the opportunities!

Time to catch up on recent events in the blogosphere:

They’ve started announcing the Book Bloggers Appreciation Week Awards. In particular, check out the nominations for Best Blog Tours – great leads for bloggers wishing to reach a broader audience.

And of course, you’ve all heard that Twitter has announced their new terms of service, summarised in their blog. They are eager to reassure people that, unlike Facebook, ownership of user content will remain with the user. You own your Tweets. But what rough beast slouches towards the Twitterverse? Targetted advertising, folks - it’s just over the horizon. Which is great, because I don’t know about you, but I’m sure sick of having to spend hours hunting down information about the latest miracle-celebrity-weightloss-facecream!

So have you tried the new Facebook Lite? It’s a clutter-busted version of Fb, with old school design to be easy on the download quota.

Like!

Mashable has a great short post on tips on writing for digital markets: take this quiz and let me know how your web content measures up!

• Know your objective: Do you adopt a different tone for articles, blog posts, tweets and status updates?
• Know your audience: Do you think about who will be reading your content, and target your information accordingly?
• Keep it short: Do you omit needless words?
• Make it scannable: Do you write in the F-shape, highlight your main points, and use comprehensible titles instead of in-jokes?

• Embrace constraints: Still feeling frustrated with only 140 characters, or do you enjoy the challenge of working within different physical and cultural constraints?

Give yourself a star for each yes answer. I’m about a three-star web writer. (Room for improvement is a good thing, right?)

And completely off the topic, whose September would be complete without sparing a smile for the pint-sized funkster phenomenon… so much talent it’s kinda disturbing!

I’ll leave you with a quote from NaNoWriMo guru Chris Baty, who attended a live forum at AWMonline this morning:

Once I discovered that there was a reasonably unhorrible book lurking in there all that time, I started wondering what ELSE was inside me. It’s funny what tackling an overly ambitious creative project can do to help people realize their potential.

Happy writing, folks, and I’ll see you real soon (no, I mean it!)…

Based in Brisbane, if: book Australia is only the third centre of excellence of its kind for digital literature established in the world, after the New York and London Institutes … if: book Australia will promote new forms of digital publishing and explore ways to boost connections between writers and audiences.

This morning, The Book Show’s Ramona Koval was in conversation with Bob Stein, Founder if:book. Generally, I am a huge fan of Ramona, but I have to say that she doesn’t do Australia proud in this interview… Perhaps if she’d been able to recall the name of the "thing that has the red light in supermarkets" (barcode scanner), we could have all seemed a bit more across the digital issues du jour. But I think the main friction stemmed from two very different timeframes of vision: Ramona seemed intent of protecting the interests of we, now, who love the book – the bound, traditional tree-book – and just what we think of those who wish to take them from us. Whereas Bob was envisioning the future, near and far.

I listened to that interview while perusing KCDC’s take on the new augmented reality apps available for the 3G iphone. My synapses had a total Gruen transfer moment: surrounded by the growing cybermall of digital technology available or relevant for storytellers, I suddenly became excited about multiplatform opportunities for creating and crafting stories for a wide-range of readers/users/communities, accessible through their preferred media. Excited like I get when I’m planning a scene for a story; dreamy and fidgeting and weirdly hyper, itching for a keyboard and a spare hour.

As a Gen-Xer, I had a childhood free of computers, and now am immersed in a career that depends on them, and a social and creative life that thrives on them. I am comfortable with the thought that in fifty to one hundred years, people are going to experience the publication and communication of ideas very differently. if:book Australia means that local cultural producers will have the chance to be instrumental in experimenting and engaging in new creative processes: cause for enthusiastic cheers, not threatened snarls.

In related digital news, today’s On Line Opinion (Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate)sees Mark Bahnisch discuss some of the myths that underpin both celebatory and catastrophic claims about social media. Mark argues that educators and organisations seeking to work in the digital media space must  review their ‘pop pschology’ assumptions about digital media and instead address crucial issues of privacy and corporate ownership from a sound basis of research.

Enter the brilliant Phoebe Connelly, who looks at the impact of corporate ownership of our digital playgrounds (AKA social media) through the lens of GeoCities’ demise. When the commercial success of a social media site is judged as wanting, the community has no control over the fate of the content they produced. Beyond corporate mercenaries, there’s also the concern of plain old link rot:

In a keynote address at a 2001 conference on preserving digital media, science-fiction writer Bruce Sterling observed, "Bits have no archival medium. We haven’t invented one yet. If you print something on acid-free paper with stable ink, and you put it in a dry, dark closet, you can read it in 200 years. We have no way to archive bits that we know will be readable in even 50 years."

He added, "Tape demagnetizes. CDs delaminate. Networks go down."

Point taken. But are authors responsible for printing books on sustainable materials? Secure digital archiving sounds more like an issue for information managers, not cultural producers. Bring on the super librarians!

All in all, a most interesting day on the intertubes, with many more to come. Have a great weekend, folks.

Have you seen the new blog by 2009 Arts Queensland Poet-in-Residence Hinemoana Baker? Hinemoana has posted a poem, The Fossils, from her forthcoming collection. Make your day and spend a moment enjoying it.

Varuna has told us that the full information about the Publisher Fellowships is now up on their website.

The Marten Bequest Travelling scholarships are open. Here’s a pdf of the application form. See AWMonline for more details.

More reasons to love the tinterpants. Poison Doughnut calls it like it is on KFC’s trailor-trash neologisms.

Hey, I’m going to Tweet Camp – yeehah! Someone send me a care-package. Warm socks and chocolate, please.

Have a wonderful writing weekend. I will be running a stall with SF writer Trent Jamieson at my sons’ ‘Space’-themed school fete, handing out free pens and encouraging young writers – it’ll be a blast!

I’ll leave you on this inspiring note: "Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human manifestation." (Joseph Campbell in A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink).

Speaking of publishing, Speakeasy is still at maximum outrage over the Productivity Commission’s recommendations to lift Parallel Importation Restrictions. Did you know that one in four folks in the town of Maryborough, Victoria, work in the printing industry? The recommendations, if implemented, will bring that town to its knees. Australia-wide, the printing industry stands to lose hundreds of jobs, and a good chunk of their $80 million industry. Have a read of the full report of the Commission, especially the attempts to quantify the ’cultural externality’ of literature – the exemplars given of books with intrinsic cultural value are The Old Testament and Mein Kampf! Here’s the link to the Australian Parliament House of Reps contact list - I wrote to the prime Minister, Minister for the Arts (Garrett MP), and my local representative, as well as my State representative. I encourage you to do the same. You can also join the Facebook group Australians for Australian Books.

On a lighter note, remember all the hoohah about the Hoffmonster? Check out the comments under that Speakeasy post for an astounding follow-up by a Speakeasy reader – it packs a pistol full of irony!

And just for something fun, how would you pimp the carts at your local library? See here for some prizewinning pimping. I’d do monster trucks, for sure.

I want to see The Australian try this one: Hebrew language daily paper Haaretz commissioned one entire edition to poets and authors, both established and emerging, in place of the regular journalists. Instead of the functional quotidian fair, this became the news:

… 79-year-old author Yoram Kaniuk, whose novel “Adam Resurrected” was recently adapted for a movie starring Jeff Goldblum and Ayelet Zurer … went into the field to write about couples in the hospital cancer ward. The thing is, he’s a cancer patient, too. “A woman walking with a cane brings her partner a cup of coffee with a trembling hand. The looks they exchange are sexier than any performance by Madonna and cost a good deal less,” Kaniuk wrote. “I think about what would happen if I were to get better…how I would live without the human delicacy to which I am witness?”

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Tired of developing writers’ callous on your pointer finger? Developing a permanent claw from using teensy-weensy qwerty keyboards on your phone or PDA? Fear not, the PhonePoint Pen is on its way! We will soon be able to take notes by playing a weird form of charades: wave your motion-senstive smart phone in the air (like when you spelled out your name with a sparkler at New Year’s Eve parties when you were a kid, remember?) and, hey presto! A garbled message appears on your screen. Apparently, AI and fuzzy pattern matching will come to the rescue of those of us with less-than-perfect pencraft. Phew.

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Everything you wanted to know about copyright but didn’t know who to ask: CAL (Copyright Agency Limited) FAQs are some of the best around for authors looking for legal and related information about the ownership of their work.

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Treat yourself to this incredible film clip produced by Agust Jacobsson for musical group Sigur Ros featuring the Perlan special-needs theatre group. Not only is it nine minutes of heavenly music and visual, it ends with the best screen kiss EVER.

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Writing Race 8-9pm AEST tonight: AWMonline forums>Writing Race>Writing Race 16 June 2009 – all AWMonline subscribers welcome! See you there, Racers.

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Illustrators Australia are celebrating twenty years with an exhibition of illustration at Rooftop Gallery Northcote from 19-21 June. See some IA members’ iconic artworks, hear the free talks, and schmooze the wonderful illustrators’ community.

This Wired post Eighteen Challenges in Contemporary Literature is a thought-provoking summary of issues in contemporary publishing.

From the oft-mooted:

Vernacular means of everyday communication — cellphones, social networks, streaming video — are moving into areas where printed text cannot follow.

To the arguable:

The Gothic fate of poor slain Poetry is the specter at this dwindling feast.

To the right-on!:

Polarizing civil cold war is harmful to intellectual honesty.

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Artist Philipp Keel has a designed a KISS Taschen diary (the methodology, not the band). Keel astutely observes that ’there are three reasons why most people, although they have tried, won’t keep a diary. Not every day is very eventful, it actually takes a lot of discipline to write, and in retrospect, may find what they have written embarrassing.’

Now, as appealing as it may sound to be able to check your day as ‘pushy’ or ’spying’, but not both, and then follow the prompts to supply a naive comment, Speakeasy maintains that it does indeed take a lot of discipline to write. Check boxes and prompts are a fun way to inspire you to record and observe your life in different ways. But imagine if they published la belle femme bohème Anais Nin’s diaries as a tick-a-box:

Did I enjoy sex with someone shocking and/or inappropriate today?              Yes/No

Something is lost, would you agree?

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Wondering where Michael Campbell, formerly of Brisbane Writers Festival, has moved on to? According to the latest Bookseller + Publisher, he’s the new Sydney-based Editor at large for Scribe.

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Finally, has anyone noticed it’s a tad chilly ? Is anyone else learning how to operate a pen or keyboard while wearing gloves that transform fingers into woolly sausages? Writing a scene set during a record-breaking heatwave in Cloncurry, while juddering uncontrollably with cold in Lismore?

Fear not, dear bold and cold writers, for there are any number of specialised products targetting your winter needs while providing epic LOLs:

Snuggies:
https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next

Slankets:
http://www.theslanket.com/

The Lazypatch:
http://www.lazypatch.com/

And for bath-time, the Wearable Towel:
http://www.wearabletowel.com/

So no more excuses, although please promise me you won’t wear them to your book launch …

Happy (warm) writing this weekend!

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