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The Only Twisted Branch
Sunday Short: 'Stone Mattress' by Margaret Atwood
I've been late to Margaret Atwood, having read The Handmaid's Tale earlier this year and then proceeding to inhale her other work. She has such a wonderful sense of character, and shines a light on rape culture, sexism and misogyny through brilliantly intense fiction. 'Stone Mattress' is one of her newer shorts, and captures a brutal moment in the life of Verna and how that brutal moment ultimately begets more brutality. It's unsentimental, it's violent, and it's pretty darn perfect.But old habits die hard, and it’s not long before she’s casting an appraising eye over her fleece-clad fellow-travellers dithering with their wheely bags in the lobby of the first-night airport hotel. Passing over the women, she ear-tags the male members of the flock. Some have females attached to them, and she eliminates these on principle: why work harder than you need to? Prying a spouse loose can be arduous, as she discovered via her first husband: discarded wives stick like burrs.
You can read 'Stone Mattress' over at The New Yorker.
Friday Finds
- The most feminist moments in science fiction history.
- Nick Cave on the creative process.
- The whole of Harry Potter in one handy illustration!
- A Supergirl tv-series! Colour me excited.
- Lena Dunham offers up some pretty great advice.
- This article on the 100 best Simpsons episode is giving me insane doses of nostalgia. It's a pretty awesome list though.
- Last Week with John Oliver's segment on the Miss America pageant is pretty perfect.
- And to take you out for the weekend, new Big Hero 6 trailer!
- Nick Cave on the creative process.
- The whole of Harry Potter in one handy illustration!
- A Supergirl tv-series! Colour me excited.
- Lena Dunham offers up some pretty great advice.
- This article on the 100 best Simpsons episode is giving me insane doses of nostalgia. It's a pretty awesome list though.
- Last Week with John Oliver's segment on the Miss America pageant is pretty perfect.
- And to take you out for the weekend, new Big Hero 6 trailer!
The Owlish Guide to National Young Writers Festival
It's that time of year again! I'm pretty stoked. This will not only be my third NYWF but the first time I've gone not-working, which gives me a ton of feels.It's also an awesome program, which is DOUBLY exciting. I'm looking forward to heading down.
THURSDAY 2 OCTOBER
Comic Jam
Live comic drawing!
Launch Orgy
This is always ridiculously fun. Getting a ton of journals together to launch in quick succession is a pretty awesome brainchild and seeing how they choose to do so leads to some diverse (and diversely awesome) results.
FRIDAY 3 OCTOBER
So, You've Published a Book
There tends to be a lot of focus at festivals on getting your book published, and not a lot of what comes after it, so this is a pretty interesting take on it and should be worth checking out!
History Chicks
Passionate lady literary historians!
Drawing for Writers, Writing for Drawers
Cross-disciplinary fun! I'm a bit of an avid drawer, and even more of an avid writer, so these two meeting in the middle seems like a good time.
NYWF Trivia
Trivia is always a highlight at a festival, and gives you the opportunity to switch up your brain power from super-learny-absorby to utilising the knowledge you've already got stored up there.
Dark & Dirty
The bad guys of lit with some of the best guys of crime.
SATURDAY 4 OCTOBER
Mandatory Attention: the State of Immigration in Australia Today
This is such an interesting topic and a topical issue, so I look forward to seeing the conversation opened up at the festival in (hopefully!) a compelling and informative way.
Funny Ladies
Funny ladies!
Everything You Wanted to Know about Design
Design's another interesting topic to take centre-stage at a festival, but it totally makes sense for one that found it's footing with zine fairs and alternate platforms.
New Storytelling
Another interesting one! With more and more modes and platforms opening up for narratives, understanding them is key to making your work accessible.
Slacktivism vs Street Protests: the future of civil disobedience
Again, this is a really topical issue and one that inspires a pretty diverse range of responses. Hopefully these'll be argued and articulated here!
NYWF Intergalactic Ball
Yes please!
SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER
Zine Fair
The zine fair is one of those events that is so entwined with the festival now, it's hard to imagine not going to it. Besides, it's a great opportunity to check out some of the brilliant Australian talent on show.
Cultural Hierarchies in Music
I did a unit on rock in film back at university, and I'm really fascinated by the ways its utilised and the snobbery that can accompany different types of music, so this panel is a must-see.
What's So Great about the Novel?
The best and the worst of it, the limitations and the boundlessness.
Why YA
I'm an avid reader of young adult fiction and, in the last two years, have found myself an avid writer of it too. This one should be good!
The whole program's pretty terrific (particularly if you're into poetry!) and you should check it out.
'What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us' by Laura van den Berg (36/52)
An actress finds herself while imitating Big Foot. A woman falls out of love with her husband, her student, and etymology after her father drowns. Another looks for a twinflower while others search for the Loch Ness Monster. Laura van den Berg's debut collection explores myths, legends and those who seek meaning in them.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this collection, but I ended up really loving it. It's such a strange concept for one, and in the hands of a lesser writer could've been easily fucked up. It works though. Works on almost every level. These are beautiful episodes of strange lives returned to mundanity after tragedy, which is something I'm really interested in. Every story seems to embody this theme of life goes on after seemingly unthinkable things. Drownings and house fires and runaways and spider bites and big foots and monsters and masks are catalysts for some pretty perfect, intimate character studies. I'm a little in love.
5 out of 5 dead men mowing.
Dear Creatures FW 2014
Oh, Dear Creatures. You're one of my favourite regular, affordable design houses working together. Their lines are regularly lovely, but this Fall Winter collection is particularly sigh inducing. There's barely a thing here that doesn't make me think of dense forests and magic and romance. It's gorgeous.
You can view the full collection over at the Dear Creatures website.
Sunday Short: 'Japanese Maple' by Clive James
My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that. That will end the gameI don't include a lot of poetry as a part of the Sunday Short series, but Clive James' most recent one is so heartwrenching that I couldn't not. James is one of Australia's most renowned exports as far as poetry and memoir goes, and to read this poem in reflection of his terminal illness is, well, pretty gutting.
You can read 'Japanese Maple' over at The New Yorker website.
Friday Finds
- Shakespeare plays with the historically accurate accents!
- 10 totally inspiring truth bombs from Mindy Kaling! She's my fave.
- These photos of burlesque dancers in and out of costume are wonderful.
- Guardians of the Galaxy with kitties!
- These imagined travel posters for fantasy novels are pretty special too.
- 8 books to read when you've exhausted Jane Austen. I've got to agree with one of the commenters on the lack of Georgette Heyer though.
- Also, books and fashion! Two of my favourite things!
- Neil Patrick Harris' new book trailer is pretty delightful too.
- 10 totally inspiring truth bombs from Mindy Kaling! She's my fave.
- These photos of burlesque dancers in and out of costume are wonderful.
- Guardians of the Galaxy with kitties!
- These imagined travel posters for fantasy novels are pretty special too.
- 8 books to read when you've exhausted Jane Austen. I've got to agree with one of the commenters on the lack of Georgette Heyer though.
- Also, books and fashion! Two of my favourite things!
- Neil Patrick Harris' new book trailer is pretty delightful too.
'We are All Completely Beside Ourselves' by Karen Joy Fowler (35/52)
The Cooke's are, in many ways, your typical family. Mum, dad and 2.5 kids, they bounce around from house to house, avoid confrontation and tease like any other. Or at least they used to. With Rosemary in college, her brother missing and her sister gone, she's successfully avoided any real reflection on it until she meets Harlow, a loud, brash, impulsive woman who gets them both overnighting in prison. In the space of a night, Rosemary finds her life changed forever, as the lid gets ripped off her past and years of simmering starts to overflow.
I can barely articulate my feelings towards this book. Funny, tragic, traumatising, where cruelty and kindness appear in the strangest places and people, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is unlike any book I've ever read. Rosemary is smart, savvy, weak, angry and ultimately unreliable, and her reflections on the past are told in and out of time, like someone keeps turning an hourglass over and over before the sand can ever hit the bottom. The effect should be jarring, but Fowler has such a handle on it, such an intimate knowledge of these characters and this situation, that ultimately nothing happens in isolation. It's pretty damn magical.
5 out of 5 red poker chips.
Mayflower Supply SS 2014
Ah, Brisbane. You had you week-long spring and launched right into summer. I shouldn't complain too much - I am all about floaty dresses, singlets and hanging around in my underwear - and it helps to have great spring summer collections lingering, like this one from Mayflower Supply. There's something a little nostalgic about the looks, a little travelling inspired. It's pretty awesome.
You can check out the full collection over on the Mayflower Supply website.
Sunday Short: 'Younger Women' by Karen Joy Fowler
It’s possible Chloe hears this. When Jude turns, she’s standing, framed in the doorway like a portrait. Her hair streams over her shoulders. Her eyes are enormous. She’s young and she’s beautiful and she’s outraged. Jude can see her taking them in—Eli picking up the shards of glass so Jude won’t step on them. Eli kneeling at her feet.
Vampire fiction has been so popular over the last few years, but Karen Joy Fowler, as always, brings something more to it, something sharper, something with (and pardon the pun) bite. She creates a fully realised world and relationships in few words, and poses questions that should be asked of the immortal more often.
'I Await the Devil's Coming' by Mary MacLane (34/52)
Mary MacLane is nineteen and growing up in Butte, Montana in 1902. Over the course of three months, she conveys the mundanity of her daily life, and the expectations of women in the early 1900s, with the wild passion of a woman chomping at the bit, ready to live a life. In what's regarded as one of the first confessional memoirs, and an early feminist text, I Await the Devil's Coming is a collection of rages and monologues and desires from a young girl who wasn't allowed any.
I have such mixed thoughts on this collection. On the one hand, Mary MacLane can write. She has a wonderful handle on language that makes for a compelling read. She's angry and biting and bored, and I can't even fathom a life like what she's lived. Interestingly too, the memoir explores sexuality beautifully. MacLane's sexual desires extend from the devil to Napoleon to an old teacher, and stem from both a desire to be loved and a desire to, well, act on being the sexual being she is.
That said, it's also a nineteen-year old's memoir. I read a great review on Goodreads which said it was like being locked in the bathroom with the drunkest girl at the party, and I kind of agree. It's a similar rollercoaster of thought, the same bold, entitled, insecurity that she might have, and it makes this both a glorious read and a bit of a trying one at times.
3.5 out of 5 sexy devil fantasies.
Friday Finds
- I am getting more and more excited for Agent Carter! She was one of my favourite parts of the first Captain America film and Hayley Atwell is so talented / gorgeous / lovely.
- Kelly Sue DeConnick continues to be the best person. Her response to the Milo Manara's variant cover of Spider Woman is wonderful and fair.
- Bang Bang Baby is looking kind of amazing and kind of weird?
- In Harry Potter news, a patronus test on Pottermore?!
- The always wonderful Lauren Faust talking about her career and making cartoons aimed at girls is defs worth a watch.
- All the YA books to read! Some of these look ridiculously great.
- The DuckTales intro recreated with real life ducks!
- These Sailor Moon lingerie pieces are goooorgeous.
- And, in a completely different way, so are these figurines from the Cornetto Trilogy.
- And to take you out for the weekend, the bad poets of pop culture.
- Kelly Sue DeConnick continues to be the best person. Her response to the Milo Manara's variant cover of Spider Woman is wonderful and fair.
- Bang Bang Baby is looking kind of amazing and kind of weird?
- In Harry Potter news, a patronus test on Pottermore?!
- The always wonderful Lauren Faust talking about her career and making cartoons aimed at girls is defs worth a watch.
- All the YA books to read! Some of these look ridiculously great.
- The DuckTales intro recreated with real life ducks!
- These Sailor Moon lingerie pieces are goooorgeous.
- And, in a completely different way, so are these figurines from the Cornetto Trilogy.
- And to take you out for the weekend, the bad poets of pop culture.
24 Things Before 25
I turned 24 on the weekend! Have a lame selfie.
On a related note, one of my favourite bloggers, The Clueless Girl's Guide, regularly does lists of goals on her birthday of things to do before her next one. I've always loved the idea, so, here we go!
3. Read all the Jane Austen books! I'm not so far off this. I've read Pride & Prejudice and Northanger Abbey, both of which I adore, and it leaves Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Emma.
5. On a similar note, start a plant pot herb garden.
6. And learn how to make macaroons from scratch.
11. And, on that note, submit some of my art to a journal.
12. Get a tattoo. I've been toying with one since my last year of school which was, jeez, seven years ago now. I feel like if I've been thinking about it that long, I'm probably prepared to commit to it.
14. Finish a full-length screenplay. I've got three screenplays I've been playing with lately, and would love to take the plunge and finish one.
15. On that note, I want to make a short film too.
16. Move out on my own. This is probably one of the bigger, scarier ones, but I've been sharehousing for five years and am spending a bit of downtime at my Dad's at the moment with the intent of moving out on my own by the end of the year.
23. Create a productive and inspiring workspace for myself. This one will probably have to wait until I achieve #16, but I have faith!
A few of these I know are happening already - going interstate for example, and starting drawing classes again, but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed I can start and maintain the rest before I'm 25!
How about you? Do you set goals on your birthday?
Clare Vivier FW 2014
This is actually a photoshoot for the awesome Clare Vivier bags, but I pretty much love everything about it. From the casual, grad student sleepiness of it to the autumnal colours that are weeding out of Australia's catalogue as we launch into spring. You can check out the full collection over Clare Vivier's website.
Sunday Short: 'Dress Your Family in Your Lover's Shoes' by Kathleen Hale
At the time I was going to school in Southern Illinois. In retrospect I was clinically depressed. My evenings consisted of three beers, watching “Bones”, then to bed with the help of frantic diary writing and a Klonopin. Every diary entry that year was about Sam. I wrote about worrying if he liked me, if he would call me. I wrote to quiet the swirling within me—a swirling that happened when I thought about calling him—because he rarely answered.
The Hairpin is slaying at the moment with it's memoir. This short piece by Kathleen Hale is beautiful and tragic, and explores tremendous themes of loneliness and isolation and how sometimes they have nothing to do with each other and sometimes they have everything. It's pretty perfect.
Friday Finds
It's a bit of a short one today, guys, as I'm hangin' at this awesome thing. Have a great weekend. :-)
- New (well, previously unreleased) Adele songs! *chinhands*
- Playboy's chart on whether or not you should catcall someone is pretty much perfection.
- These photos by Lissie Elle are gorgeous.
- 8 bit Miyazaki!
- New (well, previously unreleased) Adele songs! *chinhands*
- Playboy's chart on whether or not you should catcall someone is pretty much perfection.
- These photos by Lissie Elle are gorgeous.
- 8 bit Miyazaki!
'Blue' by Pat Grant (33/52)
Three teens face racism, neglect and a coming of age against the backdrop of an Australian coastal town.
I had the pleasure of seeing Pat Grant at Brisbane Writers Festival last year, and he's a pretty sweet, savvy guy (and kind of a babe). 'Blue' is certainly a representation of the first two things, if not the third. The push-pull between the leading three is in equal parts uncomfortable and nostalgic, nice and nasty. Their relationship is reminiscent of a lot of adolescent relationships, and with the added degree of racial intolerance, this graphic novel makes for something pretty remarkable.
Four out of Five sausage rolls.
'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy (32/52)
The man and the boy have been on the road since the world ended, trying to get to the sea. Their existence is a bleak one, where food is scarce and the people still alive are skirting the edges of humanity. The man and the boy are not yet, finding their respective humanity in each other as they continue on their hopeless journey.
I have such mixed feelings on this book. On the one hand, I get why it's regarded as a modern classic. Cormac McCarthy's writing is beautifully taut, hopeless, honest, all things I think you need when you're writing such a bleak story. That said, I found the dialogue stunted, and the decisions, while not unthinkable or unremarkable, were just kind of dull. It's also a story that suffered from one of my biggest pet peeves - useless female character syndrome. I'm not saying that all books need to have useful ones, what I'm saying is some of them need to not be victims and some of them need to have agency.
Two and a half out of five flare guns.
The Owlish Guide to Brisbane Writers Festival
Brisbane Writers Festival kicks off this week! Excitement! It's always a super fun festival, and there's been a recent swing towards embracing young adult, fantasy and geekery which is, well, pretty great. My picks for it are below!
THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER
Story+
Story+ is a two day intensive on digital narratives and book futures and this year is both totally free (woot!) and features writers, transmedia producers, interaction designers, games developers and publishers.
20 Pages in 20 Minutes
This is always a good one for any writer starting to think about pitching. The calibre of industry professionals this year is pretty awesome too, with literary agents, Catherine Drayton and Sophie Hamley, and editors, Kate Cuthbert (Harlequin) and Jordan Bass (McSweeney's) up for reading.
FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER
Madness, Melancholia and Creativity
I've always been pretty interested in the romanticising of mental illness, addiction and depression when it comes to creative practice, so I'm really stoked to see a panel on it at BWF! Particularly one featuring David Malouf, Kate Richards and the lovely, Ellen van Neerven.
This World and the Next
Isobelle Carmody! Laini Taylor! Trent Jamieson! Talking fantasy and world building, two of my favourite things.
Literary Vaudeville Show
I mean, the name kind of says it all.
SATURDAY 6 SEPTEMBER
Unnatural Creatures
Monsters and horror and fantasy and real creatures and imagined ones! This one's ticking most of my boxes.
Designing Storyworlds
This workshop looks really interesting. Covering transmedia, creativity and cross platform narrative with UK-based Mike Jones, will take participants through telling a story across multiple mediums.
Cause of Death
I mean, what's not to love about the convergence point of science and crime fiction?
Scum & Villainy
Bad guys panel!
SUNDAY 7 SEPTEMBER
Where's My Jetpack?
I'm a big fan of science fiction, even if I don't read as much of it as I used to, and to have some of Australia's better spec fic writers discussing the form and the biggest tropes of the genre will be pretty darn great.
Broken Monsters
I inhaled Lauren Beukes' novel, The Shining Girls, earlier this year and am pretty stoked for her newest work, Broken Monsters, meaning this in-conversation is a must.
Well Played: The Story of Games
One of the best parts of last year's festival was it's Well Drawn strand, a series of talks and panels on graphic novels. The festival is echoing that this year with Well Played, a strand on writing for games. It's big draw is Jeffrey Yohalem, writer for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Child of Light, and he'll be front and centre in this panel discussion.
Meet McSweeney's
McSweeney's has become a bit of an institution as far as publishing goes, so it's exciting to have them out again for this year's festival. For anyone writing short fiction, this is a must.
Laws of Magic
If I'm a big fan of science fiction, I'm an even bigger one of fantasy, particularly in the works of Laini Taylor and magical realism. This panel will be covering bringing magic and fantasy into the real world and magical systems which basically is the best.
Vixens, Victims & Femme Fatales
This one looks SO COOL. Not only does it have the super awesome Meg Vann chairing, but it has P.M. Newton, Tara Moss AND Yrsa Siguroardottir talking about women's roles in crime which is basically everything I want in a panel.
Glitter & Dust
As always, close the festival with the Glitter and Dust free for all. This was one of the most fun things about last year's festival, and I think it's going to be pretty darn awesome again. Check it out.
And that's about it for me. There's about a gazillion other things at this year's festival though, so you should totally check out the full program here.
Pull & Bear SS 2014
It's still a bit brisk here, but summer will be on us soon enough, so I'm already sussing out / lusting over the spring summer fashions. Pull & Bear, on top of having an adorable name, has a totally adorable collection, full of pop culture references, light weight designs and city-to-beach colours.
You can check out the full collection over at the Pull & Bear website.
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