Busy times

The last few months have been busy ones. For a start, I was on the editorial panel for the thirteenth issue of Platform magazine and had my award-winning short story, Time and Time Again, published with them. 

If you would like a copy email me or Bruno Lettieri.










I produced a collection of short stories, Tales From 222, featuring pieces by Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing students.

My blog post on creating a Twitter account was published in the fourth issue of SEED magazine for 2012. Fingers crossed they'll have me back in 2013.

Another anthology I helped produce was Survival, a collection of short stories, poems and photographs by Professional Writing and Editing students. I was responsible for creating the inside page design, laying out the pieces, creating the front and end matter, liaising with the printer and preparing the electronic files according to the print spec. Thankfully, most of the editing and prrofreading was done in my Publishing Studio class. I'm really proud of this one as, even though it may never be released publicly, it is a fantastic looking book showcasing work by emerging writers, poets and photographers.








Halliday History is a 208-page family history I edited/proofread, designed the cover for and had perfect bound. I changed the format from A4 to a less formal 210mm X 260mm. This made it look less like a financial report and more like a cosy read. The 8-page index was a challenge, but I enjoyed working with the author and delivering an in-depth family history in an engaging way.





I ran two workshops on making handmade books, one at the Melton Shire's Art Beat Festival and another at the Caroline Springs College. 

In conjunction with Victoria University and Rotunda in the West, I also produced the headline event at Melton's Art Beat festival, The Storyteller's Role: a deep conversation between authors John Marsden, Michael McGirr and Sydney Smith and MC Bruno Lettieri. We had a great turnout and received some fantastic feedback from the audience and council. With a little luck, we'll see more big-name, literary authors out my way.

As part of promoting literacy in Melbourne's West, I optimised The Write Zone's Facebook page, created a YouTube channel to post clips from Rotunda in the West events and introduced one of the presenters at Rotunda in the West's My Enduring Love Affair part 2 (2.0). 


And, finally, the big one: it's all about the writing, a collection of sixteen thought-provoking short stories by emerging writers Craig Henderson, Antonio Iannella, Kim Cook, Tuan Ho and Joshua Holland. A few of my stories are in there, too. Check out the Kindle version on Amazon.com. 


Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting extracts from the stories and a little about them and the authors. Feel free to read the sample on Amazon, borrow it on your Kindle and, if you like what you see, buy the full ebook or email me and I'll post your hard copy for $15 (payable via bank transfer or Paypal).

Thanks for visiting,
Emanuel

SEED Magazine

Here's the cover of SEED magazine's latest issue, the third for 2012. While I didn't write anything this time around, I edited a number of articles, proofread most of the others and gained a sub editor credit for my hard work. 

I also co-authored an eight-page feature article with Craig Henderson in the previous issue. I had a great time working with the editors, Suellen Green and Michelle Smart, who let me edit a number of articles and proofread the magazine as a whole. 

While I'm on a role with the covers, Writers Victoria mentioned my story Time and Time Again in their Jan-Feb 2012 issue for winning the 2011 Melton Short Story competition and being Highly Commended in The (2011) Henry Lawson Society Literary Awards.

Thanks for visiting,

Emanuel

Issue 12 of Platform Magazine

Platform magazine's awesome twelfth issue is here! 

This fantastic magazine, produced by Victoria University's Professional Writing and Editing department, features pieces by writers off all capabilities from high school, VCE and TAFE students to more established authors like Cate Kennedy, John Marsden, Michael McGirr, Alice Pung, Barry Garner and Kristin Henry, to name just a few.

If you would like a free copy of issue 12, send me your details.

Oh, and be sure to check out page 11 ;)

Emanuel

Crossroad



I've arrived at a crossroad...



Finishing my novel is way outside my comfort zone; I'm avoiding working on it like my life is being threatened! I haven't given up - I think about the story and characters a lot, know where I want the plot and structure to go, and have a 5,000 word outline I'm quite happy with.

I might be overwhelmed because I'm not sure if I can maintain the voice for 60,000+ words. Maybe it's because I'm struggling to find more than two hours in a row every week to sit down and actually work on it. Maybe it's because I still don't know what changes to make while drafting the chapters I've already written, and probably introduce more errors than I fix. Or maybe it's because I'd like more experience writing and editing longer short stories (3,500-5,000 words?), which is a real challenge for me at the moment - I can barely control 2,500 of my own words...

My new plan for 2012 is to:

- Submit my 'finished' short stories to various competitions and lit mags. Workshop/draft/re-write any that come back and re-submit them until they get published

Ah, there is the road to success!



- Edit the stories I've been resting/avoiding, and submit those for publication, too

- Write a few new stories, which I haven't done for a while

- Continue writing articles and reviews for SEED, Platform and other student magazines and blogs

- Post on my blog a little more frequently

- Work on my general writing and editing skills

- Add a few chapters to my novel

- Continue helping at Vic Uni's events and proofread their publications; and, towards the end of the year,

- Produce a collection of my successful and favourite stories, which I'll submit to various publishers. If the collection doesn't get picked up, I'll publish a small print run myself and sell it through a few different places - it worked for Mathew Reilly's first novel!

Hopefully, this will give me the skills I need to work as an editor/proofreader, or establish my own critiquing/proofreading/copy-editing/printing business. I can then study Novel 2 in 2013 and, hopefully, finish the first draft of my novel by early 2014.

I keep reminding myself that at the start of last year I didn't know the first thing about nouns and pronouns, let alone parallel construction, phrases, coordination, subordination, et.al (not that I now know everything about the overly complex language that is 'basic' English). I've come a long way, but have an even longer way to go...

So, yes, I'm trying to stay focused and motivated, and am keeping the big picture in mind: becoming a successful editor and novelist, while trying to be a good father and husband :)

Emanuel

Emerging from school holidays writing-hybernation...

'What have you been doing?' I hear you ask.
     Well, apart from editing revision and chasing my kids around the house, I ran a workshop on 'Creating and maintaining a blog' at the Melton library; finalised two short stories and sent them off to local competitions; and, submitted a piece of creative non-fiction to Wet Ink magazine.
     I also managed to 'almost' complete a 3,000 word story for young adults and re-draft a sci-fi story to the brink of nonsense (back to the drawing board with that one!)
     With a little luck, I might have some good news to share just before Christmas.
Fingers crossed,
Emanuel