Just a quick update – Close-Up Editing will be taking a short holiday during Jan and will be back on deck Feb 1st, 2018.
Ashley & Brooke
Category: Tips and Advice
The Frequency of God by Mark William Jackson + Magpie Tales by SB Wright
Close-Up Books is very proud to announce the release of two new poetry collections by Australian Poets Mark William Jackson and SB Wright 🙂
Working with both Sean and Mark has been really rewarding for us; to get so close to the works within has been pretty exciting and so we’re thrilled to release two great collections into the world today! It’s been a busy few months for everyone in the lead up to publication and we’d like to thank both Mark and Sean for working so hard.
Please visit the Close-Up Books website to read and hear sample poems from both collections and see what we’ve enjoyed so much about The Frequency of God and Magpie Tales!
Ashley & Brooke
In Magpie Tales Australian poet SB Wright reveals a keen eye for capturing both people and places, his deft imagery transports the reader effortlessly from rural Australia and beyond. The pieces within explore a changing inner landscape too, where the contested terrain of small town identities and national issues are played out in clear, lyrical verse.
In The Frequency of God, Australian poet Mark William Jackson is by turns reflective and rallying, as he explores closeness and distance, love and change, and perfectly articulates the hostile coopting of social space by technology.
Broken – Available Now
Brooke Linford’s first novel Broken is now available!
When Amanda bumps into a strange man, she thinks nothing of it until she sees him again. And again. Wherever she goes, even at home – he’s there.
She tries to ignore him. But he doesn’t like to be ignored.
Amanda doesn’t know who to turn to. She’s just met Lucas, a man her friends believe is perfect. While she can’t deny her attraction to him, demons from her past and present continue to haunt her. And she’s not the only one with secrets.
What follows is a desperate escape from the city, where she’s forced to confront her past, deal with her growing feelings for Lucas, and fight for a future she’s just beginning to believe in.
Is she strong enough to survive?
Official Release & Launch Week – 2nd – 6th May
It gives us great pleasure to announce the official release of the 2015 Poetry & Place Anthology!
Print and eBook editions are now available through major online retailers and can also be ordered through bookstores. Below, you’ll find a range of purchase links and we hope you’ll be able to support us and the poets within – even sharing this post helps spread the word about the anthology.
Unlike our previous journals, Egg[Poetry] and holland1945, this anthology was always going to be a longer project, both in terms of page count and terms of release schedule. But we believe the collection is stronger for the extra care and time spent.
We’re pleased to say that over the last year and a bit, we and the anthology have survived poor health, local postage price-hikes and distribution delays among all the other minor hiccups any journal faces and we’re beaming on the other side.
Stay tuned to our blogs for launch week, spanning Monday the 2nd – Friday the 6th of May, where we’ll be featuring spoken word recordings from the poets themselves for each of the five days!
Thanks again to everyone who helped us from start to finish! ‘Place’ is such an evocative theme; one that thrills us still and one we hope will enthrall you too when you read the poems we were lucky enough to be sent.
Ashley Capes & Brooke Linford
Editors
April 2016
Purchase Links:
Amazon AU: eBook
Amazon US: Print and eBook
Amazon UK: Print and eBook
Barnes & Noble: Print
Fishpond AU: Print
Angus and Robertson Bookworld AU: Print
Edited by Ashley Capes and Brooke Linford, the anthology contains poetry by the following poets:
James Croteau ~ Alan Summers ~ Marisa Fazio ~ Judit Hollos ~ Barbara A Meier ~ Ivy Alvarez ~ Lorin Ford ~ Brenda Saunders ~ Caitlin Thomson ~ Duncan Richardson ~ Elliot Nicely ~ Sandra Simpson ~ Mark Miller ~ Fiona McIIroy ~ Carolyn Gerrish ~ Guy Traiber ~ Frank Russo ~ Irene Wilkie ~ Jacqueline Buswell ~ Colleen Z Burke ~ Sarah Rice ~ Jeff Schiff ~ jenni nixon ~ Jenny Blackford ~ Jill Jones ~ John Stokes ~ Marilynne Thomas Walton ~ Julie Storer ~ Karen Andrews ~ Vanessa Proctor ~ Kevin Gillam ~ Les Wicks ~ Mran-Maree Laing ~ Nikki Carr ~ Jan Napier ~ Rasma Haidri ~ Joyce Joslin Lorenson ~ S.E. Street ~ S. G. Larner ~ SuzAnne C. Cole ~ Tina Schumann ~ J. Todd Hawkins ~ Traudl Tan ~ Valentina Cano ~ Mark William Jackson ~ Faith de Savigné ~ Stu Hatton ~ Chris Lynch ~ Jill McKeowen ~ Stuart Barnes ~ Billy Antonio ~ Jane Downing ~ Nathanael O’Reilly ~ Ben Walter ~ Frances Olive ~ Benjamin Dodds ~ Diana Jamieson ~ Andrew Phillips ~ SB Wright ~ Ron C. Moss ~ A. S. Patric ~ Michele Seminara ~ Jonathan Hadwen ~ Joyce Parkes ~ Anne Elvey ~ Brad Frederiksen ~ Amelia Walker ~ Koraly Dimitriadis ~ Jerome Gagnon ~ Emma Rose Smith ~ Margaret Bradstock ~ Christine Burrows ~ Karen Murphy ~ Monica Carroll ~ Janis Butler Holm ~ Frances Donovan ~ Margaret Owen Ruckert ~ Wes Lee ~ Nina Longfield ~ John Upton ~ Veronica Lake ~ Gabrielle Rowe ~ Robyn Sykes ~ Alison Miller ~ Katarina Boudreaux ~ Alice Allan ~ Nicola Scholes ~ Penny Gibson ~ Jane Williams ~ Simon Hanson
Poetry & Place Anthology Cover
Here’s the cover for the Poetry & Place Anthology:
Stay tuned for the April on sale date!
Welcome Back + Poetry & Place Anthology Update
Welcome to another year of writing and editing! Hope everyone is well-rested and back into the swing of things.
Today it’s just a short update to let you know that the Poetry & Place Anthology is still forthcoming and that we’ve just released the table of contents.
You can expect some brilliant poetry in a variety of forms from the following writers:
James Croteau
Alan Summers
Marisa Fazio
Judit Hollos
Barbara A Meier
Ivy Alvarez
Lorin Ford
Brenda Saunders
Caitlin Thomson
Duncan Richardson
Elliot Nicely
Sandra Simpson
Mark Miller
Fiona McIIroy
Carolyn Gerrish
Guy Traiber
Frank Russo
Irene Wilkie
Jacqueline Buswell
Colleen Z Burke
Sarah Rice
Jeff Schiff
jenni nixon
Jenny Blackford
Jill Jones
John Stokes
Marilynne Thomas Walton
Julie Storer
Karen Andrews
Vanessa Proctor
Kevin Gillam
Les Wicks
Mran-Maree Laing
Nikki Carr
Jan Napier
Rasma Haidri
Joyce Joslin Lorenson
S.E. Street
S. G. Larner
SuzAnne C. Cole
Tina Schumann
J. Todd Hawkins
Traudl Tan
Valentina Cano
Mark William Jackson
Faith de Savigné
Stu Hatton
Chris Lynch
Jill McKeowen
Stuart Barnes
Billy Antonio
Jane Downing
Nathanael O’Reilly
Ben Walter
Frances Olive
Benjamin Dodds
Diana Jamieson
Andrew Phillips
SB Wright
Ron C. Moss
A. S. Patric
Michele Seminara
Jonathan Hadwen
Joyce Parkes
Anne Elvey
Brad Frederiksen
Amelia Walker
Koraly Dimitriadis
Jerome Gagnon
Emma Rose Smith
Margaret Bradstock
Christine Burrows
Karen Lowry
Monica Carroll
Janis Butler Holm
Frances Donovan
Margaret Owen Ruckert
Wes Lee
Nina Longfield
John Upton
Veronica Lake
Gabrielle Rowe
Robyn Sykes
Alison Miller
Katarina Boudreaux
Alice Allan
Nicola Scholes
Penny Gibson
Jane Williams
Simon Hanson
Happy Holidays
As 2015 draws to a close, we would like to thank all the wonderful writers we have worked with this year – and a big congratulations to those who have had your manuscript published! We hope to work with you again in the near future.
In 2016 we are looking forward to meeting you and helping you with your project. We will also be releasing the Poetry & Place Anthology – we received some fantastic submissions, so watch this space!
Happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year!
Ashley & Brooke
World Building in Fiction
World building is a complex element to fiction writing and if you’re new to it just remember the key word right there in the title – building.
We build. We start small and we build something big. Something enormous sometimes – in tone, in breadth, in detail, in realism, in wonder and magic.
But how does a writer actually world-build and balance plot, character and action?
Here’s one way to do it:
Stick Your World Building Detail to a Character (or Plot)
By that we don’t mean reduce your character to a walking encyclopaedia but to align world building detail, detail that expands your world for the reader, to your Point of View character.
As an example, you may have a deadly plant species (let’s call it ‘moonshade’) that the reader needs to understand for maximum tension in a particular scene. If your POV character is a simple solider, he or she may not focus on the plant beyond knowing that ‘moonshade’ is dangerous because the petals are poison to touch.
Upon seeing it, your soldier may not consider the root words for ‘moonshade’ nor the plant’s regular living conditions nor the speed with which it kills or the exact properties of a cure. And if you as the writer unload all that information onto the reader at that point, your world-building is going to feel ham-fisted.
However – let’s change your simple soldier to a botanist. Or even a botanist-soldier.
Now maybe your POV character would notice such details. The world building detail sticks to the character. The botanist-soldier would naturally be aware of and consider the properties of the moonshade plant and know exactly why it would be unusual to see one blooming in the middle of the day, and understand that something is amiss. They’d know the antidote and they’d take a mental inventory, just in case another character in the story was poisoned.
(And of course, at that point, you have to poison the botanist instead, so they can’t share the antidote right away – and now you’re also sticking the detail to Plot and raising tension too.)
More on world building in a future post!
Stephen King on First Lines
Here’s a great article from a while back where Stephen King discusses some of his favourite opening lines, as featured in The Atlantic:
Here’s how he starts the conversation:
Stephen King: There are all sorts of theories and ideas about what constitutes a good opening line. It’s tricky thing, and tough to talk about because I don’t think conceptually while I work on a first draft — I just write. To get scientific about it is a little like trying to catch moonbeams in a jar.
But there’s one thing I’m sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.
How can a writer extend an appealing invitation — one that’s difficult, even, to refuse?
Writing Quote
Carve out a regular ‘writing time’ and don’t make excuses. If you can’t commit to your own writing, why should anyone else commit to it?
-Val McDermid
Close-Up Editing & Assessment 