My piece in the current Kill Your Darlings journal

I’ve got a piece in the current KYD Journal called The Primordial Place: Me and Jardo by the Lake. It’s about a trip to Lake Eyre I took in 1989 which coincided with the sour end of a long and unrequited crush.

You can subscribe here, or purchase hard copies. I also believe there is some sort of promo on to win an iPad?

In other news, I sent off my manuscript — all revised and re-jigged — and now that’s off my hands for a while am scratching around, wondering what to do next. Do I go back to number 1 and look at it now? It’s been a while in the old drawer, and I’ve been having lots of ideas, along the lines of ‘if I was to write this story now, how would I do it?’ This is not a forgotten child.

But no, I need to leave that one for a while because it’s a big job, could take a year, and I need to stay clear of heavy stuff until I know what’s happening with the current one. So do I work on my short stuff? Yes, I think I do some of that. And number 3? I’m having ideas that sit well with earlier ideas (this is a story that has been with me, in essence, even longer than the current one. This one goes back twenty-five years or more, the idea for the setting that is, and some of the characters.) So I’m doing reading, taking notes. That one’s in the swamp stage, where things are lurking and they won’t go anywhere, just need to let them compost and develop.

The timing of the current one being off my hands is perfect. I’m off to Perth in a little over 2 weeks, a good distraction. And I start teaching again — slowly — at the end of this week. A gentle re-entry to the world of paid work.

Two of the three kids went off to school 45 minutes ago, the other one is still in bed I think, so while I don’t have the house to myself, it’s quiet up this end, and it feels lovely. A good start to the year.