Tag: book tour

The Men Briefly Explained Blog Tour: New Interview Up

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I’ve embarked on a blog tour to promote my new poetry collection Men Briefly Explained.

What that means is that I am visiting a series of blogs during the next few weeks to talk about Men Briefly Explained. As the interviews go up, I will be posting links to them here.

My latest interview is with Dunedin poet Kay McKenzie Cooke – one of my favourite New Zealand poets – and you can check it out here: New Zealand Writer Tim Jones Explains.

My first interview was with Australian poet PS Cottier, whom I will in turn be interviewing on my blog in a few weeks’ time:

27 November 2011: Of Poems and Men: Interview with Tim Jones, by PS Cottier

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

The Load-Out

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The Men Briefly Explained / Tongues of Ash book tour is over. I’m back in my home, Keith is back in his, our publisher David is back in Australia, and the roadies have loaded the last of the gear into the trucks … OK, I may have made that last part up. They actually loaded the gear into pantechnicons.

We travelled from Dunedin to Auckland via Christchurch, Wellington, Eastbourne, and Paraparaumu. Along the way, we slept under hedgerows, in deserted fields under the stars, and in the houses of friends. At our performances met up with real-life friends and friends from the Internet. We sold books. We signed books. We read organised sequences of words from books. We got in cars and planes. From the planes, we could see clouds. From the cars, we could see election billboards. We saw John Key a lot. We didn’t see Phil Goff. We saw Annette King, though – she came to our Wellington launch.

We didn’t have contract riders, but if we had, they would almost certainly have stipulated only macrobiotic food, a room set aside for meditation at every venue, and the removal of all the brown M&Ms.

Actually, I like the brown M&Ms.

Tim reading at the Rona Gallery launch event in Eastbourne. Thanks to Sally McLennan for the photo.

Sometimes, I read before Keith, and sometimes, Keith read before me. Sometimes, David read before both of us. I quickly discovered which poems from Men Briefly Explained worked well in front of a live audience, and which didn’t. I attended an excellent voice workshop for poets a few days before the tour started, and in tribute to this, I used my voice quite a lot on the tour. By our Auckland gig, it was showing definite signs of wearing out.

Seriously for a moment: though it was tiring at times, I enjoyed the tour very much. The physical touring is over, but now there’s a virtual tour to think about. Watch several other spaces!

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

It’s On! The Men Briefly Explained and Tongues of Ash Book Tour Begins Today

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No Tuesday Poem on my blog this week, but no shortage of poetry, because the Men Briefly Explained and Tongues of Ash book tour begins today!

Once more, here is the itinerary – STOP PRESS – now with Saturday’s Kapiti Coast event added:

  • Dunedin: Tuesday, 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
  • Christchurch: Wednesday, 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
  • Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
  • Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
  • Kapiti Coast: Saturday, 29 October, Paraparaumu Library, 1pm
  • Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

You can sign up to attend the tour on our Facebook events page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=188416554563635

Some lovely Tuesday Poets have kindly posted poems from Men Briefly Explained on their blogs this week – you can check them out by going to the Tuesday Poem blog and looking on the right-hand menu. Don’t forget to check out this week’s hub poem and all the other excellent poems featured on the right.

If you can’t make it to one of the tour dates, here is …

How To Buy Men Briefly Explained

You can buy Men Briefly Explained from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook.

Likewise, it is available from Amazon.co.uk in paperback and ebook formats.

You can also find out more about it, and buy it directly from the publisher, at the Men Briefly Explained mini-site.

Men Briefly Explained is also available in a range of formats from eBookpie and for the Kobo.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

News You Can Use: IP Inside Track Consultations, Momaya Press Competition, Rosa Mira Books Interview, Book Tour, And At Last Romance!

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In the leadup to the Men Briefly Explained/Tongues of Ash book tour, which starts in Dunedin next Tuesday, here is some other news you can use.

IP Inside Track Consultations

While Dr David Reiter of Interactive Press is in NZ for the book tour, he is offering Inside Track Consultations with authors who want to get a publisher’s view on the state of their manuscript (without any commitment to submit it to IP). David tells me that he has plenty of consultations lined up in Auckland, but could fit in some more in the Wellington region. If you would value this opportunity, check out Inside Track Consultations on the IP website.

Momaya Press Short Story Competition

UK-based Momaya Press contacted me asking me to publicise their short story competition, which is open to authors from all around the world, and I’m happy to do so. Entries don’t close until 30 April 2012, so you have plenty of time to enter. Check out the details on the Momaya Press website, or see the announcement below. They have an Awards Ceremony too!

Momaya Short Story Competition 2012 – Now Open: Momaya Press sponsors the 9th Annual Momaya Short Story Competition to bring fresh writing to the attention of qualified judges. Submit your short story (3,000 word limit) on the theme “Heat” by 30 April 2012 in order to compete for prize money and publication in the Momaya Annual Review 2012. The judging panel includes members from Random House, Penguin, Reuters and a novelist who has published six books.

Submission details at: www.momayapress.com

NZ Book Council Interviews Penelope Todd of Rosa Mira Books

The New Zealand Book Council has recently published an interview with author and publisher Penelope Todd – in this interview, Penelope is wearing her e-publisher hat, as she tells the Book Council all about Rosa Mira Books.

I am working on a review of RMB’s Slightly Peculiar Love Stories anthology which I am determined – determined, I say! – to post before my book tour starts next week. In other news, I just mis-typed the title as “Slightly Peculiar Love Tories”. Which would be a different book, albeit one with a good market in the UK.

Book Tour Dates

You didn’t think you were going to get off scot-free, did you? Well, you aren’t. Be here or be rectangular:

  • Dunedin: Tuesday, 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
  • Christchurch: Wednesday, 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
  • Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
  • Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
  • Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

 
Romance

Tell yourself it’s 1pm, or wait until 1pm. Then watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J8n9R8rnB8

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

Poetry Tour Preparations: The Physical Tour … and the Virtual Tour?

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The Physical Book Tour: It’s All On

It begins in a fortnight. And appropriately enough, it beings on a Tuesday.

“It” is the book tour Keith Westwater and I are embarking on to launch our new poetry collections: Keith’s first collection Tongues of Ash, and my new collection, Men Briefly Explained.

Here are the stops on the tour:

  • Dunedin: Tuesday 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
  • Christchurch: Wednesday 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
  • Wellington: Thursday 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
  • Lower Hutt: Friday 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
  • Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

If you live in one of those places, I hope you’ll be able to make it along – and, whether or not you can make it along, please tell your friends in those centres!

Some other things you can do:

It’s worth noting that Dr David Reiter, the publisher of Interactive Press and a noted poet in his own right, will also be in attendance and reading from his new collection My Planets. As he is an international poetry publisher who has a track record of publishing collections by New Zealand poets, he may be someone you want to get to know.

The Virtual Book Tour: Under Construction

On hearing about the physical book tour, two writer/bloggers have kindly offered to host stops on a virtual book tour to follow the physical one. I’m grateful to those people, I think this is a great idea, and I am keen to line up more stops. So, if you would be interested in your blog hosting a stop on the virtual book tour, please get in touch by emailing senjmito (at) gmail.com, or say so in the comments below.

Hmmm, you may be wondering, what is a virtual book tour? Well, it involves a series of bloggers hosting interviews with or guest posts by a writer with a newly released book, according to a pre-arranged schedule. Not long after setting up this blog, I was one of the stops on the virtual book tour for Tania Hershman’s debut short story collection, The White Road and Other Stories, which serves as a good model.

(Note: Some of the links in this 2008 post no longer work.)

I don’t have Tania’s impressive stamina for answering a lot of questions in a short time, so I thought – and one of my generous prospective hosts has suggested – that I could use the “Five Questions With…” format used in the tour for Tales For Canterbury. That makes the load a bit lighter on everyone.

So. If you can come to one of the launch events, please do – I think you will enjoy them. And if you’re interested in hosting a stop on a virtual book tour, please get in touch.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

An Open Mike, An Open Heart

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An Open Mike

Just a couple of days now till the Voyagers Book Tour of New Zealand begins, and we have decided to include an Open Mike for science fiction/speculative poetry at the tour events for which we don’t have a full slate of Voyagers poets reading. Note the highlighted events on the tour:

14 Oct: Dunedin Library, 5:30 pm
15 Oct: Circadian Rhythm Café (72 St Andrew St, Dunedin), 7 pm
16 Oct: Madras Café Books (165 Madras St, Christchurch), 5 pm
19 Oct: Wellington Central Library, 5:30 pm
20 Oct: Paraparaumu Library, 179 Rimu Rd, 5:30 pm
22 Oct: Auckland Central Library, 5:30 pm
24 Oct: Depot Artspace (28 Clarence St, Devonport), 6:30 pm

At these bold events, not only will Voyagers poets will read their own and (in some cases) others’ work from the anthology, but there will also be an opportunity for other poets to bring along their own science fiction/speculative poetry (we won’t be too strict about definitions) and read it at these Voyagers events. I already know at least one poet who, inspired, is setting out to write a poem or poems specially for the event they plan to attend. You can choose to do likewise, or simply to come along, sit back, and listen!

An Open Heart

I have been known to criticise Creative New Zealand on occasions, notably when they slashed the funding of the New Zealand Poetry Society in 2008. But it’s only fair that I should also acknowledge the good things they do: a number of books in which I have had stories published would not have been possible, or would have had a smaller print run, without Creative New Zealand funding.

Last year, I was the guest editor of Issue 26 of JAAM Magazine. I was happy to take on the task because JAAM published some of my earliest fiction and poetry and has continued to be a hospitable home for my work over the years: so it was a good chance to do something for JAAM and for writing in general in return. I didn’t expect to be paid, and I wasn’t.

But, a couple of weeks ago, I received a very nice surprise with my subscribers’ copy of JAAM 27: an ex gratia payment for editing Issue 26. A note from publishers Helen Rickerby and Clare Needham said that the payment to editors had been made possible by an increase in this year’s Creative New Zealand grant for the publication of JAAM, which also allowed an increase in this year’s payment to contributors.

So, thank you Creative New Zealand!

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

Voyagers Book Tour: Who Is Reading Where?

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Here is the lineup of venues and readers for the Voyagers Book Tour of New Zealand. Like any lineup of readers, this one is subject to change – but I am very much encouraged by the enthusiasm Voyagers poets around the country have shown to take part in the tour.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to organise a Hamilton event on the tour.

It’s a real fillip for the tour that Voyagers has received a very good review in the latest issue of the New Zealand Listener (October 10-16, pp. 40-41). I’ll get some quotes from the review up here as soon as I can.

Voyagers Tour Events: Venues and Readers

Dunedin Public Library, First Floor, 14 Oct, 5:30 pm. Join Sue Wootton, James Dignan, Tim Jones, David Karena-Holmes and IP Director Dr David Reiter to kick off the national tour of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand – plus open mike for science fiction poetry.

Dunedin, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew St, 15 Oct, 7 pm. Our event here will feature Sue Wootton, Jenny Powell, James Dignan, David Eggleton, David Karena-Holmes, Tim Jones and David Reiter – plus open mike for science fiction poetry.

Christchurch, Madras Café Books, 165 Madras St, 16 Oct, 5 pm, with Owen Marshall, James Norcliffe, David Gregory, Tim Jones and David Reiter – plus open mike for science fiction poetry.

Wellington Central Library, 19 Oct, 5:30 pm, with Janis
Freegard, Robin Fry, Helen Rickerby (tbc), Jack Perkins, Rachel McAlpine, Jane Matheson, Harvey Molloy, Marilyn Duckworth, Tim Jones, Mark Pirie and David Reiter

Kapiti Coast, Paraparaumu Library, 179 Rimu Road, 20 Oct, 5:30 pm for 6 pm,
featuring Puri Alvarez, Nic Hill, Harvey Molloy, Helen Rickerby, Michael O’Leary, Janis Freegard and David Reiter – plus open mike for science fiction poetry.

Auckland Central Library, 22 Oct, 5.30pm, , with Raewyn Alexander, Jacqueline Ottaway, Iain Sharp, Michael Morrissey, Anna Rugis, Alastair Paterson, Iain Britton, Thomas Mitchell, Janet Charman and David Reiter

Devonport, Depot Arts Space, 28 Clarence Street, 24 Oct, 6:30 pm, with Iain Britton, Alistair Paterson, Andrew Fagan, Janet Charman, Anna Rugis, Thomas
Mitchell and David Reiter – plus open mike for science fiction poetry, if time permits.

Interactive Publications and New Zealand

Voyagers follows hot on the heels of IP’s first New Zealand releases, Harmonic by Stephen Oliver and the Text + Audio CD by Stephen Oliver and Matt Ottley, King Hit. Based in Brisbane, IP is Australia’s most innovative independent publisher. It publishes about 24 titles per year and is one of the few independents regularly supported by the Australia Council.

IP’s Director, the noted author Dr David Reiter, whose most recent books are Primary Instinct, a satire on the education system, and the children’s novel Global Cooling, will spearhead the tour, which will also showcase New Zealand authors Iain Britton’s new poetry collection Liquefaction and Euan McCabe’s sports memoir The World Cup Baby.

For more information regarding Voyagers or to schedule an interview before the tour begins, please email info@ipoz.biz or call +61 (0)7 3324 9319. During the tour, Dr Reiter can be contacted via SMS to his mobile +61 (0)412 313 923 or email to reiterdr1@me.com.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

The Voyagers Book Tour of New Zealand: The Press Release

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The Unexpected in an Unexpected Form

IP presents Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand

Speculative poetry! Never before has a unique anthology like this been released, and New Zealand is leading the way.

Voyagers is where poetry meets the essence of science fiction: aliens, space travel, time travel and the end of the world – as well as concepts you may not previously have thought of as science fiction. The result is a brilliant insight into the world of science fiction that will have the reader speculating right along with the poets.

Voyagers will be launched on a tour of the country at events in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Paraparaumu, Auckland and Devonport from 14-24 October.

Voyagers Tour Schedule

14 Oct: Dunedin Library, 5:30 pm
15 Oct: Circadian Rhythm Café (Dunedin), 7 pm
16 Oct: Madras Café (Christchurch), 5 pm
19 Oct: Wellington Central Library, 5:30 pm
20 Oct: Paraparaumu Library (Kapiti Coast), 5:30 pm
22 Oct: Auckland Central Library, 5:30 pm
24 Oct: Depot Artspace (Devonport), 6:30 pm

The tour will feature some of New Zealand’s most well-known names: highly acclaimed and award winning poets such as Alistair Paterson, Raewyn Alexander, James Dignan, Iain Britton, Rachel McAlpine, Harvey Molloy, Michael O’Leary, Stephen Oliver, Jenny Argante, Michael Morrissey, Sue Wootton, Michael O’Leary, Andrew Fagan, Jenny Powell. Marilyn Duckworth, Helen Rickerby, Thomas Mitchell, Janet Charman, Anna Rugis, James Norcliffe, David Gregory and Owen Marshall among others.

Wellington-born writer, editor, publisher and critic Mark Pirie is one
of the editors of the anthology. Pirie initiated, co-edited and produced the literary magazine JAAM (Just Another Art Movement) from 1995-2005, and currently edits the HeadworX New Poetry Series and the poetry journal broadsheet.

Tim Jones, the other editor, is also a poet, short story writer and novelist. His most recent books include the short story collection Transported (Vintage, 2008), which was longlisted for the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; the poetry collection All Blacks’ Kitchen Gardens (HeadworX, 2007); and the fantasy novel Anarya’s Secret (RedBrick, 2007).

The new publication follows hot on the heels of IP’s first New Zealand releases, Harmonic by Stephen Oliver and the Text + Audio CD by Stephen Oliver and Matt Ottley, King Hit. Based in Brisbane, IP is Australia’s most innovative independent publisher. It publishes about 24 titles per year and is one of the few independents regularly supported by the Australia Council.

IP’s Director, the noted author Dr David Reiter, whose most recent books are Primary Instinct, a satire on the education system, and the children’s novel Global Cooling, will spearhead the tour, which will also showcase New Zealand authors Iain Britton’s new poetry collection Liquefaction and Euan McCabe’s sports memoir The World Cup Baby.

For more information regarding Voyagers or to schedule an interview before the tour begins, please email info@ipoz.biz or call +61 (0)7 3324 9319. During the tour, Dr Reiter can be contacted via SMS to his mobile +61 (0)412 313 923 or email to reiterdr1@me.com.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

The Voyagers Book Tour Of New Zealand

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This is a post for New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week, though I’m pushing it a bit because it’s really about speculative poetry.

With the lights barely down on Fantastic Voyages, it’s time to announce the next bit of book promotion I’m going to be involved in — although I am not responsible for organising it, which is a mercy.

Interactive Publications, the publishers of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand, which I co-edited with Mark Pirie, are organising a book tour for it, and for their other titles by New Zealand authors (such as Liquefaction by Iain Britton). Not all the dates and details are finalised yet, but here’s what we have so far:

DUNEDIN

Dunedin Library from 5:30 pm on Wednesday 14 Oct
Circadian Rhythm Café from 7 pm on Thursday 15 Oct

CHRISTCHURCH

Madras Café from 5pm on Friday 16 Oct

WELLINGTON

Wellington Library, 5:30pm on Monday 19 Oct

(Note: this is a couple of hours before Helen Rickerby is the guest reader at that night’s New Zealand Poetry Society meeting. Make a poetry night of it!)

Kapiti Library, 5:30pm on Tuesday 20 Oct

21st: Other North Island events

AUCKLAND

Auckland City Library, 5:30? pm on Thursday 22 Oct
Depot Arts Gallery, Devonport, 6:30pm on Saturday 24 Oct

PLEASE NOTE: Details are subject to change without notice, although I’ll keep this list as current as I can.

The events are concentrated on the venues where there are substantial numbers of Voyagers poets available to read, but there are two tantalising days between the Wellington and Auckland events. If anyone thinks that a Voyagers event might be a starter in their town on those days, please get in touch a.s.a.p. and I’ll pass this on to Interactive Publications.

I am taking a week off work to go on the South Island leg of the tour, and will also be at the Wellington event. I’d love to accompany the whole tour, but family and work commitments won’t allow that this time.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!