C: Mommy, dinosaurs lived a long long time ago.
J: Yep. That’s right.
C: But now they stink.
J: Huh?
C: They stink. That means they’re all dead.
Ah. They stink. Of course. 😉
21 Sunday Feb 2016
Posted Uncategorized
inC: Mommy, dinosaurs lived a long long time ago.
J: Yep. That’s right.
C: But now they stink.
J: Huh?
C: They stink. That means they’re all dead.
Ah. They stink. Of course. 😉
19 Friday Feb 2016
Posted Uncategorized
in“A story is like a nut. A fool will swallow it whole and choke. A fool will throw it away, thinking it of little worth. But a wise woman finds a way to crack the shell and eat the meat inside.”
— Vashet (one of my all time favourite fictional characters) in The Wise Man’s Fears by Patrick Rothfuss.
16 Tuesday Feb 2016
Posted Patchwork Raven
inWell, dear reader, here it is: a sneak peak at my new project. I am incredibly honoured and excited to team up with the talented designer Will Thompson to start a brand new Wellington based publishing house, The Patchwork Raven! It’s still early days, and we are still in the process of developing a website and plans for all the awesomeness that will ensue, but once they are ready, rest assured, you will hear all about it!
In the meantime, though, I wanted to let my readers in on what we have planned so far. We spent a lot of time going backwards and forwards on a million different names, and eventually settled on “The Patchwork Raven”. Will got working on a design for our logo. And, as anyone who has seen his other work will be totally unsurprised to discover, it is beautiful!
At the moment we’re hard at work on setting up all the preliminary plans and schemes, but we have a few projects buzzing away merrily on the back-burner, for which we will soon be taking submissions. I’ll be putting up more detailed submission calls soon, but here’s a taster so that those of you who are writers can start fomenting some ideas.
The Currently Unnamed Christmas Anthology
An anthology of 12 tales, each one based on one of the items in The Twelve Days of Christmas. I’ll pick one story for each item. As always I am more likely to pick a story that surprises me, and that tells a tale from a viewpoint or voice not usually seen. Submissions likely to close around May/June, but watch for the official submission call for final details.
The Currently Unnamed Book of Stories for Children
A book of short stories aimed at children aged between 2 and 10. No more than 2000 words, and for this project, less is definitely more. Preference given to stories coming from wide and diverse backgrounds and settings. This book aims to give kids a realistic sense of the true diversity of human experience. So avoid the stories the mainstream tells all the time. All genres welcome, as long as they are age appropriate. Not sure of timeline yet, but this will also be in the official submission call.
The Currently Unnamed Ingress Book
A coffee table style book showing amazing places Ingress has taken people, and the awesome stories of those places. Will be crowd-sourced from the Ingress community, and have photos, stories, wondrous experiences. LOTS of details to iron out for this one still, but if you’re in that community and have ideas, get in touch. I expect this to be a long and ongoing project, and so have no clear submissions deadline yet.
Novels
We will also be looking for at least one but up to three original unpublished novels. I will want them to require fairly minimal editing, so please have someone look it over before you submit it. I expect some editing work, but the closer it is to publishable, of course, the more likely I am to pick it. Again, I’m open to genre, but my preferences fall towards stories in and from voices not often heard in the mainstream. Got a fantasy novel with a gay Indian protagonist? Or a detective novel where the lead is a female poly Maori? Send it over.
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I spent much of last year learning all about the gaps in my publishing knowledge and beginning to fill them. I am really excited to be teamed up with an incredibly talented artist, and cannot wait to start using that new knowledge to produce extraordinary works with the Patchwork Raven. This post is really only a teaser, but you can expect more information soon. If you’re a writer and any of the above tickles your muse, feel free to submit stories to or ask questions at thepatchworkraven@gmail.com.