Writers on Rafts, Yeti Debuts, and Cool Reviews

Instead of buying a coffee at work tomorrow, why not spend $5 to help the Queensland Writers Centre raise funds and support for the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal?

Visit the Writers on Rafts website (http://writersonrafts.com/) and enter the draw to win yourself a fantastic prize pack  and help the QWC reach their $20,000 goal for the benefit of all Queenslanders ravaged by the floods. 

More than 150 writers and writing organisations are on board including Nick Earls, Kate Morton, Tara Moss, Kim Wilkins, Emily Jade O’Keeffe, Frances Whiting, Jessica Rudd, Kate Hunter, Marianne de Pierres, PM Newton, and Venero Armanno, and Sydney Writers’ Festival, Byron Bay Writers Festival and Melbourne Writers Festival, who are all donating books, workshops, author talks, lunches and editorial to winners of QWC’s Writers on Rafts initiative.

And more exciting news on the writing front…

Bluegrass Symphony has been showcased over at Stomping on Yeti‘s website:

Literature and genre rarely play nice but when they do get together, they make one hell of a couple. Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman and China Mieville are only a few of the author who have made their careers off border straddling novels chock full or rich prose, challenging ideas, and original concepts. Will these authors make a name for themselves?

Yeti highlights Bluegrass as a debut ‘literary crossover’ short fiction collection to look out for in 2011 (and puts me in the same company as Rachel Swirsky!)

To top it all off, my story ‘Singing Breath into the Dead’ (Music for Another World) has attracted two more awesome reviews. Ian Sales at SFF Chronicles says ‘Singing Breath’ “contains some lovely writing and an original world” and that “Hendrickson’s, Steel’s, Hannett’s and Williamson’s stories all impress with the originality of their premises.” And over at A Son of the Rock, Jack Deighton highlights ‘Singing Breath’ as one of the most successful tales in the anthology.

All this added to the fact that I’ve just sent off the final MS to Ticonderoga means, so far, Sunday has rocked.