Fairy Tales, Cats and Queermance 2015

I'm working hard on helping put together the second year of Queermance, which it occurs to me that I should help promote before March turns into April and then the weekend is upon us.

Last year, I wrote a short post about it. This year, we'll have exciting extra items in our line up, such as swag bags and a Queer Art panel. Tickets are still available, although food inclusive tickets are ticking down as we need to get final numbers to the Mecure Hotel. Daytime panels, will all be at the Mecure, Therry Street in Melbourne. Aren't available for the full weekend? Single day tickets are available. Evenings only or single panel tickets will be available right up till the day for as little as $20.




The venue for the evening events will be Hares and Hyenas on Johnston St, Fitzroy, which is still one of my favourite queer friendly venues in the whole city. It does help that books line the walls, and they sell tea. And, if you squint reeeaaaally hard, you can see the place at the back where we had the readings last year for the launch of Queermance Vol. 1.

Queermance Vol. 2 will be launched in the same space on Friday 17th of April, starting 8pm and we'll also be having some readings from authors from the first volume who weren't able to make it last year. Copies of both books will be available on the night, thanks to Clan Destine Press. I have my submission in. Do you?



As if that's not enough, there's other stuff going on in my life right now. Such as:

• Playing with cats (that's me there in the first picture).
• Reading.
• Finishing the world's longest Slytherin scarf.
• Volunteering at my local library's amazing Free iPad Program for Seniors.
• Having my fairy tales come out again to play.

For the first time since my Honours year, I'm curled up with old friends Hans Anderson, Marina Warner, the Grimm brothers and no shortage of coloured post-it notes. They're just as good a company as I remembered.

Unlike last time, when my focus was on Beauty and the Beast and other permutations, the enchanted slipper and the deformed foot have got my attention. I've lost too many hours to flicking through pages and writing notes. It's been sublime!

"If you're upset, make art."

There's been a lot of upset about the results of the Australian election just past. As an Australian, I feel like I ought to weigh in on the conversations that are going back and forth, but "weighing in" makes me feel like just another grumpy person who is less informed than a lot of the people talking up and down about politics right now.

Also, I don't think anyone follows this blog, my Twitter or Goodreads to read about politics.

So instead, I've been burying myself in books and music and waiting for the initial rush of opinion to die away. Only then, tonight, there was this:

I've watched this through twice already, and each watching just makes me want to watch again. In this video are so many of the points all of my friends have themselves pointed out in their displeasure about the current Australian government, but with one major difference:

"If you're upset, make art."

Strangely enough, this isn't the first time I've heard such an idea. Even more strangely, the first time I heard it, it was Neil Gaiman who was speaking it in his Keynote Address 2012. I was similarly inspired back then.

"Make good art. 

I'm serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it's all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn't matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art...

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art."

It's little wonder they are perfect together. 

I've had an on and off again relationship with Amanda Palmer for years. I loved her during the Dresden Dolls. I didn't like Evelyn Evelyn so much. I've had friends as conflicted as I and yet, after this 'song', I think this signals the beginnings of another 'on' part of the relationship. 

Just thought I'd make this my very short platform on the subject. 

So here I am!

So here I am at blogger with my new layout put together by the lovely Regina at HeartFelt Promos.

My name is Nicole and, it may not be obvious just yet, but I'm a bit of a fan of fantasy. I'm not quite sure when that started. I could possibly blame it on some of the artwork I am a fan of.



Let's face it, in fantasy, you can get away with a lot more. The lines of good and evil are blurred. Motivations of characters can be more complex as a vampire needs to drink blood, a werewolf needs to change under that full moon. Those kinds of vital urges -whether they are fought against or given into- give a writer a lot to play with.

So, anyway this is my blog at blogger. Feel free to look around. There will be more tabs across the top of the site soon enough.

Until next time.