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Category Archives: News

Anatomy of a Launch

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Janis Hanley

Well it’s done. Undertow is launched, and is setting sail. What a fantastic day it was yesterday. The day started with Kerry and I chatting with Peter Scott on ABC radio. Then while I was chairing the panel session at the Local Studies library, Kerry was coordinating the launch venue set up and the launch itself.

It’s not customary to ‘lift the veil’ on what it takes to launch a book, but because this is essentially a community project, I thought is was worth relating the extraordinary work that Kerry Gibb put in to bring this together.

The organisation started back in February. Here’s just some of Kerry’s to-do list—there is much that’s not here, and possibly Kerry doesn’t remember:
– look for sponsors
– look for venues – decide on the Community Centre Southport – high standard, new venue.
– book venue and attend to conditions
– look at catering options
– find house to live in and move to new house (Kerry really did this within a week. This doesn’t sound like anything with the launch, but refer to next point)
– discover that new home has no internet connection and there is a nine month wait to get one!
– work out licensing issues so we could serve wine
– design launch invitations
– compile list of invitees and email addresses
– send out invitations and post invitation to as many social media sites as possible
– attend to RSVPs
– order and fund books for launch
– cajole kids and their friends to assist with set up and food/drink service
– start getting everyone collecting items and Prana Writer books for raffles
– wrestle with Vistaprint for hours to design and order banner and business cards
– arrange for launch cake that will knock the socks off everyone.
– order and pick up icing replica of book – take icing to cake icer
– twist arms for someone to be MC.
– send many emails/ FB posts

One week out
– revisit venue
– work out running sheet for the day – timing, speakers etc.
– Take delivery of beautiful banner
– arrange printing of paper invitations for last minute invites
– meet with team to work out- raffle, thank-yous, hall decorations, food, alcohol, book sales, cash floats, credit card payments, timing etc etc etc
– attend to copious amounts of paperwork to enable online credit card transactions though PayPal
– edit speakers notes
– work out change needed for cash floats, and go to bank to pick up change.
– organise PWs to pick up platters
– sort out last minute venue issues
– design posters for the day
– arrange PWs to print posters for wall, and copies of “Coral Sea Monster” book
– pick up the most awesome book launch cake in the history of the planet.
– post photos of most awesome launch cake in the galaxy
– send even more emails and Facebook posts.
– liaise with speakers and MC.
– work with Jasmine to midnight the night before launch getting PayPal app working.
– buy soft drinks, ice and launch bits and pieces.
– arrange and download video of Louise to play at launch
– do PowerPoint of photos
– arrange loan of AV equipment for the day

Day of launch
– arrive at ABC studios 7am to do a radio spot to promote launch
– cajole son and friend to dress as waiters – black tie
– load car with books, food, drinks! AV equipment, most amazing cake, and teenagers – boys almost dressed.
– Arrive at venue at midday with car bursting with food, most amazing cake miraculously still intact , drinks, books, teenagers trying to do up black ties
– safely unload all of the above
– coordinate set up of venue – seating, tables, table decorations, food, microphone and podium, book sales, drink and raffle sales,
– forget to put up banner (specially priority delivered) because Janis got part way through, had to go to panel and left it where no one would find it.
– do battle with audio for video and background music, but retire defeated.
-finish set up with ten minutes to spare, just in time to not sit down, but start welcoming guests …
– keep things running in the background
– deliver speech
– barely have a moment for food
-start packing up and cleaning
– quick photo with authors
– pack car, squeeze in with leftovers, teenagers, and half demolished most amazing book launch cake.
– arrive home and enjoy glass of red, knowing that the most amazing book launch with the most amazing cake had just been delivered.

…that’s just to give you an idea of just how amazing Prana Writer Kerry-Lea Gibb is.

And because Kerry organised all this, I do not know who else to thank apart from The Choinski Family for supplying ALL the wine for the launch and some of the platters and person power carrying boxes, cleaning, setting up, and clean-up at the end. Nicola for dressing the tables and putting raffle prizes together, Jasmine for handling book sales, Tom for doing an excellent job MCing and all PWs for food and support; Kerry’s kids and their friends for food and drink services as well set up and clean up assistance.

Outside the PWs it gets sketchy …

Rob Molhoek MP for a great speech and support of the Anth.
Kyla Stephan, Local Studies for entertaining speech
Greg Davidson, Artist and Author for his ‘Robot Man’ sculpture come presentation TV
Alison- for most Amazing Book Launch cake IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE … MORE ABOUT Alison in her own post.

And most importantly, all the authors and guests for making it a wonderful occasion. I think 44 attended the panel session and 70 the launch.

All just amazing. Thanks Kerry for organising an unbelievable launch.

Note PW=Prana Writer

PS. The great thing about a blog is that all omissions and errors can be readily corrected.

20140511-211442.jpg

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Posted in News, Uncategorized, Undertow | 1 Comment |

We made the Bulletin!

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Janis Hanley

Bullie Article1This week-end’s Gold Coast Bulletin (Sat 26th April 2014) ran a great piece on the anthology.  The article was written by Barbara Dyer and featured stories Three Wishes by David Stringer, War Bride by Kay Gibbs and Jumpinpin by Thoraiya Dyer (no relation). You’ll find the article on page 33.  Make sure you buy a copy.

‘Opening floodgate of talents’ is an excellent headline – and that’s really how the whole process of the anthology has felt.  Not only has it drawn on the great talents of writers through the stories, but we have discovered great talents within Prana Writers in putting the publication together, and drawn on many great talents of those supporting us through the process.  In all, a flood of talents.

Thank-you to all, and special thank-you to Nicola Tierney for organising the press release, and Barbara Dyer for putting it together.

 

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Posted in About the Anthology, News | Tags: gold coast, Gold Coast Anthology | 7 Comments |

BOOK LAUNCH INVITATION

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Penner Choinski
Gold Coast Anthology Book Launch

Gold Coast Anthology Book Launch

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Posted in Gold Coast Anthology, Launch, News, Slider, Undertow, Upcoming Events | Leave a comment |

Inside the Undertow – the contents

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Janis Hanley

Twenty authors…

Twenty beautifully crafted stories…

Twenty sets of images ….

Congratulations to the twenty fabulous authors whose stories grace our volume. We are delighted to have your work as part of  Gold Coast Anthology: Undertow. Here is the list of authors and their stories  in the order of contents:

Gold Coast Anthology – Undertow
‘Tales from outside the flags’
  • Betsy Roberts  No Lime Ice-Cream
  • Rebecca Fraser Coralesque
  • Paul Garrety Last Day at Elephant Rock
  • Tom Betts The Lions in Autumn
  • David Stringer Three Wishes
  • Di Morris The Clearing
  • Kathleen Bleakley Frangipanis
  • Britt Melville That Girl No More
  • Elli Housden Snapper Rocks
  • Janis Hanley Pulped Fiction
  • S. Elliot Brandis Empty Calories
  • Penner Choinski In the End
  • S. G. Larner Paradise Drowned
  • J.S. Choinski Deliver Me
  • Jane Downing Duck
  • Jocelyn Hawes Dear Sam
  • Kay Gibb War Bride
  • Tara  Calaby Breath
  • Thoraiya Dyer Jumpinpin
  • Nicola Tierney The Ghosts of our Ancestors

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who sent stories in during the subscription period.  There were many, many great stories, and unfortunately there could only be twenty in this volume.

While you are here, did your see the anthology’s great cover art by Shauna O’Meara?

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Posted in Gold Coast Anthology, News, Slider, Undertow | Tags: gold coast, short stories | 2 Comments |

Here’s how the front cover looks ..

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Janis Hanley

Sure you want to venture outside the flags?

You might get caught …

screenshot213

Wanna look inside ?

Stunning artwork by Shauna O’Meara

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Posted in About the Anthology, Gold Coast Anthology, News, Slider, Undertow | Tags: gold coast stories, Shauna O'Meara | 4 Comments |

Check out our cover art …

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Janis Hanley

Much has been happening behind the scenes since the anthology editing was completed.  Typesetters have typeset, proofers have proofed – authors have poured over their galleys.

We even have a brand new website – you’ll find us at PranaWriters.com.  All is ready to go.

So, we are pleased to announce the title of our wonderful volume –  a collection of 20 stories inspired by photos of the Gold Coast ….

Gold Coast Anthology:

Undertow

 

And to match this suspenseful title, we have the stunning cover art by the talented Shauna O’Meara

screenshot211

 

Want to see how it transforms into a book cover?

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Posted in About the Anthology, News, Slider | Tags: Gold Coast Anthology, Undertow | Leave a comment |

What photos did authors choose?

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Janis Hanley

We are all beavering away on the submissions – and our editors a busy reading, and rereading. Only a few weeks away until the shortlist is done and authors are notified.

Being a numbers girl, I couldn’t resist the urge to delve into the statistics around the photos short story submitters selected (I’m a sad case,I know). I promise you this is not a completely boring blog, and there is only one graph.

When we set up the site, the photos were organised into 10 different categories. We aimed to offer authors 100 photos, to give a good range of topics and subjects. We uploaded 114 photos, and here’s how they were allocated out category wise.

Beach 32,    Events 10,   Forest 9,    Entertainment 14,   Structures 12,  Kids 4,  Action 13, Work 10,   Animals 5,  Art 5

By far the most popular category for authors was Beach. Not surprising given that it is the Gold Coast. There could also  be a chicken and egg thing going on here – there were more beach photos to choose from, so you would expect there would be more beach photos selected. But then beach is so firmly embedded in our culture, even if we aren’t all surfies. Our Forest category was the next best  represented with stories, followed by Events.

 

screenshot98Looking at the pie chart to the right (click on it for a closed look), you can see that 51% of the stories are about our natural environment – beach or forest. The natural landscape does define a lot about who we are.  If you did this in other Australian cities would that still be the case?  Or is that a feature of more Regional Cities – Darwin, Canberra and the like?  What would a Sydney,  Melbourne or Brisbane profile look like?  Is it simply about what we did as kids, and then what we do with our own kids?

 

 

 

screenshot100

The column graph left (click to enlarge)  compares the number of photos authors selected in each category (green) with the number in that category’s photo set (blue). Did I say only one graph? This one’s a bonus!

 

 

But most importantly, the photo blue ribbon for most popular shot  goes to Beach 15, the View from Rainbow bay looking across the Coral sea, a lone surfer in the ocean, with Surfers in the background, C. 1990. There’s that surfer theme! The photographer was Ray Sharpe – a well  known local and a  professional photographer. And, here it is!

Photo: Beach 15 View from Rainbow Bay, Coolangatta looking across the Coral Sea with lone surfer in the ocean, to the Surfers Paradise horizon, Queensland, circa 1990 [picture] / Ray Sharpe photographer. Asset name LS-LSP-CD312-IMG0012

Photo: Beach 15
View from Rainbow Bay, Coolangatta looking across the Coral Sea with lone surfer in the ocean, to the Surfers Paradise horizon, Queensland, circa 1990 [picture] / Ray Sharpe photographer.
Asset name LS-LSP-CD312-IMG0012

The second most popular photo is the image of kids and lorikeets at Currumbin, c.1980, photographer unknown.

Photo: Kids 2 Children feeding lorikeets at Currumbin Sanctuary, Queensland, circa 1980 [picture] / Photographer unknown. Asset name LS-LSP-CD408-IMG0001

Photo: Kids 2
Children feeding lorikeets at Currumbin Sanctuary, Queensland, circa 1980 [picture] / Photographer unknown.
Asset name LS-LSP-CD408-IMG0001

There you have it – still awake?  Many of the photos were selected by more than one author.  It’s so interesting to see the different stories one photo can inspire.

Overall, I feel we did pretty well with the selection.  We are very grateful to Kyla Stephan and the staff at Gold Coast council’s Local Studies library for there assistance on this.  My next mission is to look at the photo preference by genre – need to delve a bit further for that one!

So many questions come to mind as I look at the data.

  • How do you think we went with the photos we offered for authors?
  • In which categories would you liked to have seen more photos?
  • Did we miss any categories ?
  • Would you have liked to see more contemporary photos?
  • Was there a specific sort of photo you were looking for …. If only they had a photo of this?

Let  us know your thoughts as a comment – either on this blog, Facebook, or a Tweet!

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Posted in About the Anthology, News, Slider | Leave a comment |

Interesting stats on our website – mostly 100 hits per day!

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Janis Hanley

GC Anth STATS.005

We’ve been pretty pleased with the stats on our website. Since the site launched we have received 3,454 hits.  Our best ever day saw 357 visits, and we are currently averaging 93 hits per day. This is the first week our site has dipped below 100 hits per day.

The most interesting thing is how our visitors are finding their way to the site. The pie chart shows our referrals.  Facebook sends twice the traffic our way over any other source.  Google searches, Twitter and links from other websites are pretty well neck and neck at 20% each.

We currently have 118 likes on our Facebook page, and at times our reach is up around the 500 mark.  Twitter is slowly gaining followers, with currently 106 following.

We set up Twitter and Facebook pages two months ago. The website has been up for 5 weeks. Here’s hoping this all translates into story submissions and later on sales of the anthology.  We thought we’d share these statistics with you — they may be helpful for your own project.

 

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Posted in News, Photo Blogs, Slider | 1 Comment |

Have a listen to our interview on Gold Coast ABC FM Radio …

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Janis Hanley
IMG_2313

Janis Hanley & Helen Stubbs on Gold Coast ABC Radio.

 

Had a great session with Matt Webber on Gold Coast ABC FM Radio, Saturday morning. Helen Stubbs and I trotted down to the radio station at Mermaid Beach to – well really just to chat with Matt about GCAnth – how it came about and how writers can submit stories. Matt is a fiction writer himself, so he knows the value that a Gold Coast Anthology brings to local writers … and to be paid $100 for accepted stories is a real bonus.

Maybe you missed the radio interview? Matt kindly included the audio in a blog about our anthology.  Click here to listen …

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Posted in News, Slider | 4 Comments |

Submissions Open 17 June. Closing 31 August 2013

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Janis Hanley

Take the plunge!

  1. Select an image and write us a story.
  2. Click here to submit.
  3. Make sure you check out our submission guidelines.
  4. Looking forward to reading your Gold Coast tale.
  5. Submissions close 31st August 2013.

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Posted in FAQ, News, Slider | 1 Comment |
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