Kia ora friends! Slightly early one this month, because who wants to be posting on New Year's Eve, amirite?

Snippet:

Rather than just a snip today, here you can see my performance of my poem 'I am never going to space' in full. It has also been published now in the ebook AHI: Dawn of Words, which is available here.

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The Writing This Month:

• I am drafting a play at the moment. If it doesn't end up on stage by midyear (as is intended but not entirely up to me), I'll just keep plugging away at it and enter it into Playmarket's Plays for the Young comp.
• I have been working away at lots of little things other than that this month, including a short story, press kit details and a funding application for the Auckland Queer Writers' Anthology, and applications for funding and residencies for myself for writing in general, but also specifically for theatre and getting the aforementioned play on stage
• I was asked to write an article (for money!!! How rare) by an organisation I dearly love. I've been researching that and putting it together. It's due by the end of January.
• And finally I've been chipping away at some little bits of revision here and there.

Now let's get into all the exciting things I want to cover off before the end of the year...

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Hook & Quill Press

I mentioned before that I've been proofreading for a friend, but there's actually a lot more to this story, and now I'm finally able to tell you about it!

I have been part of a group of friends around the world who all really gel, along the lines of being similar in terms of our dedication to craft, as well as being really enthusiastic about each others' work. Eventually we caved to the inevitable pressure... and now we're an indie press 😂 (how many times have you heard that one?)

Our first release is going to be Bludeye Beach by Eliwood S. Gheist. It's a wonderfully strange and delightful novel, and when I try to think of touchstones from my own cultural cache, I think of...

• Jaws, because it's a horror set in a New England beach town
• Twin Peaks, because of the homebrewed alternative mythology/cryptidology, and quirky small town America hiding so many suspicious secrets
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because teen monster hunters

If you look at this graphic, however, you'll see the touchstones Eliwood actually relates to:

I love this book. Our main character Edie is wracked with anxiety and over-thinking everything, and I'm just like... it me! And yet despite all this, she pushes forward in the ethos of her grandmother's advice: "If you're scared, do it scared." There have been multiple occassions this year where I'll call that bit of advice up for myself. I do so love to see a main character with anxiety who is still written in an active fashion.

So if this sounds like something you're interested in, I urge you to check out this interview with Eliwood, follow on Bluesky or Instagram, or even put a pre-order on the book.

As for what's beyond that for Hook and Quill Press, in February we'll be coming out with the first of our quarterly zines, where we collect short stories, poetry and more from the members of our press. For the moment we're not open to outside submissions, but who knows what the future holds. I have the honour of curating this first zine with fellow press member Kelsey Ann. Can't wait to be able to share that release with you!

You can follow what we're up to over there on our website, our Bluesky, and our Instagram.

(I say 'we'... when clearly this is attached to my pseudonym, Kara Moon... but look, I haven't written anything R18 over there... yet...)

Update on the Auckland Queer Writers' Anthology

We closed our Boosted campaign on 1st December with 100% of our funds raised, hooray! So what has been happening this month, with our launch day looming in February?

- Our editor, Gillian St Kevern, has been hard at work in November and early December. I got my feedback for the short story Rainbow Stars Unite and omigosh, I just love Gillian's editing style! To the point where I accepted ALL edits as is. I am going to have to work with her again sometime.

- Once all our writers get back with their responses to the edit, then Jamie is going to knock out the formatting and I'm going to give the ebook formats a good looking over for any oddities.

- We have our cover! We'll be able to release it to the public soon, but for now, check out Mango Cat Creations if you want a hint at the style. And uh.... the anthology title is the same title as my piece. I just want to state for the jury, that was Jade's idea and not mine! I am both embarrassed and flattered at the same time.

- I have been hard at work on a few things, namely applying for the last few hundred bucks of funding we need to a grant organisation, sorting out our special licence (bureaucracy, good lord...), and other bits of admin and little things to get us over the line.

How can you engage with this right now? Well, the book won't be out until late February, but if you live in or near Tāmaki Makaurau, you can book your tickets to the FREE book launch here.

On the Blog this month:

I like to reflect on my year in December, like I'm sure many other people do (certainly, the adherents of #pretendpanel over on Bluesky have been super keen on my reflection questions every weekend this month!). Rather than keeping the reflections here, I have put them in my blog for a slightly wider reach. You can check out that post here.

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What's coming next month:

• The article I was commissioned to write comes due at the end of January. I have a bunch of exciting interviews ahead of me before I get there. I wonder what I'll learn, and how much the shape of what I'm planning now will change once I'm exposed to new information. I'm keeping an open mind.
• I will finish the first draft of the play, get a bunch more applications in, send in some short stories to a few places, and keep on chipping away at the never-ending revision pile!

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Arohanui, and I hope you have a wonderful start to the new year,

Claire Hiria

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