Kia ora friends,

March has been another wild month for me. I hope it's been kind to you.

Snippet

From Love in the Time of Te Rāhuinui​
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The writing this month

• I handed in my article to the good folks at Playmarket, for them to publish in the Playmarket Annual.
• I finished a draft of the play I'm putting on in July. Time to get some friends around to read it, and then do a final revision in time for auditions next month.
• I wrote a few poems, and revised several from my backlog in preparation to submit to some poetry journals.
• I continued with the revision of one of my novels.

The AQWA update

As promised, I'll fill you in on how the Auckland Queer Writers Anthology launch party went.

On Saturday 28th of March, we capped off eight months of planning and working towards our charity anthology Rainbow Stars Unite. The party went so beautifully. We were worried the readings might go too long, but actually, we pitched them perfectly at two minutes per extract. It was a night full of laughter and joy - despite the initial struggles to unlock the venue! As I always say, it wouldn't be a council hireage if something didn't go wrong...

We're still taking in the numbers (online platforms take a while to release the figures) but we seem to have already made over NZ$1200 for OutLine Aotearoa. Not to mention, we got 10 other writers into a published format alongside us, and that feels so good. People now have our book on their shelves, and can turn to whichever story speaks to them most about where they are in their lives. I think that's very special.

This was such a worthwhile project. I don't think we'll be ready to go again for Pride 2027, but we're definitely thinking about 2028.

Didn't pick it up yet? You can still get your copy and support OutLine Aotearoa over HERE.

Poetry performance

The very next day, March 1st, I went to Art Day for Gender Equality in Monte Cecelia Park. It was a lovely day full of song and art and poetry. I participated directly in the latter, performing two poems for the crowd. Besides getting to try out performing poetry, something I don't often do, I also got to hear (and cry) at the work of other poets, and make connections with them. I'm going to try my best to make it to more poetry events from now on, and just soak in the scene and learn more. I feel like I don't know enough about poetry yet.

RAWA Festival

I was lucky enough to win a fellowship to the Readers and Writers Akaroa Festival. On the 6th of March, my Mum and the kids and I flew down to Christchurch and then hopped in a hire car to make the 90 minute drive out onto the beautiful Banks Peninsula. It ended up being quite a longer evening than we'd intended on that Friday, so I was running too late from wrangling my dinner and sorting out the kids to attend the open mic that night. I opted to have a quiet night in and be ready to hit the ground running in the morning.

Saturday was a little stunner of a morning. My accommodation was a very easy and flat-ish walk from the venue, the Gaiety Hall. I had a great time listening to national and international writers talk about their books, their inspiration and their process over the two days. And look at this stunning place I got to enjoy!

My highlights of the festival:

• Meeting Vanda Symon. Her workshop about short stories was great and I went away from it with some ideas for my next one. Plus I sat next to her during the gala night dinner and we had a great little natter. I've got to check out some of her books!
• Joanna Preston's class on sonnets was a game changer for me for the rest of the month. I now understand sonnets like I never did before, and I've been inspired to try my hand at them multiple times over the course of the month. It's a beautiful form, and I enjoy the structure, restraint, and potential for irony in it.
• Getting to hear Shehan Karunatilaka in person again, after Auckland Writers Festival a few years ago. We're so lucky in Aotearoa to have this connection to this man who straddles two such very different places in the world, here and Sri Lanka, and who brings such humour to such heavy topics as he does. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next!
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The return of 'Love in the Time of Te Rāhuinui' - reprinted in Reckoning X

I mentioned this a little while ago but my first paid short story got published again in the tenth issue of Reckoning, a journal of creative writing on environmental justice. A lot of people have reached out to me to say how much the story touched them, and I just feel so honoured to have been able to reach so many hearts with this little story. It even got a brief review here in Reactor - which if you don't know, is a pretty big deal in the speculative fiction world. Eee!

Check the story out HERE, and keep on reading while you're there for great stories from around the world!

Writer friends up to exciting things

My friends Ange/A.M. Shilling and Emily Klotz are releasing their books very soon. Emily's book is coming from Hook and Quill Press, while Ange is braving the completely self-pub road. They appeared on the Tree to Book Writing Group Podcast to talk about what the newly-published game is looking like for them in the indie and self-pub scene right now.

I have read both of these books and I cannot wait to see them out in the world for other people to enjoy.

Ange's book, The Devouring, is a horror novel about a power couple, Jason and Ayana, who start to notice some very odd things happening in their city. Both of them are close to death in their own ways already: Ayana works in forensics, and Jason is a hitman. But this new thing that's happening is beyond even the strange and messed-up things they get to see normally. I don't want to spoil it too much for you, but if you like the sound of a pacy horror thriller that will grab you by the throat, check out The Devouring HERE.

Emily's book, The Gods of Atalantis, is one that I both beta-read and proofread. It's an ambitious young adult novel about two teens who get named as the reincarnations of the Sky Father and Sea Mother in the place that we've come to know as Atlantis (in Emily's conlang, it's Atalantis). But of course, we all know what happened to that place. This is the start of a trilogy which surely won't end in tragedy... right? It's got epic world building, charming characters, and an overall vibe where you can imagine it being made into a cartoon in the style of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I can't recomment The Gods of Atalantis enough, so check it out HERE.

On the blog

This month I posted a Lore Drop about a little known part of my canon. Floraverse exists as a very loosely connected bunch of stories (two of which are out in the world already, one of which is sitting on submission, and a few more which are embryonic currently). As so many things start for me, this was supposed to be a fun little getaway place where I write whatever I want... and then of course I immediately went against that and took it seriously. It's spacey, it's queer, and it's all available freely at the moment (at least, what currently exists!). Read about it here.​

Next month

• I'll submit a handful of poems to some journals and see what happens, try to go to a poetry event or two.
• Auditions for Old MacDonald's Farm take place in May, and then rehearsals begin quickly after that, so all through April I'll be doing all the pre-production prep.
• I'll continue to work on my revision.

That's all for now! I hope April treats you all brilliantly <3

Arohanui,

Claire Hiria