Society of Women Writers

This was our final meeting for the year. The winners of our Christmas Competition were announced and a delicious lunch was shared - and enjoyed - by all. A glass of bubbly added to the festive feeling.

We were very sorry indeed to learn that Michelle Hamer's son had an accident and was taken to hospital. Michelle tried to call a few people but was not successful in getting the message through to us. We are very pleased to report that her son is all right now.

Members got together and we had some great readings. Most of these were from the anthology Reflecting on Melbourne, published by Poetica Christi Press. This is a large and really beautiful volume of poems, artworks and photographs. Several of our group are also members of Wordsmiths of Melbourne poetry group. Poetica Christi Press is the publishing arm of this group. Jean Sietzema-Dickson and Janette Fernando have managed the Press since its inception in 1990. It has since published over 20 books.

After some lively exchanges in the General Meeting we divided into two reading and critique groups.

The poetry group mostly came with prepared work which we shared with each other. The works were very varied and the critiques helpful and positive.

Karen Turner brought along some pictures to stimulate the prose writers. These were passed around and, after a discussion, everyone then wrote something. When writing time had elapsed the pieces were then shared amongst the group. Betty Caldwell had seen the picture of a healthy looking grey cat and had written a lovely witty short story which she read to us.

The Annual General Meeting of the Society of Women Writers Victoria Inc. provided the membership with reports from office bearers which was followed by the election of the new committee for 2009-2010. The election was presided over by our patron, Lady April Hamer. The new committee members can be seen on our Contacts page.

Meryl Tobin presented beautiful bunches of native flowers from her garden to each member of the outgoing committee.


Flowers for Rebecca, Vice President; Karen looks on.	Flowers for Lady April Hamer, our Patron	Flowers for Errol Broome, our Literary Patron

Flowers for Judy, our long-serving Membership Secretary with Meryl and Tricia on the right.	Flowers for Shirley, our Treasurer	Flowers for Veronica, our Web Weaver.

Newly elected President Tricia Veale took the chair and thanked Past President Rebecca Maxwell, Lady Hamer, Karen Turner (Vice President), Marissa Byatt (newsletter editor) and Meryl for the flowers. She concluded by reading William Wordsworth's poem "Daffodils".

Karen Turner introduced our guest speaker June Loves who spoke on her long and varied writing career. June has published more than one hundred books, non-fiction and children's books.

June is now seventy and looking back over her life as a writer, she realised that she began writing at the age of seven. Queuing at the library for books to read seemed much more difficult than just writing her own at that tender age.

In the 1950s, she tried for jobs with various newspapers and got a job with the Herald Sun, writing for the magazine Woman’s Day. She also wrote freelance for the Herald Sun and made more money than her day job.

It was while writing freelance as a journalist that she learnt the tricks of the trade. Write the best first so the bottom can be cut if space is not available. Use a hook to get the reader in immediately. Use nouns and verbs only. Cut the moderators.

Female reporters were confined to writing for the social pages in those days and eventually she left and went into teaching, then marriage and children kept writing out of her reach.

She observed that you need the heart of a lion and the hide of a rhinoceros to be a writer. It about luck, inspiration and perspiration. Once you get going, you get braver. You have to separate the writer from the business person in writing too.

She always wanted to mix fact and fiction in her children’s books. She has also written a nine-volume easy-to-read encyclopedia.

She advises that if you ever work in collaboration, it is important to have a legal agreement.

Her experience shows that you can earn a living as a writer but you have to have discipline and passion.

Her final cheerful advice to members of the Society was that it doesn’t matter how old you are or how fit you are, to be a writer.

We had a full and informative July meeting with judges, Molly Travers and Kristin Henry, giving their reports and announcing the winners of the 2009 SWWV Biennial Literary Awards. Regardless of whether members had their writing work rewarded or not, it was fascinating to hear the judges talk about the difficult process of determining the best entry out of many.

Molly Travers gave valuable insights into the first part of the judging process which is to develop a set of criteria that the work must meet. She said first and foremost, she looks for what she calls ‘secretarial skills’ which encompass spelling, punctuation, grammar and the overall order of the work. The work must also be of a tidy and uniform appearance.


Molly and Elizabeth (First Prize for Best Article A Brief History of the Picnic)	Molly and Tasma (Second Prize for her article The Innocent Side.	Karen and Molly (First Prize for Best Short Story Kay's Cafe)

Particularly, Molly stressed the importance of the story or article to be told in the appropriate voice and that this voice is consistently used throughout the piece. She looks for the way the writer develops and directs their idea towards a satisfying and believable conclusion.

Kristin Henry, our poetry judge, agreed with Molly’s suggestion that the entries received had a ‘lightness of touch’ which helped to make ‘heavy’ or ‘dark’ topics more palatable to the reader. Kristin was also impressed by the subtle mental pictures brought to mind by the selected poems, describing the imagery as ‘well defined’. She said she was pleased with the entries that displayed lucidity and direct language rather than using ‘tricky’ or complicated words and phrases to describe something simple.

The winners were announced and members were treated to readings of the successful entries, made even more special when delivered by the authors.

Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy and Horror
by Veronica Schwarz

Lucy Sussex

Lucy Sussex presented our June 2009 meeting with information on the science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy writing and publishing scene with a particular emphasis on Australia rather than the galaxy.

There are now so many sections and subsections within this genre that it has become quite confusing to differentiate among them. Lucy gave us a number of definitions covering Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Magical Realism, Dark Fantasy, Supernatural Romance and Post Apocalyptic fiction.

Lucy told us, there is a huge market for Fantasy, particularly Romantic Fantasy. Tolkien is a classic case.

Probably the best know author of Horror is Stephen King while Salman Rushdie is a writer of Magical Realism. In the realm of Supernatural Romance, Lucy told us of the work of Laurell K. Hamilton who writes about a Private Investigation agency in Hollywood run by fairies – the tiny type with wings.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer with her vampire lover Angel, would be a good example of Supernatural Romance.

Post-Apocalyptic fiction uses speculation based on fear. Some disaster that destroys the world as we know it and what happens next. “Day of the Triffids” and “On the Beach” are two good examples.

An interesting concept is the “shared world”. One writer comes up with a concept for an alternative world and other writers write stories in that world. For example, Jillian Pollock created an alternative world based on the eighteenth century. Other people write stories set within that world.

Many of these forms of fiction are written for both the adult and young adult markets. If you can write both, you will have an on-going audience as your young adult readers move on to your adult fiction.

Most Australian publishers now have some fantasy writers on their books. Harper Collins and Allen and Unwin are two of the biggest. The short story market is limited but Speculative Fiction does better than other forms, Lucy told us.

Clarion South Writers’ Residential Workshop runs every two years in Brisbane and is the most intensive professional development program for speculative fiction writers in the southern hemisphere.

The writers’ retreat at Varuna in the Blue Mountains is a supporter of Fantasy writers and Harper Collins reads the manuscripts produced by their participants.

Finally, you don’t have to have a science degree to write in this genre. Keep up with the trends by reading New Scientist and watching the program “Catalyst”.

Following Lucy's talk, the inaugural presentation of the Nance Donkin Award took place. For more information on this award, its origin and its purpose, click on the Award below:

President Rebecca Maxwell opened this section of the meeting and introduced our Literary Patron Errol Broome.

Photo: Left to right: Errol Broome, Rebecca Maxwell and Vice President, Karen Turner.	Errol spoke of her personal friendship with Nance Donkin and read from Nance's stories for children.. She then handed the Award to Ms Pia Butcher, the Judge. Pia announced the winner of the inaugural award was Dr Ruth Starke. Dr Starke was unable to attend the presentation but her former Editor Ms Helen Chamberlain, accepted the award on her behalf.
Errol handed the award to Pia Butcher, who announced the winner to be Dr Ruth Starke.	Pia presented the Award to Helen Chamberlain (far right) who accepted it on behalf of Ruth Starke.

At our May 2009 meeting, members engaged in “Writing Exercises; For Any Genre” with writer and teacher Annette Trevitt. The exercises were fast paced and had plenty of scope for the writing imagination. First, we had a short exercise on “Why I want to write …” then, to reverse the thought process, “Why I don’t want to write …”. This technique introduces another point of view; it can also help stimulate new ideas and prevent the cycle of writing about the same topic.

There is a time, Annette says, when you have to just sit down and write. She explained that one way of stimulating ideas, was taking one word and writing down all the words you associate with it. The word Annette chose was ‘escape,’ then members were asked for their responses to this word. In minutes we had a white board full of interesting and different words: free, waterfall, fire, expression, ideas, prison, exboyfriend etc … Already the starting points of potential stories forming.

With each consecutive writing exercise, Annette introduced a new element to our topic. Our writing now had to include: a suit-case, an unopened present, a postcard ... This provokes the writer to think more about the direction of their story. Annette says, “Some writers know what their story is going to be about before they have started writing, others write and follow where their story takes them.”

Finally, members were asked to take one of their favourite writing pieces and improve the work. Annette stressed, “Find the meaning of the piece; what are you trying to say? Sometimes the underlying theme is a surprise, even to the writer!”

Thank you Annette, for the (often demanding) inspiring and worthwhile writing exercises.

Beth Wunderlich, who has self published many of her own books, was our first speaker at the April 24th meeting on “Idea’s For Self Publishing” and her message was, “You don’t have to be an expert to create a book.”

Beth says there is nothing complex about the process of self publishing, but there are a few things to think about before you start. Firstly, find a recent book that has a style and format that appeals to you; use this book as your guide. Secondly, prepare your manuscript neatly, type the book up as it would be printed, including page numbers, titles, underlines and frames. You will need to apply for an IBSN (International Book Standard Number) which identifies a unique addition of a publication. Remember: if you are not sure about number placement, dedications or blurb, check the book you have chosen as your guide.

Before your book arrives at the printers, Beth says, you should have your manuscript checked by an expert. When you feel the book is done to your satisfaction you must negotiate with a printing firm about types of paper, binding, colours, pictures and book cover. When these issues are decided, think carefully about the number of copies you want printed. If your book is for family and friends, you might only want 10, 20 or 50 copies. If you think you may have a larger market for your book you may want to order more, but beware, no one wants a garage full of unsold books gathering dust! When it comes to the pricing of your book, Beth advises self publishers not to rely on verbal quotes “… get written quotes”. Lastly, the message to self publishers is to have fun and “ be creative!”

Paul and Debbie Higgs from Palmer and Higgs were the second of our guest speakers, who specialize in all areas of book production distribution and marketing. They help authors work out what they want to do with their book and how to go about printing and marketing the finished product. They say that they think of themselves as ‘…halfway between professional and self publishers.’ Debbie and Paul have 15 years in the publishing industry, working with such publishers as, Oxford University, Penguin and Spinifex Press and have published a wide range of genres from educational books to cooking books.

Paul particularly emphasized the need to make sure a manuscript is neatly typed, double spaced with a simple and consistent font and format and proofreading is an imperative step before it reaches a publisher. In the final stages of finishing Paul says, ‘Your book cover is your one chance to catch the audience’s attention…it is always important to choose a designer who is right for you’.

In terms of marketing Debbie explains she believes that self publishers make more book sales online than in independent book stores. Reminding members of the 4 Ingredients Cookbook ,written and self published by two Brisbane women, which outsold both Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver in 2007. The book was second only to J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!

Thank you Beth, Debbie, Paul, Meryl Tobin and Lin Van Hek! The session was filled with interesting tips and insights, we look forward to further discussions on the subject.


Kristin and Judy (Highly commended poem)	Kristin and Marlene (Second prize for her poem Hot Air Platoon)