Anthology of short stories III - Writers wanted!

Anthology III 2012

Themed: April Fools

Brought to you by the Melbourne Writers’ Social Group

Sponsored by the Story Mint

WRITERS WANTED!

Read on to be a part of this amazing anthology of short stories.

All styles of writing are eligible for the anthology. Register between now and February 1st 2013. Create a great story and get it to a fully edited stage before March 2013.

All guidelines will be emailed to you after you register.

This is our third anthology of short stories and will be published on April 1st 2013. Themed April Fools.

Our anthologies are born from a different theme with each publication. The first being, Valentine’s Day (2012). As you would expect many of the tales were quite sweet. Yet, we also had stories that endevoured to chill the hearts of our reader’s.

Our following anthology was published December 2012, The Holiday Season in Melbourne. Each unique Melbourne tale satisfyingly different and touching on a wide variety of holiday seasoned themes.             

You can download either of these anthologies online:

Anthology I:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/130549

Anthology II:

www.amazon.com/MWSG-Anthology-II-Melbourne-ebook/dp/B00AMPC70O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1355349010&sr=8-3&keywords=anthology+melbourne

We don’t mind what genre you choose, but you must include some reference to April Fools, no matter how small. And a reference to Melbourne (Australia) must be included, even if in passing.

One submission per person only.

Word count for you story (fiction or non-fiction): 1000-2000 words. Unfortunately we can not have any exceptions to this rule. Even if it is one word outside of this limit your story will not be considered.

If you intend on submitting a poem, then the word count is different: 500 words maximum. No minimum.

Please register your interest to be involved with this anthology by emailing Mat Clarke: matclarke.author@gmail.com

Registration opens December 14 2012 and closes February 1st 11.59pm.

After you have emailed Mat Clarke you willll be contacted within 3 business days and emailed an easy to fill in form to read and complete.

The information emailed to you includes the process we go through to ensure we publish quality work. Please make sure you read the information carefully.

You can of course email Mat back if unsure about anything.

All money earned from the sales of the anthologies (a very small amount) is put back into running the next one and holding the weekly meetings and other events with the Melbourne Writers’ Social Group - which are free to attend :)Anthology II

April Fools

Brought to you by the Melbourne Writers’ Social Group

Sponsored by the Story Mint

Australian DJs prank UK Hospital to speak to Kate

Ok, so I just listened to the recording and it seems actually quite harmless. I have to be careful what I say here so people don't get upset, but the actual prank did seem as if the DJs were not being malicious in any way and were just doing a very simple and very mild prank, which turned out to be actually funny (while they were doing the prank, NOT afterwards) because their accents were so terrible!
It's a real shame that it went pear-shaped after that and a life was lost.
The woman that committed suicide was only on the phone for 3 seconds to answer the phone, then patched it through. It was the following woman that told of Kate's condition. However, she still didn't give out any information that wasn't already known.
As far as I can see, no real harm done. A simple mistake by the nurse(s) that were probably having a busy day dealing with loads of people and reporters and unfortunately got fooled by some DJs that probably didn't even think they would get through to the nurse(s) in the first place.
If we're talking pranks, look at what the Chaser team did when they infiltrated the APEC with a false motorcade.
Anyway, listen to the recording of the DJs and you decide: http://americanlivewire.com/kate-middleton-prank-call/

Beauty, style, fashion - get it here!

Okay, so I'm stepping outside my usual blogging stuff and helping to advertise an amazing fashion show at the exhibition building (Jeff's Shed) for 2013. The person running it has set up a great website with fantastic offers for every kind of person no matter what you're after.
Check it out and have a read of the ABOUT page. Women readers, you are going to get terribly excited!
http://www.thebeautyshow.com.au/

Tell your friends and get your tickets ASAP, it's going to be a great show!

Anthology of Short Stories II

Tuesday 11th December at 6pm, come along to the Wharf Hotel Melbourne for the Short Story Anthology Launch, by the Melbourne Writers' Social Group.
Have a chat about writing and everything else. Listen to a few short excerpts from the anthology and support us silly creative people :)

Why not come along and show off your creative work as well! There'll be lots of people interested in new or established authors.

Also we will announce the next anthology. To be completed by end of March 2013. WRITERS WANTED!
http://www.meetup.com/The-Melbourne-Writers-Meetup-Group/events/91770542/

Also, for you meat eaters it's $15 steak night!
Discount drinks too! Become a member for free on the night. Takes 30 seconds.

Anthology II 2012 - Writers wanted!

Anthology II 2012

Holiday Season in Melbourne (Australia)

Brought to you by the Melbourne Writers’ Social Group

Sponsored by The Story Mint

Last year we developed a small book of short stories for Valentine’s Day. Some of those stories were sweet and others not so sweet. This year we are kicking off another anthology with all stories themed for the coming holiday season in Melbourne, Australia.

You are not ruled by any genre and you are certainly not limited to just the more merry times over December; feel free to use the horror genre, for example.
You are however limited by word count and time.
Word count for stories (fiction or non-fiction): 1500 words maximum.
There is no minimum. However we would prefer you try and aim for approximately 1500 words.
If you intend to submit a poem, then the word count is different: 500 words maximum.

Start submitting your story to the Writer’s Pad before the end of October so you can receive feedback and act on it before submissions close. Please also make sure it is at least your third draft.
The Story Mint website: http://www.thestorymint.com/writers-pad

For full details and conditions please visit: http://melbournewriters.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/anthology-ii-2012-writers-wanted/

Click here - writers wanted

No death for anyone!

In the not too distant future I will write a book on my theory behind life and death. Until then, there is one aspect of my thoughts I would like to talk about: why a body dies.

Evolution needs our body to die... although only if we want to evolve and then also only if we want to procreate.
So first, evolution. Without it we would all be single celled organism swimming in a puddle of muck. Without procreation we wouldn’t have evolution from the combining of two sexes to create a unique being that has been ever so slightly altered to better adapt to its environment than its parents.
Lastly, without death our parents and their parents, etc, would still be around (possibly at the age just before the body starts to break down, lets say 27), and taking up more space on this planet and eating our food.
Evolution therefore ‘decided’ that it would be best to kill off the parents once they had served their purpose; creating offspring that can keep up with the changing environment of the earth and become a more evolved being. This goes for all species on the planet.
Makes sense, yes?
But what if procreation slowed, as it is with humans in some countries. Or what if we developed ways to inhabit other planets, which could mean we wouldn’t have issues with lack of food or space. Couldn’t we then explain to our bodies that we don’t need to die. That we have gone far enough along in evolution that we can adapt our environment to suit us. Not too much, of course, although we are probably changing/adapting it too much right now. But maybe, eventually we could find a happy medium.
We could still have kids, the ones that actually want to, and they would continue evolution. It would take thousands of years before they would be that different to us, so it’s really no issue.
All we need then is to turn off the gene in our bodies that makes our bodies age.
This would also help with disease and cancer. When our bodies age, they don’t put as much effort into fixing things. Our bodies don’t really need to anymore. We’re old, we’re getting ready to die, so there’s no sense in eating additional food to supply the repair of our bodies. Maybe our bodies will put a little effort into repair, but it won’t bother too much.
You may as well go and get one of those box CRT TV’s and repair that, that’s how senseless it is.
But that’s the thing, our bodies don’t realise we have unlimited food (something we need to make happen in every country first, however), that we have medical procedures that can help us, that we can rest and not have to work every single day to hunt and gather if we need to repair. We don’t want a Band-Aid job, we want our bodies to heal fully and properly!

I believe bodies can be easily repaired by themselves. We just need to work out how.
Maybe it would involve putting the body in a state of chemical induced coma so the body doesn’t have to do anything else but heal... there would be more to it than that, of course. Somehow we need to tell our genes that we have the time and the energy to do all repairs. Maybe even grown back limbs and teeth that have fallen out?

Pain is another thing. Wouldn’t it be better if instead of pain our bodies gave us a better idea of what was wrong so we could then work out how to fix it.
Pain is very basic. A lot of the time it comes from something swelling in our bodies which then causes us pain and that stops us from doing that particular thing too much.
An example is, if we were hunting back in days when we were clueless of why pain happened, then twisted our ankle. It would then swell up so much that it looked like our foot swallowed a tennis ball.
That swelling is a reaction by our own bodies designed to create pain. Yes, our bodies want to make that ankle painful. This then stops us from using that leg. If we try and use it, it hurts.
Our body now gives itself a high-5 because what it set out to do worked; it doesn’t want you using that ankle anymore.
Now it has time to heal the ankle. And when the swelling goes down, that should approximately coincide with when the healing that it wishes to complete.

Book is to be published next year!

Well, it's getting closer to the time when my book will finally be published. Editing still takes up many hours of my day, but I can now see a very small light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
Suraya, CEO of he Story Mint, has set a date of June 2013. A long way away, I know, but it's a goal date, so we shall finalise as we get closer.

I then have a sequel to finish writing as well as two other novels to finish editing that are separate to the first. So much work to do and so little time.

On two other notes:
I scored a speaking part in the show named Mrs Biggs. A movie about Ronald Biggs, the train robber, and his family.
My part is where Ronald and his family are in Australia and there's an accident when the ambulance is going to a hospital.
I'm the ambulance driver.
I jump out and yell at the person driving the other car, then drive like a maniac (seriously was actually driving like a maniac as instructed by the director in a powerful 1960s ambulance with no power steering, no power assisted breaking and taking corners like I was indestructible).

Second is my part in a Britex commercial.
Narelle (my TV wife) and I battle it out with different vacuum cleaners to see who is the winner.
Already airing in their test city of Wollongong on WIN tv. Then will go national depending on consumer response. So if you live in Wollongong please go and hire out a Britex steam cleaner vac from coles and say you are doing it because of the commercial!! Then maybe we'll be called back for more commercials with Britex :)