In this month's New Zealand Author

The bi-monthly journal of the NZ Society of Authors, June/July 2011

* CEO Maggie Tarver reports on the National Council Meeting in Nelson

* "A View from Fellworth House" -- Adrian Blackburn reports more informally on the AGM

* "The Geratric Garden" -- a poem by Mona Randall

* "A convoluted clarification" -- Maggie Tarver chases that strange business of spreading tax from a windfall sale over the unprofitable writing years

* "Ready for Challenge" -- Tony Simpson talks about the challenge to writers of the internet publishing revolution

* "Talent Will Out" -- a feature on the three new creative talents ... Lynn Jenner, Pip Adam, Poia Rewi -- who won  (respectively) the poetry, fiction, and non-fiction first published book awards.

* "Bay set to Shine" -- a feature by Jenny Argante on the new branch in the Bay of Plenty

* "An Honour Indeed" -- Maggie Tarver's cover feature on the huge possibilities of the Guest of Honour status at the Frankfurt Book Fair, 2012

* "The Passion in Person" -- Trudi Caffell's take on the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.

* "Weird but wonderful" -- Michele Fowles checks on Auckland University's Wordy Day Out

* "The Chinese Inquisition" -- Sarah Laing talks with passion about her experiences at Chinese literary festivals

* "An Honour Deserved" -- and deserved, indeed. Frances Cherry interviews Marilyn Duckworth, NZSA's new President of Honour

* "Beattie's Blat" -- Graham Beattie, of Beatties Book Blog (see link in RH column) has a new regular column, in which he chats informally about current trends in the industry.

Huge enthusiasm for NZ's honored status at Frankfurt Book Fair

Up to 80 New Zealand authors could be winging their way to Germany in October next year for the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair where New Zealand will be the Guest of Honour 

Maggie Tarver, CEO of the New Zealand Society of Authors, devotes the cover feature of the society's bi-monthly journal, New Zealand Author, to the nomination of New Zealand as the Guest of Honour at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, heading it "An honour INDEED."

This has already been recognized by the New Zealand Government, she writes, which has "generously committed $1.8m for seed funding to support this significant opportunity.

Other initiatives:

1. A steering group will be formed, including representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, together with representatives from the Ministry of Education, the Publishers Association of New Zealand, and Creative New Zealand. A nomination for an authors' representative has been submitted.

2. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has advertised for a project director.

3. Teams will be formed, to cover literature, arts and culture, education and science, PR and marketing, and budgeting and finance.

4. A literature program will be devised and directed by the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ), involving:

* liaising with publishers and booksellers

* an extensive translation program

* an expanded literary program

The translation program is particularly significant.  PANZ is aiming at a minimum of 100 translated works. A full colour, 32-page rights catalogue will be produced in both German and English, to promote New Zealand writers and books available for translation, and a judging panel will decide which 100 books are to be featured in this. 

Exciting times, indeed.

THE EPIC SIGNING OF THE MAGNA CARTA

Magna Carta signed 796 years ago on June 15, 1215 at Runnymede

From this historic document:


(38) In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own
unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.

+ (39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.

+ (40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

The Magna Carta is often thought of as the corner-stone of liberty and the chief defence against arbitrary and unjust rule in England. In fact it contains few sweeping statements of principle, but is a series of concessions wrung from the unwilling King John by his rebellious barons in 1215.  However, the landmark "Magna Carta" established for the first time a very significant constitutional principle: that the power of the king could be limited by a written grant.


King John's unsuccessful attempts to defend his dominions in Normandy and much of western France led to oppressive demands on his subjects. Taxes were extortionate; reprisals against defaulters were ruthless, and John's administration of justice was considered capricious. In January 1215 a group of barons demanded a charter of liberties as a safeguard against the King's arbitrary behaviour. The barons took up arms against John and captured London in May 1215.

By 10 June both parties met and held negotiations at Runnymede, a meadow by the River Thames. The concessions made by King John were outlined in a document known as the 'Articles of the Barons', to which the King's great seal was attached, and on 19 June the barons renewed their oaths of allegiance to the King. Meanwhile the royal chancery produced a formal royal grant, based on the agreements reached at Runnymede, which became known as Magna Carta (Latin for 'the Great Charter').
 
With thanks to Don Gilling.

On this day -- June 14

A batch of interesting dates

On this day these people were born:

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96), author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the anti-slavery novel that changed the way the world thought.

For an excellent essay on Stowe and the huge influence of her novel, see today's NYT op-ed by David S. Reynolds, "Rescuing the Real Uncle Tom."

John Bartlett (1820-1905), author of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 

And these Important Things happened, at least one of them maritime:

1789: Captain William Bligh, with 18 loyal seamen, was cast adrift from HMS Bounty, to reach Timor in the East Indies after an epic open-boat voyage -- and to inspire dozens of books, articles, papers, and films.

A sixtieth anniversary!  In 1951, the first electronic computer for commercial use was demonstrated at the Bureau of the Census in Philadelphia.  (ZOMG - was it only 60 years ago?)

1997: Capitalism in Action.  A 1939 comic book that is the first in the Batman series is auctioned for US$68,500 at Sotheby's in New York.

I wonder what it is worth now...

I shall answer my own question, having looked it up.  It is now worth $375,000!!!

Restoration of a whaleship Melville would have known

Acushnet, the whaleship once crewed by Melville. 
Artist, Ron Druett

The Boston Globe reports a lucky find for whaleship Charles W. Morgan 

In Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, "where the tall ships are," dedicated craftsmen are restoring the last wooden whaler in the world.  This is the whaleship Charles W. Morgan, an almost identical twin to the Acushnet, Herman Melville's ship, which he immortalized as the Pequod in his classic novel Moby-Dick.

These days, the golden age of building tall ships being over, it can be hard to find essential ingredients -- such as the timber for the hull, beams, and knees.  White oak is ideal, and up until recently the ship builders at Mystic have been using oak trees that were felled by hurricanes Katrina and Hugo in the Deep South.

That source of lumber has finished, but, as Peter Schworm relates, the whaleship's luck has not run out.

Construction crews working in the mud near Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, have uncovered a cache of antique oak that is ideal for the purpose.

Not only is it the right kind of timber, but it is already hand-hewn for use in tall ships.

Found in what was once a timber seasoning pond for the Navy Yard, it has been preserved in the mud for almost a century.  The workers who found it were working on a new Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital facility.  When they saw numbers on the bits of wood sticking out of the mud, they guessed it was part of an inventory, and reported their find. Quentin Snediker, who directs Mystic's preservation shipyard, was called, and could scarcely believe what he saw.

"Each piece by itself is a historical artifact," he marvelled. Dating from the 1860s, and valued for its extreme durability, the wood originally came from Ohio.

  

Tupaia, North & South

"The intricacies of Tahitian society make Byzantium affairs look like a Playcentre committee meeting"

-- Paul Little, in his review of Tupaia, The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator

A warmly enthusiastic review of Tupaia appears in North & South (July 2011, but available already), a magazine that prides itself on featuring "New Zealand's best journalism and photography," and on the many awards it has won.

"Tupaia is the noble Tahitian priest who facilitated contact with early European explorers of the Pacific.  Today we would call him a skilled networker," Paul Little begins by remarking. "He was certainly a skilled politician, linguist and, above all, navigator."

Much to the inner satisfaction of this maritime historian, Little devotes good space to Tupaia's navigation, the talent which, of all his impressive array of gifts, is closest to my heart.

"In particular, as the title suggests, [Joan Druett] emphasises his skill at navigation, which was largely spurned by Cook when the Tahitian joined the Endeavour to sail from Tahiti to New Zealand and Australia," he writes. "We are often told what great navigators ancient Polynesians were but we've seldom had it demonstrated so convincingly or with such clarity...

"This is a stimulating read, and challenging in a good way," he concludes. "An additional pleasure is the inclusion of several of Tupaia's own watercolours, some familiar, representing several key events, from Joseph Banks attempting to trade a lobster to a battle between Tahitians at sea and Aboriginals fishing.

"This addition to Tupaia's other undoubted skills emphasises the tragedy of his premature death on Batavia."

On this day ... June 13

Remarkable occurrences remembered


As readers may remember, I refuse to commemorate death dates, but there are other dates worth noting.

June 13 is the birthday of:

Richard Barnfield, poet (1574-1627)

William Butler Yeats, poet (1865-1939)

Basil Rathbone, actor 1892-1967)

AND (just because I feel like it) Tim Allen, comedian (1953- )

On this day, the downtrodden made great strides:

1381 - The Peasants' Revolt began, led by the immortal Wat Tyler

1966 - The US Supreme Court issued its landmark Miranda ruling that suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights before being questioned by the police.  And how many murder stories, both in print and on screen, have been happy to adapt to that?  You have to admit, the Miranda reading always makes a great line.

1971 - the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, a secret study of US involvement in Vietnam

time out bookstore sale

Auckland Mt Edenites should note the date

The famous time out bookstore announces that their famous annual sale kicks off at 9 AM, Tuesday 14 June NZST (New Zealand Standard Time).

Hundreds of selected titles have been reduced by up to fifty percent off RRP (Recommended Retail Price).  

From John Man's Xanadu to Sadie Jones's Small Wars to Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry plus a whole lot more.

This innovative bookstore (and it really does have a cat -- or did, the last time I looked) also has a number of events scheduled.  There is an art talk given by Peter Simpson, who has just published  Fantastica (a book about Leo Bensemann), and a cooking event hosted by Ray McVinnie, editor of Cuisine, food columnist for the Sunday Star-Times, and a judge on the local version of "Masterchef."

Hit the link embedded above to find out event times and book your place.

ZOMG - a new acronym!

ZOMG added to the Big Online Dictionary

Toby Manhire, in his "Internaut" column in The New Zealand Listener,  observes that the gnomes at Oxford Dictionaries Online have been busy, and "dear old ZOMG" has become official.

Who knows where the acronym comes from?  All we know is that it is a very recent addition to the lexicon.  It was a typo, most probably, produced by someone who merely wanted to exclaim "OMG" (Oh My God) but was in such a hurry that the lefthand little finger twitched, and "Z" somehow intruded.

Now, it is the sarcastic version of OMG.  According to the dictionary definition, it is "used especially on electronic message boards as a sarcastic comment on an inexperienced or overenthusiastic poster."

I love their example:

The airport was hot and big, but there was really nothing that made me stop and think ZOMG FOREIGN COUNTRY!

I will NOT go the f**k to sleep

Well, talk about opportunistic titling!

To my surprise, I found that Amazon is listing a Kindle book that is an oh so obvious attempt to jump on the foul-mouthed bedtime rhyme bandwagon.

Called I will NOT go the f**k to sleep, it is self-published by Richard Crasta.  Priced at $2.99, it is reaching respectable sales already.

But do the customers have any idea what, exactly, they are buying?

The book appears to be a collection of humorous, satirical essays, that are answers to rhetorical questions, some of them curiously dated, as if they were written some time ago.

* What if a child, asked to go the f**k to sleep by its father, could respond in adult language?

* Imagine a band of 5000 yogis flown in from India to balance India's budget by spilling coffee on themselves at 5000 McDonald's outlets ...

* Would a nuclear weapons fire sale balance America's budget?

* What would Christ say to the Reagan-Bush economists at the Last Judgement?

What's the betting that the title essay was a last-minute choice, and written in a rush?

Crasta sounds an interesting person.  Born in Bangalore, India, he spent 18 formative years in New York City, and now considers himself "a compulsive itinerant, a man without moorings."  He has published a number of books, with equally interesting titles, one being, The Revised Kamasutra:  a Novel of Colonialism and Desire, and another, Eaten by the Japanese: the Memoir of an Unknown Indian Prisoner of War.