Got Geek? Vignette Press call for submissions

Vignette Press is currently calling for submissions for it’s next indie offering: Geek Mook.

mook –
1. A bound hybrid publication issued in a series.
2. Not quite a magazine, not quite a book.
3. A collection of surprising, unconventional new writing.

geek –
1. An awkward or socially inept person.
2. A person obsessed with technical or non-mainstream interests.
3. A carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, such as biting off the head of a live chicken.

Geek Mook explores the worlds of hackers, gamers, steam punk fashionistas, trekkies, neo-punk trainspotters and obsessives of all the other fixations that give us a reason to stave off death (and quite frequently sex as well). As primarily book and literary geeks ourselves, the editors especially welcome submissions caught in the intersection of geekery and the literary. We’d love to learn about the ways the ways geek, literary and human have crashed up and mashed up in your lives and imagination: explain to us the aesthetics of coding; remember a childhood struggling with the unfair dice rolls of AD&D and ADHD; trace the interconnections between infidelity and Star Trek; show us the human heart beneath the steampunk carapace.

Submission Guidelines:

We are accepting nonfiction, fiction, infographics, poetry, illustration and other art forms which work well in a black and white print format. Submissions may be from 500-3000 words, though we envisage sweet-spots around 1250 words and 2500 words. We will consider longer pieces where the work is so good, we’d feel silly bowing to any word count rule. Geek Mook contributors should not assume specialised knowledge or vocabulary on the part of the mook audience, though they can and should expect intelligence and curiosity. The pieces need not be homogenised, however, and we welcome work that, like A Clockwork Orange, pushes us out a little past our cognitive and linguistic depth, sinking yet strangely still able to breathe.

Vignette Press appreciates the guts, labour and dedication required to produce good writing and art. Unfortunately, at the moment, we are not in position to express this monetarily. Each contributor will receive two complimentary copies of the Geek Mook.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Coding
  • Conventions
  • Steampunk
  • Cosplay
  • Cinema
  • Fan fiction
  • Hacking
  • Online communities
  • Collecting
  • Music obsessions
  • WikiLeaks
  • Dungeons and Dragons
  • Superheroes
  • Zines
  • Blogging
  • Code poetry
  • Memes
  • Speculative fiction

Submissions open 1 July 2011 and close 31 July 2011. Please email your submission together with a fifty word bio to geekmook@gmail.com

~*~

Although submissions are not yet officially open, you can send works in for consideration now–just don’t expect a response until July. Good luck and happy submitting.

Matt

Secret of Talmor Manor Review: 4 Cups at Coffee Time Romance

The Secret of Talmor Manor has been reviewed over at Coffee Time Romance and More, receiving a rating of 4 Cups for an outstanding read.

“This story has both a great mystery and an even better mystical element to its plot. There is fantastic dialogue and debates between Jake and Nate, discussing everything from pagan runes to agnosticism. The conversations feel so intelligent and real, it is easy to get caught up in the character’s thought and emotions.”

(Read the full review here).

Don’t forget there’s still time to enter the Goodreads Giveaway for a signed copy of the novel ahead of it’s launch at Hares&Hyenas on Friday the 20th!

 

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Secret of Talmor Manor by Matthew Lang

The Secret of Talmor Manor

by Matthew Lang

Giveaway ends May 19, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

Launch Trailer!!

See you there…

You are cordially invited…

The Talmor of Talmor Manor Launch Invitation

I am extremely happy to announce that the fantabulous Kaye Sera has agreed to host my book launch. She joins my friends and special guests The Melbourne Rainbow Band and queer artist Fei Mok in supporting the ALSO Foundation. Please feel free to spread the invitation around to anyone who you think might be interested, and I hope to see you all next Friday!

Jaffa Books: Call for Submissions

Jaffa Books Logo

Brand spanking new eBook publisher Jaffa Books is still looking for novels to publish. They’re after outstanding writing in any genre, with a length over 60,000 words. From what I can see they have excellent royalty rates, and their contracts are non-exclusive after 6 months. They are brand new, and don’t have a track record I can look at but if you’d like to get published and think your work is up to it, you might want to check them out.

DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with nor involved in Jaffa Books. I have no works published by them or under consideration by them. The owner is an internet acquaintance of mine, but we have no other relationship.

Good luck and happy submitting.

Matt

Top 10 Romance Novel Professions

So according to GalleyCat, there’s a new book coming up that looks at what romance novels tell us about society.

According to neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, based on an analysis of 15,000 Harlequin books, the top ten professions for romance novel straight heroes are:

1. Doctor
2. Cowboy
3. Boss
4. Prince
5. Rancher
6. Knight
7. Surgeon
8. King
9. Bodyguard
10. Sheriff

I like Number 3. It’s very non-specific. I’m assuming that refers to the boss of the romantic heroine. What does this list say about what (straight) women want in their leading men? What would the list be if we analysed 15,000 gay romance novels? No really, I want to know.

For the curious, the book is called A Billion Wicked Thoughts.

In other news, the Melbourne Rainbow Band are joining me at my book launch for The Secret of Talmor Manor to support the ALSO Foundation. They have a new CD out, called 15 & Fabulous and the track list looks pretty cool:

TRACKLIST:

  • The Dam Busters March
  • The Man from Snowy River (Listen to an excerpt)
  • Hold On, I’m Coming (Vocals: Julie Leder)
  • Selections from ‘Hairspray’
  • Pacem – A Hymn for Peace (Listen to an excerpt)
  • Virginia
  • The Doors in Concert
  • Big Spender (Vocals: Julie Leder)
  • The Genius of Ray Charles
  • Tribute to Count Basie (Listen to an excerpt)
  • Pilatus: Mountain of Dragons

CDs will be available for sale on the night, and a portion of all sales will be going to the ALSO Foundation, so remember, mark down the 20th of May in your calendars and come on down to enjoy the night! For those of you on Facebook, you can find the event here.

 

MCV Review: The Secret of Talmor Manor

 

The Secret of Talmor Manor Cover

If you grab a copy of MCV this week, you’ll find a review of The Secret of Talmor Manor inside of it.

‘Pick up a work of gay fiction these days and you’re usually reading a novel about jaded, cashed-up yuppies, who talk about little more than which nightclub has the cutest busboys. But in The Secret of Talmor Manor, Melbourne writer Matthew Lang has tried something more ambitious than this ‘his ‘n’ his towels and matching labradoodles’ approach to gay men’s lives.

The Secret of Talmor Manor is bursting with imagination and intelligence. It’s a fantasy novel, a gothic mystery and a work of modern gay fiction rolled into one.’ (Read the full review online here).

You can read an excerpt from the novel here, and don’t forget you can still enter the Goodreads Competition for an autographed copy of the book–details in the last post.

Buy links:

And the People’s Choice Award goes to…

I made my first foray into the world of open mic speaking today, at the People’s Choice and Poetry Night of the Williamstown Literary Festival, which kicks off it’s event program on Saturday. They event turned out to be a combination of the People’s Choice Prose event and the Poetry in the Pub event that was started last year, and they held it at the Pirate’s Tavern, which turned out to be very hard to find. It was hidden away behind Seaworks, which is a community based corporation which aims to retain and restore our maritime history. Even showing up for a 7 PM start (and arriving around 6:40), this is Australia in winter, and the sun had been down for a good forty five minutes at least. I remember being on Nelson Place, but I knew to actually get there we had to go down a side street because the Tavern was around the back. So I turned down Ann Street, which was dark, and virtually unlit, and found a sign pointing in behind Seaworks, and drove in. And couldn’t see anything but an almost empty parking lot. I was wondering if I was in the wrong place when another car pulled in an a little old lady stepped out. So I would down the window and asked her if it was the right place–and it was.

We just had to go through another gate into a different unlit carpark and turn left.

Despite the difficulties getting there (which I assume a lot of other people faced as well), there was probably fifty or sixty people there, including eighteen writers performing their work (ten poets and eight prose writers). It was fantastic to be able to listen to some great writing, and see some old friends (and as it turns out, some new ones), perform their work.

We were given a time limit of 3 minutes, so I performed a little piece called Raisins and Cheese, which is basically a retelling of a conversation I overheard years ago going on at the back of a double decker bus in Hong Kong, at a time before everyone had a mobile phone. It’s fairy accurate retelling of the original conversation (complete with a valley girl accent), and naturally fell into the style of Dr. Seuss.

Once all the writers had read their work, the audience cast one vote for their favourite author or work. Then the votes were tallied and the winner (and runner up) announced, along with their cash prizes. For prose, it was announced that only one vote separated the two frontrunners.

Turns out raisins and cheese is more popular than you’d first think. And no, I didn’t vote for myself.

I want to say thank you to everyone who came along to present their work and everyone who voted. I’d also like to extend my thanks to the board of the Williamstown Literary Festival for creating the event. If you haven’t checked out their program, I strongly suggest you do so. They have a range of events, chats and workshops, and some great guests like Carmel Bird, Shaun Micallef and Corinne Grant. I understand there’s still a number of tickets left, so be sure to have a look.

You can’t stop the beat!

Better late than never, and as a kind of anniversary thing, I went to see Hairspray the Musical today (well, technically last night, but whatevs, I’m still really happy and pumped), with my partner and my NaNo friend Mousie. And it was fantastic. Worth the wait, given I was working through the entire summer, and I now want that set. I am seriously in love with the Hairspray set. I want those amazing, amazing screens that they used for animated backgrounds. If you haven’t seen it, go see it. It’s about to head to Sydney, but is around for another three days in Melbourne, and I’m sure it’ll tour Australia eventually, so make sure you catch it. Interestingly, I think Heath Keating from So You Think You Can Dance Australia has joined the cast. Last time I checked he was doing dance shows at ARQ in Sydney for the gay boys. Possibly they did some recasting for the Sydney season.

I have to say, after the movie, well, I wish they’d been able to work in ‘Ladies’ Choice’, because it’s an awesome song, but seeing the theatrical version… I now want the Broadway soundtrack, and I can see how the songs fit together on stage. If nothing else, see this show before Trevor Ashley leaves the cast, because he is amazing as Edna Turnblad.

We also had NotNaNo drinks which was attended by quite a few people who I haven’t seen since the end of November, and I am so missing them right now. Need to do some more catch ups. Maybe not every week, but every month or so would be nice. Bring on November already, I want more NaNo!

In other interesting news, I’ve opened talks with the Melbourne Rainbow Band about having some music available at my book launch. I’m hoping to turn it into a bit of a community fundraiser, possibly for the ALSO Foundation, and I’ve already got one visual artist on board for a charity auction, and hopefully I can get at least one more. I’ll post more once I get some more details nailed down, but that’s going to have to wait until after the weekend…I’ve got the Williamstown Literary Festival to get through first! Fingers crossed it all goes well!

The Secret of Talmor Manor: Reviews!

The Secret of Talmor Manor--Art by DeannaI’m rather excited at the moment! Some of the first reviews for The Secret of Talmor Manor have come in and it’s not doing too badly! But don’t take my word for it–take theirs:

Golden Nib Award at Miz Love Loves Books
“This book is bloody brilliant. It has great writing, humour, a superb plot that weaves its way into your heart and mind, and a fabulous ending.

I loved the historical aspect and lapped up the visuals when Jake visits Talmor Manor in his dreams. The quality of visuals in his dream-like state are nothing short of marvellous—it’s creepy in a way, yet at the same time it’s like Jake is meant to be there so it’s okay. I smelled the musty air, saw the dark feel of the place, and absolutely adored the scene with the cook who made Jake some food. God, I really did like this book very much. There’s so much to talk about that I could go on all day…” (read the full review at Miz Love Loves Books)

4 out of 5 stars at The Romance Reviews
“Spare a thought for Nathaniel Norwich. One moment, he’s an Edwardian lord whose manor has become imprisoned by a witch’s spell, and the next moment he’s landed on Jake’s living-room carpet in modern-day Melbourne. Oh, and he never thought he was gay. A tangled web?” (read the full review at The Romance Reviews)

In case you missed it, The Secret of Talmor Manor is available from:

Don’t forget you can still enter the Goodreads Competition for an autographed copy of the book–details in the last post.