WRITERS’ NEWS
http://www.writers-online.co.uk OCTOBER 2019^103Boldly go
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TRAVEL^
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OWravel can be expensive. Well, you can make
local trips for the cost of a gallon of petrol,
yes, and that’s a ridiculous price, though
bottled water can cost more. Sorry, I digress.
The point is that any substantial journey can
cost a good deal.
This effects the writer, of course, but I want to focus on
the traveller. I recently went to the USA where petrol – gas- is one of the few things that is less expensive than here.
I’m digressing again. Furthermore, dare I mention the ‘B
word’? The chaos of Brexit over recent months has seen the
amount of overseas currency we get for our pounds drop
like the proverbial stone and the dollar has been amongst
the worst examples. Other countries can be worse: when I
first went to Thailand, albeit many years ago, I got 100 Thai
Baht to the pound but it has been going down ever since.
When I was there in January 2019 year it was 47 and as I
write this it is at a catastrophic 34. That’s a more than 20%
drop in less than a year. One wonders how so many people
travel at all.
This, plus general austerity and inflation (the latter likely
to increase if we come out of Europe) make cost-saving
an attractive topic. This could be featured as an aside
within a piece of writing where it is not the main focus, or
actually be the main focus. It can be general, a saving that
is applicable widely to travel, or specific, something relating
to a specific destination. It could range from information
about one specific thing: an individual hotel or flight that is
particularly good value for money for example. Or it could
be more general and wide ranging: the best way to get and
carry foreign currency, for instance.
There is plenty of scope for small savings that mount
up. For instance, on my recent American trip I managed
to get myself admitted to the airline lounge (and I was not
travelling business class... don’t ask). This not only provides
a degree of comfort but can save money: for example
something to eat is usually free, and airport restaurants tend
to be neither good nor cheap. This opens up a whole area to
research and write about – for example, a number of credit
cards give lounge access.
Other possibilities include: careful use of mobile phones,
staying just out of city centres (Venice is an example where
this can make major savings), weighing luggage before
departure to avoid unexpected charges at check in, taking
snacks with you, pre-booking airport parking... and much
more.
The scope here is considerable, the rationale clear. Save
your readers (and perhaps your editor) some money and
they are likely to look on you favourably.
Be conscious of helping travellers to keep
Lifelike fi ction costs down, urges Patrick ForsythGLOBAL SMALL PRESS MARKET
PDR Lindsay-Salmon
Vagabondage Press is a US indie publishing fiction and non-fiction ‘that
examines life in all its lovely ambiguity, grittiness, glory, and despair’. The Press
publishes a literary and art journal, The Battered Suitcase, and has four imprints:
Battered Suitcase Press for literary and mainstream fiction, Vagabondage
Romance for romance and erotica, Dark Alley Press for horror, paranormal,
Gothic, Steampunk, and dark fiction and Strange Fictions Press, for science
fiction, fantasy, and magical realism.
They want ‘unique characters, anti-heroines, new ways of looking at universal
concepts and old ways of looking at the new and frightening’. They particularly
like ‘writing that examines what makes us human, the details that turn a day
into a memory, a person into someone unforgettable, and moments that veer
between the ordinary and the fantastic’. What they look for in all their imprints
is ‘rich characterisation, vulnerability, shifts in consciousness, alternate [sic]
reality, music, wit, restlessness, sensuality and the exploration of personality’.
Dark Alley Press publishes full-length horror and dark fiction novels and a
quarterly anthology, Ink Stains, which needs short stories.
Strange Fictions Press publishes novels and novellas of science fiction, fantasy,
and speculative fiction, and has an ‘old school SF/fantasy’ zine of the same name.
The imprint needs short stories or serials in science fiction, fantasy, speculative
fiction, and magical realism. They also accept essays, narrative nonfiction, poetry,
and artwork suitable for a SF&F publication.
Follow the guidelines and submit through the website: http://
vagabondagepress.com
Aim high
Takahē Magazine is a New Zealand literary journal of short stories, poetry
and art, as well as essays, interviews, and book reviews in related areas,
published as a print journal in April and December and online in August.
Submissions are welcome all year round.
Fiction editor Zoë Meager wants short stories, under 3,000 words, but
‘will consider stories of up to 5,000 words for online (August) issues only.’
Flash fiction, under 500 words, should be submitted in groups of 3-6. For
online issues single flash fiction and sets are welcome.
Poetry editors Gail Ingram and Jeni Curtis, have catholic tastes and
welcome most styles and forms. Submit no more than four poems. Reviews
editor, Michelle Elvy, welcomes books for review, by post.
Essay editor, Andrew Paul Wood, seeks essays, especially creative non-
fiction and works of cultural criticism, 1,000 to 2,500 words. Memoir and
personal essays should ‘critically engage with or analyses culture or cultural
practice in New Zealand and the South Pacific’.
Email work as an attachment. No reprints or multiple subs allowed,
although simultaneous submissions are accepted with the usual proviso.
Submit a doc or docx file by email to the appropriate editor.
Response time is ‘no longer than four months’. Payment: ‘Grants from
Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa allow... a small payment plus one copy
for first publication rights in print and/or online.
Details: takahē magazine, submit by email to the correct editor: essays@
takahe.org.nz; [email protected]; [email protected]; reviews@
takahe.org.nz; website: http://www.takahe.org.nz