Published

I am published.

Well, I've always wanted to finally be able to say that, and in terms of how the publishing world works, now I can. My short, short story 'How to Domesticate a Pirate [Live Fed Square Remix] has been published in the Remix My Lit anthology.

The anthology Through the Clock's Workings was edited by Amy Barker and published by Sydney Uni Press. You can buy it online from SUP (link above). There's an ebook of it floating around as well, but I can't find the link to it.

The anthology is part of the Remix My Lit initiative to encourage the creative exchanges, remixing and mutations of Creative Commons licensed creative works. Here's how they describe the anthology:

A world first! The first remixed and remixable anthology of literature.

This anthology of short stories is not some textual tome, frozen in time and space. It is alive, evolving organically in a constant state of flux. Why? Because each story is available under a Creative Commons licence, giving you rights to share and reuse the book as you see fit.

The stories are great They are excellent examples of what collaboration and creative sharing and remixing can do to creative interesting writing and works of art. I urge you to buy the anthology.

My story is a remix of a 'Remix My Lit' story by Danielle Wood, which is also included in the anthology. The stories and the whole anthology are published on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australian license.

My remix was part of the live remixing event at Federation Square at last year's Melbourne Writer's Festival, which I blogged about. You can read the original version of my remix story as I'd published it on this blog then. I think the edited vesion in the anthology is better, though. It's short, but I had a lot of fun with it.

I'd heard much earlier this the year that my story had been selected, and it went through the editorial feedback process etc, but the publisher had asked contributors not to say anything publically until the launch. Well, I've just heard that:

Through the Clock’s Workings was launched at the Copyright Future: Copyright Freedom Conference at Old Parliament House (OPH) in Canberra on Wednesday 27th May by Dr Terry Cutler (Cutler and Co Melbourne).

Would have liked a bit more notice, but can't be too fussy, can I?

When I think of the idea that I am 'finally' a 'published' writer, I wonder what that means about the eight years and more that I have been writing, editing and publishing (and desktop publishing) in my previous and current jobs. Working in the community sector, I have written, co-written, ghost written, edited and published a lot of material for the organisations I work for, particularly currently. But I guess that doesn't seem to count as 'being published'. More than half the time, my name isn't put to much that I write. Not because I'm not proud of it, but because it's written and published under the organisation's name, or its leadership's. I'm okay with that. It's what I've signed up for. It's pretty much what 'communications' and much of project work is (and I'm finalising a really big one right now!). And I care about this work.

At times such as this, though, when a one-page story is published in an anthology and I'm publically credited as the author, and it is my first published piece of fiction, it makes me think of the reams of content I've written and edited that don't have my name to them. They are still my creative enterprise, and have a large part of me in them.

The image of the cover of Through the Clock's Workings is designed by Ali J and is creative commons licensed.