On Hiatus

I am currently taking a break from writing to focus on my studies in education. I hope to be back into the swing of things next year, but until then, there won't be many updates around here. I believe there is some truth to the cliche of 'writing what you know'. When you study journalism or writing, you learn how to write but you don't really know anything else. I don't feel I can write with much confidence as a thinly-spread jack-of-all-trades. I hope to be continuously learning so I can not only write with confidence, but have something of value to say at the same time. Education has always appealed to me, and I'm excited to be taking on the challenges it will bring. Here's to broadening horizons.

Articles: Living Vegan and Viva La Vegan!

So I wrote an article on compassionate travel for the last Living Vegan magazine, outlining how to be a tourist without exploiting our furry friends. I don't have a scan just yet, but you can pick up the magazine here. I will have an op-ed in the forthcoming issue, too.

I have also begun writing on animal and environmental issues for Viva La Vegan! So far I have looked at super-trawlers and the fishing industry, why animal activists hate your pets (hint: they don't), and how animal cruelty went retro. Fun times are being had by all!

I haven't had as much time for freelancing as I would like, and have had to turn down a few great opportunities for personal reasons. With fingers crossed, I am getting back into the swing of things now, and have a few tricks up my sleeve, yet.

Article: 'Sailing for Trash' for Run Rabbit Magazine

The second issue of Run, Rabbit magazine is coming together a treat. Here's a post I wrote for the blog since I can't reveal any of the main event yet. I am thrilled by the talent of all the contributors on board for this one, and I can't wait to share it with the world.

I come from a thrifty family. Our motto was always ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ – it may as well have been inscribed on our family crest. Growing up, Saturday morning meant trawling the Weekend Shopper for garage sale listings within an hour’s distance from our house. We’d each take a few dollars and high hopes of what we might uncover in a stranger’s carport.

When I was eight or nine, I found toys others had outgrown for only fifty cents. They were always cherished more because I felt I’d rescued them from a mess of unwanted junk. Later, as a self-conscious teen, I’d be scared to get out of the car in case I saw someone I knew from school. I was quickly lured out with the promise of cheap vintage finds my mother’s hawk eye often spotted. Some weekends were more lucrative than others, but it didn’t matter if we came home empty handed. It was the nature of the hunt.

Now, some five years since I last garage sailed with my family, the seas seem to have dried up. Driving through the Brisbane suburbs neighbouring my own, there’s a distinct lack of tatty cardboard signs advertising ‘MEGA BARGAINS’ and sausage sizzles. Is it because we can now list any unwanted bits and bobs on Gumtree or eBay without much hassle? Are we less inclined to invite strangers into our personal space – even if it’s just the front lawn or garage?

Run, Rabbit Issue 1

This is what we made.
There's been a really positive response so far, and I'm so impressed with the contributions that came my way. What could be better than working with creative, inspiring people on an exciting and rewarding project?
Read all about it at www.runrabbitmagazine.com.
If you think you, or someone you know, might be interested in contributing to the next issue, here's what we're looking for:

Inspirations and updates: graduation and Run,Rabbit

I'm about a week away from putting out the first issue of Run, Rabbit (you can read more about the project here, or at the website www.runrabbitmagazine.com). It's exciting, but I'm already bouncing with ideas for the second issue and impatient to get started!

In other semi-related news, I now have a pretty piece of paper assuring me I made it through a Bachelor of Journalism with Distinction, which is lovely.

Just for kicks, here's a token graduation photo.

Run, Rabbit

I've been a little quiet on the freelancing front and this is why: I've been working on a little magazine called Run, Rabbit that will be launching online in December. I'm getting so excited at the quality and range of pitches coming through from talented folk not just from Brisbane, but from around the country and the world. It will be quite a bit of work to get going, but it never feels like it when your heart is behind a project.

Run, Rabbit will cross culture with compassion, craft and creativity with community. I haven't been able to find anything quite like what I want to achieve: something that speaks to my playful side, but also makes me think, engaging me in issues larger than myself without compromising on intelligence or patronising me. Something that doesn't then try to sell me something or tell me how to do my hair this month. So, I decided to make it myself. No products, no fashion, no beauty, no god damn celebrities, no hipster-snobbery or intellectual elitism. Just ordinary people with extraordinary ideas or talent, thought-provoking pieces sharing space with the silly and the mundane. Writers who share their beliefs, thoughts and experiences without trying so damn hard to seem irreverent. This is what I want to read, and I don't think I'm the only one.

To follow Run, Rabbit's progress, visit www.runrabbitmagazine.tumblr.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

Updates and inspirations: looking back on FPS 2010

Before the new web team wipes everything we worked on last year, I thought I'd share some images and text from the 2010 Frock Paper Scissors site. It might not seem so important, but it's crazy to think every design element, every image and every word was dreamed up, coded, edited and fussed over by myself and the entire web team. It takes more work, and is much more satisfying when the final product comes together, than I ever realised. I only wish I could have continued with the site after the mammoth task of redesign.

Updates and inspirations: The Isthmus, moving on, and so on and so forth

This semester (my last!) I am working within a team on an intelligent online pop culture journal called The Isthmus. I've put my hand up to be editor, so I'll be work-shopping ideas, producing general content and subbing as well as contributing. I'm so grateful for another chance to work with talented, interesting people on a project close to my heart while I remain a student.

The FPS site is about to be taken over, and it will be interesting to see where they take it this year. I don't want to get too misty-eyed about it - it's on to the next one for me - but I'll be posting up some screen grabs of the pages and designs so there's a record of the work we did last year. I'm also eagerly awaiting some exciting bylines upcoming this September. I have written again for the next issue of Voiceworks, and have put together a feature on one of my pet loves - traditional tattooing - for the second issue of Vintage Affair zine. All in all it September is always a great time of year, especially if you live where I do. The weather is nice, Brisbane Festival and Big Sound (which I should be reporting on) are both upcoming and I just got my business cards in the mail, making me, for all intents and purposes, an actual human being. Hooray!

Updates and inspirations: The Courier-Mail

Tomorrow morning I begin a week on The Courier-Mail newsfloor. I'm excited to go back and give it my all, and very excited to be interning in their features department in May.

Updates and inspirations: Style Magazines

I'm smack bang in the middle of two part weeks at Style Magazines in Brisbane and I am having a ball. I've been keeping busy with small writing tasks and everyone is absolutely lovely. I'll post PDFs of anything that makes the magazine later on, but right now I'm just happy for the affirmation of how much I love working in this industry.

Updates and inspirations: Frock Paper Scissors launch

The new-look Frock Paper Scissors is finally live, and I couldn't be prouder of the way it's turned out. The contributors were all so talented and amazing to work with, and this project has definitely been worth all the tears, emails and late nights. It will continue to be updated over the coming year, but the frequency is up to circumstance at the moment. I will also be posting some of my own work featured on the site, but I'm generally just ecstatic to see it all come to life, after so many months of planning, deliberating, discussing and editing. Until it the reins are handed over next year, this has been/will be my 'baby'. To use an awkward analogy, the past months have been a bit of a gestation period (and those final hiccups and stresses, the labour?), and I'm exciting to see where else it can grow.

Updates and inspirations: QUT Awards

I was excited to receive QUT Journalism awards in the categories of Best Feature by an Undergraduate or Postgraduate student and Best Story on a Mental Health Issue. No monetary value, damn! As reported here.
See below for proof, don't worry I couldn't believe it either.

Updates and inspirations: Frock Paper Scissors

Being the editor of Frock Paper Scissors online has been full on: hundreds and hundreds of emails, lots of chasing up different people, and liaison with various departments who all have their own agendas, contributors blowing you away with their creative talent, or going AWOL. This is exactly what I had expected, and it's been very rewarding.

I think even as a writer, it makes me appreciate how many hands my work passes through, and how much behind-the-scenes work happens after I've submitted copy. I think if nothing else it's make me consider that all editors have standards, and deadlines to strive for, and are juggling so much in any one day that it's often nothing personal if your work doesn't make the cut. I'll also never again be too afraid to clarify something, to email an editor with questions about the work I'm submitting or what's expected of me, as the worst thing I've found is people who don't ask for help when they need it.

I've also discovered that fashion kids do everything with style, not just clothing.

 Golf clap for my learning curves?

Updates and inspirations: Frock Paper Scissors Magazine - Online Editor 2010

I am very excited to be announced as Frock Paper Scissors Online Editor for this year. Working with a team of eds, we will be in charge of the web component of the magazine. Keep tabs of our progress here. It's going to be an amazing experience.

Feature: 'Ink Nation(alism)' for Voiceworks

Voiceworks Issue 81 - Birthmark has just come out, with a column by me commenting on Australian identity through tattooing.

Updates and inspirations: Post 88

Now blogging for Post 88, a music source for Gen Y, as part of a project run by Everett True. Very interesting, indeed.

Updates and inspirations: getmusic.com.au

It's hardly worth noting, but attempted my first foray into PR-type writing, reviewing for getmusic.com.au, which is run by universal. Once I figured out the 'reviews' were supposed to be posing as buyer comments, I decided not to expend too much effort doing their advertising. And now I just have... anyway, it can be found here. And I got MOS - Underground 2010 for free, at least.

Updates and inspirations: Sunset Sounds

The lovely people at Tom Mag are sending me to review Sunset Sounds soon... it just wouldn't be a festival without Yves Klein Blue!

Updates and inspirations: QUT Online Journalism

Was given a prize for being amungst the three finalists for the QUT Online Journalism 'Great Ones' award for my stories on Subtropic.com.au. Whoo, free USB!

Updates and inspirations: 16style

Now blogging for 16style, a teen fashion blog, as well as writing for Tom Magazine, which is essentially a music and entertainment source.