Avis Hickman Gibb Presents a Plate of Bits!
In her own words, Avis lives in Suffolk, England with her husband, one son and two cats. She gained a BSc. in Environmental Chemistry more years ago than she cares to admit, and worked in the fledgling computer industry whilst still a babe-in-arms. She has been a story–teller for as long as she can remember. She discovered a talent for Chemistry in her second year of senior school and went on to read Environmental Chemistry at Salford University. She put this to good use in the Information Technology industry, working for several manufacturers, eventually specialising in Stockbroking and Fund Management software in The City of London. She retired from the fray to raise a family. Avis can be contacted here: http://avishickmangibb.blogspot.co.uk/
Avis Hickman Gibb
But she still loves to tell stories!A few weeks ago she published her flash fiction collection in an e-book. Entitled A Plate of Bits it’s available from Amazon. But before you scurry your fingers off to get her book, here is a bit part of her interview which will be up in October in Flash Fiction Chronicles:
Me: How did A Plate of Bits happen?
Avis: A Plate of Bits is a collection of short, and short-short, of my work from 2007 until mid 2011. For as long as I can remember, I have been a teller of tales – but only for my consumption. Then in late 2006 I decided my New Year’s resolution for 2007 would be to do something about my writing – kind of put-up or shut-up, call my bluff. After all there’s only so long you can tell yourself ‘I could have been a contender’.
I joined the online writers’ community WriteWords and joined a group there called Flash Fiction I. I was hooked from the first week. I found the concept so immediate, so accessible – take a prompt and write to a set word target – what could be simpler? I added, as I think a lot of Flash writers do, a time limit to produce a piece. I like to belt out the first draft in about an hour. But the tweaking – ah that can take days! When I find myself deliberating for half an hour at a time the merits of using that word there, or deleting that word, I realise the piece is ‘cooked’!
When I started my writing was not disciplined. The experience I gained from writing flash has taught me a lot about structure, about saying what I want to say in a direct and (I think) clear manner. Of course with flash the reader may be called upon to work a little more than a reader of a novel, or a short story. The more words in a piece, the more colour and details of the story can be filled in for the reader. Flash is stripped down fiction, and sometimes the story seems to start in mid action. But a good flash will have the start and perhaps the end implied within it. It will be up to each reader to decode and interpret.
Me: What is a typical writing day like?
Avis: My writing day recently has been filled with too much boring, technical stuff. I have just finished (using a new venture a couple of tech-savvy friends and I set up called Hawkmoth Press) converting my word processed file of collected bits into the shiny new eBook A Plate of Bits. I am only just now looking at cleared schedule where I can plan to actually write each day.
So this will be settling down late morning to put in four hours before a late lunch. The earlier morning is taken up with walking. Then later in the day after a couple of hours off doing boring stuff like laundry, I’ll probably have another bash at the keyboard – but probably editing. And that will hold true for five-ish days of the week.
I do have my own spot in our study, but at the moment I am camped out in the dining room as my desk has had to be shifted due to a damp patch making an appearance after a drain pipe overflowed thanks to a leaf blockage. The joys of owning an old house!
Hawkmoth Press Logo
Me: Tell us about Hawkmoth Press.
Avis: Well, basically when I first decided I wanted to dip my toe into the electronic publishing sea. I thought – how hard can it be? I am more than technically competent – after all I worked all those years in, on, beside and with computers for heaven’s sake!
But the more I delved into the “what was involved”, the more befuddled I became. And there I was one day with a friend, pouring my woes out over a cup of tea. Long story short, we set up Hawkmoth Press to aid authors convert their word processed book into an eBook. There is only one conversion process at the moment – to Kindle. But as Amazon is the market leader, and as the Kindle Select Programme is a very good way to dip a toe in for a new author, this is no bad thing.
Now my book is converted I’m back to doing what I love – writing. But I feel relieved that when I have another book to sell, Hawkmoth Press will be available to me for the conversion. They’ll work with an author to produce the best version of a work that’s possible. The author is involved at all stages, and is responsible for all copy editing choices. But the great bonus they offer is a second bite at the conversion cherry. They convert what an author sends and return a fully functioning MOBI compiled eBook for that author to check.
Something I have found during converting A Plate of Bits is the very small screen of an eReader sometimes does funny things to line layouts. And sometimes you want to rearrange the prose so it sits better on the reader’s screen. Hawkmoth’s second bite allows an author to check through this first stage book and change all these little niggles, and a mass of others – like hanging full-stops, premature line wraparound, and other stuff – and then they will for no extra cost produce the final fully uploaded Kindle book. If you’re good enough, there’s also the possibility of an author page home at Hawkmoth Press, if you have no web-site of your own. I’m there, along with a kernel of other authors. Go check me out @ http://www/hawkmothpress.wordpress.com .
Avis: I am a complete Kindle convert! I resisted buying one of the readers – I like paper books, I said. I like to hold them in my hands and feel the rustle of the pages, I said. Then I figured if I was going to sell on Kindle I should see what the fuss was about. I now have over 160 books on my Kindle. I carry it around in my handbag, I can read at the drop of a hat and it doesn’t weigh anymore with all those books in it!
Forms of fiction best for Kindle? I can see, as for with any eReader, that if the book had lots of pictures in it that might not… sit well on the small screens of the eReaders. But in my humble opinion just about any form of fiction or creative writing will be just as well represented on an eReader screen as on a dead-wood book! (Dead-wood – paper, get it?)
And the trends? Phew! That’s a trickier one than I think you realise! The access Amazon, and all the eBook seller sites, allows to a reader is tremendous. I think this is the real revolution that is talked about. No longer are the books and stories available to the reading public only those that a literary agent, publishing house editor or retail shop decide are the ones that will be sold this year. The choice of e-Reader reading matter is truly astonishing – trawling through just Amazon’s lists to see the choice will show you that.
Okay, write some, perhaps a lot, of these are rubbish; but those eBooks that are badly written, have too many errors in them, are badly formatted, or just plain boring will fall to the bottom of the heap – thus allowing the good stuff to float. But it’s definitely not a case of publish and leave your little masterpiece to get on to the legendary Amazon lists all by itself. As the author, you have to do stuff to help.
Only look at the Fifty Shades phenomena and you should appreciate the power of the common readership. How, if enough people hear about – and buy – a book, it will be a success. Without the assistance of agents, publishers, editors and all.
Remember Avis Hickman Gibb’s complete interview will be up in October 2012 in Flash Fiction Chronicles
A Plate of Bits
Featured in Spark Magazine’s June Issue
Spark Magazine featured me in their June 2012 issue , which released in the first week of June! And am I late in posting this! Some time in May Anupama Krishnakumar from Spark Magazine wrote to me about contributing to Spark as a featured writer. The June issue had Rain for its theme, as a prequel to the coming monsoon. I would have posted this much earlier, but when the issue was out I was already on my way to Ireland. And like most regular home bodies, I wallowed in family time after my return for a week! Okay, there were lots of home front stuff to be taken care of as well, mainly in the kitchen!
Spark featured a poem and a flash by me. They relate to motherhood as well, apart from Rain. Uncanny, as each was written during different time frames; while the flash is directly related to a rain soaked afternoon spent with my daughter, the poem is inspired from a newspaper report – and yes, I am one of those who soak up grief from other people’s lives; many of my stories and poems come from there, the wells of other people’s grief and loss.
The Flash Story: Rainbow
The Poem: The Day Heaven Came Down
Story in University of Chester’s Flash. Anam Cara’s Poetry Competition
A flash story by me was accepted by The University of Chester’s biannual literary magazine: Flash, which publishes short short fiction of up to 360 words. This is happy news for me, as I share space with many great names! Woo woo! 
Flash is a print magazine, and I’ll get my contributor’s copy, soon. My name’s already up in their website!
- http://www.chester.ac.uk/flash.magazine
***
In slightly older news, but of great significance to me and my writing life is the link to my first prize-winning story (flash fiction) at the Anam Cara website: http://www.anamcararetreat.com/short-fiction-2012.html
I wanted to shout about it in my blog straightaway, but had butterflies in my tummy, because I need a VISA to get there. This wonderful news has already been shared a few times in Facebook, by my well wishers and friends. I’m still waiting for VISA clearance as of today, and am superstitious enough to hold my happiness in my fist, real tight, until I’m sure. Guys pray for me so I can get there and attend the workshop run by Vanessa Gebbie!
That’s not all.
Take a look at the site. Anam Cara, as the name suggests, is truly a friend of your writerly and artistic souls.
And if you write poetry, well, there’s a chance you just might get lucky like me! Anam Cara has a poetry competition on now, and the theme is a picture. Take a look, the information’s all here -
http://www.anamcararetreat.com/poetry-competition-2012.html
The last date for submissions (by email) is 29th May. Go for it. And, Good Luck! :)
Okay So You Missed Holi!
This is not just for Indian writers, though I dare say Indian writers would benefit the most, because we have just sooooooooooooooo many festivals in our colourful country!
There are magazines out there, specifically Everyday Fiction and Every Day Poets that actively seek flash fiction (read guidelines here for fiction) and poetry (read guidelines for poetry here) on holiday/festival themes. So even though Holi’s gone, there are other festivals left for this year - Ganesh Chaturthi, Rakhee, Bhai Dhuj, Durga Puja, Diwali, to name just a few. Even relatively little known festivals like Chhat Puja from Bihar and Jamai Shosthi from Bengal, should work if the story and or poem is well crafted and identifiable. Give it a shot.
In fact I’d like to quote Camille Gooderham Campbell (managing editor of Every Day Fiction) here: “Writers, when a publication asks for themed/holiday/occasion stories, don’t automatically assume that the competition will be too fierce for you (and likewise, even if there isn’t a call out, consider that any special day or event might be worth addressing with a story)…That’s a hungry market which isn’t being addressed. I’m willing to guess that other markets may be in the same boat. Even when general stats for a given market are known/published, your assumptions about the level of competition for a particular slot/theme/month/etc. may be entirely unfounded, so don’t let them put you off taking a shot. *Your* story might be just what the editors are looking for.”
Now you know, there’s a serious demand! However, a word of caution here: As the heading says, we have already missed Holi. Oonah V Joslin, managing editor of Every Day Poets, lamented that this year two poems on Holi were received, but too late for the Holi issue, or in this case the issue of Every Day Poet that falls on the day of Holi! So please make sure that your submission reaches two months in advance, or three. But not six months in advance because that would be too early. Quoting Camille again, “EDF doesn’t have the structure in place to hold stories for more than 3 to 4 months.” I think it would be the same for EDP because both magazines are from the same publishing house.
Happy Writing!
Fishing in Literary Waters with Clem Cairns
Here’s this month’s interview, up at Flash Fiction Chronicles: http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/rumjhums-ruminations-fishing-in-literary-waters-with-clem-cairns/
For those who still don’t know, Clem Cairns and Jula Wharton are the two main people behind Fish Publishing.
Their flash fiction contest is still open, until 20th March. So there’s still time if you have something to send. Fish also runs two online courses, one for Memoir and the other for Flash Fiction.
The Horrorist!
Few days left before the month of horror ends! So quickly read my inteview on Nathan Rosen, up today in Flash Fiction Chronicles
Here:-
Rumjhum’s Ruminations: Horror-ific Revelations about Nathan Rosen!
While on the subject of horror, Nathan is running a horror flash contest in his magazine MicroHorror. The last date is 31st October. The word count is exactly 666! This year’s theme is water. Get the details here
BOO!
About.me
RK Biswas
Poet & Writer
RK Biswas has had more than 200 publications all over the world. You can find her online prose and poetry publications by googling rumjhum biswas or by visiting her blog: http://www.rumjhumkbiswas.wordpress.com. Some of her online publications include Per Conta (USA) Eclectica (USA), Nth Position (UK), Mascara Literary Review (Australia), Cha: An Asian Literary Magazine (Hong Kong) and so on. Her work has also been published in print magazines and anthologies. Off the Coast (USA), Poetry South (UK), Etchings (Australia), Stony Thursday (Ireland), Penguin Anthology of Magic Stories for Eight Year Olds (India), Crannog (Ireland), Markings (Scotland, UK), Mobius (USA), Aesthetica Creative Works 2011 (UK), to name a few. She won the first prize in the Anam Cara Writer's Retreat Short Story Competition 2012. Her poem "Cleavage" was in the longlist of the Bridport Poetry Competition 2006 and also was a finalist in the 2010 Aesthetica Creative Arts Contest. Her poem Bones was a Pushcart nominee from Cha: An Asian Literary Journal in 2011. An excerpt from one of her stories was shortlisted in the Art House Competition in August 2010 and another in 2011. She won the first prize for a poetry review contest hosted by Cha: An Asian Literary Journal in October 2011. Her poem "March" was commended in the Writelinks' Spring Fever Competition, 2008. Her story "Ahalya's Valhalla" was among the notable stories of 2007 in Story South's Million Writers' Award. She has won prizes in poetry contests in India and has been featured in poetry events in Chennai and Hyderabad. She is the guest editor for the April 2013 issue of The Four Quarters Magazine (http://tfqmagazine.org/). You can read her interviews of other writers at Flash Fiction Chronicles, some of which are archived in her blog. RK Biswas also loves cooking and enjoys wine, hence her foodblog - polyphagous poltergeist (http://www.polyphagous.wordpress.com). Her story The Vanishing Man is included in the newly published anthology - Behind the Shadows - featuring outcast stories from Asia and Africa. Edited by Zukiswa Wanner and Rohini Chowdhury, the anthology is available from Amazon. She is also featured in Ten, an anthology of poetry by ten Indian Poets edited by Jayant Mahapatra, published by Nirala Press. A novel and a short story collection are forthcoming in 2013.
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