Neil Boyack is one of those writer types who’s done the move from Melbourne to this part of the world – like me, I guess – and he’s all about the artistic contribution to his adopted community and stuff. He put on a writing festival in Newstead, where he lives now, back in May this year, called the Newstead Short Story Tattoo.
Neil said he didn’t want to call it a “festival” – there are already too many writing festivals, even around here, he said. So tattoo it is, as in the Dutch derivation of the word (from “taptoe!”, a reference to the drum beat that calls soldiers to barracks), not the Tahitian/Tongan/Samoan derivation (originally “ta-tu”, a reference to – well, to tattoos), but of course being writer types they’re all about the double meanings, hence the logo.
Anyway, in order to keep the NSST fresh in people’s minds, they’re doing some gigs throughout the year, one of which is coming up shortly.
On July 19 between 2pm and 4pm Josephine Rowe is launching her latest short story collection, How a Moth Becomes A Boat, in Newstead, at the gorgeous Dig Cafe, accompained by Neil Boyack, Dave Thrussell, Eleanor Marney, Sue King-Smith and yours truly. There’s also going to be music, in the form of some goth-blues from the one and only SATED. Full details here.
It’s five bucks on the door and copies of Josephine’s book (as well as copies of books by certain other performers) will be on sale on the day, so there’s the excuse you’ve been looking for to shake off those winter blues and head out to delightful Central Victoria for an afternoon of words and stuff.
The Other Adam Ford 