A longstanding tradition of writers helping writers: ARTbop contributor Jenny Argante has sent us this press release for FREELANCE magazine.
For 34 years a black and white magazine – not unlike a parish newsletter in style and format – stayed true to its motto of ‘writers helping writers.’ Circulated among a goodly number of subscribers, and a handful of libraries, Freelance is the journal of the New Zealand Freelance Writers Association (NZFWA), which welcomes all writers whether published or not. Within its pages the aspiring writer could find all kinds of useful info on what and how to write. Tools of the trade. Tactics and techniques. Tips on presenting your manuscript to editors and publishers. Things you need to know to hone your craft were put together in a folksy, friendly fashion easy to read and easy to relate to. Making it as a writer is hard and we don’t all live in towns with writers’ groups that help us thrive on mutual support and encouragement.
So where do writers turn to for advice on how to get started and how to get published? Too often writing is a lonely craft. That’s where Freelance – still going strong – can begin to help out. New Zealand doesn’t really have a creative writing magazine like The Writer’s Digest in America, or Writing Magazine or Mslexia in the UK. The New Zealand Society of Authors publishes an in-house journal The Author that mainly covers topics important to published writers. When you’re starting out, or trying your hand at a new genre sometimes you need more basic advice.
For the past fourteen years Alyson Cresswell as editor undertook alone the numerous tasks involved for fourteen years. Now she’s decided it’s time to get back to her own writing – and that’s why Freelance is relocating to Tauranga with an editorial board of three with Jenny Argante as editor-in-chief, Lynne McAnulty Street as technical editor and Kaye Lister as good production editor. Lynne will be working to upgrade the website and create a Freelance Facebook page, while Kaye undertakes internal layout and indexing. So in March 2015 – a month that celebrates the indie author and the special quality of New Zealand writing – the first Freelance magazine under this new management team will relaunched in the Bay of Plenty. Jenny says, “We’re not rushing in with major changes, planning only three to begin with. A colour cover. Additional pages for added value to our subscribers. And to make the lead story in each issue ‘A Writer’s Journey,’ where newly published indie authors share what they learned with our readers. Our first featured author will be Paul Martin, ex-Waikato Champions rugby player, who now runs a graphic studio in Hamilton and has brought out the first of a series of graphic novels for younger reader detailing the adventures of Kory the Kiwi.”
Other, longer-term changes and initiatives will be introduced later, including a 6-week Freelance writing course on ‘The Magic of Memoir’ and publication of the first of the Freelance Anthology Series, which invites personal stories for Home Affront: Women’s Experience of Domestic Invasion. Freelance has lasted longer than three decades. Doesn’t that prove this writer’s magazine must be doing something right?
All enquiries:
Freelance Magazine
Unit 76A Vale Street
Otumoetai
Tauranga 3110
Tel. 07 576 9212
Txt 022 053 48 68
http://www.nzfreelancewriters.org.nz
