Oh, Blogger, How We Once Loved...

...but I must move on.

I have over the last few months been tentatively working on my new website. This combined with the all consuming nature of working on the National Young Writers' Festival in the last few months has resulted in me neglecting this blog, we have grown apart.

I miss using blogger for many reasons, but it just doesn't offer me multiple pages on top of the blog functionality, which is what i'm after.

Wordpress hints at greatness well beyond blogger, but it is often clumsy and confusing. I need to take some time with those online tutorials i think.

So I'm going to endeavor to post to both this blog and my new one for a while, ideally I'll find a way to syndicate the content across both rather than doing it manually, but no luck so far.

Ok, ok, alright. The new website address is www.sarahhowellprojects.com

I wish I could transfer those of you who "follow" me over easily, it would make it feel homely, the closest thing Wordpress offers is a function that shows you when other people have linked to you, which is pretty neat, but not as sociable.

See you on the other side.

Smiles,

Sarah

My New Job

I now have my first ongoing work in Melbourne, which is extremely exciting to me. The job is as one of the Events Assistants at Glen Eira City Council.

This weekend there will be the following workshops and "In Conversation" talks:
Researching for the Writer with Meg Mundell;
Writing For Children with Nicolas Brasch;
In Conversation with Howard Goldenberg; and
In Conversation with Shane Maloney(my fiance David is excited about this one).

The photo above is part of the Carnegie Library building. Spending all of last Sunday there made me curious about whether the suburb's name was related to the philanthropic Carnegie Foundation, here is the answer discovered on the wikipedia article about Carnegie, Victoria.

"Originally called Rosstown, after William Murray Ross, a developer. The name was changed in 1909 to try and distance the suburb from the connotations of failure brought about by Ross' sugar beet mill project which never began production, and the Rosstown Railway. The name Carnegie was chosen in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to secure funds for a library from the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie"

Carnegie just had no luck in the early days apparently. They got their own back almost 100 years later but building an impressive Library and community centre.

My Inbox is Starting to Bulge

I've been working quietly on the National Young Writers' festival for some months and it is now getting close to the stage where I will have something to show for it.

For those of you that don't know about what happens in Newcastle, NSW, on the labor day long weekend in October check out the video below. More soon!

National Young Writers Festival
This Is Not Art Festival (the mothership)

The Corner Hotel - til 10 July

Close up.













Passerby has a read.













Additional orange/black band stickers not part of original art. Initially I was annoyed, but on closer inspection they had the cheek(respect?) to place the stickers in the line of vision of the characters on the two occassions they look off into the distance, a very awkward attempt to make like the stickers were part of the story.

Imagine My Art Here...

It maybe that right this moment one of my comics is up on the side of The Corner hotel, Swan St, Richmond, Victoria, Australia.

It was supposed to go up anytime between 29 May and 5 June, so it should be up now.

It will be up there for 3 weeks.

Check-it-out! 1.3 x 4 m of goodness!

More info at: http://www.stripbillboard.com/

Journal Update 12/04/09 - 6/05/09

Another Podcast Appearance

Here is a recording of me talking at the Tasmania Book Prize forums back in the beginning of April.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/04/03/2534114.htm

I had trouble getting the audio file to play, so leave me a comment if you have any luck!

Superheroes & Schlemiels: Jews and Comic Art

This Will Eisner looks great, I wonder if it is an original featured in the exhibition, I hope so.

03 May – 30 August 2009
Jewish Museum of Australia
26 Alma Rd, St Kilda Victoria 3182

The exhibition features reproduction and original works by Joe Shuster and
Jerry Siegel (Superman), Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (Fantastic Four and X-Men), Will Eisner (The Spirit and A Contract With God), Harvey Kurtzman (MAD) and Art Spiegelman (Maus).

Also included are original never-before-seen works by local Australian Jewish comic artists: Nicki Greenberg, Bernard Caleo, Andrew Weldon, David Blumenstein and John Kron.

Kid's Program ($5 Museum entry, plus $5 for materials):
Sun 7th June - Andrew Weldon
Sun 5 July - Sarah Howell
Sun 2 August - Mitch Vane

http://www.jewishmuseum.com.au/exhibitions.htm

Comic Book Funny Returns!

My betrothed, Mr David Blumenstein, is once again organising Comic Book Funny as part of the free program of Melbourne Comedy Festival events at Trades Hall. I will be contributing artwork to the calendar mentioned below.

Dates and times:
5pm - 6.15pm Every Saturday in April

Week 1: a genteel exhibition launch and informal comics salon, directed by Mme Josephine Waite. All welcome.

We expect also that lady comic artists will be on hand to sketch attractive male comic artists for the upcoming art-calendar, THE SEXY MEN OF AUSTRALIAN COMICS 2009-2010 FINANCIAL YEAR CALENDAR. Twelve steamy months of hot cartoonist man-meat, as depicted by women who share their comics passion.

Watch the ladies draw, or do some drawing yourself.

Week 2: a very special Intimate Conversation between long-awaited interstate guest Gerard Ashworth (Modern Murder, Electric Ferret) and local comics broadcaster John Retallick (http://thecomicspot.blogspot.com/).

Week 3: join two of the funniest, filthiest cartoonists in Australia for a chat about why poos, wees, farts, boinks, taints and scrotes are really, really funny.

Week 4: the unexpected launch of THE SEXY MEN OF AUSTRALIAN COMICS 2009-2010 FINANCIAL YEAR CALENDAR! Your host is the dashing Bernard Caleo.

Where: Bella Union bar, Trades Hall
Corner Lygon and Victoria St, Carlton, Melbourne.