Hopefully ... this month's update will stay updated. We've had a recurring problem with the website reverting to earlier versions. Uploads look okay for an hour or a day, and then, when we're not looking ... Still planning to upgrade the whole site, but that's a big, big job, and we've had other concerns. Like getting the Picaro Poetry Prize Byron Bay Festival chapbooks and anthology out there. That was a great deal of (very joyful!) work, and now we're bringing out the Varuna Publisher Fellowship volumes for 2010: Peter Lach-Newinsky's The Post-Man Letters, Peter Coghill's Rockclimber's Hands, and Juliet Paine's Foxes and Water Tanks. The two Peters' books are now available, and Juliet's will be ready to go within weeks. By the time that's done, we'll be reading new manuscripts for the 2011 Varuna Publisher Fellowship Program. We've two new titles almost ready to go for the Art Box Series: R. A. Simpson's The Real Pompeii, and J. S. Harry's The Deer Under the Skin. Chris Wallace-Crabbe has very kindly agreed to make these and future selections for what we hope is becoming a pretty important series. Hoping to bring out new books from Peter Macrow and Stephanie Bennett in the near term as well ... and who knows what else?
I'll be in Melbourne on the 1st of December for a reading Alex Skovron has kindly organised, in large part to celebrate Evan Jones' new Alone at Last! Very much looking forward to the trip — I don't get away from the computer very often, and it'll be a nice change, as well as a chance to catch up. Somewhere in there, yes, we'll get stuck into the new website design. January might be good ... hot, sultry, and not as busy as the rest of the year (he says, tempting fate). Home renovations have kept us busy, and I'm also judging the Aurealis Awards this year, with Bill Congreve and Kathryn Lynge — great fun, and a splendid excuse to spend an afternoon reading instead of ... well, judging the competition is work, even if it doesn't feel like it. In fact, having spent most of the day fighting with Dreamweaver, I think I might just go assess a few more stories. Do let us know if the website misbehaves — feedback is always welcome. Thanks, and
Rob Riel, Picaro Press
