Rick Stein at Bannister's

Recently, my partner and I were in Mollymook on the South Coast of New South Wales and decided to have a meal at Rick Stein at Bannister's. Rick Stein is an English chef who has had some success with television series. He appears to specialise in seafood.
We arrived at the restaurant on time and we were shown to our table. My seat was faced away from the view and my partner's seat was on a banquette running along the back of the room. The table was set out as one would expect of a restaurant claiming to offer top of the range service and food.
The service was attentive. We had menus and water -- just tap water; we refrained from the Rick Stein carbonated water -- within moments, along with a small bowl of olives. I ordered a sauvignon blanc ($42).
The first intimation that all was not well was when the wine waiter brought a bottle of riesling. It was not even from the same vineyard as the sauvignon blanc I had ordered. It was quickly replaced however.
We'd both ordered oysters as entrees -- my partner half a dozen natural, while I ordered a speciality that cost extra but came with chili sausages. A big fuss was made of placing pillowed plates before the both of us, this being necessary, we were told, as the oysters were served on a platter of ice.
Indeed, that is the way my partner's entree was served. Mine was not, requiring the removal of the pillowed plate. Also, I questioned the fact that I had only five oysters. I was told my dish comes with only five, despite having a higher price than half a dozen.
Anyway, the oysters were fine, as they should have been for the price ($24 and $27).
I'd ordered the fish pie and my partner barramundi (both around $40). The fish pie was disappointing. It consisted of two prawns, two scallops and bits of fish placed in a soup bowl, covered with a sauce (pleasant enough but lacking wow factor) and bread crumbs, then grilled. My partner found the barra ordinary, even the mash mixed with broad beans and peas. The dishes were edible, but expensive, we felt. We also had a green leaf salad, which was unremarkable
This happens at restaurants from time to time. Dishes don't live up to their potential.
We decided to end with a cheese platter, a port (for me), a Baileys (for my partner) and coffee.
Here is where the restaurant went from disappointing to annoying. The coffee and drinks, along with petits fours, came out and were placed on the table within moments of being ordered. We protested we had cheese to come. The waiter, to his credit, made inquiries, but the cheese failed to emerge for another seventeen minutes, just as we were about to cancel it. We were served the cheese with apologies and the advice that, if we wanted it before our coffee, we should have specified that.
Hmmm. I have never been served coffee before cheese anywhere else in the world.
Our conclusions? Very ordinary service and food.

The Creativity Market

The Creativity Market, edited by Dominique Hecq, will be published in March 2012. My chapter in the book is titled "The publishing paradigm: Commercialism versus creativity".

Antipodes: "In a Vietnamese cafe on Rosa Luxemburg Strasse"

My creative non-fiction work "In a Vietnamese cafe on Rosa Luxemburg Strasse" will be appear in the December issue of Antipodes.

Where do you think you are? Writing Australia

Arts New England: Centre for Research and Innovation in the Arts will be presenting a symposium on 15 November, 2011, to consider the development of an Australian identity in and through Writing (defined as a process of creativity unlimited by form, linearity or mode). The symposium will explore a range of ways in which Australian writing has evolved and is evolving.

Guest speakers include:

Angelo Loukakis, Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors, has worked as a teacher, scriptwriter, editor and publisher. He is the author of the fiction titles For the Patriarch, Vernacular Dreams, Messenger, and The Memory of Tides. He has also written a number of non-fiction works, including most recently a book of the SBS television series Who Do You Think You Are? His collection of short stories, For the Patriarch, was winner of a New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award. Angelo Loukakis is a past member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and chair of the New South Wales Writers’ Centre. He has taught writing, publishing and editing subjects at UTS and the Australian Catholic University. His latest novel, Houdini’s Flight, was released in 2010.

Lisa Heidke, author of Lucy Springer gets even (2009), What Kate did next (2010), and Claudia’s big break (2011). Lisa will speak on the challenges of writing chick-lit.

Sophie Masson, Chair of the Australian Society of Authors and former member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and author of more than fifty novels for young people. A graduate of UNE, Sophie is published in many countries. In 2011 her historical novel, The Hunt for Ned Kelly, won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, while her alternative history novel, The Hand of Glory, won the Young Adult category of the 2002 Aurealis Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy. She has also had many books shotrtlisted for various awards, written several novels for adults, and four thrillers for teenagers under the pen-name of Isabelle Merlin. Her short stories and essays have also been extensively published, in print journals in Australia, the UK, USA, and online in many different publications and blogs. Sophie will speak on French-Australian identity

Papers for the symposium are sought on the following themes:

Context and environment

· Indigenous matters

· Censorship, legal, moral and ethical problems

· Expatriate writing

· Outside looking in, or inside looking out: other tongues and accents

· Syllabus studies

· Historiography

Industries, products and production

· Publishing and its products

· Writing and new media

· Popular culture – newspapers, magazines, pulp fiction, TV/film, music, theatre

· Careers

Processes

· Individual/collaborative/community

· Technology

· Shapes/forms/structures

Modes/Genres

· Biography/Romance/Horror/Crime etc.

· Narratives without words

· Professional writing

· Advertising/Public relations

In the first instance, submit a 300 word abstract of your proposed paper by 17 October to Dr Jeremy Fisher jfishe23@une.edu.au

After Homosexual: The legacies of gay liberation

I will be presenting a paper that further explores my research into the emergence of overt homosexual narrative in Australia at the After Homosexual: The legacies of gay liberation conference at La Trobe University in February 2012. The conference celebrates the work of Professor Dennis Altman and recognises the 40th anniversary of the publication of his landmark work Homosexual: Oppression and liberation. I'm looking forward to contributing to this important event.

Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference, 23-25 November 2011

I'll be attending and presenting a paper at the Australasian Association of Writing Programs conference at Byron Bay in November 2011. This is a wonderful conference for writing educators, and I'm looking forward to catching up with colleagues and having stimulating conversations about writing. My paper traces the emergence of overt male homosexual narrative in Australiam literature from the emergence of the sexual liberations movement and legalisation of homosexuality in the late 1960s and early 1970s (at least in some Australian states) to the present.

5th National Editors Conference, Sydney

I spoke on a panel on copyright at the 5th National Editors Conference in Sydney on 8 September 2011. I mentioned that digital and e-books have the potential to give authors an increased share of royalties. Allen & Unwin, for instance, is offering 50% royalties for backlist, out-of-print titles whose rights are held by authors' estates. Royalty rates for e-books are slowly climbing from the initial low figures offered by traditional publishers as it is clear that new competitors such as Amazon, Google and Apple can work with models that offer authors a greater proportion of returns from e-books. It's even more important then that authors retain control of their digital rights.