Focus on Cat Sparks

[Alisa Krasnostein]

It gives me great pleasure, and just a little trepidation to welcome this fortnight's guest - Cat Sparks. Cat lives in Wollongong on the south coast of New South Wales. She works as an editor and graphic designer for an educational publisher, and runs Agog! Press with her partner, author Robert Hood.

In 2004 she was a graduate of the inaugural Clarion South Writers' Workshop and an L Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future prize winner. Cat has accumulated seven DITMAR awards since 2000 and was awarded the Aurealis Peter McNamara Conveners Award in 2004.

Other highlights of her life so far include: winning a trip to Paris in a Bulletin Magazine photography competition; being appointed official photographer for two NSW Premiers, and working as dig photographer on three archaeological expeditions to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. You can find more info at her website: www.catsparks.net

Hi Cat, thanks for hanging out here. I was going to first talk about your new Agog! Anthology, Ripping Reads. But first I want to ask you about the archaeological digs you got to photograph in Jordan. Which ones and when? And was it as exciting as Indiana Jones makes it look?

[Cat Sparks]

Hi Alisa and thanks for inviting me to participate in this forum. I've been following the previous interviews with great interest, learning all sorts of stuff about people I thought I already knew! I'll do my best to be as controversial and as fascinating as possible…

My three dig seasons in Jordan were probably the most interesting thing I've been involved with in my life so far. It all seems like a long time ago now but, in a nutshell, nope, archaeology and those Indiana Jones movies have little in common -- although I suppose it depends where you're stationed.

My sister Rachael is an archaeologist specialising in Bronze Age "small finds". She invited me to join Sydney University's Pella team back in the 90s & I thought it sounded exotic so I said yes. It was hard work in what were to me extraordinarily primitive conditions. This was before digital photography so I had to process and print on site the old fashioned way -- not so much fun in a darkroom full of camel spiders & scorpions where all the dodgy equipment was live to touch. I had to manipulate the light switches using wooden pegs so I diddn't get zapped. When I complained to the dig director I was instructed to quit whining and wear rubber soled shoes...

But on the other hand, archaeology attracts so many really really interesting people. And working in villages where for the most part things had not changed all that much in 2000 years was fascinating too. I had many adventures -- tried to write a book about them entitled "I left my Pink Tracksuit pants in Damascus" but my writing skills weren't that hot back then, & took a bunch of photos. Here's a few:

http://www.catsparks.net/gallery/vault/ ... arabia.htm

I used to travel a fair bit -- not so possible since settling down with a mortgage unfortunately. A friend runs digs in Uzbekistan & each year I think about doing it all again...

[Alisa Krasnostein]

So were you mainly in Damascus? Did you get to go down to Petra? I think everyone should try and get there before they die.

Anyway... Agog! Ripping Reads! Congratulations on its launch - it's a really stunning book - both outside and what I've seen so far on the inside. Is each volume getting easier/quicker to turn out? What lessons have you learned along the way in producing an anthology like the Agogs?

[chrisbarnes]

Hi Cat,

You're significant and well-known (or should that be infamous? ) in the Australian spec fic scene, yet you've often said to me that you find it weird to be thought of as such. Do you still feel that way? Got any thoughts or observations on fame and notoriety in this community?

Chris.

[Cat Sparks]

So were you mainly in Damascus? Did you get to go down to Petra? I think everyone should try and get there before they die.

I was mainly in the Jordan valley at Pella near Tabbaquat Fahl. One of the digs was up near the Syrian border but I can't remember its name right now. I travelled through Syria with 2 friends in 1996 where I was actually mistaken for a Russian prostitute, believe it or not.

I have been to Petra and it is one of the most amazing places on earth. I was lucky enough to ride down there on a donkey and stay down there before the tourist presence became too overpowering -- there's an old hotel that a bunch of archaeologists were using. The floor of the Petra valley is littered with broken pottery. You crunch it underfoot as you walk. The Bedul people who lived in homes carved out of the pink sandstone cliffs were resettled to live in concrete bunkers. Very sad.

[Cat Sparks]

Anyway... Agog! Ripping Reads! Congratulations on its launch - it's a really stunning book - both outside and what I've seen so far on the inside. Is each volume getting easier/quicker to turn out? What lessons have you learned along the way in producing an anthology like the Agogs?

Thanks. I am very pleased with Agog! Ripping Reads. This anthology was a lot harder to produce than the ones that went before it. It took a solid 5 months all up, partly because I received twice as many subs for it than I usually get -- and all but 5 or so of those subs were publishable. The bar has definitely risen since 2002. More people are writing, submitting stories and writing to a professional or near pro standard.

I have learnt that the process gets harder rather than easier -- especially the writing rejections bit. I felt very pressured this time round, probably because if this volume was not up to scratch then there would be no point in ever doing another one.

[Cat Sparks]

Hi Cat,

You're significant and well-known (or should that be infamous? ) in the Australian spec fic scene, yet you've often said to me that you find it weird to be thought of as such. Do you still feel that way? Got any thoughts or observations on fame and notoriety in this community?

Chris.

Hi Chris,

I don't believe anyone can actually be famous in a community this size. I'm just loud and rude is all.

[Alisa Krasnostein]

It took a solid 5 months all up, partly because I received twice as many subs for it than I usually get -- and all but 5 or so of those subs were publishable. The bar has definitely risen since 2002. More people are writing, submitting stories and writing to a professional or near pro standard.

That's really quite exciting, from a community perspective (not for you if you couldn't eliminate the bulk of it on first read). What were you looking for for this volume - how did you whittle down the submissions to the present collection?

[Cat Sparks]

It took a solid 5 months all up, partly because I received twice as many subs for it than I usually get -- and all but 5 or so of those subs were publishable. The bar has definitely risen since 2002. More people are writing, submitting stories and writing to a professional or near pro standard.

That's really quite exciting, from a community perspective (not for you if you couldn't eliminate the bulk of it on first read). What were you looking for for this volume - how did you whittle down the submissions to the present collection?

The most exciting part of it was that i had never heard of approximately half of the writers who subbed to ARR.
I was looking for material that either affected me emotionally, was very clever, was very stylish, very exciting, or all of the above. I got very lost in it all. At the end of the culling process I was pretty sure I either had a brilliant collection or a complete dud. I really couldn't decide which.

[Alisa Krasnostein]

It's not a dud. So, for those who haven't nabbed themselves a copy (and you can get one just by cruising past Amazon), could you give us a brief tour - which is your favourite, which challenged you the most, what was the ratio of writers - female to male, both in submitting and in the printed version, and did you end up including any new writers to you?

[Cat Sparks]

I want to have a think about my answer to this one so I'll respond later tonight. There are 2 new writers -- or newish anyway -- in the collection -- David Conyers and David Kane.

[Alisa Krasnostein]

Hmmm, okay well I'll change tack momentarily then and ask you to switch to Cat The Writer.

I recently read your story in COSMOS magazine. What was your inspiration behind this story?

[Cat Sparks]

I recently read your story in COSMOS magazine. What was your inspiration behind this story?

I wanted to explore the idea of a quiet invasion and the quiet acceptance that might go along with it. For the most part we do what we're told in our society -- especially if our mass media gets behind a concept. 'Street of the Dead' is about a rural family dealing with an alien invasion so utterly alien in its process that they don't get the big picture until its too late.

I loved the challenge of telling a story in 2000 words. I'm normally a lot more long-winded than that.

[Paul Haines]

Hi Cat,

Has the reissue of the previous Agogs through Prime Books managed to generate any press as such? ie have they helped push the books in any way? they fallen into the right hands of the supposed connections?

I think you can guess why I'm asking!

Haines

PS, oh yeah, and you'll mention my story from the question before yeah? Or I'll stop sending those pictures...

(Sent this to the wrong part of this place already...)

[Cat Sparks]

Hi Cat,

Has the reissue of the previous Agogs through Prime Books managed to generate any press as such? ie have they helped push the books in any way? they fallen into the right hands of the supposed connections?

Hi Paul,

The books have only been up on Amazon for a couple of weeks. I haven't pestered Prime for details as I've been busy pestering Prime about other things, cough cough... I think you know what I'm on about...

I don't expect too much will happen involving the early Agogs. What supposed connections did you have in mind? Are there connections to be made in the world of anthology production? But believe me, if anything exciting happens, the authors will be the first to know.

Also,

I have more obscene photos of you than you could possibly have of me, Haines, so keep yer threats to yerself. Like that one of you dressed as Simon Le Bon...