Summer and Snow



For some reason I am much more shy when it comes to blogging and tweeting and co, than any other form of writing ... so I'm going to get started with a bit of chat about the weather, then tell you about Fire Door Press and our very first project Landing on Snow. Then the posts will be various but will serve an overall purpose to track Fire Door's do-it-yourself publishing mission, and will definitely include some poems.

There was a thunder and lightening storm in Hobart (Tasmania) last night, after a 37 degree day! I went to work, to the beach, and then to the skate park. Then it started to rain. There's probably a poem in all of that, but it's not written yet.

It was the sort of day you wear a bikini and shorts around the house, and so hot that the tomato seeds I only planted a week ago sprung green stems out of the earth in their little pots on the front stairs of my flat.

The rain would start and stop. And in between breaths of weather I sat down to write a media release for Fire Door Press to send out with a copy of Landing on Snow to bookshops and libraries, probably some high schools, that sort of thing.

The release took far too long to write and wasn't very good, but the gist of it is here -

Fire Door Press is a publisher providing emergency exits for creative works. It's first release, Landing on Snow, is a collection of poems by Claire Jansen, designed by Rachel Tribout (aka Captain Blueberry).



Launched at Fullers Bookshop (Hobart) in September 2011, Landing on Snow takes its epigraph from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking Bird, "What do you think it means, Jean Louise?" - and its title from the poem "Snow" about Lee throwing her manuscript out the window in frustration.

The poems are brief and tell the stories. Not all the stories are about snow. The text is illustrated by Rachel's simple, black line drawings.

It is for sale at Hobart and Launceston Fullers and Hobart Bookshop, but if you live far away you should email firedoorpress@gmail.com

Fire Door Press is setting up its next project to be a flip-book with artist, Ella Noonan. There are also more poems on the way.

It's cooler today after the rain.