Melrinua

05 September 2007

What a nice relaxing time at Will & Pil’s. There was ‘sort of a combination’ of short exercises, no-one picked the opening sentence of Lawrence Durrell’s Antrobus and of course we all found out a little bit more about Melrinua!

Something on the Ceiling

01 August 2007

At Peter M’s: and sadly, the last to be held there before Mr Miller decamps to Melbourne. Lots of laughs and stories about ‘something on the ceiling’. More >

Pulp Idol

30 May 2007

At Peter G’s: not a huge amount of reading and writing, but a lot of good conversation and Thai food. More >

Fumble

02 May 2007

Well, Slushers really pulled out all the writing stops last night! What fantastic children’s stories from Michele (atmospheric and engrossing), William (fun and very original) and Karen (we can't wait to hear more)—and another wonderful autobiographical memoir from Hugh. More >

Secret Agent

28 Mar 2007

Thanks Karen for a great night—and especially for The Chaser! The Two Petes were up to no good, as usual, and we had a fraught hair colourist as well. The exercise was to write a short story about a secret agent, including the word consolatrix. More >

Wild West Photo

28 Feb 2007

Another fun evening with six Slushers in attendance at Pil and Will’s. We had a very successful exercise, writing the first paragraph of the Anne Tyler novel, If Morning Ever Comes, based on a reading of the back cover blurb. Then Pil read out all the entries, as well as the real book opening. It was very hard to pick! There were also some enjoyable goings on in the Wild West—everyone had a story.

Here are the images we had to choose from: Peter M -- Pil -- Michele -- Peter G -- Simon -- William -- Karen. Update: Simon’s was the pick. More >

Father Canis

31 Jan 2007

Our first meeting of 2007 was had at Peter M’s and had full attendance. An excellent meal was cooked by our host on his outside portable BBQ, featuring fish, sausages, prawns and other sundry comestibles. Father Canis made several more mysterious outings, which was followed by a discussion of the nature of his character and whether we had strayed from our original aims for him or not. More >

Xmas Drabble

12 Dec 2006

Members of Slush and Slash (and partners) got together for a Xmas celebration in the beer garden of the Warren View Hotel, Enmore, and read out their 100 word drabbles. More >

Xmas Story

29 Nov 2006

At Karen’s. Thanks Karen for a wonderful evening and your excellent Hatness. Thanks Pete for your traditional christmas suprise. All attended save Pil, William and Peter G. More >

Halloween

01 Nov 2006

At Pil and William’s. All attended save Karen and Peter G. Another spooky Halloween with a new twist—a Pirate Pinata full of Scary Movies Fantales! Our very own Witch Doctor rattled his bones over the proceedings, a golden ghoul made a brief unearthly appearance and the Invisible Man was, we can only assume, also a guest.A new exercise, borrowed from the recent Wired magazine short story edition, of Six Word Stories was lots of fun. More >

Photo

27 Sep 2006

At Peter G’s. All attended save Karen and Michele. Peter M’s birthday was celebrated with cake. The exercise ‘and ill luck will ensue’ resulted in some great little tales, and the phrase ‘hit the Do It! button’. The first part of the Crime Novella was read out by Peter G. More >

Sci-Fi

30 Aug 2006

At Peter M’s. Special appearance by ‘Head in a Jar’ Simon, via Skype from Beijing, China, and secretly listening for some time before his conspiracy with Peter M was revealed and he read out his story. Tonight’s stories: a tale built around a randomly drawn sci-fi premise. More >

Slush Weekend

28-31 July 2006

The third Slush sleepover and the anniversary of six years of Slush. Also the debut of William’s box. More >

Peter Robinson Talk

6 July 2006

Well what a nice guy Peter Robinson seems to be. Very informative—and reassuring. Especially his comment (in answer to a Slush question) that he doesn't know ‘whodunnit’ when he starts to write the story. It gets revealed to him as he goes along.

And good Thai afterwards—with the help of our honorary Slusher, Guy Jeffrey!

Vampire

31 May 2006

At William’s. More >

Neil Gaiman Talk at the Town Hall

22 May 2006

Erotica

10 May 2006

At Karen’s, big laughs, great food and talk—and of course, lots of erotica! (In story form only, hopefully.) Also the ‘Two Petes’ exercise. More >

Professor

13 March 2006

At Pil’s. Poor Peter G (original host) was sick with the flu, so we all gathered at Pil’s to find out what The Professor had been up to. More >

Bones

08 Feb 2006

First meeting for 2006 at Pil and Willam’s; a small group (Pil, William, Peter G, Karen and Michele) and a few interesting stories based on Michele’s ‘Bones’ photo. More >

Photo selection

12 Dec 2005

Here are the images we have to choose from for the next story: One -- Two -- Three -- Four -- Five -- Six.

Update: Number Four is the winner. Write a short story, maximum 2000 words, using this photo as your inspiration.

Happy Christmas!

30 Nov 2005

Happy Christmas Slushers! Peter M’s house was beautifully decked out in seasonal stuff, including a snowstorm screensaver on his TV. His exceptional home-cooked White Christmas treats went down well too. More >

Halloween! Father Canis

31 Oct 2005

Another creepy halloween meeting, truly the premiere event on the Slushers calendar. Pil and William provided the venue, suitably decked out with spiderwebs and glow-in-the-dark bugs. Slash guests Will Belford and Ray Lade turned their talents to adding to the Father Canis canon. And the Father, well, he gave into temptation a lot (again ...) More >

The Greatest Man on Earth

06 Oct 2005

The Round Robin had gone AWOL so we all had a great night in Hugh’s huge new lounge room with lots of little writing exercises, fun and laughs. Peter G was off gaming with some friends so our biggest laugh was SMSing his fellow gamers and telling them all to kick him at the same time! More >

Round Robin

07 Sep 2005

Meeting at Peter G’s, sans Peter M and Karen. Interesting new exercise from Pil. Read out the round robin. More >

A Cure For Love

30 Mar 2005

Well thanks to Hugh for a wonderful meeting, to Muffy for the extra company and the great cooks out at St Mary’s Indian Restaurant for a delicious meal. Thanks also to Peter M and Hugh for sharing such personal experiences with us—it was a moving and resonant evening. More >

500 Words

23 Feb 2005

Write a 500 word short story of speculative fiction: SF, fantasy or horror for the Infinitas competition. More >

NSW Writer’s Centre competition

... and our next exercise

The NSW Writer’s centre’s competition for a short story of 500 words in any of the genres of speculative fiction (horror, fantasy, science fiction). The competition—sponsored by Infinitas bookshop, is open to anyone from anywhere. Entries must be sent in hard copy (not by email) showing the exact number of words on the cover sheet (excluding story title) and author’s name, address and phone number, and the name of the story(ies) should be included on a separate sheet. Entries must not have been previously published or been the winner of another competition. Entry fee is $5 per entry—multiple entries permitted. Winning entries will be announced at 5.30pm on Sat 19 March at the centre’s 3rd Magic Casements festival. Send all entries to:
Flash Fictions Competition
NSW Writers’ centre PO Box 1056 Rozelle NSW 2039

Closing Date: 4 March

Pirates!

02 Feb 2005

Another year of Slushing begins ... the venue was Karen’s new kitchen, the theme was pirates. Peter G made up for his poor showing on halloween by arriving in pirate regalia, complete with fake beard. Arrrghhh! More >

Christmas 2004

01 Dec 2004

Ahh, Christmas, and Slush members gathered to read their stories of joy, tragedy and emotion. And there was gift giving—specially designed limited-run exclusive Slush T-shirts for all from Pil, and, in perfect harmony with his story theme, a Xmas bauble for our trees from Peter M. More >

Halloween 2004

27 Oct 2004

Well another Halloween has flown by—when will we finally make it to New Orleans together? Thanks to Peter M for setting a great mood right here in Newtown, the New Orleans of the Very Deep South. More >

Go for Gold

04 Aug 2004

Thanks for our ‘Gold’ night Will—it was great to see your new studio, and thanks also to Simon for bringing along our special guest, Hui, who of course caught the Slush spirit and had a go at an exercise. More >

Finish an old story...

04 Aug 2004

Thanks to Michele for last meeting—and for surviving not one but FIVE trips out for takeaway! More >

Slush Anthology 2

Nominations appear here for stories for our next Anthology. More >

The Great Slush Sleepover

2nd-4th July 2004

An intensive writing workshop at the Treehouse interspersed with some serious eating, drinking and relaxing. More >

Old Woman

02 Jun 2004

A smaller group this time but some great stories and interesting discussion on a huge range of topics from environmental responsibility to Aztec sacrifice! More >

Next!

28 April 2004

A fantastic Slush meeting with some excellent stories. Turkish pizza (instead of bloody Thai) went down a treat—nice pick Peter M, who fully embraced his hat-wearing duties. Some might even say the power went to his head ... More >

The Return of Father Canis

31 March 2004

Pil: Poor Father Canis. He can never get a break! And just when he has a glimpse of heaven, his most tragic secret is revealed. Under threat of castration, Simon has agreed to research Sumo wrestlers and revisit the original text. Thanks Will for a great night—candles, mead, victuals and our own priest—what else could a party need? Check out the photos! More >

The Return of Peter Miller

03 March 2004

Well, an alternate history proved too much of a challenge to most Slushers—except Karen, who had a well thought out ‘what if the Roman Empire never fell?’ contemporary detective story. Peter Miller celebrated his return with a good ‘heckle—and suggested that everyone try to get one published in the Sydney Morning Herald. More >

First Meeting of 2004

04 February 2004

Another year, another Slush meeting. We got the year off to an easy start by reading out some quick short stories and doing some exercises—reprising the technique used at the November meeting. Everyone brought along something to read, and William treated us to more of his ’Night Train’ story set in a monster-ravaged London. More >

Happy New Year Slushers

29 December 2003

Happy Xmas everybody, and may the New Year see pens to paper, fingers to keyboards and pure genius the result. Suggested New Year’s Resolution: send in your old stories etc ...

26 November 03 Meeting

26 November 2003

A cut down Slush group as Simon was away directing in China, Peter M couldn't make it and William was at a CD launch event. But the rest of us — Pil, Karen, Michele, Hugh and Peter G — had a very funny night, beginning with writing some bios for the website, then with an exercise technique stolen from the Slashers. More >

Halloween 2003 Meeting

31 October 2003

Another memorable Halloween gathering at Peter G’s house and some great stories to emerge from the homework title ‘The Night Train’.

Hugh showed up in 007 attire; Simon and Pil in capes (and a silver wig for Pil); Karen in witchy lace, and Michele debuted her groovy new hairstyle, and with the aid of wigs William and Peter G showed us what they would have looked like in some alternate dimension where they had hair. Truly scary.

Karen’s story was unaminously pronounced the best thing she has ever written. William’s modern Cockney horror story as also a highlight and everyone agreed it was very original and would make the basis for a fantastic screenplay. More + Pics >

New Slush Website

4 November 2003

Welcome to the new Slush website. Peter has redesigned the site — for you web geeks, it’s coded with XHTML and CSS, and for you non webbies, it's much more organised, easier to read, and faster to download. Hopefully this will mean a new lease of life for our online home.

Now Slushers, it’s over to you — SUBMIT YOUR STORIES! There’s a wealth of entertaining and excellent fiction that hasn’t made it onto this site. Send them to .