Speaker 1 00:02
This is a Vision Australia Radio podcast.
Speaker 2 00:18
On Vision Australia Radio, welcome to our conversations on the work and experiences of emerging writers. I'm Kate Cooper and I guest today is Sarah Jane Justice, an award -winning spoken word artist, voice actor, published prose author and poet, musician and songwriter, and member of the management team at Spoken Word SA. We spoke with Sarah last week about her poetry writing and about Spoken Word SA's poet and residence program in partnership with the Adelaide City Council City Library. I'm delighted to continue our conversation this week.
Welcome to the program, Sarah. You've published both poetry and short fiction in literary journals and magazines, on podcasts and in anthologies. Your story, The Valley, was published in 2022 in a volume of Australian speculative fiction titled Where the Weird Things Are, volume one by Dead Set Press. Would you read us an extract from the story and then tell our listeners how they can find out more?
Speaker 3 01:29
Sure, absolutely. I'll start with an introduction about the concept behind this book. These are all speculative fiction stories, which for those who don't know, speculative fiction is the umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy, horror, those kinds of stories that have an out of this world speculative element. This collection is specifically for stories that are set in real locations in Australia and, you know, realistically. So my story is set near and around the Hope Valley Reservoir, which is a place that's very dear to my heart and includes references to, you know, all of those real locations and linear park and the Torrens and Paradise interchange. So I'll read a little bit of the introduction to this story for you.
The sound of the alarm reached Toby as if it was submerged in an ocean during a thunderstorm. He could tell he was lying flat and he was able to wiggle his fingers and toes. The effort of it left him even weaker, ready to give up the fight and remain motionless. The stress ball hit him hard enough to snap his eyes open, although its squishy texture ensured that his only pain stemmed from being forced awake. Get up! Chloe clapped her hands over Toby's head. You'll be late again. He heard the deep groan fill the room before he realized that it was coming from his own mouth. He stretched in a dramatic motion only to be hit by another soft projectile.
Up! Chloe repeated. Christ, Toby, am I your girlfriend or your mother? Okay, okay, Toby sat up. Would rather not blur the line between those two things, babe? Chloe flung another cushion in his direction. She grumbled loud enough to make her point clear, but Toby could always tell when she was trying not to laugh. Another morning in Paradise, he yawned, pulling himself out of bed. I'm not sure I would have agreed to move here if I knew you'd be making that joke every single day. What point is there in moving to a suburb named Paradise if you can't make that joke every single day? Toby grinned, finally finding the motivation to climb out of bed. He grabbed Chloe around the waist, leaning closer as she turned away to hide her smile.
Do you hear about the new parking lot at the interchange? Excellent paving job. Someone should write to Joni Mitchell. Chloe finished the joke for him. As I said, you're so predictable. Being predictable is a good thing, Toby insisted. You'd know straight away if I was replaced by a clone. Chloe picked up a bath towel and flung it in his direction. Clones. You're going to be making nonsense up about clones now, are you, she sighed? First, you tried to tell me that you failed your uni placement because you were attacked by emus. That was true, Toby jumped to apply. I'm telling you again, this story was true, just it was pretty hard to get footage given stop, Chloe laughed. I've heard it too many times. You're so full of it.
Speaker 2 04:28
I love the naturalness of your dialogue. What I also love is hearing something set in a place that is familiar because so often we read to take ourselves out of our environment, but it's also really lovely to read about our environment.
Speaker 3 04:47
Yes, exactly. And I think that was the idea behind it from the publisher, but also why I chose that specific excerpt to read from, because apart from being something that makes sense outside of the context of the full story, I did think that the local listeners would enjoy hearing those jokes that I think everyone living in paradise has told at least a few times.
Speaker 2 05:10
For sure. You mentioned the publisher before. Would you tell us how you go about having your work published in journals and magazines and anthologies and on podcasts which you've also had done?
Speaker 3 05:25
Yes. Well, it's sort of you find ways to dip your toes in and it's like the rabbit hole goes deeper in finding places to be published. So I started, there are a few groups on Facebook where small press and independent journals will post their submission calls saying, we want something on this theme, we want authors from this background, we want poetry, we want fiction or creative nonfiction or whatever genre. And from there, I started finding out where to look for small publishers that will announce their submission calls. And there are a few great websites that are submission managers. There's one called Duo Trope, one called Chill Subs.
And it's, you know, once you start finding the places to look, you know, the kinds of independent small press publishers will then also cross post submission calls. There's a lot of cross -pollination almost in the small press community where everyone sort of wants to promote everyone else, which is something that I love about it.
Speaker 2 06:24
That's brilliant. Now, you have a website, you mentioned it in last week's program and that includes lists of your published short fiction and poetry, your songwriting, your musical performance and also your voice acting. Sarah, I do want to ask you about your website but first I'd love to know about your voice acting, what this involves and how you first started doing it.
Speaker 3 06:48
Excellent. I'm happy to talk about that. It's something I very much enjoy. I started doing it because I submitted a short science fiction story to an online journal called Antipodean Science Fiction. It was selected for publication and the owner and person who runs this entire project essentially as a passion project as we all do, he said that he produces some of these stories for the online podcast and he said that where possible he will invite authors to read their own stories and I have this at home sort of recording set up from having done music so I set up my microphone and I read it and I sent it in and of course I knew a little bit about the editing, how to cut and start it and what file format to send it in.
And as a result of doing that well he said Would you like to be added to my team of narrators for all the other stories where the authors don't read their own work? And so I started doing that. I still do that. I still read Narrate Works for that podcast and then from there I guess I had sort of almost a demo reel so I submitted an application to perform for another podcast called The Night's End podcast and I got to do not just some narration but some proper voice acting.
There was one piece that was a proper radio play that I loved doing and it's very interesting the way that's done which makes it more accessible I think for voice actors working in different parts of the world is I got the script and recorded all of my own lines on my end without ever hearing the other side of the conversation until it went to air which is just fascinating so I would record my lines and you make sure they're all in the right points and they're all and yeah it's then hearing the finished product is the first time I'd heard the other actor doing the lines in response to mine and so yeah now I the ball is rolling and I'm doing a few more of those kinds of things and it's it's really really fun.
Speaker 2 08:56
What an amazing experience, and I know when I was growing up we didn't have television till I was turning 12, so we listened to the radio, we used to listen to radio plays, and they're fantastic for the imagination. Of course, here at Vision Australia Radio, we love radio. But what a wonderful experience to be involved in the radio plays.
Speaker 3 09:17
Yes, absolutely. And I love that, you know, digital technologies and the popularity of podcasts are actually now bringing back that medium. You know, video killed the radio star, and then podcasts brought it back to life.
Speaker 2 09:32
Absolutely, and of course we have quite a range of podcasts here on Vision Australia Radio. Sarah, your website's fantastic. It is really easy to navigate and to access details of your creative work, as well as a selection of your media interviews and articles about your work. Now you put the website together yourself. How did you do it?
Speaker 3 09:55
With dedication and a willingness to learn, I think is the simplest answer, but that's something that I really embrace in my life is learning new things. It's something we live in a time where we're really, really lucky that we have access to tutorials and explanations, video explanations, written explanations, every kind of method of teaching that you can imagine.
We have access to often for free and so I've made it a goal of mine to always be learning something new and when it came to put together my website, one of the reasons why I did it myself was partially because I was interested in learning how to do that, but also because it meant that I can continue to maintain it and update it without having to ask anyone else to do it.
So I used Wix, which is a website builder, and it was one that I found that there was definitely a learning curve, but once I started getting the hang of it, it was relatively user friendly and I started small and then I gradually put more and more onto it and developed it and made it bigger and made it cleaner and yeah, it was just about the willingness to be patient and to know that I wasn't going to get it right in a day and to sit there and figure it out as I went along.
Speaker 2 11:22
Good on you. Now we'll repeat this at the end of the program. Would you just tell us now your web address?
Speaker 3 11:28
Yep, it is www.sarajanejusticewriting.com
Speaker 2 11:34
Brilliant. Now you have a video program on your website titled Kintsugi. Would you describe as a little extended metaphor piece that you made while playing around with some animation software? Would you describe for us the experience of creating that video program?
Speaker 3 11:52
Oh yes, I have a few video poems on my website which is linked to a YouTube playlist that I have all the video poems. And that was really a similar kind of experience where I was like, I want to try doing some video poetry, which I know a lot of poets locally and more so than locally globally do very, very well. And of course, again, when learning something new, it's important to remind yourself that the people who inspired you have been doing this for years and years and years. You're not going to do something that well on your first few attempts. But it was all about experimenting with what I could do before having all that background. So Kintsugi, the video I did for that is very, very simple kind of shapes and I made it look kind of like a dreamscape because that was a way to effectively have a visual element to it without needing to do detailed animations.
I also have one like a piece of work that I'm very, very proud of called Canary, which is in that same playlist. And I used, you know, an animation software where I was able to get sort of almost clipart characters and there's a cat and a bird and I was able to make them find ways of making the move that didn't look like it was just clipart and finding ways to kind of crop it and zoom. So that's something that you could also find linked from my website. And yeah, another approach that I've done is essentially just lyric videos, but for my spoken word poetry.
Speaker 2 13:23
That's great, and on your website you also include information about a collaborative creative project that you worked on with the photographer Philip Walker titled Cracks in Our Shadows. Great title, which is a narrative journey through light and dark. Would you tell us about that project?
Speaker 3 13:42
I would love to. I love talking about that. That is something that Philip Walker, who is an incredibly talented photographer, came to me knowing that I did these works of poetry and he said, would you be interested in doing something with my photography? And he sort of left the project in my hands. He provided this massive Google Drive folder full of all these amazing works of photography. And I sort of sifted through until and you know basically just looked at every image until I found what seemed to suggest a storyline.
And then I created the story because that's what it is. I wanted it to be an exhibition, not just different works of poetry and photography.
And so it tells a story in that kind of vague might not be the right word, but it's enough that people can project their own meaning onto it to a certain extent. And this was displayed at a lovely venue in Port Adelaide called Mixed Creative. And I had a walkthrough of the order that each image had an associated poem, just a short poem. And walking through it, the viewer would see the outline of a story that they could then interpret how they chose. And I actually had a soundscape that I had playing in the gallery space that I'd created of you know, sort of wind and raindrops and things all in a little pattern that would you know, accompany the artworks.
And it's something that I I'd love to have another showing of, Cracks in Our Shadows, partially because this was during a time during the pandemic when the borders were closed and Philip was in Melbourne, he was Melbourne based at that time, which meant that he didn't get to see the exhibition himself, unfortunately. But I would also love to bring that to new audiences and new spaces. So you know, if anyone listening has a gallery space, they'd love to bring this this exhibition to I would love to do another showing of that one.
Speaker 2 15:48
Sounds terrific - and your contact details are also on your website, so if anyone is listening they can go to your website and make the offer. That would be brilliant. On Vision Australia Radio you're listening to our conversation programme Emerging Writers. Our guest today is Sarah Jane Justice, award -winning spoken word artist, voice actor, published prose author and poet, musician and songwriter and member of the management team at Spoken Word SA. As we mentioned earlier Sarah you're also a musician - so you do work across a number of disciplines. You're classically trained in voice, piano and saxophone. You've performed in musical theatre, you've played in a scar band that toured Australia and New Zealand and on the piano you've been creating as a singer-songwriter.
In 2016 you've wrote and presented a science fiction cabaret show for that year's Fringe. Would you tell us first about your early training as a musician and then now about your songwriting?
Speaker 3 16:59
Yes, absolutely. Well, music was always my greatest passion. I experienced music in a way that's almost full -bodied. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing that gives me energy and motivation. I know there are a lot of people who can very much relate to that. Creating music almost feels like a privilege to be able to do that. As you mentioned, I started taking piano lessons when I was eight years old, and I had the same piano teacher from when I was eight to when I was 18, which was a wonderful experience. I started voice training for singing when I was in high school, and I started learning tenor sax when I was in year six, I think, and had lessons for both of those up until I was 18 as well. I was a very over-committed teenager.
But learning the theory of different types of instruments and the musicology behind it, I'm fascinated with musical theory these days because it's so mathematical. There's formulas that work, and there's things that... It's why there are so many songs that work on the same kind of basic structure is because those are the formula that work. There's a reason for it. Songwriting is something that I experimented with almost more than the poetry I do, and I guess it's because it has so many different elements to it. I used songwriting primarily to tell stories. That's sort of what my writing comes back to in every different form is storytelling.
That's something that a lot of people said to me when they would hear me play was, these are stories or poetry set to music, which is how I came to create the science fiction cabaret show, which was called sci -fi, that's S -I -G -H -fi, which is a wonderful little pun that I didn't come up with a friend of mine did, but I would love to take credit for that. They were all different standalone stories each told in a short three or four minute song in different science fiction settings. And yeah, that's what I create ultimately is stories. Bye.
Speaker 2 19:14
That's wonderful. And before we finish today, we will hear another of your songs. Sarah, I have another question that I've been asking guests on this program, and that's how you go about creating your works. Do you have a favorite place where you like to create or does it vary?
Speaker 3 19:30
It completely varies. It's sometimes even moving from a location to location actually helps because if I'm at a point where I don't know how to get to the next step in something I'm creating, moving to a different physical location can help break that little block. Generally these days, I ride at home. I have a nice little table by the window, which almost sounds like a cliche, but for a reason it's a lovely little scenario to write there. Actually something that I should mention because it's relevant to the song that I'll get you to play is I write a lot inspired by dreams I've had.
I have very very vivid dreams and the album that this song is on is called The Trouble With Waking Up and I released it in 2016 and each song on this album was in some way inspired by a dream I'd had. Either I woke up with one phrase like on my tongue or it was an image that I remembered from a dream I had and this song which is called Suburban Tumbleweed was just I woke up with this like it was like waking up with half a story in my mind but I'd come into it from the middle not from the beginning and it starts the intro is this image that I woke up with on this particular morning and yeah it's the story of you know a story I don't fully understand and I love sharing those because it means the reader or listener can read what they want into it just like with cracks in our shadows.
Speaker 2 21:08
And do you keep a physical notebook or do you make notes on your phone, a combination of the above?
Speaker 3 21:13
Whatever I have when I have the idea. If I have a pen and paper, it's pen and paper. If I have my phone, it's going in the notes app. Just whatever I have available to me.
Speaker 2 21:24
Sarah, we spoke in last week's program about the role of Spoken Word SA in organising the South Australian component of the Australian Poetry Slam and also the Poet in Residence partnership with the Adelaide City Council City Library. And Spoken Word SA also runs a variety of workshops. Would you tell us about those and how our listeners can find out more?
Speaker 3 21:47
Absolutely. So we run as much as we can in our timeframe. We're volunteers at Spokem Word SA. We do this because we truly believe in its importance. So the workshops are sort of sporadic there when we have the means and location to do so. Although there will be a few coming up that haven't been locked in this year, the best way to stay updated with when those happen is to follow Spokem Word SA. We're on Facebook primarily. We also have a presence on Instagram. And more importantly, the website is always updated with everything we share and everything we're doing. That would be at www.spokenwordsa.com.au. And if anyone is interested in attending any of these events, that would be where you find it.
But there's also a wonderful Facebook group called Adelaide Poetry Gig Guide. And every single event in Adelaide centered around poetry gigs gets posted in this group. And there are so, so many of them. So I encourage anyone listening to check that out. Even out of just sheer curiosity for what goes on in Adelaide, it all gets posted there.
Speaker 2 22:59
That's terrific, and we do have an incredibly vibrant poetry scene in South Australia and we spoke last week about the spoken word, poetry community and what that means to you.
Speaker 3 23:12
Hmm, we did, and yes, it is something that, the sheer joy of it can't be underestimated, honestly. It's a wonderful place to check out if you're in any way interested.
Speaker 2 23:23
And as a member of the audience at a number of poetry events in recent times, I can certainly recommend that to all our listeners. It's lovely to attend a live spoken word poetry event. Sarah, would you tell us again your own website address?
Speaker 3 23:40
Yep, that would be www sarahjanejusticewriting.com
Speaker 2 23:45
It's been wonderful to speak with you Sarah and before we go, as you mentioned, we will be listening to another of your songs. Would you tell us the title again?
Speaker 3 23:56
So that would be Suburban Tumbleweed.
Speaker 4 (song) 24:00
Your look is such Your life is much more Than you'll ever make it Another opportunity But you're not one to take it If you could see what life could be If you just lift your head String along from day to day Just hanging by a thread Last time that I saw you You were standing in the sun Holding your wrist red Or like it was a loaded gun You held a loaf of anger That was tangled up in fear You held the same expression For the most part of a year You turned away And walked back down The path that falls behind you Life no one can force you to do What you're not inclined to The road ahead is brighter But it's blocked by bush and bracken Nothing changes while you live Afraid of what might happen You know you're tired When branches look like Fingers stripped of flesh It's gone too late, it's been too long It's time to take a rest If only you put this much into Doing what you should Tell yourself the life is far too short For being good
You turned away And walked back down The path that falls behind you Life no one can force you to do What you're not inclined to The road ahead is brighter But it's blocked by bush and bracken Nothing changes while you live Afraid of what might happen It's never going to happen You can wait until you die All you're doing's wasting time All good things pass you by So sit and hang your head counting The tears that hit the ground Or pick your story's self up Start to turn your life around Turn away And walk back down The path that falls behind you Life no one can force you to do What you're not inclined to The road ahead is brighter But it's blocked by bush and bracken Nothing changes while you live Afraid of what might happen You'll look as such Your life is much more Than you'll ever make it Another opportunity But you're not one to take it
Speaker 2 27:13
And that was Suburban Tumbleweed by Sarah Jane Justice, who was our guest on Emerging Writers Today. Sarah is an award-winning spoken word artist, voice actor, published prose author and poet, musician and songwriter, and a member of the management team at Spoken Word SA. Our Emerging Writers Program can be heard at the same time each week on Vision Australia Radio, VA Radio on digital, online at varadio .org, and also on Vision Australia Radio podcasts, where you can catch up on earlier episodes.
Speaker 1 28:05
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Speaker 2 28:16
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