AustralianReader.com: Thank you for talking with us. First, how does it feel to have your work accepted by AustralianReader.com?

Guy Cranswick: Very good. There was a long pause between the initial submission and the acceptance, so I thought, "oh dear", but it turned out well. The reason why I submitted stories to Australian Reader is the quality of the site and then reading the other authors. It has a wide range of styles and genres and is strong across all of them. When you put your work out you want to be sure it will be in good place and the quality and vitality of the online journal is significant.

Guy: Well, online the world, at least the English speaking world is available. It's important to reach out, if for no other reason than to see if the work is accepted. Even being turned down can be good -- someone has read the work. The US and Canadian literary sites are impressive, some opt for certain categories but there is a breadth of choice and editorial styles to find a home for your work.

Guy: Yes, I was. It's great and I guess many of us overlook that huge country north of the US but it is there and worth investigating. At this stage it's necessary to look around and make as many contacts as possible

Guy: I think an author should take a key role. I have seen this with the translations of Milan Kundera, which he did not and could not at the time approve but later had redone; I think Nabokov had similar problems and he spoke English. Then there are Samuel Beckett's own translations, which are not only analytical in its understanding of language(s) but is also compositional. It is that second aspect which frustrates theatre directors occasionally who wish to amend the text but the text is a composition and to rearrange the notes changes the balance and harmony.

Guy: Complete Story (With Notes) was something I wrote from a some very old notes to a novel I had planned to write a few years ago and had written something like, a hundred pages. It was terrible. My notes were extensive but the novel was not something I could do. I had changed my approach. I took the notes themselves and edited them to a story. The interesting thing about short stories is they can be abstract, almost essays on themes, where plot and story play a lesser role than in a novel.

Guy: Having the courage to believe in your work and accept the rejection is part of the writing business. It happens, though it is never easier to deal with. It's selling and writers don't tend to be salespeople but there aren't ways to avoid it. I say to myself, 'What's next?' Go onto the next idea or submission. My advice to anyone trying the same path isn't worth a great deal and it has been said elsewhere. But the main thing is to be sure of what the work is: how it stands up to your judgement. Being a good self editor is the most difficult task -- as I have discovered.

AR: How enticing is a potential novel or book?

That is, in a way the challenge of a novel, unless it's a big story driven piece, like an airport blockbuster. It's a paradox that reading habits now deal with SMS like information grabs, RSS feeders, but in the main, judging by bestseller lists, the preference in fiction is still the solid narrative novel that Balzac would recognise -- even created! Now that is a poor generalisation but it fixes the problem of commercially producing a novel and artistically writing it, for me it does, anyway. I have to be interested and surprised by the route and the final draft

Guy: Thanks Phillip. I am writing all the time -- well, that's my excuse for the distant expression! When those ideas are clearer to me and written, of course, I will share them with you.

Guy: I think all of my work I have given to a close friend to read first. He is a musician and though we share many points of view, we also have individual perspectives. But his opinion is informed and his advice worthwhile. I may not agree with it but it helps to confirm or change what is there. It's a justifying process. This goes back to the editing role of being a writer. Being capable of judging your own work takes some time and distance. I write a draft, work on it for a day or whatever it may take, but then leave it alone for a week and then revise it. And the other thing is, write as much as possible, whether it's journalism or business reports, or a story with using the Yellow Pages ... use the craft.