Issue 63
Welcome!
How’s it going, Scribblers? We’re back again with another Spilled Ink! Week nine already, can you believe it? Mid-semester break is upon us, which means it’s time for the team over at ScratchThat to take a moment, take a deep breath, and get ready to switch to high gear as the launch grows nearer—October 23rd to be exact. Unfortunately, it also means there will be no Spilled Ink next week, but don’t fret, we’ll be back for week ten with the content you love.
Speaking of content, check out our highlights of the content published for Euphoria last week below. Uni events are slowing down as we come up to the break, but we’ve still covered everything that’s happening below. Subscribe to our TikTok and Instagram for more updates.
This week, ScratchThat’s weekly callout for submissions is Alienation themed. We’ve got a great prompt below to help get the juices flowing, or if you already have something that suits, submit here!
With the launch fast approaching—23rd of October, in case you missed it—we are still looking for more of your work to be featured in the Emotion Spring 2024 Zine. But time is nearly up! Submissions for the zine close this Friday, 20th September! Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to see your work in print!
Finally, we’ll wrap up, as always, with “Devour Weekly”. Karma is reflecting on how much Spotify knows, or thinks it knows, about her. Dylan has picked up Liane Moriarty’s new book, Here One Moment, and shares his thoughts. Sean takes a light-hearted angle this week, and reviews The Nice Guys starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.
Writing Prompt
Alienation
The callout theme this week is Alienation. Have you ever felt left out, isolated, different, or been literally abducted by aliens? This is the theme for you! We are looking for your work to be published on the ScratchThat website. This will also be our last weekly callout! All submissions for both print and online close at 11:59pm this Friday 20th September, so submit now!
If you’re stuck for a little inspiration, then see below for our weekly prompt:
From where you stand, you can see them, hear them, almost touch them. But they cannot see you. It has been this way for years, until one day you look up and someone is looking directly at you.
Submit here.
Devour Weekly
Dylan’s Review: Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
After boarding a flight from Hobart to Sydney, a bunch of passengers’ lives are changed when a seemingly innocuous woman stands up and begins to predict how and when many of them would die. It’s easy to dismiss at first, but when some of the passengers begin to die exactly as predicted, the survivors are forced to deal with their own perceptions of mortality and their relationship with fate.
I’ve been a big fan of Liane Moriarty ever since I first read Big Little Lies, before it was adapted into a TV show, and now her new novel Here One Moment has finally arrived! Moriarty has a way of developing character that feels so unique and realistic. Each voice within Here One Moment (and there are quite a few) is a fully realised character that stands apart. I often found myself thinking about how a single person could have possibly written all those points of view so authentically.
I had the chance to see Liane Moriarty in person last week talking about Here One Moment as a part of the Brisbane Writers’ Festival. It was fascinating to hear her speak about her work, how she never plans anything about her novels—just starts with an idea and writes what feels true to the characters as she gets to know them. It was awesome to hear how an idea for a novel was developed in real time, tiny threads of different circumstances coming together to form a single piece of fabric. The idea for Here One Moment was formed when Moriarty herself was stuck on a plane that was delayed and had the rather grim thought that every single person on that plane would one day die.
I’m not going to lie—this is a rather long read for the contemporary fiction genre. It takes a little while for the book to get off the ground, with Moriarty spending far too long trying to convince us that Cherry (the protagonist) is a completely ordinary and easily unnoticed person. Once the story begins to unfold, however, it’s completely captivating. There is definitely something mysterious about Cherry, and once the rest of the passengers realise it, they can’t stop thinking about it, and neither could I. I devoured this book!
Sean’s Review: The Nice Guys
Everybody needs a comfort movie. A movie that never fails to entertain you that you can throw on whenever you’ve had a crappy day or you’re stuck deciding what to watch. The Nice Guys is that movie for me. Starring Ryan Gosling as private detective Holland March and Russell Crowe as tough guy enforcer Jackson Healy, The Nice Guys is a 2016 action comedy about two unlikely allies teaming up to investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl in 1970s Los Angeles.
What starts as a typical missing persons case quickly turns into a massive conspiracy involving the porn industry, political corruption, and the shady dealings of the motor industry. While the story and case are interesting with some great twists along the way, the real reason this movie is great is the chemistry of its two leads. This movie is equal parts buddy cop comedy and noir detective caper, with a great balance of dark and wholesome comedy that shows off Gosling and Crowe’s comedic talents. I have to single out Gosling in particular though, whose physical comedy kills me every single time I rewatch The Nice Guys. I don’t know how this movie does it, but it somehow makes me laugh as hard as I did, if not more, than when I first watched it almost eight years ago.
The Nice Guys is everything I need in a comfort movie. That’s not to say it will be that for you. The movie was overlooked when it released and has only gained its cult following in recent years. However, if you’re looking for a fun, intriguing, detective film with some side-splitting comedy, maybe give this a whirl.
The Nice Guys can be streamed on Stan or purchased on the digital storefront of your choosing.
Karma’s Review: My Spotify Daylist Titles — Should I be concerned?
I love Spotify. I have had it for nearly 10 years now, and I have to say the way its user experience has grown over time is really impressive. One of the most popular things you may have noticed about Spotify is its “daylists”. Basically, Spotify analyses the songs you listen to most on certain days, and times of day, and comes up with a playlist for you. But honestly, the content of the playlists is not really what draws people in — it’s the titles. The attempt to sum up the general vibe of the songs in the playlist is fascinating. All I can really think about mine is: should I be concerned?
A lovely one I got last week was “Sad Crying Friday Morning”. Spotify doesn’t even try to beat around the bush with that one; apparently, I am sad, and I am crying on Friday mornings. The funny thing is the playlist itself is made from previous data, and sometimes includes a bit of a wildcard. So, while this playlist was mostly appropriately slow and sad acoustic, Taylor Swift’s pop hit “Blank Space” also makes an appearance— which didn’t feel like it truly hit the sad, crying vibe, but alright.
The daylist titles also reveal parts of your routine. For example, I do dance on Tuesday nights, so I was hit with “Brat Summer Recession Pop Tuesday Evening”. The title is clearly a reference to many current trends right now, Brat summer being huge of course. It is also a little funny to see the desperate attempt to associate a recession with something positive! This playlist was everything I think it wanted to be, with plenty of Chappell Roan and Charlie XCX. But other recessions made an appearance as well, with a few throwbacks too, like some good old Avril Lavigne. A similar trendy title I had once was “National Anthem Hot Girl Walk Monday Early Morning” — I wasn’t walking but I appreciated the encouragement.
What I think is truly hilarious about this phenomenon is that, at the end of the day, I don’t listen to the daylist playlists themselves. I find it fascinating to go and see what wacky name they assign me, but I don’t find that it always has exactly what I want to listen to, regardless of the algorithm analysis. I think I approach it more like a horoscope, and less like an actual place for music recommendations.
Author: Karma O’Reilly is a writer, creator, and dancer currently finishing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. She has held a passion for all things bookish since childhood and has a particular love for high fantasy. As well as working on ScratchThat Magazine, Karma has also worked as a choreographer, treasurer, and dancer with QUT Burlesque Society.
Author: Dylan Oliver is a Meanjin-based writer. He’s had his work published in ScratchThat Magazine and is currently working towards his Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing at QUT. Dylan enjoys writing authentic queer stories that speak to his own experience as a queer person. He is hard at work on what he hopes will be his debut novel.
Author: Sean Sutcliffe is a writer who is currently in the final year of his Creative Writing degree. He has a deep love for all forms of creative media, particularly horror or horror-inspired work, and selfishly plans to indulge this love while broadening his knowledge and sharing his thoughts on current and past media with the readers of this newsletter.
Artist: Phoenix Sunrider (they/she) is an aspiring author with several works in the making. They love all kinds of animals, and add as many as possible into all their works whether that be high fantasy, magical realism, or even fan fiction. They currently have no social media platforms, but hope to develop some when more work is completed.
Edited by: Ricky Jade and Mia Paton