End of Month Report : January

Submissions: 11 (SF: 6 / Fantasy: 2 / Horror: 3)
Rejections : 10 (6 from stories submitted last year)
Acceptances: 0
Published: 1 (Useful Stuff)
Stories presently out: 10

Feeling: optimistic

The 'Z' Word

After an hour of work on them this morning and another three hours of editing this evening, the undead bears are finally on their way. Phew! Deadline achieved. Hooray! Most atmospherically, there is an awesomely full moon tonight – perfect for the sending of (tasteful and sensitive) zombie manuscripts. There, I used it – the ‘Z’ word.

In between, there was the usual domestic stuff and a nice, relaxing movie full of bombs, chemicals, mind games, buckets of blood, operating tables and creatively wielded power tools.

Ya gotta love a revenge flick that has a character who quotes von Clausewitz.

Tentacles, trees or trollop?

The dead bear story (well, technically there’s more than one dead bear) is almost ready to go thanks to the fact that I wagged work yesterday (things are slow there this time of the year, so it was ok) and spent seven hours on it. I’ll send it off on Saturday.

And so my mind is now turning to the next project – should I finally finish the big, dense SF tale about spacefaring sea creatures, get further into the lighter piece about trees and colourful little monkey-folk, or start the first draft of the Egyptian floozy story? Hmmm…

Gaol House Blog

After six hours of flat out writing, the bear story (well, technically it's a dead bear story) is up and standing on its wobbly, little, new-story legs. That leaves me just 4 mornings of equally flat out editing to transform it into a lean, mean, galloping machine of 3-4000 words. Ladies and Gentlemen, place your bets.

In between, to get a break from the keyboard and feel the sunlight on my face, I went wandering around town and ended up high on a hill at the Old Goal:














It would, if I could convince the shire to turn it over to me, make a perfect writing lair.

Rejoicing

Australians all let us rejoice (yippee) for we have a whole (public holi-) day off tomorrow, which I shall patriotically use to get some writing done, specifically a certain bear story that has a deadline fast approaching.

Sooo many people took today off from work as well. Usually, I'd have been one of them. Whenever there's even a whiff of an extra long weekend, I'm generally out trail riding, but things didn't work out that way this year, so I diligently commuted back and forth with the Australian Open tennis crowds instead.

Signs of Sunday: Commerce (1)

Inspired Saturday

Life is such a jester. After punching the air over my Susanna Clarke coup yesterday, this morning I popped into a warehouse book sale and found … yep, a stack of ‘The Ladies of Grace Adieu’ going for $1 each. So I bought a few more copies for family and friends.

After that it was shopping and a movie. Does it get any more inspirational than a very Joseph Campbellish journey with Messrs. Eastwood and Freeman? That I should get caught up in a rugby scrum, or whatever they call it, is nothing short of miraculous.


Now, as evening approaches, I must pay for my day of dallying - it’s time for the dreaded domestic duties, to be got out of the way ASAP. I’ll also bake bread so there’ll be a hot and crusty, butter melting reward at the end of my labours.

Meanwhile, in a faraway kingdom called Brisbane, the ever-inspirational princes and princesses of the Australian speculative fiction world are at this very moment having a knees up at the Aurealis Awards. I hope a good time is had by all, and that one day, I too get to go to that ball.

FrigginlatetrainFriday

Hot. Humid. Sweltering. Tennis crowds. Friday. So, naturally, there was train trouble.

Clenched teeth. Sighed. Endured. Finally got home.


On a brighter note, on the way to the Arvo Job, I was compelled by a mysterious force (a shop window upon which the words ‘sale’ and ‘book’ were painted in large letters) to alight from the tram before my usual stop. There, for $15, I scored the very last copy, snatched from the shop window, of ...

... which I've been meaning to get for ages.
Fans of Susanna Clarke will understand my excitement.

Return of the Cat Goddess

As a Cat Person /archeology buff from way back (in my youth, I studied Near Oriental Archeology at the University of Copenhagen, and I'll stick archeology into a story at the drop of a hat) I was excited to learn that the remains of a temple belonging to Queen Berenice II - wife of King Ptolemy III - have been discovered by archaeologists in the Kom el-Dekka area in Alexandria, Egypt.

As the excavation also unearthed a large collection of statues depicting the cat goddess Bastet, the goddess of protection and motherhood, archeologists think the 2200-year-old temple may in fact have been dedicated to this ancient Egyptian deity. This would indicate that the worship of Bastet continued during the later, Greek-influenced, Ptolemaic period.

And how cute are these statues? I want one.

The Writing Fairy

On the way home in the train tonight, I enjoyed reading Catherine Deveny’s piece about writing in ‘The Age’:

“…many promise themselves this will be the year they write that book. Again. What’s stopping you? You say you want to write but you don’t. Yet you say you want to go to the pub, go shopping or watch telly and you do.

“Do you really want to write? Or do you just want to wake up with a novel written by you on your pillow. I’ve been a professional writer for almost 20 years and I hate to tell you but never once have I or anyone I know woken up with a chapter, a column or 10 pages of neatly typed red-hot one-liners on their pillow.”

That's the Writing Fairy scenario – that if you wish for it hard enough, if you're a really nice person and you go to bed dreaming the dream, poof! Tinkerbell's more literary sister will take care of it all for you, and that mess in your head will magically appear the next morning on your desk all neatly formatted and ready to send off to the publisher.

Then there's the real world.

Catherine Deveny again : “More than being paid or published, winning the battle with procrastination is the biggest triumph for writers.”

Quicksilver and Diamonds

Each year, I choose a writer I want to get to know (2008/China Miéville), revisit (2009 /Iain M. Banks) or just catch up with (2007/Sonia Hartnett).


As 2010 is the Year of Neal Stephenson, I started reading ‘Quicksilver’ on the train today, and am enjoying it immensely.

Offworld oceans of liquid diamond with diamond icebergs – how evocative is that?

I can feel a beach scene coming on …

Cruising

I spent yesterday working on Big Writing Projects, checking out writing markets, and editing and submitting stories.

I also cruised the blogs to pick up news about the speculative fiction community. To that end, the monthly Australian Spec Fic Carnival is a goldmine of information.

Mostly ticked off and ready to get serious.

Weekend warrior workout - tick
Shopping - tick
Washing and cleaning - tick
Nanna nap (with cat) - tick
Quick lunch and read – pending.
A couple of hours in the Writing Cave – pending.
Then it’s off to the Star Cinema in Eaglehawk to see ‘A Serious Man’. I do love the Coen Brothers, but not as much as I love weekends.

Blog - tick

It’sFridayit’sFridayit’sFriday

My week just ended with 2 midnight rejections.

I really feel that it’s time for one of those other things, you know those, uhm, what are they called - oh yeah, acceptances.

There's a bear in it.

Good news that put a spring in my step today: two stories that I submitted to the same anthology have both been put on the short list. So, they might publish both. Or one. Or none, as occurred recently in a similar situation.

The bear story is up and running. I’ve laid down the beginning, and have already mapped out the middle and end, so I think it’ll be a reasonably co-operative piece. Hopefully it’ll be ready to send off by the end of the month.

Strawberry Mars Forever

0 rejections, 2 stories submitted. One is (hopefully visceral) SF horror, the other a 7000 word (tough to place) fantasy.

This morning I had to accept the fact that the SF story I’ve been working on for the past 2 weeks (and countless years on and off before that) still isn’t ready to face the world. I was hoping to submit it to the Warrior Wisewoman anthology, but it needs more of something. A better ending would be good too. I remain convinced, however, that one day it’ll be a beauty. So tomorrow I’ll switch to the bear story that has been coalescing in my head for a couple of days now. It’s dark, it’s sad, it’s ready to be poured onto a page.

I love this NASA image of the Martian landscape. It looks like strawberry ice-cream with chocolate flakes (or maybe I’m just hungry).

I wonder what Heinlein would have made of it.

Back to the "Real" World

I received two more you-know-whats today. I'll be sending the offending stories off again tomorrow morning.

But I did also get a little letter published in the Age, (I am an incurable letter writer) which sort of evens things out a bit.

Otherwise, I'm back into the usual routine - write in the morning (I'm working on a big SF story at the moment), head for the train station, read all the way to Melbourne, Arvo Job, catch a train, read some more as I head for home, check emails, and now, squeeze in a spot of midnight blogging.

42º is too hot for me.

And yet another rejection, this time from Abyss & Apex for a story a really wanted them to accept. I know my 2010 goal is 100 rejections, but I don't want to achieve it already by the end of January...

Still, I shall get busy and send off that poor, unwanted story again straight away. I shall also work hard on other stuff to justify the fact that I'm still at home.

Because, what with the holidays being over now, I should actually be heading off for the Arvo Job, but we're having our third day of 42º and it's already insufferable outside, so I called and asked if I could stay home for one more day. The commute to Melbourne doesn't usually bother me, but on a day like this, what with V-Line heat speed train delays and such, well - blah!


Also, one's mind does turn to the fire danger. The state looks like this today. The safest option for everyone in a bushfire prone area is to leave. I'm surrounded by forest...

I'm still getting my head wrapped around the fact that I'm no longer protected by Port Phillip Bay and lots of city buildings.

This is the flip-side of country living.

Country Living

Ah, another day, another rejection.

On the upside, now that I have swapped St Kilda for the country, I not only have a front yard, I have plum trees.

VALE, ART CLOKEY

Arthur C. (Art) Clokey
October 12, 1921 -January 8, 2010

Creator of Gumby, the goodest of green guys, and Pokey, his talking pony pal and trusty sidekick.

Here they come ...

This morning, I came home from a bracing, bushland walk through the local butterfly reserve to find a rejection in my inbox – my third this year.

It was a very nice rejection though – they’d obviously read my story, gave the reasons why it didn’t suit their magazine, and said I should feel free to submit again. I always want to thank editors who take the time to personally respond, but that, of course, is verboten.

Besides, three rejections puts me well on the road to realizing my goal of getting 100 rejections in 2010, which is, I’ll admit, a blatant rip off of one of Christopher Green’s New Year resolutions. I’m also inspired by Catherine J Gardner’s 2009 statistics - and yes, I was checking them both out because they also have stories in ‘The Tangled Bank’.

Last year, I reaped a paltry 45 rejections and scored 7 acceptances. Catherine achieved 3 times that number of rejections and made 21 sales.

I see a pattern emerging. I also detect a butterfly theme...

The Tangled Bank: Love, Wonder and Evolution

An exciting piece of pre-Christmas news for me was that my story ‘Nullipara’ will be included in the upcoming anthology ‘The Tangled Bank: Love, Wonder and Evolution’ edited by Christopher Lynch.

It will be available in both print and electronic form.

I was the very last person to be accepted, and am honoured to have snuck in between the covers.

In 2008, I did a workshop with Sean Williams at the Victorian Writers' Centre, so I'm especially pleased to find myself sharing a ToC with the Master himself.

The Viper-Seller's Son

Still online in Flash Me Magazine's October '09 fantasy issue is The Viper-Seller's Son , a story described by one editor as a 'nice, neat little fantasy'. He rejected the story (not a good fit with the magazine) but it found a home the next time I sent it out into the world.

I mention this particular story because it was a pleasure to write from beginning to end.

I used to live in St Kilda, a forty minute walk from my Afternoon Job. My daily trek took me past the Book House on Fitzroy Street, where the tables of $4 books- or 3 for $10 - constantly tempted me. The bargains that I have scored there (books on weretigers, Antarctic explorers, South American tribes) are legion.

One fine day, the book that caught my eye was 'Views of 18th Century China', a big, colourful volume of watercolours and engravings. It is compiled from two works - 'The Costume of China' by George Henry Mason, a soldier who spent a few months of sick leave in that country, and 'The Costume of China' by William Alexander, a draftsman attached to Lord Macartney's embassy to the Emperor in 1793. These original books were published in 1804 and 1805 respectively, when chinoiserie was all the rage in England.

I picked it up and flicked through the pages. The book fell open to reveal Plate XCII - 'The Viper-Seller'. The picture and the title were so evocative. A few pages later there was Plate LXXXVIII - 'A Serpent-Catcher'. Bang! The process began. I bought the book, tottered up St Kilda Road, and the story was completed in my head by the time I got to work.

There are, I think, a few more stories still hidden in that book, but I doubt they'll be as easy to extract as VPS.

Righto, here we go.

I've been informed by reliable sources that a writer today simply must have a blog. So, as part of my 2010 list of extremely professional things to do, here I am.

Baby steps.

But for now, to ring in the New Year, my story Useful Stuff is online at AntipodeanSF. Enjoy.