Quiet times

My sister and I are preparing (nifty camping / saddle thingies to buy, tents to air out) for a 3 day ride in the Victorian Highlands in November.
It’ll be quiet. It’ll be peaceful. It’ll be beaut.

Noisy times

I officially complained about the doof-doof neighbours last week (and in the process solved the mystery of why things suddenly changed for the noisier) and I'd say the message has been passed on because now, as happens when dealing with people with an inflated sense of entitlement, things are even worse.

For the past two nights, in a new twist to the adventure, within half an hour of my getting home from the Arvo Job, the doof-doof starts. Usually week days are quiet this time of night. I interpret this development as their way of saying, 'we control the horizontal, we control the vertical, we control the quality of your home life'. Typical bully behaviour. Still, there's a fine line between macho posturing and intimidation, and they're getting awfully close to crossing it. The important thing is to not succumb to victimthink, as in being pathetically grateful for what peace and quiet I can get in between and then putting up with such harassment.

So the great doof-doof adventure continues :-(

Still, there might be a story in it for me *starts to plot a vengeful fantasy*.

Weeds and WIPs

Gardening turned out to be a good, post-workshop thing to do. It was a beautiful, peaceful Spring day, and as I yanked out the triffid-weeds, I cringed at the memory of my synopsis (it was deemed crap, but I already knew that) and mulled over how to make it better. I also pondered the critiquing of my MS and considered solutions. Overall, I realise that the book needs a massive structural rewrite – the passing of (too much?) time is a particular problem – dialogue shakeups, and, very importantly, a kick ass title. I’ve been using a bland working title for so long that it’s starting to stick, and it is NOT a butt-booting, gotta-buy-that-book kind of YA title, not by a long shot.

And gotta-buy-that-book inducements like good covers and blurbs are important, as our guest speaker Sean McMullen pointed out, because you have to convince someone to not only part with their hard earned lucre for your book, but also to invest an afternoon or more to read it.

Sean gave us a great rundown on synopses, pitches, and rather depressing examples of how much the cover layout influences the sales of a book. Paul then set writing a pitch to a publisher as extra homework for our next, and final, workshop. Gaaaah! The synopsis blew my synapses. Goodness knows what damage writing a pitch will wreak upon my brain.

Weeds

With only a St Kilda balcony to tend for over two decades, I never used to really get gardening /weed metaphors. I mean, how hard could it be to potter about amongst the flowers once a week and pluck a few interlopers while you enjoy the fresh air?

But now I really really understand. For months, everything is beautifully under control, then you turn your attention elsewhere for a couple of weekends, and when you look again, the lawn has become a jungle, vines are strangling the house, the roses have vanished under the onslaught of some aggressive, creeping thingie, and other wild stuff is standing as tall as triffids, and looking just as ready as those infamous plants to pull up their roots and march against humankind.

Lesson learnt today: do not underestimate the power of Spring.

Merrymaking (not)

So it’s off to the YOSF&F workshop tomorrow, which means, of course, that the neighbours have decided as per usual to indulge their love of all things doof-doofy and bassy and whooping tonight. This is getting extremely tedious, not to mention tiring. I’ve taken various forms of action, but methinks, no, meknows that I’ll end up moving again soon simply because I can’t plan a life and work and writing around this kind of ongoing racket.

Ooops, their "music" just got louder. And deeper.

Fire Flicka

When life's everyday irritations are getting you down, it might be helpful to consider the horrific trials of poor Lisbeth Salander and then suck it up.

Done and dusty

There, *HUGE sigh of relief* I’m all finished with critiquing work samples and synopses for the YOSF&F workshop on Saturday, and I’ve still got one whole morning left to nicely type up reports. This is a first.

Now, I have to head off out into an increasingly messy messy world. It’s school holidays and the Melbourne Show is on, so the trains are packed with people, and resounding with the screams and laughter of over-excited kiddies. Forget about peacefully composing stories as the countryside glides by. Then, at the Arvo Job, there are renovations in process, and tradesmen and computer problems and dust and the smell of paint to negotiate.

Ah well, this too will pass. Ooooommmmmm.

Do it, or don't

Find time to write, that is. John Scalzi says it all here

He finishes off with:
And if you need inspiration, think of yourself on your deathbed saying “well, at least I watched a lot of TV.” If saying such a thing as your life ebbs away fills you with existential horror, well, then. I think you know what to do.

Monday Minutiae

I got a rejection for one story.

I got a hold request for another - but I won't hold my breath. I've learnt not to get too excited too soon about those.

I'm now on the Definitive List of Published Australian Spec-Fic Prose Writers.

Sunday Poem

Once I wanted to ban the bomb
And create a world of peace and love.
Now I want to ban bogan bass
And up feral fundaments sub-woofers shove.

Double Whammy

So, way way back in January, the 14th to be precise, when this blog was still minty fresh, I posted this:

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.

I must admit, I was pessimistically going with a repeat of the 'none' scenario.

However, *loud cheer* and *happy dance*, this time it went to the other extreme. On Sunday, I received an email from the editor, Stephen Studach, informing me that both of my stories will appear in the upcoming anthology 100 Lightnings.

Writing. Go figure.

Sunday Snaps and Submission Scores

Place: Airey's Inlet.

This is me and Sylvester, a big, boofy, very fast boy, and the Great Ocean Road beach that we’ve just been galloping flat out along.


Me and my sister Cindy, who is on Ginger. This was probably our last beach ride for 2010 – soon the holidaymakers and tourists will fill the beach with their towels, fishing rods, surfboards and Frisbees, and we wouldn’t be able to hoon and splash around.

Excellent people, excellent riders, excellent beach, excellent fun.

In the afternoon, 4 of us headed into the bush, and once more, much hooning on horseback was done.

And, in breaking news, as a perfect conclusion to this seriously perfect day, I came home to an email telling me that two of my stories have been accepted for the same anthology. The drought is over!!! But more about that later.

(Writing) Life Goes On (2)

Many many many moons ago, I had 3 stories published in The School Magazine, all of which were illustrated by Kim Gamble.

Today, out of the blue, I got this email, which might be of interest to others as well:

I wanted to notify you of a forthcoming ABC Radio National Hindsight program, which will be a retrospective on history of The School Magazine. As a current or former contributor to the magazine, I thought it might be of particular interest to you.

Hindsight is a one-hour weekly feature program on Australia’s National radio network, devoted exclusively to social history. If you are outside Australia, details can be found via the link below and the show will be available as a podcast.

The School Magazine has been produced every year since 1916 and has been loved by generations of Australian children. The list of staff and contributors over that time reads like a who’s who of great writers and from Australia and around the world.

The program will include recent and archival interviews with a host of people whose paths have intersected with that of the School Magazine. Actors will be reading correspondences, story extracts and letters from our readers.

So tune your radio to ABC Radio National at 2.00 pm this Sunday afternoon, sit down with a cuppa, and enjoy!

For more information, please click on the link below:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/stories/2010/2997272.htm

(Writing) Life Goes On

So I received a rejection yesterday. Not just any old rejection, but a personal rejection from one of the pro publications. My work was praised and analysed and favourably compared with another work (oh no, I reinvented the wheel?). Then they asked me to send more work when it becomes available.

During Worldcon, I learnt a new word – rejectomancy. As in ‘Do not practice this.’

But I can’t help it. I gaze at the entrails of the email and try to divine my future. What does it all mean? Is my work good, is it bad, is it …?

Worldcon: A Really Rapid Roundup

So many people are blogging about AussieCon4, and most of them are insiders with far better photos of the behind the scenes happenings and major events, far more intimate meetings with interesting people to tell about, and certainly a higher grade of gossip than me, so I’m just going to do a ramshackle rundown of a few everyday things that happened to me, amused me, or in some way caught my inconsequential attention. There will be much gratuitous name dropping as well.

1) The funny film montage shown at the opening ceremony. Cutting back and forth between Aussie films and SF classics, it gave us, among other things, Sarah Connor watching Mad Max blow up Kenny’s poo truck and the Terminator emerging from the flames, Storm Troopers shooting down Ned Kelly, hobbits hiding from the Wolf Creek psycho, David Gulpilil watching X-wings bomb Darwin, and Crocodile Dundee doing his call-that-a-knife shtick to Darth Vader. By popular demand, the montage was shown again at the closing ceremony.

2) The Write the Fight workshop was fun because we got to get up for a change and jump around and pretend to hit each other. Predictably, there were a few guys, some in berets, who were eager to impress Alan Baxter by expounding their knowledge of commando techniques for quickly killing people or by trying to grab his leg when he was demonstrating kicks, but he very deftly and graciously deflected their attempts at hogging the limelight.

3) I enjoyed any session or panel with Kim Stanley Robinson in it. The man is brilliant, funny, compassionate, optimistic about the future, ideological, and just plain lovely. He got top points from me for continually referring to Economics as a pseudoscience, and belittling it as the astrology of our times.

4) While standing in a long line waiting for the above mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson to sign my Blue Mars, I got to chat and joke with folk from Finland, the UK and Western Australia. We felt sorry for poor KSR, but not sorry enough to remove ourselves from the queue, and explored the possibility of just asking him to simply spit on the title pages of our books. It got a bit gross. I suppose you had to be there.

5) The later people arrived for a session, the closer to the front they wanted to sit, and then preferably right in the middle so that half a row of settled folk had to get up to let them past.

6) I recall suffering through a dark, bleak, very weird, Brazilian SF film and groaning with the rest of the audience at the end when it turned out to have no point whatsoever. It was like a parody of an art house movie, and yet it wasn’t. The comments from the audience made it worth the agony. It was a real bonding experience, but the memory of that film still makes me shudder.

7) I got a bag of lollies from Twelfth Planet Press when I bought a book. I love freebies and personal touches.

8) Coffee with Kaaron Warren. I signed up for my first kaffeeklatch as a tentative exercise in practicing my convention socializing skills and overcoming public shyness, thinking there would be no pressure to perform because I could hide amongst the other 8 participants. Shock, horror, I was the only participant. Amazingly, I remained calm. Fortunately, I didn’t babble. I wasn’t brilliant, but I didn’t babble. Happily, Laura E Goodin and a few other writerly folk and their friends and family joined us, so I got lean back and listen to how the other half lives (you know, how it is when your stuff gets published a lot and editors actually invite you to submit stuff) and I even occasionally butted in. The only fudge was when Kaaron kindly asked me if I was a writer and I went into my default, dismissive waffly mode. The highlight of the klatsch was when Kaaron suddenly jumped up because she had spotted Robert Silverberg , sprinted across the room for an autograph and a fangirl chat, then returned with stories of his niceness.

8) Peter M Ball signed my copy of Bleed. I tried to ever so casually mention that we shared the TOC of Moonlight Tuber #1, but my brain inexplicably latched onto Midnight Echo, so I babbled something about Midlight Mumble Mumble instead. Peter was a real gentleman and very gracious about it.


9) Have I mentioned the Build a Lego Dalek workshop? It was fun.






10) I got a big hug from Sue Bursztynski, and she shared the news that her book Wolfborn has been picked up by a publisher and will be out in December. Go Sue!

11) Coffee with Catherynne M. Valente, during which I did not mumble or babble, said a few relevant things, and scored a treasure.

12) Coffee with George R.R. Martin (I just can’t repeat that often enough) during which I also said a few coherent words. See, practice pays.

13) On the last day, I was much amused by a panel with Greg Benford, Alistair Reynolds and Charles Stross during which many science jokes were made about centrifugal forces, teleportation, FTL ships and stasis fields, and the audience laughed in all the right places. I love SF people!

There’s more, but that’s enough. I’ve got some more sleeping to do.

Worldcon: The Aftermath

I woke up this morning with a cranium-splitting headache, which I dubbed Revenge of the Convention Centre. I'm certainly glad that I slated an extra day off from the Arvo Job for recovery. It has taken various pharmaceutical products and two pots of strong tea to restore me to a vaguely coherent state. Today will involve much fresh air and liquids, an invigorating walk in the country sunshine, a nanna nap or two, and much ruminating upon the events of the last five days.

I’ll get back to you with an afternoon blog once I’ve sorted out my chaotic, post-convention state.

In the meantime, here's another Lego Dalek pic:

Worldcon Five: Coffee

Now the carnival is over… and I’m sooooo tired. Over the last five days, I’ve been getting about fours hours of sleep a night. Tomorrow will be a sleep in and catch up day.

Today was an excellent finale to the convention. I went to 2 Kaffeeklatches (strictly 9 participants at most, one author-host, and the hot drink of your choice). I hadn't considered attending any of these, but on the Saturday, 2 of my fellow YOSF&F workshoppers highly recommended that I try them, so I signed up for a few on the Sunday and Monday to break up the panels, workshops and films.

The first KK today was with Catherynne M. Valente, a wonderful, though visibly tired (day 5!!!) hostess, who gave me a signed galley of her upcoming book Deathless with instructions to blog a review of it once I’ve read it. Three other lucky participants also got copies and instructions. This had nothing to do with Catherynne having a clue about who any of us were. When she asked who hadn’t read any of her books (I’ve only read her short stories) we four were the ones who honestly, but shamefacedly, put up our hands, each of us thinking we had just effectively removed ourselves from consideration for the much coveted prizes. But lo and behold, fate did a squirmy twisty back flip, and we apparent losers were *punches air* in fact the winners!

The other Kaffeeklatch was with… wait for it … George R.R. Martin! What a lovely man! Given that there was a queue a mile long for his much hyped KK yesterday, that I got to meet him at all was a stroke of absurd luck. I went to sign up for Catherynne’s KK, and there was a sheet for George utterly devoid of any signatures. I thought it was a mistake, but no, he was sneaking in an extra session, which no-one seemed to know anything about, and so I put my name down as the #1 participant. He told us about his career and gave lots of good advice. I was particularly interested in what he had to say about the upcoming HBO series Game of Thrones based on his work.

I also attended 3 panels today, with names like John Scalzi, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Greg Benford and Charles Stross sharing thoughts, techniques and good advice. Then it was time for the closing ceremony, and finally, time to return to the Real World.

Over the past 5 days, I’ve met so many clever, funny, down-to-earth and generous people, but there’s simply no point going into it any further now, for I am too pooped to do any of it justice.

Worldcon Four: Priorities.

What happened to days two and three? You tell me. I’m in a bubble. I suspect, however, that it has to do with a little something Einstein mentioned in his Special Theory of SF Geekdom called Convention Time. Anyway, I’ll do a catchup later in the week.

For now, it’s enough to report that I’ve boldly set forth early each day, my rucksack packed with special survival rations: cheese sandwiches, Pink Ladies, gingerbread men and barrels of water (that convention centre literally sucks the fluid out of you). I've done much, learnt much, and met many people. No details now - must get ready for tomorrow.

I’m only posting today so I can show you that I achieved my ultimate goal. Well, one of my many ultimate WorldCon goals (and yes, I got Kim Stanley Robinson's autograph - yay!)
Some people will leave AussieCon4 with a Hugo (and congratulations to them all), but me, I’ve got this Lego Dalek that I made myself:

And proud I am of it too, as were the others at this workshop (proud of their own creations, I mean). This was FUN. And believe me, there will be mini-Daleks posted on Facebooks everywhere.

Worldcon One

A gentle start to Aussiecon4 - gotta pace myself. I attended the opening ceremony, then fun was had, panels were attended (only two today: ‘The balancing act of speculative fiction comedy’ and 'Minotaurs in space helmets: using myth in science fiction’), familiar names were attached to faces, hellos were said, and hands were shaken.

And in breaking news, a fellow YOSF&F workshopper who is also a Worldcon volunteer informed me that all is not lost on the building a Dalek out of Lego front – apparently there’s a session for adults too. Consider it locked in.

After a spin around the Dealers Room, I headed across the city for a movie: Tomorrow, When the War Began. Good, gripping stuff.

Scifi Spring

One more sleep to go :-)