Floods, freebies and farewells

After a mad / bad week in the Real World, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to make it to the final session of the Year of SF & Fantasy with Paul Collins workshop, but I woke up early this morning determined to finish off what I started so many months ago.

First, though, I had to brave the weather. Across the road, where not so long ago one looked down from the 1-2 meter high embankment at a dry creek bed, there is now a raging river. This morning it looked like this:

As with all good quests, I did get some help from a passing stranger – a nice lady from Maryborough gave me a lift to the station in her white car.

I’m glad I got to Melbourne, wet as it was, because it turned out to be an excellent day. The critiquing went well (I was chuffed by the kind words said about my MS) and Trudi Canavan* was a brilliant guest speaker and downright lovely person who not only shared her knowledge of the writing industry, but also took the time to talk individually with each of us. To our great joy, she brought a bag full of freebie books for us, and then signed them. I nabbed:


Once we completed the afternoon session of critiquing, it was time to party. There was bubbly and cheese platters and savoury snacks and a killer cheesecake, accompanied by lots of laughing and talking. Plans for keeping in contact and setting up a writing group for next year were made, and finally it was time to hug and kiss cheeks and say farewell for 2010 to a group of people who started out as strangers, but came to share their visions and dreams with each other.

After taking care of business in the city, I headed for home, writing away on my vampire story (will I make the deadline?) while torrential rain slammed into the train. It was quite cosy. Then I practically paddled home from the station to find SES tape set up on the flooded pavement outside my house:

As I took this photo, a SES car sped past, siren sounding, on its way to another emergency. It’s still raining heavily, and the “creek” across the road is even higher than it was this morning, and its current is unbelievably strong.

This most writerly day then ended well with an email from a specfic magazine notifying me that one of my stories has graduated to the next round.

*Trudi illustrated my story 'Voyage to Abydos' way back in Aurealis #24, before she became a mega bestselling author. I wish I'd had the guts to get her to sign one of the issues I have stashed away.