Tuesday, 22 January 2008 Got a nice review for Blurred Horizons HERE Thursday, 3 January 2008 In this era of the blog, people are throwing together lists for favourite Aussie SF of 2007 and I'm proud to get a few mentions: - Two Honorable Mentions 2007 by Random Alex" at Last Short Story for "Collecting Whispers" and "A Complete Refabrication" - A My Top Reads by Tansy Raynor Roberts at Last Short Story for "A Complete Refabrication" and a Recommended Read for "Blurred Horizons" - An Honorable Mention by Ben Payne for "Blurred Horizons" - A Year's Best 2007 from Alisa Krasnostein for "A Complete Refabrication" and a Recommended Reading for "Blurred Horizons" and THIS stunning little notice which Cat Sparks assures me carries great weight since Alisa reads 3,000 short stories a year. Thursday, 27 December 2007 Finally a YA publication! I love YA and I'm so glad "Shiny" like my stories. "Blurred Horizons" appeared in Issue 2 of Shiny Review Wednesday, 28 November 2007 Read my latest Anti-sf story For the Love of Mike Thursday, 23 August 2007 Orb #7 gets another great wrap over at Horrorscope Tuesday, 3 July 2007 Orb was launched in June at the Natcon in Melbourne and is getting great reviews. Orb always gets great reviews and I think that is mainly because Sarah has great taste and is an awesome editor... possibly the best, anywhere. Read this review at Last Short Story. Isn't that sensational? Australian SF Reader have done something less like a review and more like a holding up scorecards. Mine is the second explanation and score - 4 out of 5. Flashspec 2 also came out today. I have no idea how that will fare with reviewers. Tuesday, 22 May 2007 Been a better year so far. As well as ASIM picking up "Collecting Whispers", Flashspec 2 have nabbed "The Tartan Tie", Antipodean SF have taken "For the Love of Mike" for their Sept issue and Orb have picked up a story as well... still ironing out the kinks. Personally, I think it's a mistake, Orb has always been such a classy mag. I hope I don't lower the tone. It is my favourite story tho... real 40-something chiclit angst combined with science fiction and death... it's not easy to write this new genre of mine, you know. Also Blake Ed are publishing this year! Yaaay! Sent three stories off for their Sparklers Blue. Saturday, 10 March 2007 My children's sf books "Take me to your Leader", "Red Hot Pet" and "Beast of Moogill" have sold licences to be printed and sold in the US via Rigby Harcourt Achieve (still available locally via Blake Ed) and eventually I got a nice cheque. Writers hardly ever get nice cheques, so this is big news. Sunday, 21 January 2007 "Collecting Whispers" was accepted by Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine for publication this April. "Become a Children's Writer" is off for its third reprint and a new name "How to Become a children's Writer". Tuesday, 26 September 2006 TOP JOB GUIDE - Become a Children's Writer is due for a makeover from A4 down to A5 and will be renamed How to Become a Children's Writer. It has also gone INTERACTIVE! Over at Live Journal I'll be answering questions about the topics covered in the book and attempting to further new writer's knowledge thru links and blogarticles. Please choof on over and take a look. Purchase the guide at www.acq.edu.au/bookshop Someone offered to send me a contract for a children's novel two weeks ago. As soon as I see it, I shall celebrate. Saturday, 24 June 2006 Highlights of 2006 so far, have been getting stories accepted at both Agog and Andromeda Spaceways. Unfortunately both were later declined by the editors because of common reasons at the layout stage, ie. something else too similar, a clash of tastes between the accepting reader and the editor. I don't think my style has as broad an appeal as other styles... which is a shame because it's the style I have. I suppose I could try someone else's style? My non-fiction "Become a Children's Writer Guide" is selling well according to the publisher. Looking at the monthly royalty statement tho... it seems to sell one copy a week... which isn't my definition of "well" so anyone who has read it, and liked it, please go to its new bookshop and write a few nice words about it in the review section: TOP JOB GUIDE - Become a Children's Writer On the republishing front, "Interface Shadow" has made it into a flash fiction anthology called "Flash Spec" now simply renamed "Shadow". Wednesday, 30 November 2005 A few days ago, at the National Australian Archives, this book: was launched by Jack Dann who said: "If you read in the genre; if you want to know who is doing what--and why; if you need a comprehensive, definitive text on the state of sf and fantasy and horror in Australia; or if you just want a wonderfully enjoyable read, then you need Australian Speculative Fiction: a Genre Overview. Buy this book! It will become an Australian genre classic." Jack Dann has a name for talking like this but I shall forgive him his "schtick" not just because it's accurate but also because Donna Hanson very kindly allowed me to be interviewed for the book and put me in there. :) I feel like I have to get lots more stuff published now to justify my inclusion with those other fine names and not let the book buyers down. Technically the publishing year is over. I did heaps of work and sent half of it out, but it has all unceremoniously been bounced back or is all still languishing in slush piles, now probably strewn with party hats and balancing glasses of champers as the publishers wind down for Christmas and a bit of well-deserved fun in the sun. The interview in "Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview" and the most incredibly helpful guide for beginning writers shall be all that the world shall see from me for 2005. And even the guide is doing most of its marketing next year. Looking back it shall appear that I sat on my bum in 2005 picking my nose, and that's why it's hard to be a writer at this time of year. In 2006 my ambition is appear to be prolific. I've already got a bit of a jump on 2006 so it's a good time to get that ambition, I reckon. Anyway, follow this link to find out more about Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview Tuesday, 6 September 2005 Look! Two posts in two months! I am spoiling my fans... okay... my fan. This is just to let you know there is an interview at the Internet Review of Science Fiction you can read in which I play the role of interviewee... which would be because I AM one of the interviewees: IROSF I promise I did mention my undying love for both SuperNOVA and Otherworlds and said very good things about both groups but these got cut from the interview. I think because they were focussing on Clarion and what they see as the most popular online groups. Wednesday, 31 August 2005 Okay... who stole half of 2005? Where's it gone? Well some might say I haven't done anything newsworthy this year BUT they'd be wrong! I have spent a great many months this year writing down everything I know about children's writing and the Aus marketplace, picking the brains of my colleagues, interviewing anyone who would stand still long enough and I'm finally pleased with the results. I believe I have come up with the most useful, most specific, most comprehensive guide for beginning children's writers in Australia. Normally, I'm more modest about things like this as you know, but I can't be modest since my guide includes words of wisdom and tips from so many other more fantastic writers who gave out pearls and gems gained from their experiences so generously. Writers like Robin Hobb (gasp!), Anna Ciddor, Jen McVeity, Sherryl Clark, Claire Saxby, Sally Murphy, Robyn Opie, Richard Harland, Marie Alafaci, Tony Shillitoe, and industry professionals like Sophia Oravecz, editor, and Dr Jeremy Fisher, exec. director of the Australian Society of Authors. This guide is worthy of promotion based on the contributions alone! It also includes everything you need to know about perfecting your craft, including a handy dandy plot checker and a rewriting checklist, how to prepare and submit manuscripts, cover letters, query letters and synopsi, lists of industry contacts, publishers, helpful books and websites, how the industry in Australia functions, how to find critique groups and how to target your ms towards the right publisher. In short everything you'll need to know to get started, including all the nitty gritty details. The stuff in this guide will knock years off your learning curve and save you miles of legwork, because my legs and years and blood, sweat and tears have all been thrown into it! It'll be out in January and you can buy it here: TOP JOB GUIDES. Anyone who buys it after reading this enthusiastic waffle is entitled to email me with any number of questions about the content in the guide (not just what I had for lunch or how many fish I own). News that I forgot to enter in here a few months ago was that I was contacted by a Sydney/LA company who wanted to make the Ernest stories into an animation. I quickly got hold of Thomson Learning who very kindly gave me back all the movie and TV rights which allowed the interested company to explore the possibility. They are currently still exploring. I got to the Continuum Conference in Melbourne last month and met a few people I hadn't met before and reintroduced myself to a few I had. It seems I'm not terribly memorable in the flesh. I shall have to invent a character to write my stories for me. Brenony MacSnickett maybe. But what about my sf and my other colleagues, the rest of the Borg, I hear you say? Well I'm glad I mentioned that. The long post-Clarion winter seems to be over and the Borgs are blooming. Just a glance at the Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy page at Mirrordanse shows you that those that didn't actually make it into the book were still named as recommended reading from 2004. My 2004 stories didn't make the list but I'm still riding the wave of my Locus review so that's okay. James Cain has released a collection of his work, entitled "Encounters", over at Naked Snake Press with this sensational blurb: "James R. Cain is one of those rare breed of writers that do not compromise. His work is fresh, exciting, and individual. Like Joe Lansdale, he does not flinch from the darkness of his imagination or the darkness of the human condition. He weaves both skeins into an inseparable whole--starkly vivid and brutally uncompromising. Whether he's writing fantasy, horror, or science fiction, his vision is true, visceral, and oftentimes, disturbing. Repeat, he does not flinch... but you will." —Tim Curran, author of “Hive” Which accurately describes James' work. Read it if you dare! Cat Sparks has just returned from NY after winning a Writers of the Future award and going to collect it from L Ron Hubbard, Wendy is cavorting all over Europe and now Alinta who is recovering well from cancer has gone to do some European cavorting of her own. Mr Haines is going to release a book soon too... it's all in the works still. Stay tuned. I may even have news about my next publication by then, or, [daydream mode on] a Hollywood movie deal! [daydream mode off]. You have to admit, mailing books to Hollywood for a film-makers meeting is pretty surreal for any writer. Speaking of movies and Hollywood, can I direct you to a shortfilm written, directed and starring my cousin, no stranger to Hollywood, Sara Wiseman: Flowers for the Road. Friday, 4 February 2005 Happy New Year! They come around so fast! "Lost Property" didn't make it thru to the shortlist in the Aurealis Awards but my friends and fellow borg, Cat Sparks, Brendan Duffy and Paul Haines all managed to score awards. The aforementioned "Black Crusade" also won an award. I think Australian Spec Fic is where it is all at right now. Exciting stuff on the boil out there in those Aussie minds. Also been getting great feedback from teachers etc about Blake Ed's Gigglers series. They love the character lists and the glossaries and the colour and fun of them. I'm very pleased to have been a contributor to the series... in fact, I'm so pleased I've already sent Blake a pile more possibles for 2005. Claire Saxby and I went all jetsettish and shouted ourselves a quick trip to Sydney to go to the Christmas cocktail party at Blake Ed and meet all the lovely people there. Great fun. Great company. Another silly photo of me. Altho a nice photo of Claire and even captured the gorgeous Sophia, far right. Wednesday, 15 December 2004 Finally got my Locus magazine and can confirm that getting my story reviewed in Locus is not some elaborate scam designed to tease the living daylights out of me... it's all TRUE! The same story "Lost Property", a Clarion Sth induced story, is eligible for an Aurealis Award as you can see in the list. Pretty cool, huh? My review of Black Crusade by Richard Harland is over at Visions Magazine. It's a fun book and would make a great chrissie pressie for anyone who likes dark humour (those would be the moody people who don't go out much). And in the very latest breaking news, hot off the press... I own MacDibble.com! Yes, I know you all wanted to snare this most excellent of website addresses. All the other MacDibbles of the world are literally eating their hearts out. Ancient looney Scotsmen are gnashing their teeth, crawling out of the heather, plucking the sharp bits from their sporrans and posting vendettas engraved into haggis, as we speak! I got macdibble.com on advice from a friend who looked at my website, my elaborate website that I built myself and said... "simplify and get a dot com". I'm quite willing to concede my ignorance on such matters (writing taught me that) and have taken her advice. That's why the website has lost the way-out space backgrounds, lost the complicated menu that took ages to load, lost the scrolly sections, lost most of the pictures and taken a step towards making the kid's stuff easier to find. Thank you, Tanya. (PS. the beige was my idea). Tuesday, 23 November 2004 I just got back from a weekend at Tye Estate. Tye is the biggest piece of old-growth privately owned (by John Marsden) forest in Victoria. Children's writers from all over Australia met there for four days of workshops and discussions organised by SOBI and SCBWI. I met lovely writers and soaked up the enthusiasm and tips that were unselfishly shared around. Great fun and food and friends. Wednesday, 10 November 2004 Oh my... I got a real 'live' review of my story in Andromeda Spaceways. It is in the November Locus magazine in the short fic reviews by Rich Horton! "In the August-September issue of Australia's ASIM I was particularly impressed by Bren MacDibble's Lost Property, a neat SF horror short story about an unethical lost property merchant who claims a potentially valuable box, always carried by certain aliens when they negotiate. Of course, he is unable to resist opening it... The secret is appropriate and nicely sprung." I am particularly stunned that anybody is particularly impressed let alone a Locus reviewer! What an astute, wonderful, generous person Mr Horton must be! :) Thanks to Marianne De Pierres for giving me the goss. Now I have to go out and obtain a copy of Locus and frame it! The Internet Review of Science Fiction's L. Blunt Jackson had this to say about Lost Property... and my name: "Andromeda Spaceways declares itself Australia's PULPIEST Speculative Fiction Magazine, and it does have a tendency to publish stuff on the fluffy side of fluff. Examples of light-but-fun in this issue include Scales of Justice by Susie Hawes, Counter Clock by Patrick Mullarkey, and Lost Property by Bren MacDibble (are these names real?)." It gave me a giggle. I'm sure MacDibble is a better name than Brown or Smith for being remembered. Tuesday, 5 October 2004 My review of "Time's Eye" by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter is up at Visions Mag. AND I may have had only one bit of feedback on my story "Lost Property" in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine but it was nice and from a knowledgeable critic. I can't really go into details since it was unofficially passed to me and one never names one's sources... do they Ben? ;) Suddenly in the children's book market I have more publishers willing to take submissions than I can write! Years of digging around and making contacts are finally paying off. Wednesday, 15 September 2004 There have been... 6909 units of 'Take Me to your Leader' & 3933 of 'A Red Hot Pet' sold! I just found out. Sure, if you're American you're yawning right now... but that is exciting stuff to a little author in a Downunder marketplace! Thank you to everyone who bought a copy of one of my books. Wednesday, 25 August 2004 Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine hit the mailbox today with my story Lost Property aboard and me on the front cover. Thank you, wonderful dynamo editor, Zara Baxter: What do you mean, "yeah, right?" Apart from the face and the hair and just about everything else, it looks just like me... well, she's wearing jeans like me. The cover art is by Daryl Lindquist at RD Studios. Be sure and check your seat pockets for this issue next time you travel intergalactically with Andromeda Spaceways or you can order them direct from their Earth Stockist. Friday, 6 August 2004 The Beast of Moogill arrived in the mail today! Click the Children's in the Publications menu to find out more. Wednesday, 4 August 2004 My review of Deep Black: Biowar is up at Visions Magazine. It was a tough one to write. I think Orion made a mistake sending a spy thriller to a speculative fiction magazine for a start and I had to keep in mind the interests of the audience at Visions. Plus, I think Coonts and Defelice just plain could've done better. It doesn't read like a collaboration at all. It feels like it was decidedly lacking in feedback actually. I'd love to know why. Touchy authors, overworked editors, rushed jobs, there are a lot of reasons books fail to reach their potential. Monday, 2 August 2004 The Beast of Moogill is being advertised at Blake Ed as coming soon. Click for a sneak preview. Thursday, 22 July 2004 Failed First Contact Attempt 957 won the voting at Antipodean SF last month. Thanks to everyone who voted for the story. It was one of those things that just blurted out of me and sometimes I'm not sure whether to offer such things up to the public. Sorta like a cat that is proud of a furball but unsure about how her human will feel about having it land in her shoe. I coughed up another furball recently... this one was to a plan. A Lester Dent guide to writing pulp fiction actually. It was my attempt at a Book In A Week when I had no ideas or plans. Book In A Week (BIAW to those in the know) is an attempt to write most of a novel in a week. Other attempts have gained me 30,000w and a novel outline. This time, I just had too much on to commit more than 2000w a day. Anyway I now have a very pulpy, very silly story which I suspect has too much drool on it to show it to anyone. Drool or not, Otherworlds gave a lovely little plaque for participating: Wednesday, 7 July 2004 I think people must be bored of photogenic types. Zara is putting a photo of me in the next Computer Choice magazine and today I see that part of Claire McKenna's new webpage includes a photo of me pulling a face (really it's my normal face... I'm just trying to make you think I look like that on purpose), drinking wif da' boys. This photo is meant to lure people to further explore her webpage? Do I have photos of me on the first page of my website? No. They are hidden away so I only scare people who like to surf. The only way Claire's photo could possibly lure people on was if she stirred up a bit of gossip and innuendo about the session in progress... oh... I had a review published in Scifidimensions last week. I like this emag. Great interview with Octavia Butler there somewhere and lots of great science articles. Roast Suckling Damn-Beast is a good recipe under Original Fiction too. Don't try it at home. This was my third ever review. Having discovered that non-fiction isn't really my forte after a class with Rhonda Whitton, I had to be pushed to attempt another review. The first review, of course, was a load of rubbish and rightly got rubbished in the Book of Reviews. The second was for the radio and never went to air because I didn't want to drive to the otherside of the city to read it on air (there's a limit to the amount of work I'll do for free). But I'm feeling better about this one mostly because it is a novel that deserves a bit more attention and I could review it comfortably. Visions sent me one to review for their mag but I think I'll have a bit more trouble with that one. I think I'll just stick to reviewing books I choose after this. Saturday, 19 June 2004 Failed First Contact Attempt 957 went online at Antipodean SF last night. Hurry over and read the emag. You can vote for your favourite 500 word story. I spent the day with Rhonda Whitton learning feature article writing. My brain clouds at the thought of non-fiction, even after some successes, so I thought I should figure out exactly how it was meant to be done so I could make a valid judgement on whether non-fic really is for me or not. Rhonda Whitton has just the kind of practical advice that I understand... that's always the good thing about TAFE courses... but she gave me too much homework! I popped into Continuum 2, the Melbourne SFF con, on Monday and caught Max Barry's talk. He's written Syrup and Jennifer Government and talked about marketing his work in the USA and online. He's made Jennifer Government into a game and sold the movie rights. I thought it was funny that he thinks he's boring and says everything interesting in his books (I've always thought that about myself) but he's using his blog as a marketing tool. I suppose for a writer, a blog is more in tune with expressing himself than giving talks... as we all know, writers write, it's their thing. I'm a bit worried now that my blogs even bore me. Max said Syrup was a flop, which surprised me since I remember hearing about it when it first came out. It was an item with net browsing sf fans immediately... but then I suppose we were a small market... strangely, this is still the market attracted by his webpage and game. I start Book In A Week on Monday. BIAW isn't really about art, it's about discipline. It's about pledging to be at my desk for three-five hours a day, every day, for a week, writing. Apart from reading every wonderful thing ever written, scheduled writing time is the most important thing a writer can do. I'm trying out Lester Dent's formula for pulp fiction which is a plan for writing 6000 words of pure entertainment. I have only pledged 1000 words a day. I do about two BIAW a year and usually that's how I come up with the bulk of the novels that languish around my attic waiting for massive rewrites. But hey, at least I have something to rewrite. Who else has seven novels of 30,000w+ in their attic? How many people finish even one novel? In the past, I've typed 5000 words a day so I feel like a wimp pledging a mere 1000 but I don't want to write without a plan because I always stuff up the structure. Decent plans take time and the writing group kicks off on Monday... no time for decent plans. I'm going to do another BIAW in July, but for now it's Lester Dent's plan and my whacky ideas. All the menu links should now lead somewhere. I've decided a Photo page is a stupid idea when I am so photographically challenged and hardly ever take photos but I've put a slide show up there. I've hurriedly done a links page too but there are so many other good ones out there, I may just link to other people's links pages and be done with it. Why reinvent the wheel? Wednesday, 9 June 2004 Visions, the magazine of Fantastic Queensland, published my short guide for convention goers: 10 Ways to Tell if your Star Trek Costume is too Small. I get the feeling it lowers the tone of the magazine but I did extensive research and interviews at Conflux to determine the most important 10 points, so I'm not holding myself personally responsible. Many people had a part in it... and you know who you are... and you know which items are true! Wednesday, 20 May 2004 I qualified for PLR and ELR payments for last year! If you don't know what this is, it's when a government body estimates how many of your books are held in libraries and their borrowing rate and gives you a small payment for each borrow to compensate for books not sold. It comes as a wonderful surprise to me. I've never qualified before. The idea of surprise cash really appeals to me. Everyone send more! The industry is pretty happy too as ELR has got loads of funding and looks like it is here to stay. I believe the UK and Canada have similar schemes and NZ has, but can't fund it every year. Monday, 3 May 2004 I'm having some fun on the publishing front: Antipodean SF are publishing my humorous first-contact-gone-wrong tale in their June issue and >Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine will publish a rather dark story of mine 'Lost Property' in August (issue 14). Anyone who knows these magazines might think it a reversal of roles that the funny piece is with Antipodean and the dark piece with Andromeda. All I can say is that Andromeda think I'm funny when I write dark. One of us has an odd sense of humour, and I suspect it may be me. As you can see, I am still working on my website. The only photos up so far are all the ones where I look really photogenic... yes, I know there are none. Speaking of photos, did anyone get the April issue of Locus Mag? There's a photo of the whole Clarion crew with Jack Dann in that one. It's the same photo as the one down below. Scroll down. I drove up to Canberra and went to my first ever Con two weeks ago. I thought it might possibly be the nerdiest thing I'd ever done, but I fit right in! I actually knew a lot of people after my six weeks in Brisbane and every Clarionite except James made it to the Con so it was a bit of a reunion as well, with normal (well, slightly more normal) people to temper the Clarionesquesness of us. OK, so we went round making 'we of the Clarionborg' and assimilation jokes but if you can't do that at a convention where can you do it? I'd only been there two minutes when Robbie Matthews of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Mag tapped me on the shoulder and said hello. I wondered how I'd managed to impress anyone enough to remember my name. I was all overcome with surprise. Ticonderoga Online launched a fundraising cookbook at Conflux. I contributed one of the recipes. The theme seems to be food with a dash of the unknown and a dollop of humour. So the lucky people who splurged their $3.50 will be laughing all the way to the dinner table. Saturday 20, March 2004 Blake Ed emailed me. They want to publish "The Beast of Planet Moogill", a stand alone sequel to "Take Me to your Leader". My wonderful fans asked me repeatedly, some even nagged me in the nicest possible way, to write more stories about Tim and Gweep. Gweep is still busy trying to take over the moon by eating his way through its cheesey surface but a small alien named Meep is in trouble and needs Tim's help. Hopefully the book will be out later this year. Windstorm Creative wrote to me to assure me of their continued interest in my manuscripts. Isn't that lovely? It's a weird feeling. Normally I leap up and down saying, "just read a little bit," and get absolutely no where so when a publisher says, "yes, I think we have something here," I'm a bit stunned. Everyone tells me I need an agent and I've been thinking it would be easier to wait until I do something more impressive like sell a novel because agents take a lot of impressing too. The accumulative hours of trying to self-market my work has worn me down. Brendan Duffy, my evil twin from Clarion South, just got head-hunted by a New York agent so perhaps there is hope for me. Perhaps I could just sit back and look cool like Brendan. Nah... he's just too kewl. But if any New York agents are reading this... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Saturday 28, February 2004 Well, I'm home, back in Melbourne of the enormous temperature variables (don't like the weather? Wait five minutes). Brisbane is still sweltering along steadily without me. I had a great time up north at Clarion South but now I need to figure out how to make writing pay and how to put everything I learned into the context of the real world. It's true hothouse flowers do wilt when you take them out of the hothouse but the best ones toughen up and take on the elements, spread a few seeds and watch them grow. You'll see which one I am over the coming months. Oh... Kim Wilkins very kindly gave me the quote "She is not a wanker" to use as my first novel blurb, but I thought, why wait? I'll put it on my website so the world knows (at least the online world) that I am not a wanker. That's got to count for something, right? She was actually referring to my writing style and the fact that I don't write to make people go "Oooooh, look at her, she's a smartypants." I want readers to be entertained and amused and think about anything but the author because... I'm not a wanker. :) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you want news of my Clarion South adventures over January/February 2004 click the button: THE CLARION SOUTH GANG IN ITS NATURAL SETTING... A BAR. Back: Wendy, Sarah, Grace, Kim, Kate, Jack, Chris, Zara, Andrew, Paul Front: Brendan, James, Tracey, Alinta, Karin, Matt, Bren, Claire Head in globe on table: Cat. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Monday 22, December 2003 Way back on Tuesday 16th of December I had an email from Antipodean sf to say that my story 'Jericho's Gate' had been voted favourite story by the readers of Antipodean sf for 2002. That's what it's all about... pleasing readers, kids following me thru the playground chanting "take me to your weader!", people looking at me sideways over dinner because they read something scary I wrote and doubt my sanity... ahhhhh... THAT is satisfying. Antipodean sf gave me an Anti sf Award... which is really pro-sf... I think... anyway it looks like this: and clicking it will take you to their mag to read the three favourite stories of 2002 and a regular issue. I spent many months (in 2002) convincing a children's series publishing company (naming would be 'bad form') that I was worthy of being on their 'list of authors. They wrote to me today informing me I was not actually on their 'main' list and might like to apply again. Having invested a lot of postage, time and mental torture in the application processes of this publisher already, I'm inclined to think... I might NOT like to. I'm sure all the individual editors at this company are just doing their jobs, following policy but people have less trouble getting novels published! All I wanted was my name on a list. Why do publishers go to so much trouble to protect themselves from someone who might one day send them something good that they could sell? Writing is a shocking industry if you look at it from the perspective of how hard it is to get the distributors to even look at the primary product. So I don't. There is something about putting images and emotions directly into people's heads that can't be beat. So I'll go on writing and if I want things to get out there to where the people's heads are... I guess I'll just have to jump thru the hoops when I am told to. I wish they wouldn't keep moving them at the last minute tho. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Saturday 13, December 2003 OMG! The year is almost over! In a massive panic I decided that I had to stop rewriting 'SPlatterbys' and put the first half on an email to Windstorm before they forgot they'd asked to see it again and relegated me back to 'unknown' status. So it has gone. Thanks to Kevin Radthorne for reading it and pointing out lots of comprehension problems (as if he hadn't already done enough by promoting my writing to Windstorm in the first place). I'd read 'SPlatterbys' so many times I had lost all objectivity. Kevin caught several general problems as well as many unamericanisms. It still has a distinctly Australian flavour because well, that's where it is. If American kids can understand all that 'Crikey! Have a look at this little beauty!' Croc Hunter stuff, then 'SPlatterbys' will be a doddle. Thanks also to Otherworlds for giving it the once over. I'd hoped this year to send 'Flugel' out for a proper edit but that is something that will have to wait till after Clarion which may be a good idea anyway... I'm bound to be smarter after Clarion. This was another story that Windstorm wanted to see, but I was talking to someone at Harper Collins who asked when was the last time I sent them anything. I realised it has been a couple of years since I've had anything the right length to send them, and 'Flugel' fits. I've always thought their tastes leaned towards more conservative writing but it may be worth a try unless Windstorm like 'SPlatterbys' so much they want more. Well... I can dream can't I? The whole idea of Clarion is so exciting it's almost impossible to write! I hope I get over that once I get there! Imagine spending the whole time at Clarion bouncing around, never sitting still long enough to put two words together! There seems to be an expectation that while at Clarion we will be 'reading' at the Summer of Speculative Fiction Festival - I'm hoping they mean a few of the others... public speaking isn't my thing. I don't mind 20 kids and maybe a parent or supervisor or two when I'm presenting a class because I'm pretty sure I know more about sf than they do... but in a forum of my peers! I'm no authority on any aspect of anything and, of course, my work is never good enough... which is why it continues to get better. Actually, I don't know what it would take for me to have enough confidence in myself to speak in public... I just know I don't have it. My apartment mates are going to be: Alinta Thornton, Sarah Endacott, Claire McKenna, Paul Haines and Andrew Macrae which is very nice. I've already met everyone except Alinta, and Zara has written such wonderful things in her blog about Alinta, she must have people queuing up to be her friends! I have to hand in a story on the 3rd day of Clarion so that is my next project... and I have 21 days to do it despite the Clarion excitement and everything else that needs to be done for Christmas! I got two kids stories out to publishers last month. That has been my goal every month and I think I have done five of that size this year (Achieving Goals for 2003 - D). Anyway, one was the long begged stand alone yet sequel to 'Take Me To Your Leader'. Whether it becomes a book or not is up to luck and the publishers... so be patient, kids. Hullabaloo mag is on hiatus until March 2004. I found this out AFTER I'd written enough for the next two issues so I really hope they come back and use them. Merry Christmas to anyone who's read this far. You're very very brave... or very very bored. :D - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tuesday 14, October 2003 Had a nice chat with Nick Earls last night... was that a casual enough name drop? Ah... well, I've never been good at name dropping. Anyway, went to hear Nick talk about his work and had a quick 2 minute chat afterwards. He's such a funny guy. I've always admired his writing but found he was very entertaining to listen to as well. A natural storyteller as well as a writer and brilliant and witty... and a couple of beers down the local and a real chat would've been a slice of writers' heaven. A reader for another (as yet unnamed) magazine just told me 'Delicacy' was witty and captivating, so that story is proving itself again. Everyone think joyous happy thoughts and put the lids down on their toilets (keeps the luck in) so it gets picked up. I have a kazillion things to write before Christmas. Four deadlines from publishers who expect something and the invitation from Windstorm which I have to fulfil before they forget they offered and all these other things that I just want to write asap... there aren't enough hours in the day! Having said that... I now have splashbacks in my kitchen and raw hands. Great Fred Flintstone bluestone ones... the tiles... not my hands. Ingenious things splashbacks... now I tip a drink over and it doesn't run down the wall behind the cupboards. It's just like they have in real houses and it only took me three days of backbreaking labour! Amazing! Kevin Radthorne is being a lovely fellow writer again. He is going to edit one of my stories for Windstorm if I review his book, Road to Kotaishi. Isn't that nice? There are so many generous friendly people in the world... I wonder why it is so messed up?