Nov 292008
Nov 262008
The Voyager Online blog is running a feature on Clarion South at the moment. For those who don't know about Clarion, it's known as boot-camp for speculative fiction writers1. There's East2 and West in the United States, and South in Australia.
Ahead of the January 09 class, Voyager Online has interviewed past tutors and students, and, being a 2005 graduate, I'm one of them. They'll be posting the answers over the next week or so. It's quite an active and interesting blog, so I'd recommend keeping an eye on its entire feed — but if you only want to read the Clarion South posts, you can keep an eye on either the Clarion South Workshop category, or the Clarion South tag. If for some reason you only want to know about my answers3, keep an eye on the Deborah Kalin tag. (Bless those hyper-organised Voyager Online people!)
Nov 252008
Okay, whoever it was that linked to Pandemic II?1
You owe me I've-lost-count hours of my life.
Seriously, how can I concentrate on revising this novel, when there's humans to wipe out? How can I concentrate on wiping out the human race efficiently and effectively when I have this novel to finish? Huh? Huh?
- Actually, it was a few of you. Share the blame amongst yourselves as you see fit. [↩]
Nov 242008
I should be writing, but instead I'm putting it off a moment longer. I should have gone to the gym today, but instead I drove straight home, and cooked up my dinner early. I shouldn't eat the apple pie I have in the oven, because I didn't go to the gym… but I'm so gonna.
Nov 222008
Yesterday, I gave notice to my dayjob. Farewell to the baby mines for me! In four weeks, I shall be walking out of their doors, never to return. No more semen samples, no more discussions with patients about the consistency of their menstrual flow, no more explaining the convoluted process of the Medicare Safety Net and how it works (or fails to work) with our invoicing system, no more chasing people for money… Well, actually, four more weeks of it first, but then…!
Much as I would like to turn to writing full-time, my writing income (which term I use very loosely, meaning not income so much as lack thereof) is not quite up to that. Instead, I will have a couple of months away from work, after which I will be moving cities and starting a new dayjob.
It is not a particularly good economic climate in which to have a break between paying jobs, and I am not a personality type which copes well with uncertain, vague, or rapidly changing circumstances… but I'm doing it anyway. And I'm looking forward to it.
So, here's to following your heart random whimsical impulses…
Nov 212008
In the lose-some department, news from my agent is that one of the UK publishing houses considering Shadow Queen has decided to pass. C'est la vie.
In the win-some department, Google Alerts is a dangerous wonderful thing. Today it informed me that Issue #18 of PostScripts Magazine will be released in Spring 20091, and will contain my story, "The Wages of Salt". Okay, so this isn't new news, since this is a sale I made long enough ago that I've long since been paid and spent said payment, but it still counts, because I'd forgotten about this story and am excited to see it slated for a firm publication date.
In the er…oops department, I really shouldn't have had that bourbon and coke. Now I'm sleepy.
- I'm presuming this is Northern Hemisphere Spring, so April-ish next year [↩]
Nov 182008
Some time in the last week? fortnight? what comes before that? I, having clearly lost my mind decided that I had some free time to spare, joined the gym.
It was necessary, because my plan of walking to work has lately hit a snag; namely, the weather. When it's not bucketing down (which is infrequent), it's so hot, even at 7 in the morning, that I was arriving to work looking as if it had bucketed down anyway. Being a member of the gym is taking more of my time (and money, and petrol) than walking to work.
And I have never been so tired in all my life.
I'm only running round like a discombobulated turkey, and hefting some piddly weights every now and then. It shouldn't be this hard. Truly.
On which note, it's time to go back to the gym, off to demonstrate just how humiliating it can be to attempt to clap and march forward three steps at the same time.
Nov 172008
Most of yesterday passed in that unique state of frustration and despair which can only be engendered by the blue screen of death. Not sure what is wrong with the desktop (apart from being nearly 5 years old and running out of hard drive, RAM, and system resources; obviously). So now I am faced with the decision of reformatting the desktop in an attempt to squeeze a few more years out of it, or to indulge my consumerist urge and buy a new beast. Oh, the temptation… !
Nov 142008
…it gets inestimably better.
Today, after a day at the dayjob which could be best described as ugly, I arrived home to a package. Two, actually. One was the new DAAS DVD (which, let's face it, you all knew I was going to shell out for, didn't you?), and the other… well, I'll give you a clue.
It's printed. It's bound. It has my name on it. And lo, it is SHINY.
Let the record show that these sorts of surprises are excellent. I approve.
Since my ever-thoughtful editor also included a cover flat for me, this means I can belatedly deliver on my promise to reveal the cover. (Click to see it larger!)
Oh dear lord, people. It's a book.
Nov 112008
Sometimes I think my metaphors require more research than the rest of my novels' worldbuilding put together. It can be tricky, in a first draft, to hit a metaphor which is in keeping with the worldbuilding but at the same time not so unwieldy that a modern reader is going to stumble over it. Yesterday I spent a good twenty minutes researching the history of barbed wire (invented in the 1860's, in case you're curious, so barbed wire itself was out) and chasing mentions of the use of "thorny brush" as a fencing/deterrent which could have provided an analogous metaphor … only to realise that the simple fish hook, which has been around since time immemorial and requires no fancy descriptions to be understood by any reader, was a far more apt metaphor for the situation.
Um, yeah. This is how I spend my time. Willingly.