2009 March » Deborah Kalin

fiction festival

Mar 112009

I dragged myself awake at stupid o'clock this morning, to get some writing in before the dayjob. I'm sure everyone knows how hard it is to wake up while it's still dark, but let me tell you, it's much harder when you wear contact lenses. They make blinking hurt. Blinking should never hurt.

Today marked the first day of real training at the dayjob; prior to this it's been introductory stuff. Today we tried to wrap our head around the first subsection of the first subsection of the pertinent section of the Patents Act. … I think I broke a synapse. Or, in fact, all of them.

So I shall take this opportunity to mention something I forgot to in my last post: I'll be in Sydney on Sunday 5 April for the Contemporary Fiction Festival. I'll be on the Fantasy panel at 1.30pm, for those who are interested in hearing me blather on about the genre, and whatever else takes my fancy at the time.

My editor at Allen & Unwin, Louise Thurtell, will also be appearing on a panel later in the afternoon, so if you're interested in hearing from a publishing professional who knows her stuff (and how), I'd definitely recommend making time to stop by that one.

life without hotplates isn't cool

journal 4 Responses »

Mar 092009

I keep making myself cups of tea, setting them aside to cool, and promptly forgetting them entirely. The apartment is currently populated by one person, and no less than five abandoned cups of tea. Poor bereft little cups of tea.

I do not expect this situation to improve at any point in the future.

living in a hotel would be kinda cool

journal, shadow queen, writing life 12 Responses »

Mar 082009

Dear Melbourne:

Just stop it. Seriously. I am moving here, in fact I've now officially arrived, so you can stop all the attempts to tear yourself off the face of the earth in order to avoid me, and just settle down already. I realise that my bad luck field might make you anxious, but we're just going to have to learn to live with each other. Now behave, or you won't get to meet Spawn.

No thanks
Me

–

It occurred to me, somewhere on the Hume Highway, that I should really be taking photos of my drive south, so that you could all live vicariously through me. Then it occurred to me that my photography skills probably weren't up to making a hundred photos of various sun-scorched (and sometimes fire-blackened) hills and plains remarkable enough to be worthwhile. Plus, you know, I was driving.

While I've been busy reshuffling the dayjob aspects of my life, the internet has been busy publicising my book, which is very gracious of you all. A quick round-up:

I'm the featured writer this month at Allen & Unwin's "Writers on Writing", where I talk a little bit about writing, and the writing of Shadow Queen in particular.

Recently, Gary Kemble interviewed me about the writing of second novels. As I understand it, the interview is available free to members of the Queensland Writers Centre. Once the QWC have archived their copy of the interview, I'll look into posting my portion of it online for the rest of you (provided I remember).

Jeff Vandermeer graciously featured Shadow Queen over at Omnivoracious — here's hoping his instinct proves true.

And finally, Trudi Canavan unknowingly advertises my book on her blog — see something familiar in that first picture? Thanks to Dymocks @ Tuggeranong for putting my book right next to hers

Also, in hunting down the links for the above round-up (because I am forgetful and did not write them down properly) I realised that a google search of my name now results in over 5 pages of…me. (It could well be more, but that's when I stopped scrolling and started narrowing the search terms, something I've never had to do before.)

That's … kinda staggering.

junkie ahoy

journal 2 Responses »

Mar 052009

Did you know, Internets, there are people who can go longer than 24 hours without checking their email WITHOUT DEVELOPING A TWITCH? I am not one of those people.

As you might have guessed from the silence round these parts, I have officially started the new dayjob. This means I'm in Canberra for a week's training, and am without internet access. Boo hiss! Today, I finally cracked under the pressure and bought myself a mobile broadband USB modem. This is good: this means I do not have to live entirely without internet and email. This is very good.

The training is… interesting. Today involved teamwork and communication exercises. Always a favourite of mine, she says with tongue firmly in cheek. It's hard to pick a highlight. Possibly it was the exercise where we had to partner up, sit knee-to-knee, leaning forward, and take turns telling a story. I can't pinpoint which was more horrid: being the listener, not being allowed to interject and help the dying conversation; or perhaps it was being the talker, being stared at intently without surcease.

Starting a new dayjob has meant the return of the 5am wakeup call, so that I can get some words on the current manuscript before work. Ugh. Did I mention I hate the 5am wakeup call? It's better than getting no words on the manuscript when I come home from work and then consuming myself with guilt, though. It does mean I get weary round about…er, now.

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