New and interesting

"Home again, home again... something, something..."

I've been busy with werk for the museum. We're putting together a presentation to give to University of Wollongong marketing students so they can develop a, well, marketing plan. I have so many ideas for it, but it's not my job, it's theirs. How much info to give them?

I've created a slide-show to give them an idea of the museum and two team leaders will be given a tour... I'll muddle on, I suppose; it's taking me away from editing, which, I have to say, I resent. Just a little. I fear it shall be me to make the actual presentation, since I have a media background, but public speaking stresses me out to near speechlessness. I can only hope the lights hide the audience.

* * *

While in Canberra, my brother-in-law set up his six-inch mirror telescope to peer at the heavens with. It was definitely a 'wow' moment; up close and personal with the craters of the moon, the clear lines between shadow and light, with the slight shimmer of Earth's atmosphere. And Saturn. OMG! Sure, it was a white dot with a line through it, but I've never seen it with my own beady eye. It was all to easy to see why the night sky inspires so many people.

He says he might be able to lay hands on a twelve-inch mirror telescope and if he does, I'm taking photos!

* * *

I've also been catching up with the family tree. Another cousin X-times removed has sent me buckets of info from a side we, here in Aus, know little about.

And I have a couple of DVDs to watch, new books to dive into and a trilogy to edit...

So many things to do, so little time.

Hunting and gathering

So, I feel like I've been on a weekend hunting binge. From book store to book store, wheeling the aged parent around searching for the tbr-in-waiting pile.

I found nearly everything: Ilona Andrews, Rachel Caine, Anne Perry, Mercedes Lackey... but it took until the last shop I visited to discover the truth: DREAMVEIL WON'T BE PUBLISHED IN AUSTRALIA UNTIL AUGUST!!!

I can't tell you how pissed I was finding that out. And, I have to say, I am over shops telling me to check out 'the online facilities' to purchase other items I might find of interest. GAH!!!

Not. Happy. So not happy, that I'm over book stores. I'd like to help out the industry, keep people employed, but if they won't provide adequate service to the book buying public, then there is no point. And no, the Twilight books are NOT an acceptable alternative!! No, paranormal romances are not all the same... pushed a button there...

I have most of what I need. I shall purchase Dreamveil from the Galaxy Bookshop. I know they have it; one phone call and a couple of days later it's mine. No stuffing about, no false regrets or fake smiles.

Now, I shall read...

TBR-in-waiting

Woo hoo! I am in Canberra. What's the big deal? Well, really large book stores.

I'd like to support my local businesses, but when they consistently fail to provide a service, well... I'm not going to frequent them. The argument that they only stock what's popular is a load of cobblers. It took a concerted effort and constant requests for them to stock J. D. Robb! I mean... WTF? The staff didn't know La Nora and J.D. were the same person initially, until it was carefully explained.

So. Canberra. Bitterly cold and fabulous. Borders tomorrow and Dymocks on Sunday. I'm there, with list in hand, hunting down what I cannot find in my home town... village, whatever.

Viehl, Andrews, Weber, Gerritsen, Lisle, Kent and anyone else I can lay my little mitts on. It's all a matter of perspective and browsing.

Bring it...

Agent Myths

Here's some timely and interesting information from Writer's Digest:


5 Myths You Shouldn’t Believe About Agents

by Jennifer Lawler
Author-turned-agent Jennifer Lawler gives you the inside scoop on what agents really do and how knowing the truth could endear you to one.

Becoming an agent didn’t just teach me a few lessons about being a writer. It also cleared up some common misconceptions about agenting.

No. 1. An agent’s main job is to pitch her clients’ work to editors and schedule auctions. (How hard can it really be?)
It turns out pitching to editors is actually one of the least time-consuming parts of an agent’s job. Working with clients—finding them, recruiting them, helping them polish their projects, answering their questions, keeping them updated—requires the bulk of their time and resources, far more than I ever realized.

No. 2. I shouldn’t bother my agent with my questions; she’s busy.
I’ve been the writer who thought this. I should have seen it for what it was: a huge red flag that the author-agent relationship in question wasn’t going to work. As an agent, I want my clients to feel they can come to me with their questions. In fact, I’d rather know what’s on their minds than not. It does take time, yes, so try not to be too neurotic. But you shouldn’t be sending questions to random agent blogs because you’re afraid to approach your own agent with them.

No. 3. No response from an agent means the answer is no.
I understand that a lot of agents state this as their policy in trying to cut down on busywork, but it’s a mistake for writers to take it at face value. Now that I’m an agent, I’m amazed at the number of times my e-mails have gone missing. That’s why I’d never assume no answer means no. Follow-up is crucial. I once requested a manuscript from a writer at three different e-mail addresses and he never received any of my responses; if he hadn’t followed up, I would have assumed he was no longer interested in pursuing my representation.

No. 4. Agents owe it to writers to explain why they’re rejecting manuscripts they’ve requested.
I agree that a form rejection after a partial or full manuscript has been requested can feel like a slap in the face; I’ve felt that slap myself. But while I don’t use form letters in my rejections of partials and fulls, I also don’t spend a lot of time explaining why I’m rejecting them. Here’s why: This business is subjective; what I think is wrong with your novel may be what the next agent thinks is right with it. I’ve been on the receiving end of enough rejections to know that writers invest way more energy in interpreting what agents and editors say than agents and editors invest in saying it.

If I believe a book could be improved by revision, I’ll make suggestions and ask the writer to resubmit, or I’ll offer representation conditional on certain revisions being made. If I’m not willing to put my money where my mouth is, then I don’t think I have any business telling you where I think you’ve gone wrong.

No. 5. Agents’ inboxes are full of crap, which makes it impossible to spot the real gems.
My problem isn’t how much bad writing crosses my desk. That’s easy to recognize and reject. The problem is how much good writing I see. I have to figure out which of these good projects is most likely to sell, and which of those good authors is going to be best to work with. If you can convince me that I can sell your project and you’ll be a pleasure to have as a client, you’re halfway there.

Evil edits

It's all very well to write your very own masterpiece and set it aside with a happy smirk and a song in your heart at the astonishing accomplishment, but then reality sets in when the edits come around.

Oh, yes, those nasty, evil, stinky edits. They lurk, peering over your shoulder as you write with a hand over the mouth to suppress the sniggering. They'll even go to another room to ROFLOL, joke with each other and generally yuck it up with slaps on the back. And while you're typing 'The End', they've got an arm around each other and wiping away the tears of laughter. Oh, yes, they know what you've written...

Of course, their all po-faced and professional, dressed in suits with black briefcases when they turn up to do the 'revision work' on your masterpiece. With a superior glance they begin:

"Passive here, and there, and over on this page and OMG! Is that a split infinitive??" The knowing gleam in the eye appears. "WTF, noob, is this a verb conflict?"

"Erm..."

"Oh dear, the sentence structure... and yet more passives. Tsk. Got a dangling participle here and," the edit clears its throat in an effort not to giggle, "an end of sentence preposition."

"Well, you see, it's like this..." Any explanation is brutally cut off.

"No, no, no. All this wordiness. Pithy! That's what we need, pithy, concise... succinct! BYKT. And Lord, the descriptions..."

"What's wrong with the descriptions?"

The edit glares at you. "I can't find any, BTW."

"Oh, cheap shot." You protest, but you know your descriptions aren't... well, as good as they can be. "I've done the descriptions..."

"Mm, yes, and I quote: 'white hair with a road-mapped face'. Obviously I see there's way too much information here; I can clearly imagine the character." The edit leans forward. "4tun8ly, I'm here to deal with it. Is there anything wrong with a cloud white halo of hair over a tanned, lined face with a wealth of experience stamped in each wrinkle?"

"Um, well, actually..."

"My point Ms Wanna-Be-A-Writer-Without-The-Angst, is imagery. JPEG it. Perfect imagery, matched with intriguing action and pithy - hmm, I like that word... pithy. Pith, pith, pithy - ah... where was I? Oh, right: Perfect imagery, matched with intriguing action and pithy meaningful dialogue are the basis for a good novel."

"A good novel, not a..."

"Now then: characterization." The edit sighs mournfully. "You do know what Mary-Sue-ism is, don't you?"

"Don't even go there, edit. My characters make mistakes, like anyone else, and those mistakes have real consequences."

"Yes, about those... I think less is more, in this instance. No more PMSing, o.k.?"

"Less is more? PM... Nope. I'm disagreeing with you here. Actions require consequences, not applause nor some insipid 'it was all a dream', or it wasn't as bad as first made out. People died. People were changed forever as a result of one character's bad temper. Action requires consequence."

"You forget yourself, writer. I am here to help you make this book perfect. If you want to be published, you'll listen to me. AFAICT, this needs major work, ani1 can see that."

Casually, you rise and lift the manuscript off the desk and hold it to your chest as if to protect it. "Three things, edit: one, no book is ever perfect; and two, copyeditors can do a better job at buffing the work than I ever will."

Edit scowls. "Number conflict, writer, what's the third?"

"Your abbreviations are showing."

Tracking...

That tracking thingie is pretty cool - a little distracting - but cool. I've cut some eighty pages from the manuscript and I'm thinking another twenty five will bring the book back to a nice, round 400 pages.

Seeing all the red from the tracker disappear and the page numbers suddenly go 'blip' and repaginate... I must confess the fear of deleting something nifty. I've left comments in (although I think I'll change the colour scheme from the 'orrible pink) and it may require adding more words.

So now I print out and go through it again, do the corrections and let it sit while I re-edit something else. Choices, choices. A stand-alone or a trilogy?

Editors and agents like to know there's work in the pipeline, don't they? So, a trilogy, all written and needin' a bit o' lurve.

And none of it is getting done while I mooch about on the 'net! Of course, I have get it done before I head off to Canberra this week and track down a number of books, including Dreamveil which I am so looking forward to...

Heroics

I dumped the scene. On the plus side, the cascading effect of the scene has cut the manuscript by fifteen thousand words. I have to find between another... six to sixteen thousand words to bring Demonesque to a reasonable total of 110-120k. I'll try to find them when I print out the work for another round of edits. I suspect it will take a heroic effort to decide if I need to cut more scenes and not reduce the intent of the book.

This is the first of a few manuscripts I'm updating and reviewing for September. I want to take a number of genres to Melbourne for the World Science Fiction Convention. If I can show continuity - and exciting work - maybe someone will take me on.

I have the almost perfect second job. I work at a local museum writing the newsletter, webmastering internet page I wrote/edited and I've started work on the Wikipedia pages. Writing about the local area and maritime history is a constant source of fascination for me - so much that I often leave late. Now, if only they'd pay me for it rather than my volunteering.

At this juncture in time, I'm wavering between continued work on Demonesque and information sheets on British Naval heroes Sir John Jervis and Captain Richard Bowen! Both of whom are linked with my home town. I'm sure many locals and visitors have no idea who they were and their importance, not just to Jervis Bay, but on a global scale. Soon, my precious, they will know.

In or out, in or... out?

Sometimes, I just don't know what I was thinking! Probably too covered in smug to think.

Okay, so a 500 page book? Oh, way cool to write so much; not so cool when it comes to editing. I think it's all to do with mood. I've already deleted at least a page, coz, no, we don't need to read about that, thank you, it's a little too graphic - and yet...

The decision on what to leave in and what to remove can be difficult. I know I can reduce the size of the book by getting rid of a character and a particular scene (except I love that scene and the character is pretty important as well). Then there are the extras, some named, some not, who do the 'busy' work. I mean, where would our rich characters be without the concierge? Or the valet? The secretary who keeps the office going?

Oh, yeah: what action-packed, thrill-bound, urban fantasy book is gonna have the above? A book with a dual-natured character under threat, that's what, so the ordinary characters become integral when juxtaposed to the extraordinary.

And I still have to add extra descriptions (at which I truly suck). I'm going to try Angela Ackerman's Description Thesaurus over at herThe Bookshelf Muse site - she also has the Emotion Thesaurus, Colour, Texture and Shapes Thesaurus and the Symbolism Thesaurus. Thanks to Natalie Hatch at What Time is it Again? for the link.

I'd love to skip the boring bits, but I think I'll just re-write them instead; maybe in doing so, I'll know what to cut and what to keep...

Rain Lashed

As I mentioned yesterday, Lynn Viehl has posted a freebie e-book, Rain Lashed in conjunction with the release of Kyndred 2 Dreamveil.

Rain Lashed is about Angela Witt, Jessa Bellamy's technical supervisor and fellow Kyndred, and takes place just before Jessa's disappearance - read Shadowlight to find out what happens - and involves Caleb Douglas, another senior staff member at Phoenix Inc., a staff consultancy firm.

The two have a 'formal' relationship that hides their true feelings as they individually believe the other is not for them: Angela because of her talent and deep insecurities that Caleb wouldn't look twice at her; Caleb because he can't give Angela everything he thinks she deserves. So they keep to the formal, circling each other, tempting each other and resisting each other.

Then Caleb attempts to force an answer to a work question and Angela's answer is very personal...

The novella begins with the death of Angela's mother and Ruth Witt's shocking betrayal of her daughter - there's an especially hot place for Ruth - and Angela's odd meeting with Jessa.

This is a clever addition to the Kyndred series, from a non-Kyndred view. Caleb and Angela have suspicions about Jessa's nature and I'll be interested to see if the pair have future involvement in the series. No spoilers about what Angela thinks of her strange... ness.

Fans of Lynn Viehl won't be disappointed. This is a story which expands on the personal issue of abandonment of the Kyndred as small children and the effect it has on one woman who knows nothing of her origins.

And it's free. For those who haven't read Shadowlight, this is an excellent introduction into a world that parallels Darkyn, but has it's own conflicts.

Waiting, waiting, waiting....

Whoo-hoo! Lynn Viehl has a freebie on Scribd! Rain Lashed is a novella of the Kyndred.

And I'm really happy about that. I needed something to read. I went into the local town to hunt down Dreamveil, or Magic Burns, or even City of Souls... nup. No sign of any of them, although there were plenty of LKH's crappyness.

I swear, sometimes living in the countryside sucks when it comes to new releases and I'm not the most patient of readers. I want to support local businesses, but if they won't stock my choices, I gnash my teeth and have to go elsewhere.

My Canberra visit is still two weeks away (and squealy fangirl moments at the enormous Borders and Dymocks stores) but I'll wait and then buy the books I want. Yes, I could order online, but that path leads to overspending and I so don't want that. sigh... I need to get back to editing my own books - and try not to get bent out of shape over the lack of reading choices.

Coming Up

It's the last day of Autumn and the last day of the story-a-day marathon. One more to write and then I can catch up on some reading and later, some editing.

Coming out in June (apart from the obvious train-wreck Bullet) that will be on my list of things to read:

Dreamveil by Lynn Viehl (Kyndred 2);

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen (Rizzoli & Isles 8);

Mission of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington 12);

plus the next Kate Daniels book (it's already out to rave reviews) Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels 4).

Of course, I may have to wait another month before the books are out here in Aus, but I'm patient, I am Zen, I am... having a birthday in the next few of weeks and see no reason why I shouldn't buy one or two for myself off the 'net as a prezzo.

Now I have to go and write that one last story. I'm trying to think of something brilliant, something pithy and meaningful... but it may end up something, um, just something.

Bullet Points

With Laurell K. Hamilton's new book, Bullet coming out next week, I thought it prudent to give authors, new and published, a little assistance in avoiding the deep, dark pit of Mary-Sue-ism.

For those who don't know what a Mary-Sue (or a Gary-Stu/Marty-Stu) is, here's a definition:

A Mary Sue is a pet character that the author exempts from realism and/or rules that otherwise govern a fictional world. The more that the author exalts this "darling" at the expense of the rest of the story, the more of a Mary Sue the character becomes. Mary Sue is impervious to failure and resistant to all in-story attempts at criticism and humiliation; any attempt at an external critique usually provokes an authorial temper tantrum. With a preference for style over substance, attitude over empathy, and romantic relationships above all others, the Mary Sue is nevertheless a popular character type due to her function as cheap wish-fulfillment. (PPC Wiki)

So, if you want to know if the protagonist you've worked long and hard on is a Mary-Sue, go to The Original Fiction Mary-Sue Litmus Test. Answer the questions and find out if your character is doomed. I got a borderline Sue for one of my characters, so I'll have to work on that.

As an added bonus, you can go to TV Tropes. "Tropes are storytelling devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations."

(There are no official reviews of Bullet, but if you're canny enough to go to Amazon.com, you might find something of a... bullet point synopsis. If you don't want to know anything about it, don't read the discussion. Oops. Did I give it away? My bad...)

Headlining...

Just because PBW did one and I thought it a great idea for when I ain't got nuffink and I'm busy busting out short stories - or working on other pieces.

Generate your own news story here and have fun with it.

Storm From The Shadows

I've got a crick in my neck which is somewhat painful. Must be from reading David Weber's Storm From The Shadows.

This one thousand page tome takes place in conjunction with At All Costs and Torch of Freedom (which I haven't read yet, since it's still in hardback). The spiel:

Rear Admiral Michelle Henke was commanding one of the ships in a force led by Honor Harrington in an all-out space battle. The odds were against the Star Kingdom forces, and they had to run. But Michelle's ship was crippled, and had to be destroyed to prevent superior Manticoran technology from falling into Havenite hands, and she and her surviving crew were taken prisoner. Much to her surprise, she was repatriated to Manticore, carrying a request for a summit conference between the leaders of the two sides which might end the war. But a condition of her return was that she gave her parole not to fight against the forces of the Republic of Haven until she had been officially exchanged for a Havenite prisoner of war, so she was given a command far away from the war's battle lines. What she didn't realize was that she would find herself on a collision course, not with a hostile government, but with the interstellar syndicate of criminals known as Manpower. And Manpower had its own plans for eliminating Manticore as a possible threat to its lucrative slave trade - deadly plans which remain hidden in the shadows.

Now then. This actually sounds more exciting than it is. That's not to say the book doesn't build into a military confrontation with explosions and stuff, it's more that the book deals with political machinations and 'what ifs'. It's also not a book people should read without having read the series.

My biggest bug-bear with the book is how much could have, and should have been edited out. There is way too much reiteration of events and conversations and motivations. And for those people who have to wait for paperbacks, there was a bit of 'what the...?' for me.

Having three strands to a series is not good for me, and I do love this series, I'm just not all that interested in politics (hah!) even as those politics are integral to the series.

I could also replace one character with another and they sound the same. Woe. Is there such a thing as too many characters? This is a galaxy-wide, epic space opera and the thought of an author (or two: Eric Flint co-writes the Crown of Slaves, Torch of Freedom part) coming up with individual voices for hundreds of characters - even secondary characters - must be a daunting task. But now, we have the vast Solarian League involved.

Weber has done an excellent job of compartmentalizing the various star nations and the characters within with their various 'must have this type of personality'. However, this deep into the series, I don't think we need the justifications or the endless infodumps of the who, the how and the why for technology or a character's attitude - we can, mostly, take it as given; especially after so many books.

Regardless of my nitpickery - and I could go on - the book neatly ends with a suitably ominous scenario. And for those who know their military history and can see the parallels in the story, a suitably clever solution.

Storm From The Shadows is out now from Baen; Mission of Honor is available as an E-ARC and will be published in hardback (damn their eyes) in July.

Welcome Home

...Jessica Watson, after an epic solo around the world voyage. Of course, she's now facing heavy seas outside of Sydney Heads, but nothing worthwhile comes easy. Mother Nature's last hurrah.

Young Jessica is an inspiration to all 16-year-olds, and indeed everyone.

And regardless of what anyone might think about letting someone so young do something so dangerous, Jessica has demonstrated outstanding courage and steely determination to complete her voyage.

You have done us all proud. Congratulations.

Con and condolences

Oh, shiny!

The World Science Fiction Convention is being held in Melbourne (again!) with the secondary name of AussieCon 4 in early September.

Apart from the announced Guests of Honour, author Kim Stanley Robinson, artist Shaun Tan and mega convention veteran, Robin Johnson, there are a number of other luminaries I'm looking forward to seeing.

Oh, yes, I'm saving my pennies!

Lessee, also attending are Australian authors, Trudi Canavan, Glenda Larke, Garth Nix, Kim Wilkins, Jonathan Strahan and others in our industry, but we've got more overseas ones as well.

On the list are: authors Carrie Vaughn, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin Baen Editor, Toni Weisskopf, Editor, Ellen Datlow and that's not all of 'em; maybe there'll be others by the time September comes around.

* * *

We lost a great science fiction and fantasy artist in Frank Frazetta earlier this week. His body of work was remarkable and I send his family my condolences.

Iron Man

I’ve been writing, reading and watching Sci-fi recently, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to view Iron Man 2 (finally!) from a different perspective.

For example, I couldn’t help wonder if the suit had inertial compensators, and if so, where was it; whether it had any anti-gravity elements, what kind of servos, sensor suites, power units, armoury... and so on. I was thinking similar thoughts when Tony Stark developed his cure... and thought it a little too easy.

But the pyrotechnics were fabulous, all that flying and zipping around avoiding the droids and explosions and more zipping and ka-blamos and I do love a good bang; does that make me shallow? I am easily entertained...

Mickey Rourke was an absolute stand out. He didn't need too many words, his expression and actions said it better - gosh, he's good.

Gwennie was suitably overwhelmed by her new position and Robert Downey, jun., seemed to look tired and slightly out of sorts, until he found his cure and went off like a manic genius.

So. I'm glad I saw it - it's one movie that's an absolute must for the big screen. But only for all the speckie special effects.

Now back to the short story marathon - until Shrek 4 comes out...

Strike Two!

Another strike out in the attempt to see Iron Man 2. Same problem as Tuesday - no one but me. Still, I understand most people prefer to see movies - can you believe it? - at night! Or - hah - on the weekends! Who'd a thought? I'll try again on Sunday; that's part of the weekend, isn't it? See if it's true.

Hopefully, I won't strike out a third time; there are some films you just have to see on the big screen.

The marathon is scooting along, but the short stories are in a restricted forum - apparently, some publishers get bent out of shape if a story has first been posted on a forum before submission. I guess it's to do with publishing rights and what that means.

The Seventh Sanctum has provided some really 'out there' prompts, but this is an excellent exercise in imagination dexterity. Win, pass or fail, the stories are on the page - and you can't edit what you haven't written.

Off and on the 'net

Took myself off to the movies yesterday to see Iron Man 2; sadly, I bumped up against the reality of living in a coastal village on a gorgeous day. Since I was the only one to turn up, the proprietor decided not to screen it. (Insert sad face.) However, he did give me a complimentary ticket for a future movie. (Insert happy face.) I think I'll reserve the ticket for a later film - and try for Iron Man 2 tomorrow.

My home area is filled with retirees and loud, action flicks aren't the most popular here. Maybe tomorrow, a more younger crowd will show up.

The short story marathon continues and I'm keeping up. Only 26 to go...

The Magic District has an interesting post on a writer's vices and Writer's Digest has 7 Reasons Agents Stop Reading Your First Chapter and this, 8 Basic Writing Blunders. All are useful reads.

Now, I have to got thrash out another story.

SAD

Story-a-day marathon time at Forward Motion. WOOT! Yes, thirty-one sometimes 'wow-out-there-for-creativity' and sometimes 'what-were-you-thinking,-writing-that-after-a-few-glasses-of-Merlot' stories, mixed in with 'well-that-was-boring-but-it's-done'.

...I haven't started yet. But that's okay, I'll catch up. I like my challenges with a bit of relish.

Most of the stories use a generator and I am looking at the scenarios. My fav place for story prompts is the Seventh Sanctum, which has buckets of generators to choose from or The Speculative Fiction Muse.

I might try some new ones, like The Do It Yourself Giallo Kit, or any one of the photograph websites for visual prompts. There are plenty of sites out there for inspiration.

I can write one out of every three from ideas that happen to drop out of my head onto the page. And now, I'd better get to it; with marathons, thinking you can catch up is a good way to not reach your goal.

Picture by Lazette Gifford - damn, she's clever!

Work, work, play!

So, I all but blew off my second deadline today; the boss is away for another nine days and I have no-one else to consult with on corrections.

I've been doing a photograph hunt instead for pikkies to add to the webpage.

Posted on Scribd is Huntress: Sacrifice as a freebie.

It means I have the whole weekend off to play with family who are coming down. Much joy, many photos from France, and copious amounts of alcohol to imbibe - can't ask for much more than that.

Oh. Right. Story-a-day marathon starts tomorrow. Well, I'll do that too. How bad can it be writing a couple of thousand words, trashed?

I'm werkin' here!

I'm up against two deadlines... okay, I've decided to let one slide since it was a pre-deadline deadline - and the webpage could go live as it is.

The book, however, was promised at the end of April and it nearly is; the end of April, that is.

Both have similarities. The webpage is down to the final editing of text and selection of appropriate photographs to go with, and I've got to check the links; the book is fifty pages short of the end and I keep going back to add description or more information or globally changing name spelling. Little stuff, irritating stuff, essential stuff.

I really need to get both finished. Twelfth Planet Press are calling for submissions for an anthology to be released next year and it just happens to co-incide with Forward Motion's yearly story-a-day marathon that starts on 1 May. My first story - or maybe the second - will be for the anthology. The theme is urban fantasy in the Roaring Twenties. Elliot Ness: Vampire Hunter anyone? Kidding.

So, I'm flat out like a lizard drinking. Yeah, okay, I'm on the 'net. I'll get off now and get back to it.

Hot, cold, wet

Yeah. It gives new meaning to the words "wet patch".

Män som hatar kvinnor... finally

Män som hatar kvinnor - Men Who Hate Women - was retitled The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for the English version.

The true title reflects the movie and the book, the second is a glimpse of art on counter-culture Goth and computer hacker, Lisabeth Salander.

I read the book and thought it a little slow. The story got bogged down in extraneous descriptions and minutiae of lead character Mikael Blomkvist's day. Thankfully, all that's been cut out of the movie and distilled down to its essential parts.

The spiel: Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history.

The makers of the film have done an excellent job. The book has complex plots all weaved together to form a fascinating story arc. The film touches on these aspects and sets up the next movie The Girl Who Played With Fire with brief glimpses. However, those who haven't read Stieg Larsson's trilogy might be a little dismayed at some of the near miraculous resolutions. For example, the instant decryption of an important clue by Salander. She has a photographic memory, but that is only touched on in the film. I'm guessing the film makers assumed the majority of Scandinavia read the books.

Some of the scenes are brutal. The film does not shy away from the sexual violence that's integral to the story line. On the big screen, it's confronting. (I wonder how Hollywood is going to deal with it? The U.S. version is in development and due for release in 2012.) Salander is certainly ruthless in dealing with violence perpetrated against her.

The original title, Men Who Hate Women, should have been kept; the current title reflects nothing more than a curiosity. Throughout the books and the film, thoughtless and deliberate violence against women is explored. Blomkvist is almost a peaceful raft floating in the sea of blood and brutality, a refuge for Salander. That doesn't mean she needs a man to save her - her revenge is as nasty as the crime committed against her! She'll get justice her own way.

I would suggest reading the book before seeing the film for a better understanding. It's the first book-to-film I've appreciated in a long, long time.

Force of Nature

I've finally finished the second edits of Huntress: Sacrifice. I now have about nine days to put in the corrections and do another edit. At the same time, I now have nine days to finish writing the webpage for the local museum before it's supposed to go live. Bah, who needs a weekend?

* * *

Is this cool or what? It's lightning within the Icelandic volcano whose name no-one but an Icelander can pronounce.

I actually hunted around the 'net to find out why volcanoes can generate their own lightning, but the discussions varied from "I dunno" to the idea that the eruptions cause mesocyclones, thus generating the conditions for lightning.

I'm guessing no-one has managed to get close enough to take the readings they need to solve the conundrum.

While a lot of people seem bent out of shape over this (my sister is stuck in Paris... whatever shall she do?) it provides an opportunity for all those clever engineers to create an ash-proof engine. Remember Dante's Peak with that yummy Pierce... ah, the helicopter? Or 1991 when Mt Pinatubo went up in the Philipines? How is it we still don't have a totally weather-proof engine? That aircraft are still so fragile? The peeps who develop an engine unaffected by ash clouds, or smoke, or ducks could probably name their price.

Maybe Virgin Galactic have the right idea and we should leave terrestrial airspace. Just pop up outside the atmosphere and then down again. I have visions of it...

Big Oops, there

Family is staying the weekend and last night, we sat down to watch Julie & Julia. All I knew about Julia Childs was that she cooked with an awful lot of butter and yet lived into her nineties - not a bad innings.

The movie was great, without Norah Ephron's usual saccharine sweetness. Meryl Streep is a marvel at characterisation and expressed Julia's exuberance for life and French cuisine wonderfully. Amy Adams, too, was excellent as the woman who decides to complete all of the recipes in Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year and blog about her efforts. Not the kind of thing I'd do given the amount of butter used in the recipes.

So it was with interest that I read the headline Cook-book misprint costs Australian publishers dear. Unwilling to take the BBC's word for it (I'm such a charlatan), I headed to the Sydney Morning Herald site where the news item came from. Sure enough, Penguin reprints book, peppered with an error, wants it taken with grain of salt. (Terrible heading I think.)

Head of publishing, Mr Bob Sessions, said: "In one particular recipe [a] misprint occurs which obviously came from a spell checker. When it comes to the proofreader, of course they should have picked it up, but proofreading a cookbook is an extremely difficult task. I find that quite forgivable [sic]."

Um... no, not forgiveable. Laughable, absolutely, forgiveable, not on your life. The problem? A line in a tagliatelle recipe that called for salt and freshly ground black people - instead of 'pepper'. I don't know about you, but I think there are two letters wrong here, not something a spellchecker or proofreader would miss unless they were lazy. And the excuse that the correct line is in many recipes and that cook-books are hard to check, is no excuse at all.

I doubt Penguin will be so sanguine in the future, since it cost them $20,000.

The lesson today is to really check your work lest some unfortunate words cause dismay, or finanicial loss.

Oh, and Bon Appetit!

Dragons Ahoy!

How To Train Your Dragon was a lot of fun - even in a theatre full of kids, and the popcorn delayed.

The artwork was beautiful, especially on the dragons. I imagine there were varieties no-one thought of. Toothless, the Nightfury, bears a striking resemblance to Stitch (from the Disney film Lilo & Stitch) and an oversized, winged axolotl; the other dragons are equally spectacular... well, you'll have to see the film.

The Vikings are suitably big, rugged and bloodthirsty - except, of course, for our hero, Hiccup, who is thin, weedy and very unViking-like. He's an inventor and consistently gets himself into trouble whenever the dragons attack. This time, his invention downs a Nightfury that he befriends and trains. Misunderstandings, deceit, suspicion and an epic battle follow.

The flying scenes are better than Avatar and the final battle, man, I was so impressed by the CGI. The fire, the water, the movement of the flesh under dragon skin!

For me, the chatting children, the shushing of the adults, the crunch of popcorn consumed and slurping of soft drink all faded away under the visual beauty of the film. That might be just me, but I love kids' movies; they can present complex issues in a simple way.

Oh, and I saw the shorts for the next Shrek movie. I'm just gonna hafta see it!

Clash of the Movies

I took myself off to see Clash of the Titans yesterday. I have vague memories of the Harry Hamlin version on television, along with other Ray Harryhausen movies like Sinbad.

Clash of the Titans won't win any awards, but it's great for 90 minutes or so of focusing on eye candy. The special effects are great but the storyline is only loosely related to the real Perseus legend. But... no matter.

I loved the Djinn, all shining, crystal blue gaze and bark-textured faces; so cool and lends to the mythology of the piece. The fight scene with the scorpions was frenetic and the sneaky Medusa was, well, sneaky; kind of reminded me of Angelina Jolie in Beowulf.

Liam Neeson was all shiny and a little bit perplexed as Zeus, Ralph Fiennes suitable evil (and channelling Voldemort, I think) as the smoky, dark Hades - not as sinister as he could have been, but the bad guy nonetheless.

I only have one question about the movie: why did Perseus have a marine haircut, when everyone else had long flowing locks?

Will I buy the DVD? Hmm... probably; I love these kinds of movies. I don't watch 'real life' films, I get enough real life in... real life. I like escapism - although I will make an exception for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Today, I'm off to watch How to Train Your Dragon - probably with a bunch of kids. I love popcorn films, too.

Sensitive history

I've been working my ring off for past week on three pages. Yep, three pages of text for the webpage I'm working on. It's taken three weeks to complete nearly forty other pages for the site and downloadable fact sheets.

I need no approval for those pages, but I do for the three; see, they deal with Indigenous history and information and thus require cultural sensitivity. While that has been monumentally frustrating, it's also been an education.

When I was at school back in 19... blah, we were taught about Captain James Cook discovering Australia, Captain Arthur Phillips of the First Fleet, various governors and important white people who formed this nation. Nothing was ever taught about indigenous affairs and yet, they were an important part of our history.

Who knew, for example, that the Aborigines had a resistance group who tried to save their land from the English settlers and convicts?

Pemulwuy saw Cook lay claim to Terra Nullus, Empty Land, and to the arrival of the First Fleet. He understood what it meant and set about causing as much trouble as possible. To him, it was war, the British were invaders upon land sacred to his people and he led raids against the farms and farmers, for food and for revenge for the atrocities committed against his people.

In the end, in 1802, he was shot dead, his head removed and sent to England for scientific investigation. All up, 3000 Aboriginal body parts were sent as part of biological curiosity. Pemulwuy was a pest, a troublemaker, according to Governor King who signed the shoot-on-sight order for any Aborigines seen around the Parramatta area. Guns were always going to win out since the Aborigines brought spears to the fight.

The British did not see the land as being occupied. The definition of civilisation was settlement, and the indigenous people were wanderers, following the food, never setting up villages. The French and Dutch had already looked at the land and declared it harsh and worthless, moved on, although we still have Dutch and French names for suburbs or areas.

For more than a century, this country has been divided between the rights of Aborigines and those of British settlement. We're still divided, though to a much lesser degree: instead of a re-enactment of James Cook's arrival at Farm Cove, we have an Indigenous Woggan Ma Gule or Morning Ceremony at the site and celebrations of what it means to be Australian. The flag raising is more to do with celebrating citizenship than historic origins. History, it seems, is of little importance when bringing diverse ethnicities together.

I agree. Previous Australia Day celebrations were tainted by groups protesting 'Invasion Day'; but I don't think we should re-write or disregard the good or the bad of our history. Both are important and make us who we are today.

Prince William - recently in Australia - has announced that he will try to find Pemulwuy's head and the other remains. The indigenous fighter is a hero to the Aboriginal Nations here.

And this year for Anzac Day, commemorative ceremonies will be held for the 500-800 Indigenous personnel who served during the First World War. It's about time; a soldier is a soldier no matter his skin colour and should be treated with the same respect.

In the meantime, I need to get back to work; I have to finish this project before I can get to my editing. Thankfully, these three pages are the last of the big stuff, everything else is of the editing and formatting ilk.

Words to consider

There's an interesting interview over at Writers Digest with writer Sue Grafton.

Of particular note is this:

What about this voice you talk about, the Shadow?
My problem is I can’t get out of my own way. Shadow knows how to write books. Ego does not. So when I’m trying to put together a book, Ego is the one saying, “I’ll do it, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.” And I’m going, “No you won’t. You don’t know what you’re doing.” Shadow is just that still, quiet voice in your soul that tells you if you’re on track or off track.

I find this compelling because it is so true. And, I think, it's the reason why so many newbie authors fail. Ego.

How many times have you heard that 'writing is easy; I could write one of those romance books, no problem'? How many know that's smirk-worthy? How many have half a dozen unfinished works? How many thought the idea was a good one at the time? I know I've got a bundle on unfinished books squirrelled away.

Ego, if you let it loose, will only get you so far. It's the quieter, more considered voice that takes you to the end; and it's the quiet voice that goes back to the beginning while ego is doing a smug happy dance, to edit. Ego is that excited part that can't wait to get to work on that sparkly, scathingly-brilliant new idea, while the quiet voice is considering characters, plot, scenes, descriptions... All that hard stuff.

I'm guilty of this every November. Come October 31, I'll have something vague and ill-formed in mind. In the morning, the empty page awaits and off I go, no matter what. Some years I've been fortunate enough to have a relatively well-formed main character. Most years, I just let the ego run wild - that lasts for a week, maybe two, when ego is just so over it and the hard work to get the word counts done starts.

At the end of the interview, Ms Grafton gives this advice to new authors:

My big gripe about newer writers is they’re not willing to put the time in. Somebody’ll write one book and they’re asking me who my agent and my editor are, and I’m thinking, Don’t you worry, sweetheart, you’re not any good yet. Give yourself time to get better. Writing is really hard to master. You learn by failing over and over, but a lot of people don’t care for that, thanks. I always wish new writers the greatest good fortune. It’s a helluva journey — I’ll tell you that.

Yep, I've still got the first book I wrote... somewhere dark so it can get therapy... and it will stay there with the second and third books for company.

Doing the work teaches us what works and what doesn't; only when the quiet voice is happy should it see the light of day.

Of course, sometimes that quiet voice is silent, asleep and unconcerned. That's my excuse an' I'm stickin' to it.

Ooo, shiney...

...new printer! Oh, the joy. It has double-sided printing (squee....). No more manual duplex of reorganising hundreds of pages and feeding them through the printer again. No more white lines through the text, or scratches. No more awkward paper jams and ink malfunctions that are indicative of a failing system. It does everything the previous printer did and more - though I think I'll have to read the instruction manual to find out what and I'm not interested enough... yet.

Really, I bought it for the double-sided thing. And price; it's not the latest model, but does what I need. The only downside is that it is about a centimetre too wide for the alcove I have.

I am now merrily printing stuff out as if the ink tanks are never going to run dry. But what the hell: it's a new toy and I'm playing with it until it becomes essential equipment.

I also have some new image software to play with, which I freely confess takes up time - but I have to explore it's functions to use it properly. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I'll have to search for some re-pixilating software that does what I meant, not what I told it to. I wonder if such a program exists?

Ginger rules

Uh, huh. Felled by food poisoning. Not so bad... now; a good dose of ginger marmalade on an English muffin and I'm near cured. It's the ginger, a natural nausea suppressant that dates back hundreds of years. For some, it's used to treat seasickness and in Asia, the common cold by making a tea. Should I contract a cold this winter, I'm giving it a try. I hate being sick - it's unproductive and makes me snarky.

Australia also went off Daylight Savings Time this weekend. Which means I'm up before sunrise and earlier than I want. I just can't sleep in that 'extra' hour. It takes as long to get used to standard time as it did getting used to DST back in... whenever (I swear they keep changing the dates just to piss people off). It used to be from the end of October to the end of February - now it's the beginning of October to to the end of March. Who makes the decision to muck around with time anyway? Time is time; it's relative, it flies, it's now.

It's time I got some work done...

Blech

I'm feeling rather blech today. Aching joints and muscles, vague nausea and tired enough to want a nap. It came on around mid-morning.

Of course, the printer decided to join the desktop computer in the graveyard. sigh. Right in the middle of printing out a manuscript to edit and on the long weekend.

If I didn't have visitors, I'd curl up under the duvet and keep the world at bay. But... I do and I can't. In a few more hours, I can change the clocks back and hit the sack early; indulge in an extra hour's sleep tomorrow.

I hope this doesn't get any worse - I'm rarely sick and I have no idea where I got this dreaded Lurgy. Gotta go throw up now. Just talk amongst yourselves...

Moving on from the old

It occurred to me that I needed to get a photograph editing programme off my desktop computer. You remember? The one that's dead?

Since I'm clever (my degree says so, right under the beer stains), I thought I'd replace the power box with another cannibalised from another computer. Yes, I'm sure you can see the problem: once I scrapped a few knuckles, broke a fingernail or two and tossed a number of expletives (Mum was in the Navy) into the atmosphere to turn it blue... I saw that the salvaged power unit wasn't as powerful as the one I meant to replace.

On a sigh, I turned the desktop on - just to make sure it was dead - and lo, it turned on! Wahoo... or not, since there wasn't any video output.

Not to be discouraged, I fooled around with the connections. Finally, there appeared... not a damn thing. Timing is everything. I had a glimpse of the background wallpaper when we had a brown-out with the electricity and the whole thing turned off.

No amount of button pressing could revive the computer. I've decided to let sleeping silicon chips lie. It will cost too much to repair and I have the handy-dandy laptop to download stuff onto.

Now, I'm off to fool around with Paint.net. Freeware. It looks good and I have some covers to create.

Lesson learned

Plenty of pre-editing editing going on here.

I've rediscovered that getting bent out of shape over things isn't good for my stress levels, which have been through the roof given my two deadlines that fall in the same week.

Solution? Work on work when necessary, ie, on work days; work on fiction when I want to, which is any time.

The first deadline could be unreasonable since this project came to me six months after it was initiated. If it's late, it's late and isn't my responsibility. Having said that, I'll still do my best to get it done on time.

The second deadline is one of my own making. And I've been having fun. Up late, reading the work done for last year's Nano. I finished the sequel to Huntress and had to start on the third book. I think it bodes well that I enjoyed both books.

Now, I get to print them out and start the real editing. I'm probably putting the mokkas on myself, but it looks like I'll see the deadline and raise another one soon after.

Oh. Wait. Escape, escape, delete, delete. I have the May story-a-day marathon coming up. Guess I'll just have to see how Hunted does on the readership scale before I post the third book.

Pristine History

I really hate political correctness. I dislike being required to treat people with 'cultural' sensitivity when they refuse to treat me with the same respect.

I believe political correctness has gone beyond the realms of common sense and into the dungeon of divisiveness where ethnicity is singled out for special treatment because of modern day interpretation of historic events.

To name names in the current environment, tempts people who don't agree with me, to call me a 'racist' rather than engage in meaningful dialogue.

Let's take an example. (Any example will be a hot button topic, so be warned.)

When writing historical fiction, is it acceptable to use the word 'nigger' or 'wog' or 'mick'? How about a 'Yank' or a 'Kraut' or 'Frog', a 'Lobster', a 'Ruskie' or a 'Skip'?

When you look at the list, why is the latter list more acceptable than the former? Is it because yanks, etc. represent Caucasian skin colour and the others don't? (Hell, pressed one of my own buttons there.)

To write a book set during the American Civil War - from the South's perspective - will necessitate the use of the word 'nigger'; it was the accepted term for the slaves. To write a book set during the Second World War - from a front-line soldier's perspective - necessitates using the words 'kraut', 'Nazi' or 'Ruskie'. New York in the 1880s-1900s, Irish immigrants were 'micks'.

Just because we have a veneer of sophistication and civilisation now, doesn't mean we can white-wash history of all its glory and dirt by creating taboos. History, the good and the bad, happened. It can't be changed. The words were used - even as the attempts to have them expunged from history continues.

The Australian outlaw, Ned Kelly, was long ago turned into a folk hero for standing up to authority. Yet, this is a man who, with his gang, gunned down three police officers and had a history of assault and theft. He was eventually hanged for the shootout at Glenrowan. It is a matter of history that, in some aspects of his life, he was treated poorly by the police. Yet as little as thirty years after his death, his actions were justified by the social discord surrounding squatter-land selection rights. He is still regarded as a folk hero.

There was a time when having convict ancestors was vaguely uncomfortable for a family; now it is a source of pride. And yes, we do have a convict in the tree - probably more if I can connect them. A sheep-stealer, in fact. Acquitted the first time 'on compassionate grounds' (his father died while awaiting trial for the same offence), but convicted when he did it again! I'm not sympathetic to his plight because he was a recidivist, he'd been in trouble for most of his life. But he did manage to create a new life for himself here, in Australia, following the commutation of the execution order to life in the penal colony.

When bad men do bad things, it's not acceptable to ascribe moral motives to their actions centuries later and call those actions justified. Just as it is not acceptable to re-write words already spoken and recorded because we find them distasteful now. Nor do I believe in teaching sanitised history to reflect the modern political correctness of apologising for the actions of the population generations ago.

Captain James Cook should be accorded the respect of his name, his title and his achievements in navigation, astronomy and exploration, not reduced to a sneering descriptor as 'Jimmy Cook'.

I've had this argument before and the end result was an agreement to disagree. But should I write historical pieces as fiction, I'll use the words spoken at the time. If I'm vilified for it, so be it; at least I won't be a history denier.

Ergo, Ergot

Between the years 1000-1400AD, Europe experienced an era of warmth and higher than average rainfall. This was the ‘Medieval Warm Period’.

During this time, populations and crops flourished. But by the end of this period, the Black Death decimated those same populations. Europe, after the epidemic passed, found itself with 30-60 percent less people. With less people to work in the fields, the fewer fields cultivated and the less food produced. Famine resulted in killing off more of the population. But famine was not uncommon in Medieval Europe, just more obvious after the Black Death.

Some estimates put the death toll at between 75-200 million people. As with all urbanisation, the close proximity of people led to the rapid spread of disease. Paris lost 100,000 – half its population, Florence more than half at 70,000 dead.

Before the Black Death arrived, another danger lurked in the warm, humid environment: fungus.

Bread wasn’t just a staple of the diet, it provided the plate, or trencher, as well. Following the meal, the bread trencher could be eaten, given to the poor or to farm animals. Unfortunately for the peasants of Europe, the warm, rainy weather gave rise to the Ergot fungi which grew on the rye and wheat crops.

Ergot poisoning manifested itself in humans as hallucinations, convulsions, nausea, a burning sensation in the limbs. Such symptoms lead to many accusations of witchcraft. One hundred thousand were slaughtered on the charge of poisoning the local population. Jews, Muslims, lepers were included in the accusations and of bringing the Black Death to Europe.

A little known cultural response, however, was the real culprit for the increase in deaths from plague. Hysteria ran high after the poisonings and cats – the oft accused familiar of witches – were killed off in job lots...

With no cats to hunt the flea-ridden rodents carrying the Plague, the incidents of Black Death sky-rocketed and so did the persecutions. Even after the disease ran its course and faded from Europe, the Church and local communities continued to go after alleged witches; most of whom were ordinary people subjected to the jealousies of others.

The persecution of non-Christians has a history spanning millennia. But paternalism as a measure to control society is a story for another day.

Today, witchcraft is more acceptable (excluding areas of Africa where people are still murdered for being an accused witch) under the banner of ‘neopaganism’; a friendlier, more peaceful and private practice without the church-fed superstitions of old.

Education and flexibility of governments, the separation of church and state, the sophistication of our societies and the establishments of religious freedoms, all allow people to worship a religion in their own way.

For Christians, Easter is a solemn occasion; for the neopagans, it is a time for celebration. Fortunately, in the modern world, there’s room enough for both.

Moon over April

The practice of deciding when Easter falls is a tradition millennia old yet involves a pagan practice: that of the moon’s cycle through the heavens.

Constantin the Great, a Roman Emperor, decreed in 325, that Easter be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. (The vernal equinox occurs twice a year when night and day are the same length.) By using the Julian calendar, each year was 11 minutes and 14 secs longer than the solar year. Over the years, this caused distinct discrepancies in Western Church celebrations of Easter.

Given the conflict between the solar and lunar years, and between the calendic and true astronomical years, the church adopted a system of calculations proposed by astronomer, Victorinius in 465.

British and Celtic Christian churches refused to comply, leading to disagreements with Rome. At this time, the Julian calendar was in use, but in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar into the Gregorian calendar which dissolved most of the controversy by dropping ten days off the calendar. Western Christian churches were then be able to celebrate Easter at the same time; Eastern Christian Churches however, chose not to adopt the new system and so celebrate Easter either a week before or after the dates of the West.

Because of the difference between the Lunar and Solar cycles, Easter has become ‘a moveable feast’.

The word ‘Easter’ is thought to be pre-Christian in origin, from the Anglo-Saxon for the Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, Eastre. According to St Bede – an 8th Century British scholar – the month of April was sacred to her. The vernal equinox is her day of celebration. Easter Eggs, too, are a part of the festival, representing fertility.

Historically speaking, Rome, in an effort to suppress Pagan rituals, changed iconic Christian celebratory days to those of Pagan worship; it made the conversion from paganism to Christendom easier for the Church. And yet, the church also integrated paganism into the Christian doctrine and calls it their own.

The remains of ancient Roman temples and sites of Celtic significance have been found under a number of Christian churches across Europe, including the Notre Dame in Paris.

It is a curious hypocrisy of the church that Christmas – the day the Church says Jesus Christ was born – is on a set date, immovable (though some astronomers believe the date is...erroneous due to the astronomical event at the time described in literature and the Bible which did not take place in December, but in April – other astronomical events were also recorded over a period of ten years, thus the true date is up for debate), but the day of his death changes due to the vagaries of the lunar cycle.

UK Church signs

Since Easter is coming up soon, I thought I'd get my irreverence out of the way early:









I could say so much about the last one... but, in the interests of not causing a bun fight, I shall refrain.

St Patrick

Four hundred years after Claudius invaded Britannia to subdue the Celtic barbarians, Irish raiders attacked a small village – probably in the Severn Valley – burning and slaying. When they retreated back to Ireland, they had in their possession the son of a Christian Deacon, a Roman citizen. His name was Patrick.

Sold into slavery, Patrick found solace in religion as he tended farm animals. For six years he toiled in loneliness before insistent visions led him to escape to Brittany. He wandered far and wide until he came upon Bishop Germanus of Auxerre.

Expressing a desire to return to Ireland and spread the religious message he had learned on his travels, Patrick spent the next fourteen years under the Bishop’s careful tutelage and prepared himself for what seemed an impossible task.

In 432 he sailed for Ireland. There, he organised the Christians already there and converted kings and kingdoms to the Christian way. Today, he is celebrated for his deeds, including the ridding of snakes and reptiles from the land. Green is colour worn and shamrocks displayed to represent the Holy Trinity.

The commonly told story of St Patrick, however, hides a deeper, more brutal truth – the thorough oppression of an older religion and people, that of so-called paganism and the Celts.

Prior to subjugation by the Romans, the Irish Celts were one of the most liberal and equitable societies in history. The religion was maternal as opposed to the paternal Romans.

Women could and did divorce husbands, taking with them all they’d brought to the marriage. Divorce could be for infertility, inability to perform conjugal rights, for a husband preferring other men, brutality, for many reasons we have today.

The Celt Queen Boudicca of the Iceni came within an hour of defeating the Roman legions, but for the treachery of the male leaders of other tribes who wanted the wealth and prestige siding with Rome would bring.

Patrick, in his desire to convert people, desecrated sacred Druid sites by setting the Solstice fires alight before the due day, by turning kings to Christianity through threats of retribution, trade sanctions and oppression. It came to pass that anyone who practiced non-Christian ways were put to death, beheaded as a warning to others. Druids were rounded up and slaughtered, sacred oak groves were put to the flame and history... rewritten.

And the snakes evicted from Ireland? One of the sacred items to Druids was the image of the snake. It is a common feature on a number of jewellery pieces discovered during archaeological excavations. During the time of Patrick, the snake represented the Druids. Patrick’s ridding the Isle of snakes is merely a metaphor for the slaughter of pagan Holy men and women, but portrayed in Christian Garden of Eden terms.

Patrick went on to establish monasteries and religious retreats. He inspired St Columba who took Christianity to the Picts in Scotland and on into England. In conjunction with the Pope, the majority of Pagan sacred days were converted to Christian Holy ones. Churches were built on ley lines.

It did not mean the complete destruction of paganism; for example the Christian church still uses the pagan way of moon cycles when deciding when Easter is to be held. The raising of a tree at Christmas is a part of the Druid tree-worshipping practice is another example.

St Patrick is a man who changed history. Think, for a moment, what Ireland could have become if those raiders had killed the boy rather than enslave him.

Churchill, Homer and me...

So family turned up from all over the place to celebrate my eldest sister's mumble, mumble birthday. It's not really her birthday, she'll be in Paris on the actual day.

These parties are... exuberant. We don't get together all that often because of distance, but when we do, damn, but we go all out.

I'm lying on the couch, trying to pay attention to the rugby, with an overstuffed belly from too much food and soaked with some rather tasty wine - no thoughts of getting back to fiction tomorrow - I'm feeling nicely pickled.

Winston Churchill made some his most famous speeches following the consumption of significant amounts of brandy - I think it also contributed to his slow, measured tones when delivering the words that boosted a nation.

I'm no Churchill, hell, I have ambitions to be as erudite as Homer. Simpson, that is, not the ancient Greek.

It does, however, make me wonder how many authors out there settle down with a nice glass of red or white and set fingers to keyboard to compose - and whether the result is worth reading.

Churchill proved brilliant; for me - if tasting the fruit of the vine - the hits usually outweigh the misses. That is, the hits of 'wow, that's awful' are more prevalent than the 'wow, that's exciting'.

I need a nap now.

Goodbye Maggie

Sleep well, Maggie-moo-too, BFF of Saxon, much loved member of our families and the best little brown dog ever.

We miss you.

Resistance is futile

I think this hiatus is working. The temptation to get back to the keyboard and write is growing, with an idea for a sequel to a book I'm taking to the World Science Fiction Convention held in Melbourne this September.

But I'm not going to give in, not yet. Next Monday is soon enough. This week, I'm still reading, still watching movies (Eagle Eye was great!) and I'm working on a web page for the local museum.

I'm coming to the opinion that sitting down, every single day, and writing creatively or editing is not such a good idea (Nano aside). Doing stuff away from writing recharges the batteries - which have been on a low, near-desperate buzz for a while now - has done me a lot of good.

Next week, I'll be doing an edit and probably dumping, oh, about forty or fifty pages of Hunted (those pages really suck) and post the book by the end of April to Scribd... hmm, that's when the web page is due. And I really want to get to writing.

Maybe I can sneak it in, just a few quick notes, or dot points...

Down Time

Ah, yes. The sky is blue, the air is cool and Autumn has arrived. Yay!
In the post storm landscape, busted branches hover in trees, sticks and twigs litter the ground and rattle under cars; clumps of seaweed bob like bodies in the calm waters off the beach. (And that’s a disturbing sight, I can tell you.)

I’ve deliberately stayed away from any editing/writing over the past week or so because I’m temporarily over it. I wanted to read something I haven’t written, watch a movie or two, or three or four, guilt free.

I’ve watched Sweeney Todd (a curious movie), The Matrix (gotta love Keanu and the delicious Mr Smith), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (still indifferent to it), From Dusk until Dawn (George Clooney... sigh) and Dogma (which is in my top five of must sees. It’s brilliant, eloquent and oh, so wicked).

For the moment, I’ve set aside Vicki Pettersson’s City of Souls for some Maggie Shayne re-runs, probably some old Nora, too; a back to the beginning kind of thing. I need to reconnect with why I love writing and reading, be inspired again. And to relax, which, I confess, I’m not very good at. Posting stuff ‘out there’ is stressful because you’re presenting work for judgement – the good and the bad – and four books in six months has plum done wored me out.

I feel better for not rushing into the next book, for focussing on other things. I’m aware of another deadline at the end of April – which is right before the Story-a-day marathon. (But no pressure...)

Until then, I’m happy to rest up for a week or so and not worry about putting words down on paper.

May is soon enough for that and editing can wait.

Elemental Elements

I went another round with the weather tonight, and I must ask: why does this happen when I'm feeling, well, second hand?

We've played host to family for the last few days, so it's been late nights and... way too much of the vino.

I didn't wake up with a hangover (yay!), but the tiredness of a very late night lingered. Figured an early night would do me, but that was before the mightiest thunderstorm evah.

How mighty? The noise of wind and rain overwhelmed the sound of thunder - and the falling branch into the front yard. Within ten minutes, the water level out the back rose three inches to lap at the back door.

Tiredness fled under the "Oh, shit!" moment. On with the gumboots and out into the water, icy rain, howling gale and bright strobes of lightning. I'm becoming very handy with the yard broom, sweeping the water around the side of the house and down the driveway for the next half hour.

The street drains were simply overwhelmed by the volume of water; the lone car (a 4WD) crept along the street because it couldn't see far enough through the sheets of rain and falling debris from the trees. Storms arrive fast and ferocious here, but are over relatively quickly.

For the second time this month, we've water damage in the back room, and with this storm, damage from water coming in under the front door.

Tomorrow, I'm putting in some remediation pipes. I'm over the neighbour's excess rainwater gushing into the backyard. Sure, according to my weather records February is the wettest month of the year and we probably won't get such a downfall again until this time next year, but climate changes and I'm not entirely confident in the Bureau of Meteorology: they cancelled the severe thunderstorm warning at 5.30 this afternoon - this torrent came two hours later.

What a way to end the Summer...

Out there

Sometimes, I have nothing to write on the blog, even as I have plenty to say.

I've always thought this by Silvan Engel is appropriate: It is better to be silent, and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

I prefer - mostly - to stay away from the topics of sex, religion and politics; all are personal and all reveal bias, which is why they are taboo topics at a dinner party. Like everyone else, I get bent out of shape with those subjects and I'm unwilling to engage in arguments that descend into rectitude. The topic I refuse to discuss have been the global financial crisis, government debt, climate change, homosexuals in the armed forces, the bestowing of sainthood on Mary McKillop - and the people on the pulpit thundering out their views. Just so you know.

So. Lip: buttoned. And no post for a week.

In the e-mail box today is the latest Writer's Digest. It has some interesting links. Brian Klems at Questions and Quandries informs us of the difference between lay, lie and laid. He also has a nice sidebar list should you need answers to other questions you might have.

How about the do's and don'ts of writing a synopsis? With the global economy still in a slump, writing dollars are hard to come by, so try 5 Ideas for unconventional writing success.

James Plath begins his article on 21 Tips to Get Out of the Slush Pile with some good advice:

During the 16 years that I edited Clockwatch Review, I often found myself wishing that every writer could work as an editor for a year. After all, it's impossible to read 60-plus manuscripts daily and not develop a pretty fair sense of what makes a short story work.

I'm guessing every editor feels the same. Just because you've written a book, doesn't mean it's publishable. The list he presents is excellent.

Writer's Digest, on occasion, has very little I'm interested in; then it hits the jackpot. Go. Read. Inwardly absorb and become the best writer you can be.

History as fiction

Every week, I take myself off to the local maritime museum to work on their newsletter. It’s part current events and part history – and yeah, okay, I do both.

When I put my historian’s hat on, I spend a lot of time on the National Library of Australia’s newspaper archive site. It. Is. Amazing! - oh, and distracting with the life and times...

I’m currently working on the people who started the shipbuilding industry in the local area, and the NLA’s site, plus the State Records Office, have provided me with lots of information to wallow in.

Obviously, this is not fictional writing here, but wait, there’s a point. Let me tell you a little story:

In 1816, James Dent was sent to Australia, convicted of forging banknotes. Four years later, he was granted a Conditional Pardon – that is, he was allowed to wander the colony, but not leave it. In 1820, he married and in 1824, moved out of the main township of Sydney to the Cooks River where he leased a farm.

His neighbour was one Dr Robert Wardell. Wardell and another lawyer, William Charles Wentworth, started the Australian newspaper and proceeded to criticise the Governor of NSW, General Ralph Darling, for his attempts at running the penal colony as a military camp.

In 1828, two separate incidents happened: James Dent was sent to trial for stealing timber from Dr Wardell’s property (he and two co-conspirators were caught when a constable, charging through the bush after a bushranger, found one cutting timber and tossing it over the fence to Dent’s side.) On the same day, a convict named John Jenkins was sentenced to three years transportation to Newcastle for robbing a fellow inmate.

Move forward in time to 1834. John Jenkins has returned. He and two other men are camped on... Dr Wardell’s land. Dr Wardell sets out to inspect his land and come upon the trio. An altercation takes place and Dr Wardell is shot dead. Jenkins and one other are convicted and sentenced to execution after the youngest member turns informer.

James had nothing to do with the crime. He died in 1837. His wife, Elizabeth, marries twice more before dying in 1858. She is buried at St Peter’s near Cooks River.
A son of James, George, eventually came down to the Huskisson area and began cutting timber for the new shipbuilding industry, and started constructing ships – an industry that lasted until the 1960s.

Now then. One of Australia’s greatest architects was Edmund Blacket. He designed and built a good portion of the cathedrals of NSW, including St Andrew’s at Sydney University. What’s interesting is that in 1875, he refurbished... St Peter’s near Cooks River. His son, Cyril, was also an architect and lived... near Huskisson, designing and building a lot of the houses here, including the local church.

History has a lot of co-incidences that seem incredible.

To me, this story is a metaphor for fiction: Wardell, Darling and Blacket are all listed in the Australian Biographical Dictionary – and rightly so; each man built a little piece of this country and left a legacy still recognised today. They are Literature.

Dent and Jenkins aren’t; they are unknown, forgotten, and yet stamped their own mark on history – they are Pulp Fiction.

The difference between the two groups is that one are written about, known about, are famous for what they did rather than who they are; the second group are no more than items in old newspapers or convict records, but are more interesting because of their connections to fame, because of who they are, more than what they did.

Two disparate groups: Literature filled with accomplishment, stories of conflict and noble triumph or bitter tragedy of ambitious men in building a new land; and clinging to Literature’s lower leg, Pulp Fiction, filled with struggle, action, mistakes, happily-ever-after and a villain brought to account, events repeated throughout colonial history. Common to virtually every convict family who also struggled to build a life for themselves in a new land.

One couldn’t survive without the other. Without Pulp Fiction, Literature has no basis; without Literature, Pulp Fiction has nothing to aspire to.

History is made up of both: the luminaries who came to Australia to ensure its’ success and guide the colony, and the convicts and free settlers, who did the labour and built the structures, who farmed the land, who desired to be free.

As a writer and part-time historian, I’m more fascinated with Pulp Fiction than Literati, because it is Pulp Fiction who move the nation without recognition, who have the gritty, complicated lives that engage the emotions – despite Literature thinking I should read it instead.

Book posted

Finally. After problems with converting Spring's Reign to .pdf and then difficulty uploading the sucker, it's posted on Scribd.

Ahh... sweet relief - even if it is raining. Again. I can go off, do a happy dance - or maybe not, the weather gods might think it a rain dance and do something I'll regret.

I think I'll put my feet up and read a book, or the newspaper, or watch a movie or anything I damn-well please until I decide what's next. Actually, I already know. I'm just trying not to think about it yet.

Writing one book, editing four and posting them all within six months is kind of draining, even if the results were... mixed.

Lizard thinking

Printed out a final draft - I'll be reading it tonight and tomorrow for last minute corrections - and went ahead with the cover. Since this is the last of four books, I intended that all cover fonts and pictures match.

Oh... the horror!!! For previous books, I used a different computer, with an art package and fonts. Of course, when I tried to start the damn thing, it pouted, crossed its arms and said 'Nup'. After trying everything, I had to admit defeat.

My own damn fault. I changed to the laptop for convenience and because the desktop was making whiney-ass noises. Now, it won't go at all. I think I killed it; killed it stone-motherless-dead.

I set the desktop aside and did some pouting of my own.

Now, it's hot and humid here, tropical even; just moving around produces sweat - and a lizard.

Lizard?? Yes. A Blue Tongue, in fact. The garden has about five that sneak out of the garage to ambush snails and slugs (although, I don't suppose snails would rear in surprise and make a dash for the tomatoes - funny image though).

Because it's hot, I opened the front door - but not the security screen - and the back door - which doesn't have a security screen - to allow a sea breeze to pass through.

While pouting at the tragedy of a dead computer, I heard a rustle and glanced down. I looked at the Blue Tongue, and it looked at me. Then it made a dash for the couch. Those things are fast.

It took half an hour to remove the beastie back into the garden, but the sudden change in thought processes did the job.

I remembered the handy-dandy font software I bought... mmm... years ago. Sixteen hundred fonts to choose from and import. Oh, frabjous day, calloo-callay!!

Cover's done.

All I need do, is a final run through and the book should be posted on Scribd by the midnight deadline.

Music to edit by

I'm putting in the edits on Spring's Reign. By the weekend, it will be posted and I can turn my attention to something else.

As I put the edits in, I'm listening to some 'old' music. I went through my cd collection - which desperately needs organising - and plucked out stuff I haven't heard in ages.

Ah... not the hippest but these are what I've run through the player:

Shawn Colvin: Steady On
Shawn Colvin: A Few Little Repairs
Aqua: Aquarius
Alan Parsons Project: Turn of a Friendly Card
Fleetwood Mac: Tango in the Night
Mike Oldfield: Voyager
Mike Oldfield: Amarok
The Corrs: Forgiven, not Forgotten
Robbie Williams: Sing When You're Winning

and more modern ones:
Lily Allen: It's Not Me, It's You (The neighbours are probably fed up by now.)
Kelly Clarkson: All I Ever Wanted
Michael Buble: ALL OF THEM!!!

They're getting a bit of a flogging, but I find it relaxing and I can concentrate. So, back to it or I'll miss the deadline.

'sup?

Finally, the rain has ceased for the time being. This morning dawned sunny, right before a sea mist rolled in, a sure indicator of a hot and humid day.

We've had more than twice the monthly average for rainfall and eight days of the stuff out of nine. Everything has that dampness about it that reminds me of England. I'm just about to get someone from Seattle to send me the t-shirt: In Seattle, you don't tan, you rust. Coz, I'm feelin' ya.

I can categorically say: "I am over Summer." I want the coolth of Winter, the bitey mornings and cheek-nipping breezes. I want the scent of burning leaves and mown grass. I want the sun to rise later and set earlier... okay, it's doing that now, but I want it to be obvious. I guess I'll have to be patient.

Edits are on track for Friday - barring any unforeseen screw ups.

Oh, and as for the Super Bowl I watched. Can you say, Cha-ching-ing-ing! Who dat?

Fantasy in Death

I love a good locked door mystery and J.D. Robb's Fantasy in Death delivers.

Long time friends Bart, Cill, Var and Benny are on the verge of releasing a state-of-art holo-game. Bart tests the game in the isolation and secured holo-room of his locked apartment and is killed. There are no clues. No weapon, no evidence of an intruder, no witnesses, nothing.

This is the crime super-cop, Lt. Eve Dallas, investigates with a little help from husband, Roarke. His input is more as a consultant and assists Feeney off screen. Eve struggles to understand e-tech, as always, but it is because she doesn't understand the environment that she can think of the unusual solution. I had my own suspects, but didn't truly settle on one until late in the book. Canny readers will pick up on the pivotal moment.

Fans of J.D. Robb will be excused for thinking this book is familiar with a particular scenario in the first of the series, Naked in Death, I know it rang a bell with me - but when you consider the two-year time frame, it's not such a leap.

I would have given the book five stars, except for the laziness of the copy-editor. This English version has unfortunate carriage returns in the middle of sentences, words that need spaces in between and comma issues. There are also problems with 'voice'. At one stage, I couldn't tell who was speaking, Roarke or Eve. Roarke doesn't have the speech patterns from previous books and the concept of 'friendship' is a bit belaboured.

Overall - if you can ignore the copy-edit problems - the story is a great read and fans will be satisfied.

Rain, rain, and more bloody rain

The last twenty four hours we've had buckets of rain, 100mm in twelve hours. Not much sleep since I had to check the back drains at midnight, 3.00 and again at 6.00.

The house is set on flat ground, with the rainwater run off coming through the backyard since builders behind us changed the natural watercourse some years ago. It's been eight or nine years since so much rain fell in a short time.

October I was out checking the drains, but the rain eased mid-evening.

The humidity is still high and we have a severe weather warning for the rest of the day. Sigh.

I'm hoping my beans and brussel sprouts survive - I only planted them at lunchtime yesterday, before the bucketing. The veggie patch is looking waterlogged.

On the editing front, I have about three chapters to do in this draft. I'll set it aside for a day or so and let it simmer... Okay, fine I have J.D. Robb's Fantasy in Death waiting. From all reports, it's an absolute cracker. Work first, then play. Which means, weather warning or not, I need to get back to the editing so I can have my reward.

AFK