Things I Thunk

Another Day, Anothet Novel

2010-08-08T10:36:00.002+10:00

I've started another novel.

I finished the Brightest Light. It is currently working it's way towards the top of the Baen slush pile. It's their type of novel (unlike Songs of other Worlds or whatever it was at the time). I think it has a shot.

The Subtle Chains is in hiatus.

And it's all Terry Pratchett's fault. He has organised some sort of competition for novels. The prize is a $20000pound advance, or something like that, but unfortunately the story has to be set entirely on earth. And it has to be submitted by the end of this year. So I am not about 5k words into a new novel about witches and goblins and fairies. I was thinking of making it YA but there's talk of suicide and the doing of sex in the first few scenes so I'm not really sure. I could probably change it, and I will leave that option open, but at the moment I'm just going to write what comes.

It's going pretty well, so far. I did start it about a month ago but that didn't work out. It started in the fairy realm with a goblin as the main character, now it starts on earth from a human POV. Much better this time around.

We are still living in the shed, thought at the moment we are staying down at my parent's house because they're away for 5 weeks visiting Deborah in NT. It's great having a house. We want a house. We have had Nanango on the market but have taken it off while we wait for the messy tenants to move out. We really need to sell so we can buy...

Bayli and Noah are doing great. NAd that's all. I should be writing. A goblin and 2 sprites have just come appeared in our realm because of an accidental spell cast by a novice witch.

How Things Change: The Next

2009-08-24T15:32:00.004+10:00

Kel and I moved to Nanango in February of 2008. I found work. Kel did Family Day Care. Bayli (our daughter) said her first words and took her first steps. Then we moved to my parent's garage in Woodford for reasons partially relating to the fact that she is pregnant again. If you want to know more, check out the 'Robinsons' blog.

In writing news Singing Other Worlds (previously known by several other names-- the science fiction one with the trolls) has been trimmed by 60,000 words (it doesn't hove trolls any more) after comments supplied by a publisher. Subtle Chains has been postponed while I write The Brighest Light, a fantasy crystal-punk novel (it's a brand new genre that is about to take off) and then possible while I complete The Shadow of the Dragon a fantasy with cast iron blimps. Yes, the title is fairly cliched but I like it none the less for its double meaning.

I'm part way through reading The Tide Lords series by Jennifer Fallon. It has similarities to Winds of the Forelands in that it's bugging me but I'm still reading it. This one is easy enough to follow' its just the quality of the writing. It feels more like something by a first time writer than someone with ten or so books like Jennifer. One of my favourite "rules" of writing is the old, enter late, leave early. ie, start the scene at the last possible moment (taking things like flow and clarity into account) before the scene's point is made (there can obviously be more than one point to a scene) and get out as soon as possibe afterwards.

An example of this not happening. (paraphrased because I returned the first and second book to my mother in law).

Declan, a a low born major character is talking to a Prison Captain (PC), a minor character (who isn't seen after the first few chapters). PC is being a smart arse and says, "Would you like me to tell any of you friends you are in town. Do you have any friends?" or something to that effect. Declan replies, "Arkady Desean is my friend. Do you know who she is?" And he promptly leaves. PC is shocked. He thinks, Of course I know who she is. Everyone knows who she is. She is the Duchess. And he spends another page thinking about the Duchess and how she rose up from the slums.

Nothing wrong with that in itself, except after PC does all the thinking there's a new chapter from the Duchess's POV, in which we are given all the relevant information again. The previous chapter could have ended with Declan leaving the room.

There are a lot of little things like that. There's a lack of subtlety. The characters are intelligent one moment and as dense as an elvish forest the next. Where was the editor?

Anyway, Bayli wants to dance...

Reading

2008-06-03T12:00:00.002+10:00

At the moment I'm reading the third book in the Winds of the Forelands series by David B Coe. I'm not sure what I think of it. It is bugging the hell out of me in a lot of ways. It's all so confusing for one thing. There are too many characters that are very similar to other characters and too many places that are similar to other places. I'm having trouble keeping everything straight in my head.

But apparently is isn't bugging me enough to get me to stop-- I am up to book three, after all.

Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that I met David at Conjure in 2006. He was a nice guy and had lots of interesting stuff to say.

Haven't written anything extra today-- get to it soon.

The New Novel

2008-06-02T20:56:00.002+10:00

Last post I said I would be starting a new novel soon. I did start it. And yesterday I started the same novel again.

I did have about 8k words but wasn't all that happy with most of them. They weren't terrible or anything, I suppose, just not the ones I wanted. So, as I said, I started again.

The novel is to be called The Subtle Chains. Amd it is to be the first book of a three book series called Warriors of Myth and Legend. Subtle chains will be a fairly standard quest fantasy with a small group sent to complete a few tasks by their god. After that it gets a bit more complicated. Doesn't it always. And, of course, when i say fairly standard I obviously mean compared to my previous stuff. For those of you who haven't read my previous stuff (there are billions of you out there) I do fantasy/si-fi cross over stuff.

So anyway, I have about 800 words at the moment and I think they are pretty good. And I think they are in a pretty good order as well.

Shall see, I guess.

More soon.

Not Long Now

2007-12-22T08:00:00.000+10:00

What's this I see? A blog? No, surly not...

Well, I am going to be starting to write a new novel soon, so I thought I would blog a bit about that when it happens. This is just a preparatory post, to get myself going again.

To let you all catch up-- Kel and I are now married. We are back from our honey moon. She is pregnant. And in less than a month we will be moving to Nanango. So, yes, you'r eright, nothing much has happened since last time.

The blog you are now reading will mainly be about writing stuff from now on. If you want to read about the wedding etc, go to the Robinsons, which, if I can get it worked out, will be a link at the side.

And speaking of writing, I finished another novel. It is out getting read by a couple of people from Vision at the moment. So, ok, finished is a relative word. I'll tell you how finished it is when people get back to me.

That's all.

How Things Change v.3

2007-06-10T09:58:00.000+10:00

I'm getting married.

Kel and I went to Sydney for a weekend in November last year. We went to a show at the Opera House. We took in the sights. We got engaged. For those who are interested in that sort of thing, I asked in the Botanical Gardens. If I could do it over again I would probably do things a bit differently. But I asked and Kel said yes, so that's the main thing.

So, the wedding is in August. It will be 17 months since we met.

And I may have previously said we met when I went to the city to take some photos, but we actually met on the internet. It seems to have worked :)

Also, We have bought a house in Nanango, which is a small town (population 4500) about two and a half hours north west of Brisbane. We will be moving there in January. Has four bedrooms and a huge yard and we wouldn't have been able to afford anything like it in Brisbane.

We were looking at some acreages just outside of town as well. One was on the side of a mountain with absolutely no lawn at all. The other had five acres of lawn. Both of them were nice, but the houses were smaller and they were more expensive.

Last weekend we went to a cousins wedding in Melbourne. Was nice, but could have done without the expense at this stage. The house, our upcoming honeymoon to Europe, a new engine for the car... It's all getting a bit expensive.

So, that's all. Have to go do some work to pay for everything. Well, not really.

My Name is Earl...

2006-08-14T13:08:00.000+10:00

I'm now sharing a two bedroom unit with someone, so obviously we have lots of extra crap. The other day we decided to sell some of it at a second hand store. So Kel and I are in Cash Converters, with a stereo, two pairs of roller blades and a wheelie clothes hanger thing on the counter.

A cross eyed guy at the counter looked them over. "I can give you $40," he said, looking over my left shoulder.

"Ummm..." I replied.

There was a weird looking gay guy (ok, he didn't tell me he was gay, but he had christmas sticky tape around a couple of fingers) fiddling in the background. His rendition of 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' made me nervous. (sorry, had to say that).

"How about $50?" I ventured, unconsciously shifting to my left.

The cross eyed guy tapped away at the computer for a second while the gay guy fiddled some more. "$45 is the best I can do."

Another customer walked inand started organising something with the gay guy. Might have been something to do with a golden fiddle, but I'm not sure.

Kel and I accepted the offer and cross eyed guy started on the computer again. And we stood there waiting while he's tapping away.

And while we wait, the other customer has a look at the stereo and says, "How much are they offering you for that?"

"$45 for the lot," I told him.

"Does the stereo work?"

"Yes. Crossed-eyed guy just tested it." And it did work. The fact that it had seven watt speakers and a four button remote control didn't come up.

"I'll give you $40 for the stereo."

"Ummm..." I hesitated because I could understand that the cash converters guys might be offended by this conversation.

"$40 for the stereo," the guy says again.

"Ummm..."

"You'll have to make up your mind before I enter it into the system," Cross eyed guy says.

"What elese have you got?" The customer goes around to have a look at the rest of the stuff. "I'll give you eighty dollars for the lot." Now there's a guy who knows how to bargain. Forget all the prices between $45 and $80 that we would have accepted. I mean, jeeze, why not offer 60?

"We are the ones with the business licence," Gay guy says. "You'll have to have this conversation outside."

"Ummm, sure." So we apoplogise to cross eyed guy.

"No worries. No skin off my nose," he says to someone standing behind my left shoulder.

Out in the carpark, Kell can't stop laughing as we wait for the customer to finish his business inside. And when the man finally emerges, a kid poked his head out the window of a beat up old car and says, "Dad, I got money." And he brandished a dirty, jangling old sock.

And that set me off as well. Not because the kid had money, but because he was an Aboriginal, black as could be, and the customer looked to be white. He may have had some Aboriginal in him, but it wasn't obvious. And I couldn't help thinking of Earl from 'My Name is Earl' who didn't realise the two black kids weren't his... And the whole situation just seemed like something Earl would get himself into. Number 243, pissed of the gay guy at Cash Converters by stealing his business.

So, there's Kel and I, trying not to laugh as we sell stuff out of the boot of my car behind Cash Converters.

"What's that?" the customer asks, pointing to the cloths rack thingy. "A stand for the stereo?"

We explain.

"Oh, right. Got anything else to sell?"

I had a football in my boot that I thought of giving him for $25, but well... Maybe I hould have sold him CDs for $30 each...

Kel still can't stop laughing whenever she thinks about it.

(I just read back ove that and the tense is all over the place. I just couldn't be bothered fixing it.)

How things change

2006-08-07T21:33:00.000+10:00

In one of my first post I made a comment about how quickly things can change. In that case, it was an unexpected pregnancy for the girl friend of one of the guys at work.

In this case it's about me. But thankfully there are no pregnancies involved. I have now, officially, moved to Kel's place. I have become a southsider. It's terrible. Well, not really. But still, a southsider. And about as far south as you can get and still be in greater Brisbane.

Oh well, shouldn't complain (because Kel might see) :)

I also have a job down here, working for a library supply company. It isn't too bad at all. And I have seen a couple of books by frineds pass thorugh. Well done Grace and Chris...

I'm Back... Again

2006-05-05T19:02:00.000+10:00

It must be that time of the year... Let's see what happens this time.

A quick update... On the second day of my cricket semi final (the first of whihc was washed out-- for those of you who didn't read the previous post), we almost won. It was close. We went out and batted, scoring a quick 96 runs before declaring. Proceeded to bowl them out for 103. Then we went and scored another 60 runs leaving them with a total of 54 runs to win in about an hour. The trouble was, of course, they didn't actually need to win. They just needed to not lose. In cricket, for those of you who don't know, that is a huge difference. At one stage we had them at 5 for fifteen (five wickets down out of a total of 10 having score only fifteen runs). But that was the end of it. We missed a couple of chances and they finished at 5 for thirty. I can assure you, we had them worried. But that was that. Oh well...

I did get a trophy at the club's presentation dinner. Most catches. Wasn't expecting it, so it was a nice surprise.

Apart from that I haven't done a whole heap. Still have the same job. It still isn't terrible. Who'd have thought? Still not writing much, but hopefully that's about to change. My incentive is looking good...

I was in the city (Brisbane, QLD, Australia, for those who don't know) on the morning of my afore mentioned cricket presentation dinner. I'd gone in to take some photos and, well, hang out like some teenager or something. I don't know. But anyway someone else-- let's call her Kel-- had the same idea. We started chatting. Six and a half hours later I had to go to the dinner. I knew I was in trouble when, later that night, sitting around with a bunch of guys I really like-- talking ourselves up and giving each other shit and generally having a good time-- I couldn't help but think there was somewhere else I'd rather be. That was late march. It feels like I've known her forever (in a good way :o) ).

Anyway, this is relevant to writing because I told Kel that if she gave me three elements, I'd work them all into a story. (Luckily, she reads fantasy as well). So now, I feel I have to do it, otherwise I'll be a liar. Or something like that. Any day now I should be finishing a short story that involves a blind wizard, a letter and a blue triangle... Any day now.

I'd be writing it now, if I wasn't writing this. I'd be writing it later, if there wasn't a rugby league test on television. I'd be... Shit. Well, I ˆhaveˆ started it. I have about 1300 words. Some of them are actually pretty good.

Nothing Really Exciting

2006-03-05T09:10:00.000+10:00

I'm back. Don't know for how long, but anyway.

I have a new job. Since the start of January I've been working for Australi Post. Sorting mail. It actually isn't horrible. Which is good. I work from 6am - about 2 at the moment, so that creates a problem with my writing. (ie, I write about 10 times more and 10 times better in the early morning than I do at any other time of day.) I am trying to start some short stories, but they aren't getting far.

I also have two novels about 1/2 finished that I have to get back to at some stage. Both were going pretty well when i last visited them but that was a while ago. Still, I will be able to finish them and they are probably more commercial than the last thing I wrote which is a good thing for a 'first' novel.

Other than that... My team scraped into the semi final for cricket. Seeing we didn't have a full team at all since christmas it wasn't too bad an effort. Trouble is, the first day of the semi was completely washed out, making our task difficult. We now have to win outright in one day. It's possible but...

Ummm... that's all.

Walker, metre reader

2005-12-05T17:15:00.000+10:00

I just finished 2 weeks of work. Jeeze was it fun!! Not. I was reading water metres. Walking about 10km a day. Lots of bending. Heat. Storms. It was all happening. But it was only temporary and now it is over. I could have worked tomorrow as well but my feet are killing me and on thursday, I actually went to the chiropractor for the first time in about 5 months to get my back looked at.

My novel has slowed to a... stop. I haven't written anythign for a while. Keep in mind, for the last two weeks I've been walking from 5am til noon. When I got home I just wanted to sit. And play xbox... Don't say it.

Other than that... Cricket is still going well. We probably aren't on top any more given that we lost our last game (we only had 7 players for half the day and 6 for the rest).

And that's all. Just thought I'd better get on her and write something.

Unemployed Again

2005-11-08T19:18:00.001+10:00

Did I say I wasn't going to get to watch the cricket? Well, I did watch it. The job didn't really work out and I was only there for 2 1/2 days. It had sounded good on paper but was boring, reasonably stressful and not something I could have done for very long at all. Not without going crazy (or more crazy, depending, perhaps). As it turns out, the person who took my spot is now the 'manager' there-- even more stress. The woman who was managing left very soon after me to go and work in a bank apparently.

I now own a digital SLR camera. I bought it the day before I started my wonderful new job. $1700 all up, with an extra lense, bag, memory card. Works very nicely. All I have to do is get out and use it a bit more. And get used to the idea of snapping every half decent picture I see, seeing I don't have to worry about the cost of printing all the crappy pics I take.

My novel is still moving, though it has slowed down. I'm at about 38k words and for a couple of days, have thought that I was going to be having another of my lullswhere I don't write anythign at all. But thankfully I have worked out a plot point I needed and should be able to keep moving forward. I doubt it will be as quick as I should be moving, giving my unemployment and all, but I won't complain unless I stop complete for a few days in a row.

And cricket is going pretty good as well. I am now averaging 22 with the bat. And... well, we won't talk about bowling. My team is on top of the table at the moment though so that's nice.

Work

2005-10-01T10:12:00.000+10:00

Up to about 20k words on my new novel.

And have a new job. Start on Monday. Don't even get to sit around watching Austrlia play the rest of the world in cricket over the ext few weeks. Damn it. Oh well

And my sister came back from China. She loved the country and the people but hated teaching and was sick...

And finally... I was in Brisbane on Friday for the job interview. And I was walking past the Performing Arts Centre just behind two people. There was a big banner hanging from the wall advertising "Mazart's Marriage of Figaro", Performed by Queensland Opera. Nothing funny about that, but I heard the woman in front of me say to her companion-- "Apparently it has a lot of Mozart music in it." I nearly fell over laughing.

That's all.

Round 1

2005-09-18T13:21:00.000+10:00

Played my first day of cricket for the season yesterday. It went pretty well. I opened the batting-- something I do occasionally but not all the time-- and scored 36 runs. For me, in the last couple of seasons, that's pretty good. My team scored 6 declared for 233. That's pretty good as well. And the opposition are 4 for 44 or something similar. That's good too-- for us (though I bowled a couple of overs and helped the opposition more than my own team). Unfortunately the opposition is made up entirely of guys under 18 years of age. I don't think we can judge the entire competition on them. Oh well. I'm still hurting...

After that, went to Heather's for a house warming movie night. Watched Buckaroo Banzai-- sort of anyway. More time was spent with people making smart arse comments about the cheesy dialog, bad acting and crazy story ("Buckaroo, the president wants to know if you sorted out the alien problem, or should he just go ahead and annihilate Russia?"-- may have paraphrased a bit there...). Then Napolean Dynamite and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Napolean was pretty good. Lots of very funny situations/scenes but laked a bit in the area of actual plot. Bill and Ted was a great as ever. "Hello royal ugly dudes."

I've done about 12,ooo words of my novel. Just into chapter 3. Is going along nicely. I've also added to my blog novel... Go and read it people. Comment.

I seem to be on a bit of bit of a diet or health kick or something at the moment. I haven't eaten chocolate in about 3 weeks (except for last night-- blame Heather for that) and have only drunk water in the same period. I don't need to be on a diet in terms of weight-- adding some wouldn't go astray, actually, and my cholesterol is low so... The real test will come on monday when I am supposed to go for a run. I was actually supposed to go on friday, but there were storm clouds and... stuff. It could have been dangerous... Well, that's my story and i'm sticking to it. I also have a home gym type but a bad back has been my excuse for not using that. Last year I also had fluid on my shoulder which basically meant I couldn't move my arm for a couple of days. Need pain killing injections in the joint and stuff to make it go away. Wasn't fun. And when I do too much with my arm it still hurts (though not as bad as it did, thank god.) I will exercise none the less. You just prove if I don't.

New Blog Novel

2005-09-12T13:16:00.000+10:00

My last attempt at a blog novel failed but I'm going to try again. I may cheat a little bit this time.

I have actually already completed the novel. I wrote it when I was about 20. It's been through some changes since and I don't think it's completely terrible.

Maybe you won't agree let me know. There's a link at the top of this post, I think, and another over the side with all the other links.

Other than that... Writing on my new novel is going... slowly, shall we say. Almost finished chapter 2.

And I had an Exercise Stress Test this morning. I don't think it will tell them much at all, but there you go. I'll find out in a couple of days when I get back to the doctors.

Going now.

The Idle Life

2005-09-06T19:39:00.002+10:00

Not a lot has happened since I joined the ranks of the unemployed.

I signed up with centre link but can't get any money from them for about 3 months anyway, seeing I have a healthy bank balance. I've applied for some jobs. Bummed around a bit.

Also attended Jason annual fancy dress party thing. Was good as usual. And of course, I exercised my right not to dress up. Spent most of the night standing in one spot talking to Sharon, Catriona (not sure on the spelling htere, could be Katrina), Chris and Sandra. Then I gave Katrina a lift home, had a cup of tea with her and didn't get to be until about 1am. Then up the next day for Vision in the city.

It's the first meeting I've been to in a while and I actually had somethign critiqued. It was the first little bit of a novel I started on wednesday or thursday. Good reception, so I'm up to about 6000 words now. has some interesting stuff in it, I think, and will probably be a bit faster paced than my recent stuff. Hopefully.

Speaking of which, my novel was rejected by Silver Lake. Bastards, don't know talent when they see it. I have since sent the novel to a publisher in England, and to an agent who is supposed to be pretty good. I guess I'll see how it goes, though it could be a while beofre I hear from either of them...

Haven't been to the cinema for about a week but have been watching lot's of movies that I've taped off tv.I have about 20 more to go...

Having coffee with Cindy on thursday. She works in one of the bookshops near where I live so we became friends seeing I go in there all the time to stand there and ogle. Ogle books, that is :p It's not often I actually buy one. I already have too many sitting around waiting to be read.

Anyways, my back hurts. Going to lie down. Go read my sister's blog instead--there's a link over the side there. Her life is much more interesting than mine at the moment.

Busy Day

2005-08-24T21:05:00.000+10:00

The day wasn't all that busy, really, but you know, metaphorically...

You see, I got fired.

Bit strange. Out of the blue. Apparently I wasn't doing a very good job but nobody thought to tell me before now. oh well. I'll get over it.

Wait a minute....

Ah, yes. There we go.

I'm over it.

About half hour after I got home from my old job today I got a phone call. I have a job interview tomorrow morning. Not the greatest job in the world and it would be kinda nice to have a month off or something, but I'm no longer in a position to turn anythign down, really. If i don't get it I think I'll just go for the jobs I really want (and therefore probably can't get) for a while and do some writing. That's the plan, anyway. Seeing I haven't written anythign for a while though...

Other than that... Had wax syringed from my ears. That was fun. And bought a shirt and tie for the interview. That was fun too.

Going now. So much to do...

Small Press

2005-08-07T12:00:00.000+10:00

Well, my sister, Deborah, is on her way to China. She'll be there for about a year. And that means I'll be going to China sometime in the next year. If I get off my arse and start to organise things. I've had forms for getting a passport for about 3 months now and haven't done anything about it. Oh well. You never know, Deb may get sick of China and come home early anyway. Though probably not.

Other than that...

I got an email from Silver Lake (a small press publisher in the US) the other day. My novel, Ancient Ones Book 1: Worlds Collide, has passed the first round of reading. They like the story idea and have read a little bit to know I'm not completely useless at actually writing. (ha! foolded them (o: ). Apparently I should know of any futher results in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed.

What might have been

2005-08-02T10:35:00.000+10:00

I've come up with a new saying--

Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

No, wait. That one's been done. Here we go--

Better to have loved and lost than to wonder what might have been.

That's it.

I met this woman a few weeks ago. (hey Christina-- though she doesn't know this blog exists so...) We went out a few times. We had fun. It was all going nicely. Then she finds out she got a job in Sydney. Starts immediately. And she's gone. So here I am, sitting in Brisbane, thinking "I really like her and I'd like to keep seeing her". I was not/am not in love with her (only knew her for about 2 weeks) but I'm aware of the possibilities. And the possibilities are annoying the hell out of me. If I'd met her two months earlier everything might have been different. At least that's enough time to make a decision. ie-- This relationship isn't worth the effort of moving/long distance crap. (Or, let's face it, it might have already been over). Or it is worth it. And if it's the latter you can do something about it. But a couple of weeks? Really can't stretch my romantic notions that far. (Even if I felt I could have she probably would have slapped me around for being an idiot.)

I actually found out last night that her new job will be taking her to India. Not sure for how long or anything. That doesn't really change the story, but anyway. (Or maybe it does. If I'd been willing to move to Sydney, would I have been willing to move to India. Hmmmm.)

So, here I am having one way conversations on my computer and Christina is in Sydney.

Oh well. Another day another... something.

Tasmania Part 2

2005-08-01T09:47:00.000+10:00

Now, where was I?

After the Strahan-Queenstown train trip, I arrived back in Queenstown at about 5pm. My intended stop over for that night was Cradle Mountain National Park, normally about 3 hours away. No problems at all, though it was cold and we and dark and i had to drive slow... The problem was... The reception of the caravan park at the national park closed at 7pm. I was there after that. There was a little buzzer near the door that I could press. So I pressed it. And nothing happened. I pressed it again. Same result. So after much deliberation, I decided "Bugger them" and left.

A couple of hours later (about 15km outside Launcestern (sp?) there was an all night pie shop (great hot chocolate-- jeeze it was cold [not the chocolate, the weather]), and out the back of that there was a paddock where you could park camper vans for free. I obliged.

I was in Launcestern by about 8am the next morning. And there was fog. Lots of fog. There was a lots of fog until about 10am. I parked up the top of a hill near Cataract Gorge and followed a goat track along the top of the cliffs into the city. It was rough, it was steep. I was buggered.

I wondered around there for the day. Went to the muesum and saw a movie, saw a gallery. Was pretty good. Except then I had to walk back to my van :o(.

I drove back out of town to a caravan park where I could get an ensuit (which had a heater supplied-- yum). And was back into town early the next morning. It was a saturday so I could park closer to town for free. Woo hoo. There was lots of fog. I took some photos of the fog but at 9:30 decided I'd had enough. I headed north, right to the mouth of the river, whatever river it is. There was fog there as well. And from there to the home of Launz, aka Dirk Flinthart.

Launz was/is in the process of adding an extra floor to his house. There was crap everywhere. I mean every where. There were kids everywhere. Well, not really, there are only two of them, but they seemed to be everywhere. (not in any horrible way-- just in the way of young boys). But the food was great. fish stew. Fresh custard for desert. Pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I could have stayed forever.

But I didn't. The next day I headed across to the east coast then southwards. I stayed the night at... some town. Just north of Hobart on the bay... or... something. Another of those free camper van places. And McDonalds has great hot chocolate too. And from there down to Port Arthur.

Port Arthur was great. Lots of old buildings and... ummm... a museum in an old building. And... ummm... It was raining, of course. As it had been raining just about every day. I took lots of photos. Was stalked by two women from Melbourne. Or maybe they were just looking at the old buildings in basically the same order as I was. It's hard to tell. The second day at Port Arthur I basically didn't leave the campervan. It was raining more than usual and I wanted to have a bit of a rest.

And that's basically the end of my Tasmanian oddessy (sp?). I returned to the air port the next day with a long list of jazz and classical music that I wanted to buy. Tasmania only seems to have about 3 radio stations (well, ones that can be picked up any way) and the only decent one was ABC classical.

The day after i got back from Tassie I started EnVision. That was great as well. 5 solid days of writing. My novel improved a lot. But I haven't looked at it since.

I can feel that I'm building towards writing. It happens like that. I go through my slow periods but I can feel when things are going to change. The fact that I'm writing this is something. Basically the first thing I've written for 6 weeks or so.

I did write half a scene from a feature film... I did come up with an idea for a short story in Tasmania that I'm thinking about. I did write my Tax Return (there's some fiction in there :o)-- just joking, in case the Tax office is keeping track of my Blog.)

My sister leaves for a year in China this sunday. She's teaching english over there. She's going to have a blog too, I think. I'll link to it on here. It will probably be a lot more interesting than mine. :o) And my parents now live in Woodford. So I can get a decent home cooked meal and time I like, as long as I don't mind a 50 minute drive each way.

That's all from me.

I'm Back...

2005-07-11T11:56:00.000+10:00

(This has taken me about 3 weeks to write so everything is in present tense though some of it happened a while ago,...)

I discovered the other day that someone (other than Heather-- hello Heather) was reading my blog. Huh! What do you know... So, I thought I'd try giving it another go. And the strange thing is, I find myself in a very similar position to last time I was doing this. In fact the only thing that has changed since then is my job. I was just at a Convention and am in the middle of a road trip and am soon to take part in EnVision. All like last time, if I remember correctly. But let me start at the start.

For a few months before Christmas, I knew I was going to be quitting my job. I'd had enough. I was ready to slash my wrists or (better yet) someone else's. But if I hung on just a little bit longer I'd get a pay rise in the new year which meant my 12 weeks holidays that I had owing would be worth more and... There were quite a few good reasons why I was hanging around.

But then, one day, I decided I'd had enough. I was sitting at my desk at about 9:30 in the morning, just recovering from the usual rush of phone calls, and I started to write m resignation letter on the spot. Christmas eve, I'd be gone.

That was in the middle of November. And the next six weeks were the slowest, worst of all the horrible weeks I'd had. I think I've said this before-- the people were great (except for my arch nemesis) but listening to people complain all day about products I wasn't interested in? Not good. Some of the customers were great-- call in every couple of weeks (I knew addresses off by heart) and not take their all too understandable frustration out on me. Those are the people I liked to help.

Anyway, November and December were the slowest months ever. They took about forty-seven days each. Check the record books, I'm positive they'll back me up on that.

Near the end I found a job washing cars at the airport. I'm still there-- turn up, do my work, go home-- but am thinking of finding something new when I get back. If I can.

And speaking of leaving, my arch nemesis got fired a couple of weeks after I left. Huh! And he stole a work van. Seriously.

The boss told him he was fired and could leave straight away.

Nemesis said, "Cool, can I get a lift home?"

The boss came back with, "No, we're all too busy."

So Nemesis took a van and drove home in it.

The boss was going to call the police but somebody talked him out of it. And rightly so. Even the guy who got fired for being an idiot and missing 42 days of work in his 3 month probation period (Ok, slight exaggeration. It was about 10.) Where was I? Oh, yeah, that guy got a lift home. Now, I believe in winning, but I don't believe in stooping to the petty tactics of the opposition.

A member of my cricket team once told me-- after the game-- that, while he was umpiring (players sometimes have to umpire while their own team is batting as there aren't enough proper umpires) there was an LBW (leg before wicket for the uninitiated-- contentions most of the time anyway) he gave 'not out' when it was actually out. I replied that if I found out he ever cheated again he wouldn't play in my team. Which was stupid, I should have gotten rid of him on the spot-- obviously he would just avoid telling me in the future, but anyway. The point is (yes, there is a point)-- I play to win but I play fair.

But back to the story... I quit my job and have been washing cars and writing novels ever since. Not a lot else. Apart from watching movies. About 35 at the cinema already this year. (Did I tell you about my list? It's pretty impressive... If you're impressed by things like that.)

And I signed up for Thylacon at Canberra last year, so obviously I was going. And I decided that if I was flying all the way to Tasmania then I might as well get my money's worth.

A week before, Mark, my roomie, sent me an email saying he was only staying 3 nights, despite the fact that, for about six months, 5 nights of room had been booked. I couldn't afford two nights on my own, but it was too late to do anything, so I pack my bags and decided to work it out later. I love plans like that.

I got to the hotel pretty early and sent myself a couple of SMS's asking where I was. Seriously. You see, I dropped my mobile phone in water two days before setting off. My mobile phone did not appreciate it at all. So I had to buy a new one. It's small and yellow, though not a lot like a corn kernel. (What? My feet are cold, give me a break!)

Anyway, before I left Brisbane I exchanged a couple of SMS's with Jason N (here after referred to as Jason). I noticed that, though he was in my sim card, his name was not coming up on my screen to say he was the one who'd sent the message. So I extracted a number from the last of the messages and attached his name to it in the sim. The problem was, apparently, I extracted the "To" number instead of the "From" number. ie, I got my own number and didn't even look at it.

So, here I am, sitting in the foyer of the hotel in Hobart, not sure whether to wait for Jason and Mark (my roomie-- whose number I didn't have) or go for a bit of a wander. I decided to send Jason an SMS to see where he was.

"Where are you?" I ask. (And yes, I included the question mark. Even in SMS's my punctuation is exemplary).

About 30 seconds later I got a message in reply. "Where are you?" In my head I automatically put the emphasis on the "You" of the sentence. So I replied. It wasn't until Jason told me that he was also in the lobby that I realised what was going on.

Shut up. I'd just flow from Brisbane. I was cold and wet. I had a new phone.

Jason, Mark and Michele (hello) turned up a few minutes later anyways.

The con was great-- a nice little cosy thing with great guests and interesting panels. Anne Bishop and Marianne De Pierres were two of the former. I already knew Marianne (www.mariannedepierres.com) so obviously she was a lot of fun and Anne Bishop was friendly and thoughtful and seemed willing to sit around chatting to anyone. There were panels on world building, cloning, the future of sport, running cons, sex and love in fantasy (or something)... Lot's of stuff.

And there was lots of good hot chocolate and great pavlova. Mmmm... pavolva.

Outside the Con' was a lot of fun as well. I walked down to the city centre one day, following the river/bay/harbour/whatever it is. It was a long walk but very nice. In the city were the Salamanca Markets, where I ran into some women from the flight down who were part of the Miniatures and Doll Houses Convention. I found a great music shop called 'Music Without Borders' where hard to get CD's, jazz CD's, and classical CD's were all piled on top of each other in the racks. There were sound tracks and boxed sets and world music from countries I haven't even heard of.

Everyone who walked in (apart from me) seemed to know everyone else.

"Hey, Bill," one guy said to the owner as he entered.

"Hello, Ben," Bill replied. (The names may have been changed to protect the addicted.)

And a third man walked in. "Hey Bill," he said, taking his hands from his trench coat pockets and adjusting his hat so it was shading his face. "Hello Ben."

"Morning, Joe."

"Hi, Joe."

I'm telling you, they all knew each other and the guy really was wearing a trench coat (the fact that it was raining and freezing cold may have had something to do with it.) They were like a secret society of men who wouldn't be seen dead near a Delta Goodrem CD.

Back at the hotel I slept in two different rooms on the last two nights. Thanks Kate and Rob for the first night and Jason and Michele the second. The horror stories about old ladies on crutches were especially amusing... (You probably had to be there, but suffice to say they were based on fact.)

Tuesday morning and I picked up my camper van.

First thing I did, was drive up Mt Wellington. If you've read about my Melbourne trip you may remember me saying that Phillip Island was cold. Nuh. On Mt Wellington you could lean into the wind and die frozen at a 45deg angle. It was cold.

After that I headed westwards. At Mt Fields Nation Park I ran into a bunch of people from the con. Carey was taking Anne Bishop and a few other on a tour and happened to end up there at exactly the same time as me. That was their story anyway. I think they were just the first of two sets of stalkers I had in Tasmania... It was about midafternoon when I got there and I wandered up and saw a waterfall. It was pretty good. Some water falling over some rocks. Then I continued on to Lake St Clair.

It was five o'clock when I got there and pitch black. And freezing cold. And Derwent Bridge? I thought it was a town. I thought there'd be something there. There was a pub. And some cabins. And a petrol station... that closed at six o'clock. Tasmanians are crazy (that's for Launz, though he won't be reading).

I fumbled around in the dark at the camping ground at the National Park. I was mainly trying to find a flat spot to park the campervan. I could have any one that I wanted. Everyone else was sensible enough to be somewhere else. Did I mention that it was cold?

I used the public phone to call my parents. They'd been trying to call me for a few days but I was always busy, or about to be busyt. Or whatever. They were going to call me again that night but I had no signal for my mobile phone (bloody Tasmania.) And of course, while I was standing there talking and freezing, it started to rain... It wasn't a long phone call.

It was still raining in the morning. I went on the shortest walk available. It was about 3km. I saw the lake-- which was really nice-- and the end of the Overland Track. I took lots of photos of the lake and trees and.. stuff.

I left for Strahan about lunch time-- it was still raining so it wasn't a lot of point waiting around. I went via Queenstown where I bought my first Tasmanian souvenir. Strahan was really good. I took lots of photos and listened on the radio as NSW won the second State of Origin. Woo hoo.

The next day, I went back to Queenstown and from there... back to Strahan. I did catch the train though. A little steam thing (half the way anyway) going through the mountains and following the King River. Or the Qieen River. Or... something like that. It was pretty good. Though most of it was just rain forests and mountains. Apparently the train crosses 40 bridges in 35 km, but seeing you can see most of them it doesn't mean a whole heap. Some pretty rugged country out there though. There could be Tasmanian Tigers everywhere and we wouldn't necessarily know.

Well, that's the end of the first episode. I'll get to the rest later. Maybe

Xmas Present

2004-11-26T20:20:00.000+10:00

Well, I had about three days to celebrate my pending unemployment. And now I have a new job. Woo hoo. Sorta. I was actually looking forward to a few days of bumming around doing not much at all. But I went for an interview on Wednesday, telling them I can start shortly after xmas. They called me back today to tell me I have the job.

So as of... sometime soon after xmas, I'll be washing cars for Thrifty car rentals at Brisbane Airport.

I had to take it, of course, but I think I would prefer another job i have in the works with Australia post, sorting mail from 11pm until 4am weeknights. The good thing about this job is that it doesn't touch weekends so I can keep playing cricket, and the pay is about $20 an hour. So 25 hours a week will give me about the same amount of money I'm earning at the moment. And it doesn't start 'till Jan 17.

So, I'm still going to try for the Aus Post one, but I'm normally an honest, reliable type of person, so the idea of ringing thrifty back to say "thanks, but I've changed my mind", is already making me uncomfortable. It will probably depend on when I find about about the Aus post one. If it's within a couple of weeks I will be right, but the closer it get to xmas the worse I'll feel about bailing (becuase Thrifty have to find someone else in a hurry. I'll see what happens.

But anyway, so much for my holiday. And I don't even get this weekend of. I am going to someone birthday next saturday (Happy birthday Robert, though I doubt you read this), and seeing my cricket games are played over 2 saturdays, I was going to have tomorrow off. But the rpleacement captain has an injury this so I'll be taking spot this week and he can come back next week. Oh well. Probably would have just sat around at home anyway.

It's Done

2004-11-23T09:40:00.000+10:00

Okay, so all my sneaky, lofty plans fell through. Or, at least, I decided that I can't even wait for the end of year bonus, let alone the new year pay rise. So today, about ten minutes ago, I handed in my notice. I immediately felt better-- but only until the phone started ringing again.

As I xmas, I will be unemployed. Probably. And don't it feel good (until the phone rings).

On the writing front, I've written about 13000 words of "The Crossing". I didn't do anything over the weekend (or yeaterday) so my average plummetted but I wrote about 500 words in 1/2 an hour this morning. It's still moving along. My characters have rescued the man and the dragon and are about to head back the way they came to see if they can find some sign of civilisation. Don't know what's going to happen then, exactly, but it's sure to be exciting. :)

Writing

2004-11-18T13:22:00.000+10:00

My blog novel may have fallen in a heap but it had the desired effect. I've written over 9 thousand words in the last week or so on my real novel. It's moving along nicely, thank you very much.

I'm actually having a lot of fun with it. Right now, my three main characters (including a dog) are in the desert next to a crashed boilerplate airship (don't worry, it works). They're about to rescue someone from the ship and the dragon that shot it down. I have to make one of the characters (not the dog) more like a fifteen year old boy (because that's what he is). And another one (still not the dog) more like a cynical old man (he's only 37 or so but his ex-wife is a bitch). The dog is already very doggy.

We had a Crit and Crepe session (that's where we eat crepes at the Pancake Manor in Brisbane and critique writing, for the uninitiated) on Monday night. Only three of us turned up but the other two guys read the first 3000 words of "The Crossing" (working title) and came up with some good ideas that I will be incorporating-- although by the time I reach the relevant points I'll think the ideas were mine.

Join the Queue

2004-11-11T10:28:00.000+10:00

It's been decided. I will be quitting my job. I was going to hand in my notice today and finsih up just before christmas but that plan has been shelved. Most years we get a bonus of some sort (a couple of hundred dollars, or something like that) at the end ofthe year. If I tell them to shove the job now, chances are I won't get that, even if I'm still here when they're handed out. And then there's public holidays with leave loading and stuff so more free money. So, the day after I get the bonus (or discover that it doesn't exist) I'll be giving my one month's notice. That means I will probably be unemployed some time around the end of january. Woo hoo.

Of course, that means I may have to give up cricket. That's $15 a week I'll save, plus petrol. Damn, worrying about stuff like $15 a week again. Oh well. Hopefully that won't last too long.

Missed it by that much

2004-11-09T15:27:00.000+10:00

I started writing my resignation letter today. I didn't finish it, but I started. I have my mind set on the 22nd of december being my last day. Or maybe it's more like my heart is set on it. My mind is telling me that it too me about 2 years to find a job last time I was looking. But I do have an extra 6 years of experience now. And I think I'd be willing to just work part time-- depends on how big the 'part' is, of course. I may have to give up cricket. I may have to start watching DVD's instead of going to the cinema. (Don't know if I can do that.) I may have to buy proper food instead of frozen meals. I may have to give up my mobile phone-- but that ain't a bad thing. I've been looking for an excuse to do that for ages.

My NaNoWriMo journey has come to a grinding halt after about 7000 words. Though I am still writing. I've written a short story since yeaterday. Woo hoo. Weak ending though. Not sure what to do with it. Which is normal.

She'll be Write

2004-11-03T11:22:00.000+10:00

I got a letter back from a US publisher the other day. I'd sent them a query letter and they've decided that they want to see a few sample chapters. It was Bantam, so they're a nice big company and they paid for the postage of the letter to say they were interested. So... now I'm doing the 245 final polish of the first 5 chapter to send to them.

They actually only want to see 3 - 4 chapters but Chapter 5 ties the first 4 together so 'm going to send that as well. Hopefully they're so engrossed in teh story that they don't mind. :)

Other than that, I've been writing again. I left home at about 6:30am for the last two days and sat in a park in Ascot to write on my laptop. Unfortunately, there are lots of mosquitos and traffic where I've been going so I'll need to find a new venue. I know of another park that has basically no traffic noise at all, but there aren't any tables in the shade that I could work at. Damn them.

But anyway, the point is-- I've written abuot 3000 words before work over the last two days. Woo hoo. If you want to read what I've written so far... http://acrosstobear.blogspot.com/

All Work

2004-10-26T11:56:00.000+10:00

My hate for my job has reached all new levels.

I don't completely know why I hate it. The people are good (except for my arch nemesis who's been sick a few times in the last few weeks which means a lot of head aches for me). The conditions are good. And I can do the work-- it's not as if it's all that difficult. But I can't stand it.

The six weeks holiday I took was in June. That seems like a lifetime ago.

Each day when I come to work, I drive past a certain park. And each day I think how nice it would be to just pull up and sit in the park for a few hours. The feel of the grass under my feet, the birds, the breeze and other such cliched indications of freedom.

So today, I actually left for work 1/2 an hour earlier than usual and went to a park (a different one though). There were birds and breeze. There was grass under my feet-- though I didn't take my shoes off. I wondered around for a while. I waved to some attractive joggers (that gave them a new spurt of energy (o: ). I sat down near a playground and tried to project my un-pedophile-ness.

And it didn't really help at all because I knew that time was ticking down and I'd be working all too soon.

Holiday's won't help. Small moments won't help. I need a new job. I almost had one the other day but I have to give 1 months notice where I am and they needed someone to start straight away.

I've been considering quitting in time for xmas-- a lovely present-- even if I don't have a new job. Probably won't but jeeze it sounds nice.

So if anyone out there has a job for me-- doesn't necessarily have to be in Brisbane-- let me know. :)

The Challenger

2004-10-14T13:24:00.000+10:00

I haven't been writing anything recently. I bought Fable for my X-box a week ago and have been playing that almost constantly since. It's a good game... though many a person has been known to play bad games constantly. Me included. It sometimes get's to the point where you aren't willing to let a stupid game beat you. So you keep playing and playing. And playing.

And speakig of spending lots of time playing games...

When I was a kid, about 10 os so years old, I had a Commodore64 computer. I had a chess game on it that I just couldn't beat. I got within a move of checkmate on several occasions but the damn computer always managed to save itself. I wasn't a terrible player, but I was 10. This went on for years (not my being ten, that only lasted a year) and I just kept going back even though it frustrated me immensely. (That wasn't really the game's fault, but anyway.) Then, when I was about 20, I was going through all my old stuff and decided to set the computer up. I played a couple of the old games. Then I found the chess game, loaded it up (it took several minutes) and started to play. About 3 minutes later, I'd won. I knew this because the words "You Won" came up on the bottom of the screen in something like 12 point font. "You Won". That was it. After years and hundreds of games, all I got was two little words. I wanted fireworks and flashing colours and music and... I can tell you, that was a very strange expereince. I can remember sitting there staring at the screen and feeling very empty. What had appeared to be one of the big challenges of my childhood turned out to be nothing at all really.

I bought a mac laptop a few months ago and it has a chess game on it. It's a lot more advanced than the old C64 one. I can't beat it. I keep trying. If victory eventually comes, will it be any more satisfying than the last time? Probably not.

A few people from my writing group have decided to make short films. We haven't really started yet but it should be fun. Hopefully. Waste of time if it isn't. Nobody involved has really got any experience-- we're just going to make it up as we go along, which is the story of my life. :) The main problem at the moment is trying to organise a time when we can all get together for our first meeting to work out how we're going to organise things.

And of course, all that just takes time away from writing novels. It seems I haven't hit upon the right idea yet because I'm still trying the think up more stuff. I like the las idea I thought of, btu I've only done about 1200 words in about a month. I have a sci-fi thriller I'm thinking about now. I actually came up with the main concept about 20 years ago.

Or maybe I just need to get rid of my x-box.

I Spoke Too Soon

2004-10-01T11:38:00.000+10:00

Well, what do you know. We didn't lose the cricket game outright. Huh.

The opposition batted way too long, considering, but still left 2 1/4 hours for my team to be. My opening partner and I hung around for 1hr 40 mins and scored 91 runs between us. I had 37 of those and my partner, a 17 yr old, eventually got run out going for his 50. His previous highest score for the club (he played last season) was about 16.

The next couple of guys hung around for a while as well, but it got down to the bad guys needed a hat trick of the last 3 balls of the game (we only had 6 players-- damn the AFL). They got two of them... One of the gumbies played a lovely forward defensive shot to the last ball of the day. Phew. So all in all it was a great day-- even though we lost.

And speaking of losing-- my novel was rejected by HarperCollins, though Stpehanie Smith, the editor who rejected it, did say some nice things and said I was welcome to send her some other stuff when I've got it written. So it wasn't too bad at all, thought it could have been much better. And it did get me working on my next novel, which , of course, has changed from a fairly simple, traditional fantasy novel to something quite a bit more involved. It now has swords, scorcery, interdimensional gateways and space ships. Shit. I'll learn one day.

And if you feel like something to do, go and check out Heather's shiney new blog (just don't complain about the Shakespear atthe beginning)-- http://disorganisedramblings.blogspot.com/

Summer is on the way

2004-09-22T10:25:00.000+10:00

Cricket season has started again. I know this because I'm hurting all over.

My team from last year has been split up so I now have to contend with some Gumbies. They're nice guys, but between the three of them they managed to drop 5 catches. The game would have been a whoe heap different if they'd taken them. As it is, we've already lost the first innings and with the AFL grand final likely to steal a lot of our players this coming saturday, I imagine it won't take long for us to lose outright. Oh well.

One the positive side, because my team isn't as good as last year I'll get to do a lot more bowling. Woo hoo. I'm hurting at the moment because I bowled 7 overs straight the other day. Took 2 for 21 and dropped a caught and bowled (yes, not only the gumbies dropped catches-- though going on last seasons efforts I might almost be classed as one of that group :( ). On the down side, because the team isn't as good I'll need to do a lot better with the batting. Shit.

Was fun though. Just hope I recover in time...

Time Flies

2004-08-31T10:59:00.000+10:00

Well, I've been back at work for two weeks and it's like I never left. And that isn't a good thing. Oh well.

At least I've started doing a bit more writing again now. Did heaps on holidays-- especially while I was at my parent's place-- but stopped once I got back. Flirted with a new novel for a few days. Even wrote the prologue and a housand or so words of the first chapter, but that romance lasted about a week. Then I bought Story by Robert McKee and am now flirting wit a movie script based on one of my early novel efforts. Don't know how long that'll last either :).

I'm just kinda wondering (that's spelt correctly) around at the moment, wishing I had a new job and generally feeling sorry for myself. Going to start getting up early to write again. No, really, I am. I can generally average a thousand words before breakfast and that makes work a whole heap more bearable. It's unfortunate that getting up early causes such a problem-- if God had wanted us to get up at 5am he would have made the sun come up sooner or made it so we can see in the dark.

I recieved Encounters in the mail the other day. I think my story The Final Battle is by far the best of the three I've had publised (which I suppose it should be seeing it's the most recent, but anyway). The thing I like about it, I think, is the way it kinda keeps folding back on itself with repetitions of phrases and whatever from earlier in the story. Or something like that. Sounds good anyway.

I'm Back

2004-08-12T09:45:00.000+10:00
I've actually been back for a few days, but I may have mentioned somewhere that I'm lazy, right?

I did about 5800 km all up. Spent $380 on petrol. I like stats. I have more but you're bored enough with those two :)

I have a question though...

The speed limit it 100km an hour because that's what's safe, right...

But the metric system was invented in the 1700's, I think. And became official about the late 1800's (I did research). In those days nobody really thought about driving around at 100km/hr.

So what if the french guy who invented the meter had actually decided that it was a bit bigger than it now is. What if it was about a meter and a half long? Would our speed limit not be 75km/hr (I think that's right, but my maths is a little shakey...) or would it still be 100km/hr because 100 is a nice round number in the metric system...

I was just wondering.

Since my holiday finished (though I don't go back to work till next week) I Haven't done much at all. Bought a new stereo-- which is wonderful after using a stupid portable thing since forever. Did some reading, which I haven't done for ages. No writing-- damn it.

My synopsis and sample chapters have been out there for about a week now and I should be making sure the rest of the story is ready to go. If not that, then I should be working on the sequel. Or thinking about the next story, seeing I'm close. I still can't decide which one to do-- I've changed my mind about 2 dozen times recently. I have the "religious warrior joins the opposition" story. Or the "vet finds a saddled dragon in the bush story". The vet (as in someone who treats injured animals, not a vetran) one has only come about recently. But I really need to finish the sequel first...

And I should be doing that, not typing on here.

The Home Straight

2004-08-03T12:02:00.000+10:00
From my cousin’s place in Melbourne, I headed across to the Great Ocean Road. It’s a really nice drive and some of the scenery is spectacular but in the end it’s a road and some scenery. I took lots of photos of rocks and cliffs. And cliffs with rocks. And rocky cliffs. There was the Cape Ottway (or is it Ottaway?) Lighthouse. There was Bells Beach. And there was… it was a nice drive and I’m glad I did it, but apparently there’s only so much scenery I can look at.

I don’t make much of a tourist. When I was in Melbourne, I only really did two days of touristy things. I went into the city one day and didn’t catch a single tram. I went to the art gallery and the museum. Another day I did the freezing cold Phillip Island and Sorento thing. I spent another day at the movies. I went to a market.

At the end of the Great Ocean Road I stayed at Warnumbool and left there at 7am to go to Bendigo. I didn’t get a whole heap more touristy there.

I went to the Bendigo art gallery-- and actually enjoyed it more than the Melbourne one. I saw the Bendigo Bombers get flogged by the Werribee Tigers. Thinking I should do something that can only be done at Bendigo, I went to go down the Deborah mine. But I missed the tour by about 2 minutes and decided that was a hint from God-- don’t climb down to the bottom of a 14-storey-deep hole just because it’s there. I didn’t go on the tram. I did see a movie though, you’ll be pleased to know. I‘m sure ‘I, Robot’ is only showing in Bendigo. (Great movie)

After 3 days there, I was off again.

I got caught in the traffic going to the V8 touring car races at Winton (at least I think that’s what it was). It wasn’t too bad, but I complained anyway-- what were they thinking, slowing my progress with sporting events that I wasn’t interested in seeing? I went to Glenrowan… and waved to the big Ned Kelly statue as I went past. I contemplated stopping in Albury and Wodonga, but bugger that. I saw the ‘Dog on the Tucker Box’ about 20 years ago, why would I want to see it again?

I stopped for the night in Cowra. They have some interesting stuff there. Japanese Gardens, a train museum and other stuff. I didn’t see any of them. I arrived about 5pm and left about 8 the next morning.

From there, I drove to my parent’s place in northern NSW. That’s where I remain to this day.

Okay, in all the stuff above I did forget to mention one thing—it was pissig down rain just about everywhere I went. If it wasn’t pissing down rain then it had just stopped or looked like it was just about to. Or both.

The Great Ocean Road day was cloudy but dry. All Day. There might have been one full day in Lakes Entrance when it didn’t rain, but I don’t think so. I definitely did see some blue sky there though. Maybe another day in Melbourne but… As far as I can tell, Bendigo is some Lovecraftian town that lives in a world of constant heavy grey cloud cover. Cowra… Don’t talk to me about Cowra, though for all I knew it cleared up in the afternoon there. It didn’t look like it was going to.

At most of those places I really didn’t feel like wondering around in the rain to do touristy things that probably wouldn’t interest me all that much any way. A train museum? I’ve seen trains before. Japanese gardens? I did do a quick drive by there and couldn’t see anything through the misty rainy stuff anyway.

So I came to my parent's place and brought the rain with me. It’s been grey and horrible here for about 50 percent of the time since I arrived. Lovely weather before that, apparently.

But I’ve spent most of my time inside anyway, working on my novel. It’s going very well, thank you. I sent an email to the editor at HarperCollins on Friday night, asking if I could send a synopsis and sample chapters to her. And yes, I can. So this morning I’ve been busy printing and reading and what-not.

Of course, all that means it that I have to go out side to go to the post office. Oh, the cruelties of life.

With all the rain and the boring touristy stuff-- I’ve had a great holiday. The part I enjoyed most? The driving. I’ve done about 4500km, I think, and it’s been fun. Maybe I like scenery more at 100km/hr, I don’t know. I’ve also done lots of writing and taken about 10 rolls of photos (though not many of tourist attractions).

I will be staying at my parents place until Monday. It’s my sister’s birthday on Friday (Thursday, actually, but the party/dinner/get together thing is on Friday) so I’ll be hanging around for that. And then I might as well stay for the weekend when none of my family is working.

Then it’s home again to do more writing. I need to go over my novel a couple of more times for when the editor says she wants to see the rest of it. She definitely will. How could she not? And seeing I’ve also said that the second book is close to being completed…

Lots of work to do before I go back to work on the 16th. And Oh boy, I can’t wait for that.

Melbourne

2004-07-19T20:46:00.000+10:00
I have some advice for anyone thinking of going to Phillip Island in winter. Don't do it. If you still want to go, my next piece of advice is-- don't do it. If I still haven't convinced you then I suggest you wear about six layers of clothing. It is bloody freezing. The wind comes direct from Antarcrtica without crossing any intervening space between.

I didn't see any of the penguins (I was either too early or too late-- I was not going there at 5:30 in the morning) but I did see some seals. Though they did look like some rocks so that was a lot a lot fun. After that I went down to the Mornington Peninsular and drove around for a while. I took lots of photos.

Today I went in to the city. I saw the art gallery and the museum and just walked around other than that. And now I think I've had enough of Melbourne. Tomorrow I'm going to see a couple of movies (I think). Then on Thursday I'm off to the Great Ocean Road.

I haven't done any writing at all in the last few days. I promise to make up for it.

In in unrelated news, my sister will be taking possession of her first house in about 2 weeks. And I may be there just in time to help move. Oh boy.

Some People Might Call It Lost

2004-07-15T20:43:00.000+10:00
Day... Umm... I don't know what day it is.

I left Sydney on Sunday morning at about 10:30 and had a leisurely drive down to my Aunt's place in Tabourie Lake. Not a lot to report there, really. Their house looks a lot different sine last time I was there, about 14 years ago. My Aunt and her husband look pretty much the same though. Then I left there at about 8:30 the next morning. I wasn't sure where I was going to be stopping that night-- it depended on how far I went.

I think there was once a survey done in which 95 percent of people asked thought they were a better than average driver. (Ok, so I do not remember the exact number, but it was a bloody high percentage.) The point is, that kind of percentage sounds mathematically impossible. Really though, all those people may actually be right because I saw some people who were really dragging the average down. You know those signs at the end of overtaking lanes that say 'Form one Lane'? I'm sure you do. One guy I saw thought passing one of those signs was a perfect opportunity to move from the right hand lane to the left to overtake (or is that undertake) a car that had just recently formed one lane. In another place, in some town or other, I was happily driving along at 80km/hr (I was allowed to) in the centre of two lanes. I could see a sing saying there was road-works ahead and that the left lane would be ending-- it was the first warning. So I was going along at 80 and a car in the left hand lane decided he was going to go around the truck in front. Of course, he cut me off and I had to slam on my breaks. But then, of course, there was another truck in front again and when he caught that one, he decided to go back to the left... Only there was no left to go to. He took out a witch's hat before realising.

Unlike most people, I think I'm an average driver, but sometimes I wonder.

Anyway, not segues today...

I have decided that I really like the south coast of NSW. I would like to live somewhere between Moruya and Eden, so if anyone reading this know of any work in the area... The work can't be too hard of course. And I must get paid a lot of money.

I made it to Lakes Entrance by about 4pm. It looked like a nice place, so I decided to stay there for the full 3 days I had until I expected in Melbourne.

Because of my tent having spinal problems, I hired a cabin for the three nights. And at $40 per night it was well worth the money. It had a heater and a shower and an electric blanket. Hmmm... Electric blanket. The shower was actually fairly horrible though. Hot one second, freezing the next. I used it, but wasn't at all happy with the experience.

I didn't do a whole heap at L.E. It rained on and off for the first full and cricket was on, so I watched TV and wrote most of the day. Whos stupid idea was it that one of my characters should now have tattoos and that those tattoos should be an important part of his culture? Idiot.

The next day I wandered around town a bit and took a walk out to the Entrance. It was all nice and relaxing, which was the point really.

I left there yesterday morning and drove to Melbourne via Wilson's Promontory and the Mornington Peninsular. WP was nice but I didn't have enough time to go on any of the walks. It was originally my intention to stay somewhere close to there for at least one night, instead of 3 at LE, and now kinda wish I had-- though maybe I would've been too lazy to go on much of a walk. The shortest I saw was 3km one way. It was colder than Lakes Entrance and bloody windy.

Mornington Peninsular was interesting as well. Farms overlooking the ocean (or bay or whatever) about 3/4 of an hour from the centre of Melbourne.

It's funny the things that set off memories. Whenever I smell smoked fish, for example, I think of pizza. Yep. My father never really like pizza but loved smoked fish. When I was a kid, my sister and I were the opposite. So every time we had pizza, he had smoked fish. Every time, And of course, the fish smelled a lot stronger than the pizza when it was cooking, so now, when I smell smoked fish I think of pizza.

Now, doing all this driving, I sometimes didn't feel like listening to music. Which turned out to be strange itself (not strange that I didn't want to listen to music-- but it was strange being in the car with no music going. I was starting to think my car sounded like Ben Folds, Guns and Roses and the Screaming Jets. It actually makes a enginey sound. Who'd have thunk?) So anyways, I was driving along with no music, and for some reason or other, I decided to put on my indicator-- probably had something to do with going around a corner, who knows. And, well, I was reminded of coming back late from a long trip when I was a kid.

I would always wake up at the same time-- when the car slowed before turning off the main road and into our street. The indicator would be on, about the only sound there was. I would keep my eyes closed, half asleep, listening. Half way around that last corner, indicator going, there would be a crunch of gravel. Always the same. For years.

That gravel is still there-- I don't know how. So, even now, ten years after I moved out (and even though I have no real reason to remember the town fondly), the sound of an indicator and crunching gravel sounds like going home.

But, I was in Melbourne, going to my cousin's home. Some people might say I got lost, I like to think of it as exploring. In my defence, it was dark, and peak hour traffic, and I didn't have the most detailed map ever drawn up. But anyway...

And that's about it from me. All very exciting. My novel is moving along nicely though, I think. And I'm relaxing. If only I could do this all the time.

Day 3

2004-07-10T20:42:00.000+10:00
Day Three

Today I hung around at a friends place in Hornsby for a few hours, catching up after a year. Then I drove down to Campbelltown (Minto actually but) and visited some relatives (one of who has kindly donated internet time).

Yes, I know day three should have started with me leaving South West Rocks, but Day two did not quite go as expected. It was pissing down rain on and off all day yesterday. At about 4 in the arv', during a break in the rain, I decided to get most of my stuff into the car, in case it was raining this morning. Then it rained some more. And stopped. And rained.

And, I hate to admit it, but my fix with the tent was causing problems. Because the two bits of metal were just tied together with string, they moved around everywhere. Which meant the tent moved around everywhere. And flapped, and leaked and...

During a break in the rain at about 7pm I decided that 'd had enough and packed up. By 8pm I was on the road heading for Sydney. There were more of the signed speed cameras. There was not a lot of traffic. There was rain and stars and open road. It was actually a great drive.

When I hit the New Castle Freeway it got a bit surreal. The road is divided with trees lining the median strip most of the way. At one point I went for about 10 minutes without seeing another vehicle. Three and four lanes of road all to myself. And late at night around midnight, mist started gathering in the gullies. I dipped down into it every few km. And cars coming the other way lit it up very eerily.

I got into Hornsby early in the morning and stayed at my friend's place. I don't see her as often as I should.

So, in review... Days 2 and 3, Exposed about two rolls of film in the morning at South West Rocks. Sat around in the rain for a while. Worked on a few chapters of my novel. Packed up. Drove to Sydney. Then today hung around with friends and relatives.

The highlight... The drive down last night-- Music, open road, rain and mist. Totally alone (except for a car filled with hastily packed crap). Flying along at 110km/h has never been so peaceful.

Wonderful.

Photography and relatives were good too, of course.

And I did kinda see some whales in SWR. Kinda. They were a few miles away and all I really saw was the spray, but I did get a photo.

Day One

2004-07-08T20:40:00.000+10:00
Pacific Highway my arse.

I finished packing this morning (well, I didn't, but more on that later) and left at about 7:15. There was Guns and Roses in the CD player (which has been working faultlessly for the last few days now) and a song in my heart-- it wasn't a happy song, seeing I was listening to G n' R, but it was a song.

I think I may have already explained that I'm lazy in another post? Yes? Well, my laziness is outweighed only by my cheapness. I'd rather drive for an extra 10 minutes than pay to go over the gateway bridge. So, I drove through the city and hit the so called Pacific Highway about half an hour later.

Point number 1. The pacific highway is not overly peaceful. It is not very friendly. It's just a road with lots of people driving along it. When I was a kid, family holidays normally involved towing a caravan. One year I had a moment of brilliance and made a sign for the back of the caravan. It said, "Sorry if we held you up, have a nice day anyway." The roads where we went were peaceful and happy. When people overtook us they'd laugh and wave and toot their horn. Most people did that. Almost all of them. Before the sign? Nothing. They drove past and continued on their way. Happy, peaceful roads followed my sign. None of that on the so called Pacific.

Point number 2. Driving south this morning, I had my first sight of the Pacific Ocean at about 9:30 in the morning. That's over two hours after I first started to drive on the highway. About 180km. I glimpsed it then. I risked death and carnage by climbing partially across to the passenger's seat and craning my neck out the window, just to see the ocean-- like trying to catch a sight of the "city views" from units in Toowong. The next sighting was just before Coffs Harbour some time around noon.

Pacific Highway my arse.

I said that it was my cheapness that stops me from using the Gateway Bridge, it is also the fact that you don't really get to see anything, other than people racing along in their cars. I also like going through the city because it gives me the chance to witness a bit of life-- even if most of the people are just racing along the footpath. I just think it's more interesting going through the city.

For that reason I am also a little bit disappointed with the Pacific Highway. It isn't until just before Coffs Harbour that you really go through any towns. Yes, towns may well slow you down but...

Speed cameras also slow people down (what a segue). I'm normally a fairly law-abiding citizen. I've had my run ins with speed cameras, but 999 time out of 1000 I sail by them without a care in the world. And that sailing makes me feel good. "If I was a criminal," thinks I, "If I was a hoon, I would have been caught then." But I wasn't, and hopefully some other bastard will be.

I passed about 10 fixed speed cameras on the trip south today, some within a few km of others, and each and every one of them had warning sign before you got to them. The signs were far enough in advance that you would have to be travelling a few km an hour over light speed not to be able to slow down in time. What is the point, I ask you? (And if someone would write a comment, they could answer. Of course, if they did, I'd then probably make some smart arse remark about rhetorical questions, but you never know. And yes, I also know that the point of it it all is to slow people down.) There was also a cop with a radar that I had no problem with.

Another thing I saw near Ballina... Thursday Plantation. Ummm... Is that anything like a banana plantation? Is there a market for Thursdays? I would have thought a weekend would be much more profitable. I could do with a few extra Saturdays myself.

Anyways, I got to the Trial Bay Goal at South West Rocks, where I 'm staying. I'm not staying in the goal, they have camping areas nearby. After booking in, I found my site and started to set up my tent.

Except I was missing a bit. It was only a little bit. Its a cross that goes at the top of the tent and holds all the poles, which are outside the tent, together. It also has a hook to hold the top of the tent. As I said, it's only a little bit, but without it, nothing works.

I was pissed of. Let me tell you-- I was mightily pissed off. Tent pegs were also missing, probably in the same place as the other bit. Damn.

I found a little camping store in SWR.

"Do you need a hand," the man asked.

"Yes," replied I. "I have most of a tent. I would like the rest."

But he couldn't help me and sent me in the direction of a hardware store that has some camping stuff. Nope. No good. There's a camping store in Kempsy-- 34km away. I gave them a call. I quite liked my "most of a tent" line and used it for the third time. The woman on the phone didn't laugh. She didn't help me either. By this time, I am mightily pissed off. Yes, I was mightily pissed off earlier-- I'd been about as pissed off as I can be (quietly, of course) for about 3/4 of an hour.

Off to a metal fabrication workshop. Rick or Rob or... someone,.. gave me two little metal rods. Best he could do. Back to the hardware for string and tent pegs. Tie the rods together, tie the tent to the rods...

And this very moment I am sitting in my tent hoping the rain (bastards) doesn't weaken the string or something... So it wasn't really a good start, but now I'm feeling pretty good about it all. McGyvered up and solved the problem all by my lonesome.
Camping is stupid though. I don't have internet access. I'll have to post this at some later date. So, I think I'll complain about having to do without the necessities for a while longer and then watch a DVD.

Holiday Day... ummm.. 5? Just

2004-07-08T00:02:00.000+10:00
EnVision has come and gone. And it was worth every cent. All three tutors had nice, helpful and interesting things to say. All the people were great. I have a lot of work to do, though thankfully most of it is _fairly_ minor.

Intense? Still wouldn't say that. Intense for me would be writing 5k words in one day, but most of the stuff I did at the workshop was fiddling, more than anything else. Editing and rearranging and thinking. All of it was fun and worthwhile and has improved my manuscript, but not intense. My story was fairly complete though so...

Went to Wordpool on Tuesday which was fun as well. Four really good readings there-- special mention to Sean Williams (and his haikus) and Trent. Was a good night. Also gave me a chance to catch up with some people before I go away (as if I see most of them more than once a month anyway). I will be missing my second Vision meeting in about 7 years... I really need to get a life...

Leaving for Melbourne tomorrow. Woo hoo. I think I've packed everything but of course, it really is impossible to know. I won't know until I go looking for something. The main things I need-- tent and food (to save money-- ie, I won't have to hire rooms for the night and I won't have to eat take-out.) Check. Computer (for writing-- most important thing of all). Check. Camera. Check. Warm clothes. Check. I have actually taken most of the clothes that I own-- at least the ones I've worn in the past year. I know I have to much, but better safe than sorry.

First night is in South West Rocks. Two nights there, actually. Hopefully lots of opportunity for photos, seeing I'm camping at an old goal there.

Other than that... time for bed. Supposed to be leaving early tomorrow morning. That's looking less likely each passing minute.

I need your address if you want me to send a postcard, Kate. If I get your address Heather you can have one too. Wouldn't that be exciting :) Any further requests may be considered.

Holiday... Day 3...

2004-07-04T10:21:00.000+10:00
Today is a rest day for EnVision. So I'm sitting up home trying to work up the energy for some writing, or packing.

Yesterday was good. The new charpter 2 I wrote for my novel on day one was basically completely scrapped-- just a few paragraphs remain from teh start. But the new version will help fix some problems a littel bit later on, so it works out nively. Tansy has also read a few of the later sections and come up with some good suggestions. I think the entire thing should improve immensely. Woo hoo.

The regular Vision meeting is on today, btu a lot of the regulars are not going-- either because of EnVision or because of Sean Williams Masterclass, which was organised by the QLD writers centre.

So, all is going well, although I've already lost track of what day of hte week it is a couple of times. Which is a good thing, I suppose.

Holiday... Day 1

2004-07-02T21:35:00.000+10:00
Today was the first official day of my holiday but I left work at 2pm yesterday and went to the EnVision dinner at the Pancake Manor so it feels like two days, really. Either way, it feels good.

But I've had a sore wrist for the last few days and woke up at about 3am this morning and could hardly move my hand at all. I found some prescription drugs (that had been prescribed for me a shoulder injury ages ago) and... well, they sorted things out nicely, thankfully. For a while, I was thinking that I might not make it to Envision, but I turned up this morning ready and raring to go.

And, thankfully again, I had nothing to worry about with Tansy's structural changes. She wanted me to change to order of a couple of chapters to make each character's introduction a bit longer-- or stronger. She had another couple of suggestions that will probably work quite nicely as well.

So... all told, not bad at all. I wrote a new chapter today, cut out another.

The whole experience was not quite what I thought though. Jason had been saying how intense the whole experience was last year (he's back for this year as well) but it seemed like another day of writing for me. Maybe it is different to last year, or maybe a normal day of writing for me is something that he considers 'intense'. Not sure.

But it was definitely good.

No time for writing this. Must write novel.

But it's MY story

2004-06-30T19:28:00.000+10:00
One sleep to go and then I'm on 6 weeks holiday. Woo hoo.

But I didn't come here to talk about that-- I don't want the few readers I have to leave through jealousy.

No, I have come to talk about EnVision. (www.sf-envision.com I believe-- I would make that into a link if I knew how.)

Envision is five days where a published author attempts to help me with my novel, making it nice and sharp and shiny. My tutor is Tansy Raynor Roberts. She has already read 100 pages of my story and sent an email to me yesterday suggesting that I take along more of the story if I have it because she has some "structural suggestions".

And you see... this worries me. I have about 360,000 words of story written in the structure that , from the evidence I have so far,Tansy doesn't like. 360,000 words. That's a lot of words. I really, really don't want to be making any major structural changes.

And I'm getting defensive as well when I haven't even talked to her about it. I've already caught myself working out the excuses I'll use to say I can't change anything at all.

Ahhh, well. I'll get over it, I'm sure.

On the subjects of money (as in, If I don't at least listen to Tansy I've wasted my money), I have to decide if I will buy a new CD player for my car. It seems to be on permanent eject. Now, normally I could live without a CD player in my car (have been doing it for a while now) or I could just go buy a new one. Not a huge problem either way. But I am just about to take 6 weeks off work and spend it driving around lots of horrible places (like Victoria). Do they have real music in Victoria that I can pick up on the radio? Or do they just have Peter Andre, Shannon Noll and S Club 7? And, if I do go and spend $200 (or whatever) on a new CD player, will I then be caught in the middle of said Victoria with lovely music but no money to buy petrol?

Hmmm... quite a dilemma.

Death and Loathing

2004-06-28T12:07:00.000+10:00
The stupidity of some people astounds me. Well... come to think of it... it doesn't. But anyways, to the story.

I went to see a movie yesterday, which would not surprise most people who know me. (It was Dirty Pretty Things actually-- very good.) There I am in the foyer before the movie started with a whole heap of other people (most of whom were going to see Touching the Void, which I thought was pretty unusual, but is totally beside the point) when someone collapsed. He (referred to as "the patient" from here on in, readers) was walking along, coming out of one of the cinemas and... gone. Fainted. Admittedly, it was a fairly spectacular effort involving collapsing barricades and big (non-collapsing) lounge chairs but, still, it was just a faint.

The guy wasn't dead. I could see that he was breathing from about 3 meters away.

Someone in the crowd start calling for a doctor. You know, "Is there a doctor in the house" (though, somewhat unfortunately I thought, he did not use those exact words). Not a bad idea. Just in case. Can't hurt, right. And while this guy is shouting, someone has rolled the patient onto his side. All going well so far.

When no response came to the call for a doctor "... or someone who knows CPR" was added.

Now, I know CPR (or did 5 years ago and I don't imaging it's changed dramatically since)but, as I said, I could see that it wasn't required (a lovely tight T-shirt was involved[can you say sarcasm, children?])and a couple of people in the thick of the action seemed to know what they were doing-- they had rolled the patient onto his side, after all, and had left it at that.

But then the stereotype, still not getting a response in his search for a doctor, rolls the patient onto his back and starts leaning on his chest-- as if he's trying to do CPR. Now the sentiment was nice, I'm sure but there was not a lot of science in his methods. He sat straddling the patient's legs and leaned on his chest at some random point... That was it. Thankfully he only did it once before someone slapped him around (though unfortunately-- it was a day of unfortunate happenings-- it was more a metaphorical slapping).

Now, the process (of CPR, not slapping) really isn't that hard and any ten year old who's seen one episode of ER and three of All Saints would have gotten closer to doing it properly. And that's ignoring the fact that the patient was still breathing (and, therefore, pumping blood) quite well on his own. In fact, about a minute later he was on his feet and out the door (despite some people telling him to hang around a bit longer).

The patient actually came out of the movie I went in to see, and it really wasn't that bad. (Sorry, just looking for a way to tie up my little story...)

The moral... People should need to pass some type of test before they are allowed to walk around in public.

Three and a half days of work remaining until the start of my holiday. Woo hoo.

Strange v.3

2004-06-16T12:17:00.000+10:00
And what's strange this time? Strange enough to get me doing two posts within an hour?

Here we go...

Isn't it strange (well, not really) how quickly life can change? Not my life in this case. And in this case, that's a good thing.

One the guys I work with just came in and told me his girl friend is pregnant. (Nothing at all to do with me, I swear, it just got me thinking). This pregnancy was unplanned. They don't live together and had no firm plans for doing so before this came up. Now, he's canceled a trip to Europe in August and they're moving in together next month.

His whole world changed in about 2 minutes. Less than that. How long does it take for a woman to say, "I'm pregnant?". How long for her to convince a guy she isn't joking? How long to convince him it's his fault? Possibly the one time ever a guy might want his girlfriend to be sleeping with someone else...

But that wasn't really when his life changed. That happened a month ago, or two months ago, or whenever it was. He just realised it when he was told. Right now, you or I could be doing something that will change our lives (ok, possibly not-- I don't think this blog will have that effect). But any little thing could be the moment. Most people know this, I think, but never give it any thought.

Knowing that any moment can change your life, truly realising it, would you have unprotected sex? Would you make fun of the slightly strange, always-staring guy working in the next office? Would you stop for a moment to talk to the lonely old lady who lives across the street?

It could be any of these things which send our lives spiraling off in some other direction like a bad movie... and yet we hardly give them a though. And the moment may not be as obvious as getting someone pregnant (or getting pregnant).

Hmmm... That's all a bit deep for me for a Wednesday afternoon, especially with pinicle of Australia culture (the State of Origin) appearing on TV tonight-- GO THE BLUES!!

Words and Pictures

2004-06-16T10:51:00.000+10:00
As strange as the way different people go about creative writing is the way individuals (being me, in this case) look at different forms of creativity.

I write fantasy and science fiction (although my output at the moment suggests that I don't write much at all) but when it comes to photography I like it to be real. For me, cameras and computers just don't mix-- at least in terms of creating pictures. Printing and storing is fine.

I like to point a camera at something and come away with a good picture or not (as is more usually the case). That's where the fun and the skill lies, surely. Anyone (within reason) can take a crappy picture (within reason) and turn it into something interesting (within reason) on a computer. Why have a camera at all? You could probably search the net and find the right sort of picture to doctor.

One thing that always bothered me (in respect to my ability or lack-there-of with a camera) was all the bad shots. From one roll of film there may be one or two that I want to keep. Seems terrible. But I was reading a book by Steve Parish-- mega famous Australian photographer who does all those "Australian" calendars and stuff-- even if you don't know his name you will have seen heaps of his work. Anyways, he was saying that one of the pleasures of photography was getting back your roll of film (or developing it or whatever), having a look through the pics, and finding that you have one or two good ones. Of course, he standard of good and mine are quite a bit different, but it's good to know that a pro who's been doing it for about 40 years goes through the same sort of thing. Wading through the bad ones-- where you cringe or just shake your head and wonder what you were thinking-- is worth it when you suddenly come across something that works. Even more so than in writing, what others think of the photo is irrelevant.

I can't imagine feeling the same way with writing. Imagine being willing to write 20 bad stories to get four that were worth the effort. Okay, admittedly, it usually takes a lot more time and effort to get a bad story than to get a bad photo but you could change the ratios and still get the same answer. 12 bad stories for 4 good ones? 8 bad for 4 good? Actually, that's probably about my ratio with short stories at the moment, but I can tell myself that those bad stories are not actually finished and I'll get around to fixing them up one day. My bad photos? I just don't want to fix them-- that would be cheating.

Write and Wrong

2004-06-14T10:51:00.000+10:00
I find it amazing, the different ways people go about creative writing.

Some people need to plan everything, knowing what will be in each individual chapter before they even start writing. These people also tend to have lots of back story for the characters and the worlds (in the case of speculative fiction, which is what I am mainly concerned with). There probably aren't many that go to the extent that Tolkien did, but stil...

I'm the opposite, really. Or at least as close as you can get to the oppposite. If I plan to much I just get bored with the entire thing. If I know the ending and exactly how everyone gets there then why the hell would I want to go through the whole long process of doing the writing?

I generally have a bit of an idea where I'm going. I know some point along the way that my characters are going to hit.

*These two character need to meet at some stage and have a certain conversation.
*There will be a battle at this location that will send Character A off in a different direction.
*Character A and Character B are going to fall in love.

I know stuff like that, but have no idea how I'll actually get to that point until I 'm starting to get close. I do the writing to find out.

When I was at Conflux (sci-fi convention held recently in Canberra) I went to a panel given by... Well, I can't remember his name, but he wrote a fantasy book called Across the Face of the Word. Seeing he came from a map making background, he started his story with a map. How crazy is that? He explained at one point how he'd drawn this mountain range (absolutely wonderful maps) and then set about inventing a pantheon of gods to name some of the peaks after. What I want to know is, how does he know that that mountain range, and that pantheon of gods, are going to suit his story once he gets there? Is he automatically going to twist his story to suit the maps? Or would he be willing to change the maps? Seeing I know (from the way he was talking) that there's no way he'd change the maps (he did spend a good number of years making them, after all) I can guess what the answer would be. Sara Douglas starts stories the same way, apparently. Crazy, I tell you. I used to do it when I was about 10 years old, because, if nothing else, it is a great way of procrastinating. Now days, if I have a map at all, I find out what it's like as the characters move about the world.

Same thing with characters and history of the world. How can I possibly know what I'm going to need until it comes up in the story? A battle on this plain 500 years ago? But I want one of the characters to have fought in that battle... The world and the history should be there to suit the story, not the other way around.

Sure, with those who plan, they will know more about how their story and geography and history all fit together than I know about mine because they've planned the story. But most of the history will be about the details of the story and are not really needed at the beginning...

By the same token, it seems that it does help if I know something about the future in my story at some point. With the story I just finished (well, a few months ago now) I was well and truely stuck. Sat in the same place, about 1/3 of the way in, for a long time. Then, suddenly, I worked out exactly how the good guys were going to win at the very end of the book. I'd had a general idea previously but... Once I had it worked out in my head I wrote lots, though it really had no immediate relevance to the bit I was stuck on. I wrote 110k words in two months. It was a great ending (well, I thought it was then and I still do now) and I wanted to get there to see how it all happened.

So some people plan... Me, I wander along until a scene or an idea or a... something... grabs me and says, "Come look at me." I don't think I could do it any other way. (Possibly gets back to that lazy thing as much as the boredom. Planning and writing? Twice as much work.)

I'm sure someone could come along and tell me why planning is very important. and the thing is... they'll be right. Writing would be a lot easier if there was a right way to do things, but it wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun-- it would just be designing another bridge or writing another computer program-- and if I wanted to be doing one of those things, I'd be doing it.

Enemies

2004-06-10T16:14:00.000+10:00
Apparently I have an arch-nemesis. No, seriously.

A guy at the place where I work (a term I use loosely) has always been a bit strange. A bit difficult. He sometimes does unusual things that most normal people would not consider doing in a regular working day. Well, maybe that isn't right, actually. A regular working day at a place that is as laid back as the place where I work.

The unusual things he does normally makes my job more difficult. I have to talk to the customers, etc and clean up his mess. I never really thought that much of it. It was just him being a bit weird.

But...

Apparently...

He was doing that to get back at me for all the things that I deliberately do to make his life difficult.

What do I do? I am a service co-ordinator. He is a technician. I organise his daily runs, along with 3 other techs. They generally get a maximum of 7 jobs a day, booked a day in advance. Occasionally they get eight. And occasionally, rarely, when we had a really bad whinger (a technical term from the service industry) I will call one of the techs and add the job in on the day.

That's what I do. There isn't really a lot I can do to make his life difficult. I could send him from one side of the city to the other, but to do that I would generally have to do the same thing to one of the other techs to cover. I could give him all the difficult jobs but, again, that'd mean sending other techs all over the city to cover. I could make sure I ring him every time to add in extra jobs, but, well, if he can't do it he can't do it.

But, I've been doing my best to piss him off for about 2 years. First I've heard of it.

Most people who know me will say I'm honest and laid back. I can also be a prick. Who's always wonderfully nice? Sometimes lack a bit of tact (only when I couldn't be bothered). But be a real prick or that long? Come on, that would take more effort than it's worth. I don't hold grudges. I'm not vindictive. I generally make it obvious how I feel about people then get on with life. As I said, the guy is strange, but I never actually disliked him.

So anyway, I'm off home now to iron my nifty black costume and practice my maniacal laugh.

Retraction

2004-06-09T13:59:00.000+10:00
I go and say I don't have problems with plot, etc, then I think of a conversation I was having with some people from the writing group the other day.

I was having a problem with distances in my novel. I have these "magical" gates that lead between worlds. On one of the worlds, where they have vehicles that allow you to travel over great distances very quickly, the gates are a long way away. On another two worlds, where one character has to walk between the gates, they were with in a couple couple of days' walking distance. How convienient. It was annoyig me immensely. Kate didn't seem to see the problem, but came up with the answer anyway. A river. Easy. Get a guy in a boat that's heading down stream and he'll go a damn long way very quickly. I knew that. I just couldn't see it. I had dragons in my head (for flying on the back of, though that would have created a whole new set of problems) and could not seem to get past them.

And... yes, there's more problems.

I need explosives to work and gun powder to not work. Or, at least, for guns to not work. Kate couldn't understand this one either, though possibly I didn't explain it too well. This time she didn't come up with a solution. I need explosives. No way around it. Unless someone can come up with another way to destroy a very large alien spaceship that doesn't involve any form of advanced machinery (ie, more advanced than levers, inclines, pulleys and wheels). But I don't want guns because that ruins a whole heap of fun and irony.

Seeing dragons won't help I'm kinda stuck, though it is not something I really have to worry about for a while yet.

Thoughts v. Ability

2004-06-08T10:32:00.000+10:00
At the moment my life seems to revolve around writing, books and movies. A lot of people would consider that to be fairly boring, but I don't have too many complaints.

One complaint I do have is that comma in the phrase "writing, books and movies". I would really like to write books and movies. The trouble is, they are completely different forms of writing and unless you are someone like William Goldman it's really hard to get your brain around the two methods. It is for me, at any rate. Plotting and rhythm comes easy for me in novels (well, I think it does, though no publisher has put their money on the table yet to say they agree). This has possibly made me a bit lazy when it comes to writing. Most times what I write in a first draft is pretty much how things will stay. I don't need to go around attending to the plot or adding in major bits or characters or whatever. But scripts? Now there's another story.

When I was about 16 I wrote a terrible, cliched, boring, high minded thing that would have been too cloying for a Hallmark film. Since then I have had numerous ideas that I can not beat into something resembling a reasonable script.

I have a co-written television pilot that could be great-- ideas and characters from a now established genre (super-heros) but original enough to be... Original. Trouble is, it's only a first draft and I'm not sure I can make it any better. Where do we go with it? Nobody wants to read a first draft, even though most producers will bring in their own script doctors/writers to change and fix things anyway. Another mate and I are playing with an update of an old British TV comedy. We have a basic idea... Easy. Now comes the hard part. Neither of us are really sure how to go about it at this stage. Oh well.

I found out today that the short story I recently had accepted (in the anthology Encounters, published by the Canberra Science Fiction Guild-- http://www.camrin.org/csfg/main.htm ) needs no further editing or fixing or whatever. Which means my lazy streak is completely satisfied as I get to sit back and wait for the anthology to appear. That's what I like to see.

That will be story number 3. It's called The Final Battle. The other two were The Art of War in issue 28 (I think) or Aurealis. And The Ferrymen in Glimpses, which was an anthology put out by my writing group. (I'd put up the address for the group, but the site is in the process of having a nervous breakdown.)

I've noticed a strange thing with my short stories-- the few that I write. The main characters usually end up dying. Or, at least, it's suggested that they will be dying very soon after the story ends. Hmmm... What does that say about me, I wonder?

Greetings and Salutations

2004-06-07T07:31:00.000+10:00

I'm not quite sure why I'm jumping off the blogging cliff behind the other lemmings but here I am, leaping without a thought as to how I might look when I hit the bottom.

Anyways, a bit about me, for those who don't already know...

My name is Scott Robinson and I live in Brisbane, Australia. While not sitting at work complaining (as I would be right now if I wasn't typing), I write.

I have had a grand total of 7 poems and 2 short stories published. I also have another short story coming out sometime later this year, I think. I used to write poetry all the time-- I even thought I was going to make a living from it when I had my first poem published as a smart-arse 13 year old. I soon got over that. Now, as a smart-arse 30 year old, I think I'm going to make a living from writing novels.

I am about to embark on the final draft of a two book fantasy/space opera story that I think is good enough to be published, but may be ignored anyway because it doesn't quite fit.

As of the first of July, I will be attending EnVision (www.sf-envision.com), which is a 5 day novel writing workshop where published spec-fic authors look at your novel to see where improvement might be made.

And straight after that I will be taking a bit of a road trip to Melbourne to try to get away from work as much as possible. It is supposed to "refresh" me and make me enjoy my job again. I already know that isn't going to happen and I'll be looking for a new place of employment soon after. Oh well.

But if I can't find something interesting to put in here after all of that...

And speaking of work, I should really go and do some. Damn them.