Aussie Spec Fic Carnival
Ladies and gentlemen and others, here it is…
NaNoWriMo:
Andrew Macrae flunked out early, Stephen Dedman didn’t quite make it, but Martin Livings actually did it – and offered it for viewing.
Writing:
Ben Peek has posted a few episodes of Nowhere Near Savannah, this one being a favourite so far – reasons not to write science fiction.
Glenda Larke delivers her musings on staying true to your art, and being balanced; meanwhile mikandra has something of a writing crisis.
Cassiphone (aka Tansy Roberts) had a sneak peek of her latest novel, Power and Majesty, available for perusal (and made a rather wild claim to boot).
Gillian Pollack makes a very generous offer, should you be interested in experimenting for a travel scene in your next novel (no vegos allowed).
Tehani reflects on Andromeda Spaceways as it was in 2007.
Dirk Flinthart shares a his take on the story of the Ugly Duckling. Heart warming, but you can just imagine what’s coming at the end…
and another Stephen preens a little about the covers of some random books…
Publishing:
That old Punkrocker announces that Worker’s Paradise came back from the printers, and Karen Miller announces the publication of The Riven Kingdom (as well as keeping us up to date on the progress of her next); Girlie announces the impending arrival of Shiny 2.
Jennifer Fallon also gets into the shamelessly plugging friends act as well.
Seems obvious to me, but apparently “Kiss of the Lily” – which is wanting stories with romance – haven’t been getting what they want.
Margo discusses the new Datlow Del Rey antho, including herself; also comments on some reviews she’s received, as does Kaaron Warren on The Grinding House.
Reading:
That Ben Peek again has some interesting things to say about the Aussie military reading list.
James T Kirk School of Plot Development is elaborated by Gillian.
Matt discusses William Burroughs.
The token Kiwi has caused some stir with a variety of posts, on chronotopicality (also here) – sparking lots of comments, worth reading.
Last Short Story keeps doing their (OK, I admit, our) crazy thing, attempting to read the short specfic published in 2007.
Jonathan S reflects on re-viewing Star Wars (as well as thinking about feedback).
Also seen:
Chris Barnes gets all dressed up and fights some folks, progressing up the career ladder of Sword Fighting.
Cat Sparks posts some of her photos from World Con.
Girlie is rounding up support to help support ASiF! – a worthy cause if you like reviews, and there are even prizes! (She’s also had ideas about improving said website. Plus, Martin is offering to name characters after donaters.) Plus, some silly writing stunts.
Justine Larbalestier and partner Scott star in a podcast (there’s also a second half).
Paul continues his incredibly personal and humbling recount of his experience with cancer (that’s just one entry, of course).
Finally, there’s no show without Punch – or, in the case of the Aussie specifc scene, the Aurealis Awards, the list of which appeared a week or so ago now; it’s even scored itself a big fat sponsor. Numerous people blogged about, like those who got nominated (and while you’re there, check out Rob eating brains).
Movies and books
So I went to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age the other day. I loved it, and will post more about it soon. For now, this has amused me:
Do I have a book about Walter Raleigh on my shelf?
Yes
Have I read said book yet?
No
Will I now always think of him as Clive Owen?
Hell yes!
Is this a problem?
Hell no!
Tee hee. I thought it was funny. It really is a bit like seeing the movie before reading the book.* I also have a bio of Elizabeth – the Alison Weir one, I think – which my darling bought for me on a whim once and who was subsequently devastated when I informed him that I was a bit over Elizabeth, because she had been done to death. I think I am also at the point where I can read that book, too.
*Which I have only successfully done once: I saw the BBC series of Pride and Prejudice before reading it, and it made reading it much easier, for me.
House
I’ve thought this vaguely in the past, but watching the end of season three on DVD solidified it in my head.
TV’s Dr Gregory House is Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
No wife/girlfriend; drug habit; musical; detective; slightly antisocial; bizarre techniques.
This can’t be accidental, surely. The writers didn’t have to make House musical, for instance.
What is it about dysfunctional people that make them so fascinating to watch or read about??
Daughters of Earth
I got my copy today from Amazon – hurrah!* So excited. I’ve been looking forward to reading this ever since cassiphone raved at me about it at NatCon in June. It has a very nice cover…. It’s been a while since I read any feminist theory or lit crit, so I’m itching to start. Of course, I have been somewhat remiss with my duties, so I have to get back to that… and send some hard copies out to collaborators, before they lynch me. So it might have to wait until my resolve weakens.
*Don’t know it? It’s edited by Justine Larbalestier, and includes scifi stories written by women throughout the 20th century – from every decade, I think – as well essays about them and their place in the scifi tradition.
Farthing Magazine: a rant
As in far-thing, not an old coin.
As part of Last Short Story, we’re obviously trying to cover all the paying markets. At the start of the year in particular, we had to buy any copy we wanted because very few people knew about the crazy idea and review copies were few and and far between (and always warmly welcomed). Now, things are getting a bit easier, and we’ve got a few more review copies coming in (generally warmly welcomed, with only a very quiet groan of: ‘what, more?’).
One of the magazines I volunteered to buy was Farthing Magazine. I thought it looked cool – they have a great quote from Ursula le Guin on the site! – and some interesting-sounding stories. I eventually managed to pay by Paypal, which was a bit of a saga in itself, and then… nothing.
That was June.
They definitely took my money – can’t even remember how much now. I’ve sent a number of emails to the editor’s contact email address. There is no way postage from the UK should take 4 months. Is there?
I’d love to hear from anyone who’s received Farthing – so that I know it can be done, and to know whether it’s something I should bother with chasing up. I really don’t want to just put zeros in its columns, on our little LSS spreadsheet…
Not reading Slaughterhouse 5
* I never have in the past. I know! Oh! the shame.
As a consequence, I borrowed it from the library for the holidays.
* I didn’t read it at the start of the hols because my sister was.
* I didn’t read it over the rest of the hols because the demands of Last Short Story were getting to me.
Now, it’s no longer the holidays. But that’s not why I’m still not reading the book….
* I managed to lose it. A library book!
Snapshot 2007: Geoff Maloney
Geoff Maloney is the author of numerous short stories, which can be found in such places as Orb #6, Aurealis #33/34/35, and Ticonderoga Online. He has also edited a few anthologies, such as the recent Fantastical Journeys to Brisbane, and can be found online here.
Q1: Fantastical Journeys to Brisbane came out this year, which you co-edited with Zoran Zivkovic. The title made me laugh, since Brisbane is not the sort of place I imagine having a fantastical journey towards! What has the response been like to this anthology, and what do you think of the final product?
I think the title needs to be looked at in a couple of ways. Firstly, the origin of the anthology goes back to Zoran Zivkovic’s visit to Australia as a guest writer at the 2004 Brisbane Writers’ Festival. At that time Zoran, who lives in Belgrade, Serbia, had recently won a World Fantasy Award for his novella, “The Library”. I had already made Zoran’s acquaintance through Kirsten Bishop and the fact that we were both involved with Prime Books in the US at that time. While he was in Brisbane, Zoran held a writers’ masterclass for the Queensland Writers’ Centre and, out of that class, “The Devil in Brisbane“ was born. Zoran was very keen to follow this up with a second anthology and so “Fantastical Journeys to Brisbane“ was launched. This time Trent Jamieson came onboard to help with the selection of the stories and assist with the editing process. Trent‘s experience from his work on “Redsine” was invaluable.
While we in Australia think of Brisbane as just another Australian city and one perhaps with a politically shady past the reality is that for many people in the northern hemisphere Brisbane is exotic and just the sort of place you might have a magical journey to. As the publisher is Izvori in Zagreb, Croatia, this is entirely suitable.
Secondly, by grounding the anthology in a named city, we were able to give writers, who wished to contribute, clear directions we were after stories that were in the nature of travelling or returning to an urban destination, and this would avoid getting many stories that were set in the “inexplicable nowhere”. The writers handled this concept extremely well and if Brisbane wasn’t exotic to people in Australia before, it should be now. As we say in the promo for the book:
Inspired by World Fantasy Award winner Zoran Zivkovic’s mosaic novella, “Compartments”, each writer has crafted their own special tale of a journey to the mythical city of Brisbane. It is a place that only appears on the map of the imagination, a place where suspected terrorists and supernatural beings are incarcerated, where renegade cyborgs and lads from the bush seek salvation… a city awaiting the arrival of the new messiah, while malevolent water-spirits wander the reaches of its river. It is also the place your aunties visit on holidays of transformation and others find their own special road to heaven and hell.
At this stage, it’s too early to gauge the response. We’ve had a review at ASif! which everybody agreed was pretty good, but we’re only just starting to get some local distribution, and haven’t got the Izvori website set-up yet for European and international sales. All of that is coming soon.
Coming from Izvori in Croatia, the production quality of this book is unique and exceptional. It’s in a hard cover format that is often used in Croatia. The cover is like a sunny day in Brisbane, and the internal layout, which was done by Damir Mikulicic at Izvori, is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
Q2: Ben Peek interviewed you for the ancestor of this project, Snapshot 2005. In it, Peek asked your opinion on the Aussie scene, and one of your comments was about the short story scene: “Personally, I like short stories, but if I was a person who really wanted to write novels in Australia, I wouldn’t go anywhere near the short story market. There’s very little money in it and the time it takes to write several short stories would be much better spent on writing your next novel…”. Do you think this still holds true for the Aussie scene, two years later? And if it does, is there anything we can do about it?
Yes, I think it’s still true. It’s a model that American friends tell me works in the US, but I don’t think it ever has in Australia. I think the only thing to be done is to be careful not to assume that US publishing advice applies in Australia. It simply means that Australian writers shouldn’t feel compelled in any way to write short stories if they’re aiming to get a novel published in the local market.
It’s a fact of life at the moment that short stories are just not as popular as they used to be, but neither are slim novels. The long novel is very popular across most genres.
Impossible to say whether that will change. But nobody should start writing short stories thinking they can make a career out of it. You write them because you personally like the form, or to be perfectly pragmatic because you simply don’t have the time to commit to writing long novels.
Although I do have a few novel drafts in the bottom drawer.
Q3: You’ve been involved in editing two anthologies with Zoran Zivkovic in the past, The Devil in Brisbane and Fantastical Journeys to Brisbane. Do you see yourself being involved in more anthologies and editing over the next five years, or concentrating solely on your own writing?
I also did the editorial work on the first CSFG anthology, “Nor of Human” and had a range of editorial roles in relation to Lee Battersby and Paul Haines’ collections through Prime Books. I was also guest editor on Znak Sagite #15, which Bill Congreve contributed an article for on the state of Australian speculative fiction, and included some great stories by Australian writers. Anybody in Australia who has seen a copy of that magazine has been very impressed by its quite amazing art work. They couldn’t read it, however, because it’s all in Serbian.
Overall, I see myself as a writer, not an editor, although I’m quite proud of the editorial work I’ve done. The editorial role has mostly come about because I’ve been invited to do it, by Zoran and others. But I should make the point that my role in production of the books has only been that of editor. Unlike Russell Farr at Ticonderoga or Cat Sparks at Agog! or Angela Challis at Brimstone, I haven’t had to worry about publishing the book as well.
So, no, I’m not actively seeking editorial opportunities. Not sure at this stage if Zoran has any future plans; you never know what Zoran has up his sleeve. He is quite a magician.
And, you know, my short stories continue to get published, here and overseas, and I’m happy about that. I was published in the first issue of Aurealis and I’ll have a story coming out in the next issue. I guess some people would think that’s bad. I think it’s good.
I don’t actually think of things in terms of my writing career or “my editorial career”. Writing is important to me, but when I put the editor’s hat on its important to me too. When I go to my day job, working on housing policy issues, it’s important as well, and bringing up three young daughters with my wife Diana is possibly the most important thing I could ever do. It’s more about having a life where writing plays an important part, rather than writing or editing being the only thing you do.
Q4: Along with working and so forth, I presume you’ve had time to relax and read: what’s the best thing you’ve read this year?
People who know me know that I have a passion for European fiction, especially Russian writers, and if they write dark urban fantasies with a wicked sense of humour that’s even better. The best novel I read this year was the Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It’s a classic of speculative fiction. Masterful writing and wonderful story-telling. The other best novel I read was also by Bulgakov, The White Guard about the fall of Kiev during the Russian Revolution. Not speculative fiction, but a must read book for anybody who is interested in the techniques of writing. Just brilliant writing from start to finish, and a marvellous historical story.
Q5: And, to finish in a totally shameless way: you’ve got the chance to get it on with any fictional character. Who would it be?
Does Samantha in Bewitched count?
Snapshot 2007: Glenda Larke
Glenda Larke is the author of many published novels, including the Isles of Glory trilogy. She can be found online here.
Q1: You are heavily involved in rainforest conservation issues in Malaysia, where you live at the moment: is this something that you have tried, or would like to, include in your novels? Do you think issues such as this can, or should, be brought into fantasy?
Certainly I have dealt with issues of the interconnectivity of the natural environment and humankind in my books – particularly in the Isles of Glory trilogy, and yes, I believe that fantasy is uniquely situated to bring home such important issues to readers. A fantasy/sf writer can say things without sounding too dogmatic or personal because it is all set in a fantasy or future world. I love a many-layered story, and this is one of the ways I try to achieve this. I haven’t – yet – dealt with a tropical rainforest, though. I believe it is possible to write stories which both entertain and have a message, without sounding didactic.
Such stories can be read on any level – I’ve had readers comment on the entertainment value and remark that’s all there is, and I’ve had readers say they love the many layers…and they are talking about the same book.
Q2: You’ve moved around a great deal: WA, Malaysia, Austria and Tunisia…. Has this moving around made writing easier or harder? And has it influenced what and how you write? As well – if it’s not a rude thing to say – you’ve started to be published “later in life,” as they say. Has this influenced your writing?
Writing is never easy, at least not for me. It is always hard work, but where I am matters not one whit. Having lived in so many places has given me an enormous amount of material and insight into other cultures, though. I tend to think in terms of the complex as a result, and rarely see things or people in terms of black and white. Or is that all part of growing older, or being an older (and one would like to think – wiser) writer? And if I know one thing, it is what it is like to be an outsider.
Q3: What do you see yourself doing in five years’ time? You’ve written non-fiction, as well as fiction: is this an area you would like to work in more?
I enjoy writing non-fiction, certainly, but not as much as fiction. So given the choice…
In five years time, I would like to see myself receiving accolades for writing the great fantasy of the 21st century…ok, one can dream, right?
Q4: Do you get much time to read, amidst all the other stuff that you do? What’s the best thing you’ve read this year?
I used to read more before I had deadlines, that’s for sure. But I can’t imagine not reading at all. Right now most of what I read is by my fellow Voyager authors, often in MS form. (They do the same for me). And there’s is some fantastic writing there – Russell Kirkpatrick’s new Husk trilogy is a stupendous epic that deserves international accolades and far more recognition than it is getting. Karen Miller is the most versatile of us all, writing equally well in different sub-sets of the genre and making it all look so very easy, when of course it is not. I love Jenny Fallon for sheer exuberant entertainment and its “can’t-put-it-down” nature. Her latest trilogy is her best yet. On the international scene, I’d have to say Naomi Novak’s Temeraire books were one of the highlights of the year for me.
Q5: And, since surely you’ve thought about it… which fictional character would you most like to get it on with, and why?
If you mean one of my own characters, it would have to be Kelwyn Gilfeather…such a lovely, compassionate and totally confused man. Of someone else’s characters? Hmm…Tyrion Lannister. Because I’m curious, and I like to live dangerously.
This interview has been undertaken as part of Snapshot 2007. The other interviews can be read at:
http://girliejones.livejournal.com/
http://benpayne.livejournal.com/
http://kaaronwarren.livejournal.com/
http://cassiphone.livejournal.com/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/
http://rosies-travels.blogspot.com/
Snapshot 2007: Grace Dugan
Grace Dugan is the author of the novel The Silver Road and numerous short stories. She can be found online here.
Q1: You’ve been working on an MA in Creative Writing. What’s your focus there, and do you think it will be of benefit in your novel-writing career? And if not, why are you doing it?
I started the MA because I was interested in teaching creative writing as a sideline to writing, ie. a day job. There’s been a lot of side benefits along the way. The week I enrolled, someone offered me some tutoring work in a short story subject. That’s been my main income over the last 18 months, as well as a quite enjoyable and interesting part-time job, basically critting stories for a living. I’ve also had a wonderful time working with my supervisor, Nike Bourke, who’s been a great mentor to me.
My project was what they call practice-led research, where you write a novel (or some other such creative thing) and then write a relatively short academic exegesis which relates in some tenuous or not-so-tenuous way to the creative work. My exegesis was about novel writing processes and strategies. You know some people say they plan everything out and how could you do it any other way, and others say they “work organically,” &c. It’s something I’ve experimented with over time and I wanted to shed some light on it, because it seems to be a slightly loaded topic and people talk a lot of rubbish about it. So I surveyed about twenty novelists over email, and then I got kind of ill and I haven’t done anything about it since. I took as much sick leave as I could, which was a year, but really my heart has gone out of the whole thing and I’ve just withdrawn from the program. In fact, I’ve decided to go off on a bit of a different course and I’ve spent the last little while trying to get into a medical degree. I’ve jumped through most of the hoops and with any luck I’ll start next year.
I’ll still finish the novel I was working on, of course, but I won’t finish the exegesis or the pesky coursework that I had left.
Q2: You wrote The Silver Road while you were still at high school, but it took a while for it to be published. How much changed in that time? and was it all for the good?
I started it in the last few months of high school. It’s gone through a lot of changing and mooshing around. At first it was two books, a pair running concurrently, that would be published as part of a series. That presented a lot of problems, to reconcile the dramatic aspects with continuity between both books. When I was at the Varuna Manuscript Development workshop, Linda Funnell from HarperCollins suggested slicing the two books up and combining them. I think that worked pretty well, but it took about a year and was a real slog. In case you were wondering, the original two books followed Yelela and Zuven respectively, and I wrote Haga, the third character, at the same time that I was combining them. That was the version Penguin bought, and then it went through a very substantial structural edit, and a line edit which was as heavy as some people’s structural edits, and proofs which had five things marked up on every page. I’m exhausted just telling you about it.
It was definitely all for the good. I basically rewrote that novel as I learned to write better, but because it took such a long time, by the time I finished I was quite distant from the story. About once a month I get an email asking me to write a sequel, or even an epilogue, but I really can’t imagine doing it. The expressive impulse for the story was from long ago, and most of the work I did in the last few years was just making it work.
Q3: Your next novel will ‘probably’ be called The Motherland Garden. Any hints as to what it will be about?
It’s a fantasy set in a world which is industrialised but relatively low-tech. The protagonist lives in a women-only hermitage studying magic, in a country which is a subject nation of a much bigger empire. She falls in love, gets her heart broken, works in a mailroom, fails to learn magic, gets involved with guerillas, &c. Plus there’s lots of weather.
Q4: I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had some medical issues recently – I hope it’s left you more time for reading! On which note, what’s the best thing you’ve read so far in 2007?
I try to get Small Beer Press books when I can afford them, (which is often, as many of them are pretty cheap). This year I’ve absolutely loved both Howard Who?, an old Howard Waldrop collection, and Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison. Some friends of mine in the US have also started a new press, Blind Eye Books, and their first book, Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale, was really great, too. I also loved Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson, and recently picked up one of his older ones, Escape from Kathmandu, which was more fun than it had any right to be. Last one: I read “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” by James Tiptree Jr, which was really compelling and persuasive.
Q5: Finally, on a completely different tangent: if you could get it on with any fictional character, who would it be, and why?!
I had a lot of trouble with this question. I scanned my bookcase and thought about all the heroes, but they’re mostly troubled, in a way which arouses sympathy but is not really attractive; or enigmatic loners who I might like reading about but who, in real life, would be those people who take themselves too seriously; or they’re those comfy-love-interest fellows that you feel good about the protagonist ending up with, but I wouldn’t necessarily go for them myself.
This interview has been undertaken as part of Snapshot 2007. The other interviews can be read at:
http://girliejones.livejournal.com/
http://benpayne.livejournal.com/
http://kaaronwarren.livejournal.com/
http://cassiphone.livejournal.com/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/
http://rosies-travels.blogspot.com/
Randomly Yours, Alex 