Journal

The internet knows everything, and so I ask…

I was at work today, innocently doing my job, when one of my co-workers turned around asked “have you ever come across a transgender zombie story?” At which point I allowed that a) I had not, b) google wasn’t inclined to find me one, and c) I adore my new dayjob more than any other dayjob I’ve ever had. Still, it’s a vexing kind of question to be unable to answer in the affirmative. I fired off the question to a couple of friends in the hopes that they’ve heard something, then figured I’d ask the question here just in case someone had come across such a thing. Transgender zombies and/or protagonists appear to be fair game, so far as such things go, so if you’ve come across such a thing in your readings please drop by the comments and let me know. In short: help me, Obi-net-kenobi, you’re my only hope. # I’d be linking you to Catherynne Valentes not-quite-review of

PeterMBall 28/07/2011
Journal

Once we give toasters a modicum of AI, the whole damn world is doomed

If you haven’t read Kelly Link’s Swans before, you can do so over at Fantasy Magazine today. I really recommend it, and I’m totally okay with you going over and reading it now. I mean, I’m not going anywhere, and I’m happy to wait. # Tried cooking chili tonight. Ordinarily not a thing that’s noteworthy, but so far I’ve managed to burn the bottom of the saucepan and forget to put on the rice and leave off half the optional ingredients that I usually put into a bowl of chili in order to transform it into the kind of chili I enjoy eating. Tried to work at the day-job today. Again, not ordinarily noteworthy, but after spending three hours watching tech support try to figure out why my computer wasn’t actually interested in doing things necessary to my job – on my computer, or any others in the office, for the work server obstinately believed I shouldn’t be there – it

PeterMBall 26/07/2011
Journal

Sunday

It’s generally a bad sign when the cleanest room in my flat is the study, but it appears I’ve reached that point. I predict a day of epic tidying and cleaning in my future, but right now I’ll settle for getting the washing up done and putting away the clean laundry. That’s next hour’s problem, though. Right now there is coffee and bloggery and answering some emails. Possibly some toast while I try to work out whether the toaster is really broken, or just bitching about the cold. It feels like that kind of afternoon. # Every now and then I come across people who really, really like the idea of creativity. It drives me crazy. Otherwise ordinary conversations are derailed by statements like “writing? Wow, it must be nice to be so creative” or “I’m a writer and creativity is one of my strengths,” mostly because I then froth at the mouth and stomp around until someone gives me

PeterMBall 24/07/2011
Journal

So after setting myself the goal of blogging every day in the coming week, I’m sneaking this one in under a technicality (specifically, the one that says a new day doesn’t actually start until your sleep and wake up in the morning. It makes sense in my head, even if the clocks disagree). It’s one of those rare Saturday nights when none of my neighbors are having a party, so the flat is remarkably cold and quiet. Dark too, since I’ve replaced the broken office chair with one that’s actually comfortable to sit in and that allows for prolonged periods of sitting and working and not really noticing that sunset slipped past and you missed it. Fortunately I have defrosted spicy tomato soup to ward off the oh-right, I-forgot-dinner-too hunger pangs. The downside, now that I’ve stopped, is that I don’t really have the option of not-noticing the cold anymore. I find myself wishing I’d invested in fingerless gloves. Or, at least,

PeterMBall 24/07/2011
Journal

I went to Pulp Fiction (Brisbane’s Finest Specialty Crime & SF bookstore) and bought new books earlier this week and I’ve managed to forget that until six minutes ago, when I rummaged through my bag and unearthed copies of Charlie Huston’s Sleepless and the Zombies Vs Unicorns anthology and the latest Gail Carriger novel and…well, it was the kind of shopping trip that involved mass consumption, so it’s rather nice to  forget about the books and unearth them once more. And there is, as always, a paper bag. And I have, as always, used the paper bag as a hat; there is no wastepaper baset in the study, so wearing the paper-bag-hat ensures the bag gets thrown out next time I’m walking past a bin. But yes, I forgot I bought books. It’s been that kind of week. On Monday I went up to Rockhampton for the day job, meeting with people and seeing places that are part of the project

PeterMBall 23/07/2011
Journal

As I drink my celebratory snifter of port…

It’s a cool winter evening and I’ve turned off most of the lights in the flat, shuffling around the study by dim glow of the desk lamp, swaying in a slightly dreamy manner to Bauhaus songs while I poke bits of Flotsam with a stick.  In theory I should be writing right now, but I figure if I don’t sneak off and blog now, I’ll get all caught up in drowning Keith Murphy in the demonic equivalent of a baptismal font and it’ll be another week before I post here again. I’m going to mention, first off, that Angela Slatter is in the process of delivering a very special series of Friday Drive-By interviews focusing on the contributors to the forthcoming Stephen Jones anthology A Book of Horrors. The first link takes you straight to the page she’s set up for it on her website, which means you miss out on the very charming otters that appeared on the post

PeterMBall 12/07/2011
Journal

Lull

Tonight’s a moment of respite, I think, amid the pell-mell rush of the last few weeks. And for all that it’s been a good kind of rush, full of new jobs and new words and ticking things off the metaphorical to-do list, I’m kind of glad to be easing off the accelerator a little. I’m currently sitting my study with a snifter of port, my belly full of well-roasted vegetables, and my head full of stories that I’d really like to write in the near future. It’s a pleasant kind of feeling, one that’s been all too scarce over the last eight months, and it’s rather nice to be looking at things I could do instead of panicking about the things I haven’t yet done. # So, yes, an update. Where shall we begin. As I mentioned in my last post, I disappeared down the Rabbit Hole over the weekend just gone. It was a deranged and foolhardy exercise, conceived

PeterMBall 11/07/2011
Journal

Quick Update

It’s Wednesday evening and the dayjob is done for the week. I’m now girding myself for the next few days, which will be best described as a tsunami of words. My plans for the evening involve reading the last fifty pages of Un Lun Dun, writing a bunch of things that need to be finished before tonight is over, then putting what little energy remains into sketching notes on the short novella I conceptualized on the way to work this morning. Tomorrow…well. Tomorrow I gird myself for the Queensland Writer’s Center’s Rabbit Hole event, where a bunch of us gather and attempt to write 30,000 words over three days. In theory I’ll be aiming to get the final five Flotsam stories done over those three days, if only so I can free myself up for other writing for the rest of the year. This will require plans and scene maps and perhaps some notes on what needs to happen where, if only

PeterMBall 06/07/2011
Journal

Not Enough Coffee Man

It is morning and there is no coffee in the house, which means I should either duck down to the local espresso bar I haven’t been to yet, or buckle up and drive to the shops in order to acquire more coffee. The latter option will obviously need to occur either way, for I don’t have the means to duck down to the espresso bar again should I face this problem on the morrow, but still…there’s the issue of immediacy. It’s morning (or it was, when I first started typing this), and mornings need coffee to stop bad things happening for the rest of the day. Especially today. In a week or so Friday’s will be a magical, awesome day set aside for the purposes of writing and lounging around the house reading books, but this week there is much to do on my to-do list for the day, so it’s going to be somewhat frantic. Of course, given my inability to make

PeterMBall 01/07/2011
Journal

An eclectic kind of music night

Last night I faced the question: what happens when Peter comes home from work, discovers he’s sold a story, and pours an overly generous snifter of porter as part of his celebration? The answer seems to involve dancing to Justin Timblerlake’s I’m Bringing Sexy back in a manner that makes it extraordinarily clear that there is no sexy being brought anywhere in my general vicinity. Through a series of events – relatively sober events, since I stopped drinking after the first class – this led me back some some of the truly tragic dance music of my younger days. Apparently I will still bust a very limp and wheezy move if someone puts on , say, East 17’s House of Love. And I’m still far fonder of the Utah Saints Something Good than is reasonable. ‘Course, this all ended up going nuts to Atari Teenage Riot, so I try not to feel too bad about indulging in a few moments naffness. # I

PeterMBall 30/06/2011
Journal

It’s morning and it’s cold and I’m sitting in the study with bare feet, kicking my heels against the floorboards, which is basically one of my favourite things ever. Eventually it will get too cold and I’ll be forced to put on socks, or shoes, or slippers, but for the moment this is one of those pleasantly cold mornings made for barefooted padding about the house. There were contracts in the mail this morning, which probably means it’s safe to mention that The Clockwork Goat and the Smokestack Magi, my story from Shimmer’s Clockwork Junglebook issue, is going to be reprinted in the Mammoth Book of Steampunk alongside lots of very cool other stuff. And I will probably mention this again, in more detail, once I’m back into the blogging habit and used to saying things in public again, but my friend Chris Green has released a short story collection, Love and Other Losses, for the Kindle. If you all went

PeterMBall 29/06/2011
Journal

Still Alive

Today was a very good day. I didn’t really sleep a lot last night, because today was also my first day at the new dayjob, and that’s the kind of thing that makes me restless and afflicted with the kind of nervous insomnia that means you sleep without really sleeping. I rose before seven AM for the first time in a week, shaved off the remnants of my most-unmanly-neckbeard, got dressed in an outfit that did not involve ties or dress pants, then caught an early train into the Cultural Precinct on the Brisbane River. I arrived far earlier than I needed to, so I stopped at the cafe beneath the State Library and drank coffee while reading and idling away the spare half-hour. All in all, this proved to be a remarkably pleasant and civilized way to start the working day. Then, around nine o’clock, I went and started work (I’m still struggling with that, really. Having a good

PeterMBall 28/06/2011