News & Upcoming Events

Two Announcements, and Much Congratulations

Not Quite The End of the World Just Yet is an Aurealis Awards Finalist The short-lists for the 2018 Aurealis Awards went up yesterday, posting the finalist lists that bring together some of the best Australian sci-fi and fantasy of the year. Not Quite The End of the World Just Yet is one of four finalists in best collection this year, and shares the list with some pretty distinguished company: BEST COLLECTION Not Quite the End of the World Just Yet, Peter M Ball (Brain Jar Press) Phantom Limbs, Margo Lanagan (PS Publishing) Tales from The Inner City, Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin) Exploring Dark Short Fiction #2: A Primer to Kaaron Warren, Kaaron Warren (Dark Moon Books) I’m largely off social media these days, so I’ve missed the frenzy of posting that took place yesterday as everyone started with the congratulations. This makes me very, very late in offering my own felicitations to all the finalists, including an incredible

PeterMBall 21/02/2019
Sunday Circle

The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them). After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all. Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here). MY CHECK-IN What am I working on this week? I’m on the downward slope

PeterMBall 17/02/2019
Works in Progress

Friday Status Post: 15 Feb 2019

BIG THINGS ACHIEVED THIS WEEK: A few hours ago I passed through my mid-candidature review for the PhD, which means I’m about halfway through my thesis (slightly more than halfway through my scholarship, but these things don’t necessarily sync due to the way PhDs are assessed from what I’m gathering). I’ve stuck to my writing schedule really well, and established a system for prioritising projects and figuring out what’s achievable in 2019 and what needs to be moved to next year’s to-do list (there’s more details in this week’s newsletter if you’re curious). I’ve also been gearing up for the first Short Fiction Lab release, Winged, with Sharp Teeth, heading into a wide release once it’s Amazon exclusive period is up in about 48 hours time. The gains in reading time after implementing some of the advice from Digital Minimalism continue to add up. Two weeks ago I’d finished maybe two or three books for the year–now I’m up to

PeterMBall 15/02/2019
Sunday Circle

The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them). After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all. Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here). MY CHECK-IN What am I working on this week? I’ve got to write two

PeterMBall 10/02/2019
Works in Progress

Friday Status Post: Feb 8 2019

THE BEST PARAGRAPH I READ THIS WEEK BIG THINGS ACHIEVED THIS WEEK: I met with my supervisors this week, talking through the way we’ll be handling things as I move into my third year as a post-grad. I’m finally at the point where there’s less research and more writing required, so I’ve been thinking about how to keep my life balanced (and, occasionally, despairing that such a thing may be possible and debating which goals get deferred. The other big achievement for the week has been thinking really hard about my relationship with my phone, and removing all sorts of apps that have resulted in bad habits. Obviously, this includes social media, but after reading Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism I’m trailing a bunch of other things as well. For the first time in years there’s no email app on my phone–a change that’s proving useful, as I tend to read an email while seated in front of my computer and

PeterMBall 08/02/2019
Conspicuous Acts of Cultural Consumption

Seven Songs That Have Autoplayed on YouTube After Listening to Joan Jett’s Cover of Crimson & Clover

ONE: MAPS by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s A few years ago, I noted a trend where every autoplaylist I left running would eventually return to the Arctic Monkeys Do I Wanna Know. That epoch in youtube has apparently moved on, for now it is an inevitability that all playlists will find their way to Maps instead. TWO: I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW by Tiffany I think I looked up this song once because I couldn’t remember it, and wanted some context for a joke that’s made in Mega Python vs Gateroid. I haven’t even watched Mega Python vs. Gateroid. THREE: I HATE MYSELF FOR LOVING YOU by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts There are Joan Jett songs that I love. There are Joan Jett songs that I do not love. This is one of the former. FOUR: DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts There are Joan Jett songs that I love. There are Joan Jett

PeterMBall 05/02/2019
Sunday Circle

The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them). After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all. Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here). MY CHECK-IN What am I working on this week? I’ve got page proofs and

PeterMBall 03/02/2019
News & Upcoming Events

Apocalypse Ink Sale (& Free Copies of Exile)

I shall not bury the lede here: you can pick up a copy of Exile for free on Amazon until the end of the month, delivering you a novella’s worth of Gold Coast based urban fantasy for the princely sum of FREE. They’ve also discounted the ebook of the whole Flotsam omnibus to $3.49 until the books go out of print at the end of April. The omnibus contains all three novellas in the sequence, plus a handful of bonus short stories set in the Flotsam universe. These are just two of the deals Apocalypse Ink is running on my books, and a bunch of their other authors, in the lead up to their shift in business model. As a reminder, the series will be unavailable after April 30 and I’m still not sure what I’ll be doing with it when the rights revert, so this is your last chance to get copies for a long stretch. You can find

PeterMBall 29/01/2019
Writing Advice - Craft & Process

Stuck on a Project? Try Stealing This Tip from Psychology

In the final weeks of 2018 I sat down and read Ellen Hendrickson’s How To Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety. As someone who deals with anxiety on the reg, this was a pretty good book for exploring how and why anxiety occurs, and using that to frame why already familiar techniques from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy are used. This was, by and large, an expected and hoped-for effect when I picked up the book. What I wasn’t expecting when I read it was the sheer number of times I would sit down and start making notes that were associated to writing and building a writing career. …. I spent a good chunk of last Thursday trying to write this blog post and failing. I was just back from an academic conference–an event that is really high on the list of things that trigger my own social anxiety–and my brain kept trying to put together a frame

PeterMBall 28/01/2019
Sunday Circle

The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them). After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all. Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here). MY CHECK-IN What am I working on this week? Heading down to the GANZA

PeterMBall 20/01/2019
Sunday Circle

The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them). After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all. Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here). MY CHECK-IN What am I working on this week? There’s ten days until I

PeterMBall 13/01/2019
Works in Progress

Friday Status Post: 11 January 2019

BIG THINGS ACHIEVED THIS WEEK: The first week and a half of January has been a bit of a mess for me–lots of disruptions to work habits, lots of anxiety about upcoming thesis milestones and presentations. Which, in turn, has leant itself to a god deal of practastiprojects between hammering away at my draft (although, thankfully, having just read Rest, I’m at least able to understand how the downtime has been helping). I’m on the third draft of a conference paper at the moment–and this one, at least, seems to have the content in the right order. I’ve also done a massive notebook cull, which saw approximately 70 notebooks leave the apartment and the rest nicely arranged in blank and ongoing-project boxes. I’ve finally eliminated spiral binding from my life–something that brings an incredible amount of relief and frees up a lot of mental space I didn’t know those old notebooks were occupying. I’ve also divested myself of cheap, 8mm

PeterMBall 11/01/2019