Category: Journal
Journal

This is my Monday

I hate it when things creep up on me, but I like having a full to-do list that I can work through. On today’s list: Get a big chunk of wordage done on the thesis draft – last week saw things start lagging behind again, and I really shouldn’t let that become a habit. Clean the flat for tomorrow’s rental inspection Go through the copyedit of my Interfictions 2 story and get that sent out. Finish writing up a crit of Angela’s story. Pick up a book they’re holding for me at Pulp Fiction (includes a bonus lunch with the Sleech) Cook at home for the first time in, what, two and a half weeks? Do a revision of a recently-rejected story that I think needs a little more polish before it goes out again. In short, I’ll be keeping busy. I’ve moved the laptop into the lounge so I can set up a second work-area and flit between computers

PeterMBall 16/02/2009
Journal

In which I am trivial and know it…

I think my office may be under some kind of curse. I say this because I’ve just lost my second office chair in the space of a few months to breakage and this one was brand new (unlike the previous chair, which was a mega-comfy seventies steel-and-vinyl job that I’m pretty sure my parents liberated from a staffroom two decades ago).  I’m less than impressed with this, especially since I can’t find my receipt to go return the chair to officeworks and get a repalcement. Not that I was a fan of the new chair – I dislike office chairs at the best of times and really mourn the loss of the old-school desk-chair I had – but I kinda need something to sit on here. On the plus side, it’ll force me to work on the laptop (away from the internets) for the majority of the day since I’m officially out of chairs to sit on while at the desk.

PeterMBall 12/02/2009
Journal

Youtube Nostalgia Friday

This song has been playing in the back of my head all week. I’ve been saving it up until Friday, when I needed it most. It does make me wonder, though: is it really possible to love Guns and Roses without a feeling of irony or faint embarrassment? I think Jason can, but he’s certainly one of the few people I’ve met who can approach their appreciation of GnR honestly.  Me? I just filter it all through nostalgia as a defense mechanism…

PeterMBall 06/02/2009
Journal

rain, dammit

When I woke up this morning there was rain – a nice, pleasant kind of rain that looked like it had some longevity to and spoke of a pleasant day getting words down and reading on the couch. It was a writerly kind of rain, if you will, and I immediately celebrated its presence by banging out a hatfull of words and finishing off the novel I started reading over the weekend. Sadly, it was not to last, and now it’s lunch-time and the day is muggy and the computer is not my favourite place to be. Even reading isn’t all that pleasant – the muggy heat is watching-TV kind of weather, encouraging neither concentration or movement, and I force myself to remain at the keyboard only through an act of will. Now off to read through lecture notes before the meeting tomorrow, so I don’t get any surprises when I say “sure, I can do that week’s lecture” without

PeterMBall 02/02/2009
Journal

January is almost done

Congratulations to Elena Gleason, whose story Erased picked up the chocolate in Fantasy Magazine’s  best story of 2008 reader poll. Congrats also to my Clarion South peep Michael Greenhut, whose story Watermark finished in the top-five, and thanks also to everyone who put in a vote for On the Finding of Photographs of My Former Loves – to my surprise, it snuck into the top five as well. The temperature seems to have dropped to reasonable levels here in Brisbane – today I walked into my office and saw the temperature was below 30 degrees for the first time in weeks. That probably explains why the last twenty-four hours have been more productive than usual, although that could also be because I’m now loaded up with projects again after giving up January to the thesis exclusively (I suspect I’m just not built for the singular focus approach, especially not when I’m fretting about the things I’m not doing. There is still thesis work

PeterMBall 31/01/2009
Journal

5 things about today

1) Cinnamon-flavoured breath mints are *not* candy, and inhaling an entire pack like they are will leave your mouth feeling swollen and mildly burnt for 48 hours at least. 2) I’ve broken down and started writing a short story alongside the thesis. I wasn’t going to do that, but the reasons for not doing it are kind of moot. With luck, it’ll even help since I can switch back-and-forth between story and thesis when I get stuck on things. 3) You cannot make it rain by glaring at the sky and willing it to be so, no matter how long you give it. 4) Publishing a book that has one sentence punctuated with a triple exclamation point (!!!) is a sure-fire way to ensure that I will hurl it across the room. Including more than one in the introduction is grounds for burning. Always remember, exclamation marks are the work of the devil. 5) Aueralis Awards this weekend. See you

PeterMBall 22/01/2009
Journal

Waiting on the rain.

We’re waiting on rain here in Brisbane, which means the humidity today was high enough that even running the air-conditioner did little to diminish the raging temperatures of my study. I officially gave up on being productive about two hours ago when I started leaving sweaty fingerprints on any book I found. Now my plan’s to just lie on the floor, drink plenty of fluids, and nap sleep until I hear rain on the roof.

PeterMBall 22/01/2009
Journal

28 Days of Thesis Updates: Day X (yes, I’ve lost track)

I’ve always known that my flat tends to be warmer than the outside world. Just how warm was only recently brought home to me, courtesy of a thermometer reading in my study. Today, at 4 PM when I walked it, it delighted in informing me that it was 39 degreesin my workspace at present. Have now turned on the air-conditioning and am waiting for the temperature to drop before scrambling for words.

PeterMBall 21/01/2009
Journal

Not a thesis post, really.

Tonight Clarion South instructor Sean Williams delivered a reading at Avid Reader in West End, which seemed as good a reason as any to bugger the thesis and go listen to Sean read (awesome) and have dinner with a bunch of writer folks in the aftermath (ditto). This is tag-teamed with a trip into the city to pick up my ticket for the Aurealis Awards earlier today, which meant going to Pulp Fiction (at which point, because I was there and breathing, I bought books). In terms of swag, it was a good day to be at Pulp – Cherie Priest’s Not Flesh or Feathers was waiting for me, and will now sit on top of my to-read pile until the exegesis draft is done. All in all, given that today was meant to get me away from the angst of the thesis, I’m not sure it gets much better than that. But after loading up on fiction and writer-talk,

PeterMBall 16/01/2009
Journal

It’s a shiny new year

So many things I planned to blog about today, that I even made little mental notes to blog about because I thought they were interesting, and instead I’m just kind of popping up to say “damn, not enough time” before launching into another salvo on the exegesis. I’m resisting the urge to do a year-in-review post at this point, simply because I’m in no position to look back at 2008 and see it in any kind of objective light. Despite the various good things I managed, both professional and personally, it remains a year characterized by all the things I didn’t get done rather than all the things I did. Today I unravel the sticky knot of what my exegesis is supposed to be doing. Tomorrow you get subjected to exegetical rumblings (which, really, isn’t that big a change from usual for me). Hope everyone is well and bounced back to acceptable levels after the New Year revelry

PeterMBall 02/01/2009