Sean Williams at the AWM Writing Race

At work, we run this regular feature called the Wednesday Night Writing Race. The theory behind it is simple: every Wednesday, around 8:00 PM, we get a bunch of writers together on Facebook, fire the starter’s gun, and let them write like there’s no tomorrow for 60 minutes. Essentially, it’s like a mini write-club for people who don’t have the advantage of being friends with Angela Slatter. .

Occasionally, to spice things up (and, honestly, as a cool perk for the intern, who gets to program the guests), we bring in Guest Racers – writers who can show up and talk about writing and publishing in detail. This week, our current intern has scheduled Sean Williams as the guest, which is one of those rare occasions where we’ve got a guest that I’m well-and-truly psyched about.

If you’re interested in writing – and, odds are, you are if you’re heading here regularly – then this Wednesday Night from 7:45 PM is a great time to head along to the Writing Race and ask Sean some questions (if you sign up for the event, Facebook will handily convert things to your local time zone).

The writing races are always a great opportunity to pick the brain of a pro, and in terms of Aussie writers who sustained long-term careers, there are very few writers who can match Sean Williams. Basically, on the list of writers I wouldn’t mind being when I grow up, Sean is pretty high on the list. The man is enormously prolific – he’s published 40 novels across three genres – and has been one of the nicest and most generous writers I’ve encountered in my career. I recommend going forth this Wednesday and finding out for yourself.

If You Need Me, I’ll Be In My Bunk (Typing Words)

So, I’m hanging out the Gone Fishing shingle again.

Gone Fishing

I set out to write 25,000 words on my five days off last week. My total was closer to 20,000, which means there’s still a ways to go if I want to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat this month and hit my 50k total. I have to write 3,750 words a day for the last four days of April and I’m golden.

This is not impossible. Not easy, but not impossible, especially if I put my head down and refuse to look at the internet/go see the Avengers/get distracted by wrestling between now and Thursday. To this end, I will probably listen to my favourite hit the fucking deadline song on repeat:

I’ll see you all next week.

Peace out.

Book Update: Flotsam

Flotsam02I woke up this morning to find the publisher’s notes for Crusade in my email. I’ve got a week to go through things and get it back to the fine folks at Apocalypse Ink, then they go and do their arcane voodoo that transform it from a word file to a books.

The e-book for Crusade comes out in June.

(Out of curiosity, I went over to cover artist Mark Ferarri‘s site this morning. There’s previews of the Crusade cover and the cover for the print edition of Flotsam in his online gallery, for those who are curious, and allow me to say, well, holy shit I’m looking forward to seeing that print compilation. It’s so fucking pretty.)

Coincidently, starting tomorrow, I also have five-straight days off from work. My goal – gods and sleep apnea willing – is to get about twenty-thousand words down on the next novella on my list, which is all about ghosts and werewolves and boxing and some particularly unpleasant underworld types.