Tag: What I did on my weekend…

Journal

Rumors of my absence may have been exagerated

It turns out that spending two-to-three weeks writing by hand just wasn’t on the list of things I was willing to do. Fortunately this roughly coincided with the realisation that I could pick up a very cheap desktop (to replace the machine that died last September) and write it off as a business expense. It’s not as ideal as no computer problems at all – I’ve spent the last two days uploading the various programs and back-up files onto the new machine rather than working – but it has fringe benefits (hello, photoshop. I’ve missed you). It’s a stinking hot, evil day outside my office so I’ve retreated into the air-conditioning with a pile of Primus CD and a large vat of coffee. The coffee because my sleep patterns are shot right now (going to bed at eleven, getting to sleep around 4 am). The Primus because I watched a lot of Robot Chicken in a row and it’s Les

News & Upcoming Events

What I did With My Weekend, and part of the week thereafter

1. So it’s three five-day-old news by now, but Clockwork, Patchwork and Raven won the 2009 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story and I now have a shiny glass trophy kicking around the flat. The Spokesbear demanded I photograph him with the newly acquired, but it’s remarkably hard to photograph a curved glass trophy with a bear looming over it. Instead I’ll just mention that a hardcopy of the story is available in Apex’s Descended from Darkness anthology and sales of the book go towards keeping Apex Magazine running. The weekend itself was freaking awesome and laden with opportunities to catch up with folks I don’t get to see anywhere near enough (the redoubtable Jason Fischerand Best-Fantasy-Short-Story-Co-Winner Christopher Green among them). 2. Finally sat down and indulged my inner Charlie Kaufman fan by watching Synecdoche New York. It felt rather like someone had cut the last twenty minutes off Adaptation and left us with the confused muddle of stuff,

Adventures in Lifestyle Hacking

205

For those who may be wondering, allow me to clarify what exactly it is you’re looking at in the accompanying photograph. That, my dear peeps, is a photograph of victory in action. Or a pile of 205 books that are ready to leave my house forever and never return, thus clearing shelf-space and giving me tacit permission to buy new books should I ever find myself in possession of discretionary cash ever gain. The problem, at this point, is that I have no idea how I’m going to get many of these books out of the house. Some I suspect will be claimed by friends (particularly the gaming material and fantasy books) and I expect the rest will go to charity of some kind, although the logistics of carting a box of this size to a salvo bit could be a bit of a problem. Still, the cull is done, and when I originally wrote “get rid of 200 books”

Works in Progress

This is what I do in the absence of cats

Still off putting the finishing touches on the Cold Cases draft before I hand it over to Twelfth Planet Press. I should be back on Friday, being my usual blathering self, but until then have a picture of the Spokesbear doing his part: And now I’m back to the manuscript, for the spokesbear is a harsh taskmaster.

Works in Progress

Watch out for the Deadlines, they move when you’re not looking

Had an e-mail conversation with the publisher which basically amounted to “I’m going to be busy this week, so you might as well take a few extra days if you want them.” To which I replied “well, yeah, okay,” and promptly fell asleep for much of Sunday instead of rushing to get the edits finalised. On the plus side, I woke up after all that and said “Oh, yeah, that’s why that scene isn’t working.” Space from a manuscript is a wonderful thing. Apart from that, it looks like there’s another couple of days between me and sanity, and I’m about to abscond to the Gold Coast for a few days where I can cajole my parents into proofreading the manuscript for me 🙂 See you on the other side 🙂

Works in Progress

This weekend: the Writefest

First, a little pimping: The Queensland Writer’s Centre has announced the November Writing Frenzy, a month-long initiative to get people writing whether they’re engaging in the month-long madness that is NaNoWriMo or just looking to get a project done. Part of the program consists of several Writing Races held on the Australian Writers Marketplace Online Forums, including one this Sunday between 3 pm and 4 pm where I’ll be floating around and answering as the guest racer between the frantic attempt to kick off the NaNoWriMo project. Drop by, say hi, and get some words down if you’re a AWMO subscriber. Unlike the puntastic Jason Fischer, who’ll be following up as a guest/race captain for the 10th of November Writing Race, I don’t promise to wear a tricorne hat while executing my duties (which seem to consist of “talk about writing” and “write,” which are pretty cool as duties go). I may have a bear on my head though. It’s been

Works in Progress

The follies of the past week

1) I signed up for NaNoWriMo There’s plenty of folks among my circle of friends who do this every year, but for me it’ll be the first attempt at the nano-madness in seven or eight eight years. I primarily signed up because I miss the rigor of the public daily wordcount and it’ll be nice to have somewhere to put one without boring the hell out of everyone reading the blog. Should you be interested in watching me change the totals on a wordcount meter I can be found under the name PeterMBall on the nano site. I also promise there will be minimal wordcount updating on this here blog. Honest. 2) I started writing short stories again And it’s been a while, I tell you. I took a break from short fiction around the middle of the year with the goal of getting a novel drafted. After that I took a break in order to focus on getting the draft of Claw done.

News & Upcoming Events

Some quick pre-order info as I head out the door…

I’m currently preparing to head off to the Gold Coast, primarily to spend a few days catching up with my parents who I haven’t seen for longer than a dinner since they came back from their trip OS a month ago (and, it must be said, to languish in the peaceful surrounds of their home and get some writing done while I’m away from the internets). With that in mind I’m going to forgo today’s entry and make mention of an anthology due to hit shelves in December. Of course, you don’t want to wait for December to organise your copy, because *all the really cool kids are preordering now*. You want to be one of the cool kids, don’t you?* Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume 1 Scheduled Released December 1st, 20009 Man, I’m excited about this one. Descended from Darkness collects a lot of the work that appeared on the Apex Magazinewebsite during the first half of 2009 (and

Adventures in Lifestyle Hacking

Awesome Sauce: The Victory Conditions

So here’s something I realised during my week off: I’m tired of not being awesome. Lets forestall the inevitable reassurances that tend to follow when you post stuff like that – I’m aware that I am, occasionally, capable of awesome (although it is very un-Australian to admit it, and it is said here with a modicum of irony). There have been the occasional flashes of external validation that remind me of this, plus there’s the posse of folks who make up my friends list. I mean, lets face it: Jason Fischer? Awesome; Angela Slatter? Awesome; My Call of Cthulhu peeps? Awesome; the various folks who have published my fiction? Yep, they’re awesome too. They may have their occasional moments of self-doubt in this regard, since recognising awesomeness in others is easier than recognising your own internal awesomeness, but as a blanket rule I think they all score big points on the awesomometer. As are many other folks (my DnD peeps, my family, etc) who

Journal

If I’d been doing it right, I would have come back with a tan…

Not that I tan, of course, despite spending my teenage years on the Gold Coast and undergoing the mandatory time at the beach. Tanning and me don’t mix – my primary pigmentation is basically red, so I keep having conversations with doctors about how easily I’ll burn and how prone I am to little things like Skin Cancer. I could go on, but my skin isn’t really the point of this post. *sigh* Let me start again… I am, at this point, about two weeks behind on e-mail, phone-calls, text messages, facebook updates, blog reading, and social engagements of all kinds. The first week of this was unintentional – just the usual slippage that comes from trying to get too much done at the same time – but around Tuesday of last week I declared a unilateral retreat from from the world in order to spend the second week reading, mainlining ibuprofen, and living on soup to avoid further irritating an inflamed