Guys,
I’m feeling a bit guilty about not posting a long and detailed description of the Brisbane Writers Festival but really, it’s hard to know what to say. The best part was meeting up with Terry and Janette and Kate (I also think I saw Marianne at a great distance and Bernadette, who flashed past with her eyes averted.)
The next best bit was attending the workshops. There was:
One cool author who talked about writing but made me mad with envy at his tale of the international bidding war that started after the first 117 pages of his first novel leaked out to agents. (From the short extract he read out, I must admit, he probably deserved it!)
One dull but worthy chap from the Ausutralian Society of Authors who convinced us with dozens of charts and tables that (a) spec fic is a bad genre to be in if you want to get published and (b) if you do get published, spec fic is a bad genre to be in if you want to make any money.
A rather pompous but famous editor who told us to follow our dream – but don’t give up the day job.
And, finally, an author-cum-academic who bucked me up no end by describing sci-fi as ‘literature that just happens to be set in the future’.
Essentally, we’d heard it all at Bribie Island. Two days of workshops just added some extra detail and a few more anecdotes to the message.
After all that, I got home to find I’d had another short story accepted (yay!). This one (‘Too Late’ is the title) is coming out in the next edition of Concept Sci-fi – a newish electronic SF magazine from the UK which I’ve been following with interest and I’m very pleased to get a piece in there.
That brings to three my fiction publications since I started this new wave of enthusiasm and I’m just, just starting to feel like I’m getting somewhere.
Meanwhile, I’m back at work on my new novel and just about to pass the 50K words mark. The end is in sight!
Graham.
congratulations on your 3rd acceptance! have you considered applying for some grants? there are a few residentials available, including ‘varuna’. credits (ie anything that shows people have recognised your work) are a plus in the application process.
Top stuff on the publication Graham! I’m secretly glad BWF was a let down cause I was really disappointed I couldn’t go. Would have been great to see the gang though.
Hey there,
you couldn’t have seen me I didn’t get there in the end! Went to see my husband in Mackay – much more fun
WOOHOO for number two story.
Love to say ‘I told you so!’
MDP
I sat with Graham through each of these workshops and I must say ….”ditto”. I also recommend reading his blog about James Frenkel. I would need a bigger bar but it wuld be an interesting time.
Graham, great news on your third story – well done! I shall now go and rethink my rethink about writing short stories vs work on the novel.
Jeremy, the festival was good value. The workshops were fine but the fellowship was outstanding.
whoops – three stories. What did I miss?
Aargh, late as usual – never mind. Jezza, you might want to avert your eyes because I had a FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC time in Brisbane!!!
Yes, Terry and Graham are right, it was great to catch up and compare war stories. We each had our own epiphanies, revelations and struggles to report, but there is a sense of commonality and an ability to use a kind of shorthand because of our shared history.
Was also lovely to catch up with Kate and all the gossip!
Of course, my festival experience was all mixed up with my dad’s 80th birthday party and a reunion with a cousin from Trinidad I haven’t seen for 25 years
Festival highlights for me:
Both the sessions I went to with Graham and Terry were positive – that’s Michael Robotham (he of the 117 page inspired bidding war) and the ASA business session with Jeremy Fisher (stats and figures to make your head spin – and hopefully put off all the competition except us).
I also went to Margo Lanagan’s ‘Entertaining Fantasies’ workshop. Have to say I expected it to be more spec fic focussed, it turned out to be more about using picture cards to inspire stream of consciousness writing, which I’ve done before. BUT I also have to admit this is exactly what I needed, after a couple of months of doing structural work on my ms. Writing lots of new stuff over the course of a very intensive 3 hours got me right out of my head space with some strange new directions. Most alarming idea to come out of the session was a terribly twee story about a dragon egg, which I think might end up at the young children’s end of the market – that is SO not my usual stamping ground!! Hmmmm…
Best session for me was the ‘Creative and Critical Reading’ workshop with Debra Adelaide. We had to submit 5-10 pages to get in, and I picked an action scene well into my ms – I was getting too close to it and needed an external view. The workshop was a fantastic step by step approach to the micro-revision process. Seems very obvious, but for some reason this had never stuck in my poor brain before. Every paragraph was scanned for adverbs; adjectives; poetic devices (eg alliteration and assonance); use of character names; and of course cliches. This is what Michael Robotham refers to as getting rid of anything that “rattles”. Happily my pages more or less survived the process, which was SUCH a relief I can’t tell you! Of course, now my fear is that by applying this to the rest of my ms there will be only about 4000 words left… hahahahah. Also looked at rhythm of sentences and a few other very useful things.
Then there was the usual festival bookshop, at which I spent far too much money. But I did manage to score a freebie from the Romance Writers of Australia trade tent (thanks guys)!! Most of all I just soaked up the atmosphere of people who love writing and reading, and enjoyed the occasional bit of star-spotting. I even indulged in a spot of creative visualisation – seeing myself sitting at the signing table alongside the luminaries… ah, bliss…
Well, back to the real world now, with renewed (again) vigour and a few key new elements for my ms.
Curse you and our wonderful memories!
Fear the gnashing of my beard and the wailing of my teeth!
Yeah I know… shoulda gone…..
And I’ve got to sit out Conflux this weekend…
Conflux! That crept up on me! Is anyone going? Love to meet up if you are – and if you’re strapped for somewhere to stay in Canberra, let me know.
I’ve had a bit of time off in between day jobs so progressing my second novel nicely… but got caught up doing some pre-ACT election lobby work, you should never tell a community group you have time on your hands…
Graham, congratulations on your success. Fantastic! It sounds as though Brisbane Writers’ Festival was diverse and interesting, it is great to hear that the three of you caught up with each other and had a chance to touch base and exchange news.
Bring on the spec-fic writers, may they never fade nor falter. . .