Brave New World

Keioskie writes:

Hey gang, I’m reading Aldous Huxley, Brave New World.  Well, I’m actually re-reading it, since I remember plumbing the mad depths of utopia/dystopia when I was younger.  I didn’t get it then (like so many things) but I understand now. 

That’s the great thing about ‘classic books’.  Reading them you can see where a lot of new writing has come from, how genres are formed and why, and you begin to understand why these particular authors and works are so revered.

So tell me, Orbiteers – what’s your ‘classic’ work, and why?

To finish or not to finish

Six months on from Joondoburri, I’m at a crossroads. Yes, I’ve managed to get a fair bit done. But I’m still nowhere near ready to submit and if anything, feel like I’m further away!

Part of me is so despondent about my ms I’m thinking of making it into what I heard Jake Arnott (“The Long Firm”) refer to as “ballast”.  His first novel, he says, will never be published as it was basically a practice run – full of all the mistakes he made as he was learning how to do it.

Like a first-born child with whom the parents make all their worst mistakes, I’m beginning to think I should just start afresh with something new.  Though being the eldest child in my tribe, I’m kinda glad my folks didn’t shove me in a bottom drawer, so there goes THAT metaphor…

Trouble is, every time I think seriously about doing that, something comes out of the woodwork and inspires me again and I can’t let it go.  Aaargh!

I’m not sure if I’ve overworked it so it’s lost any appeal it once had; or if there is so much still to do that I’ll still be at it in 10 years (and seriously, it’s not THAT important a novel).  Or possibly both – yikes.

Has anyone else confronted this? What did you do to get through it?

Janette

Facebook for writers

Luke Keioskie writes:

Gang, you’ve got to check out www.authonomy.com.  It’s this fantastic site set up by Harper Collins where you create your own profile (ala Facebook) and can upload part or all of an unpublished novel.  Other members of the site can read your work, leave comments and back your novel.  At the end of each month, the five most popular pieces end up on the ‘Editor’s Desk’ where it’s read by Harper Collins staff regarding possible publication.

Check out my profile if you’re unsure, but it’s really cool and you get to read a lot of other emerging writer’s work – I’ve already commented on two books from England and one from Spain.  It’s a great resource and you can go at your own pace.  But, if you don’t read other people’s work, yours doesn’t get read – it’s the equivalent of a literary ’share and save’.

Christmas Competition

Hi Guys,

I’ve just entered a story in a Christmas short story competition called Spec The Halls. Don’t ask me why, I just thought it would be fun to do the story once I heard about the comp.. Anyway, I thought you might have Christmas stories lying around you might like to submit.

It’s one of those contests (there seem to be so many these days) where you post the story yourself and then tell them where to find it. So, since it is now on the Web (bye bye first electronic publishing rights!) I thought I’d send you the link in case you want to see it. It’s called ‘Last Christmas’ and it’s very short (1700 words). If you read it, let me know what you think.

(In case you’re wondering, I didn’t put it up here in case it drew traffic. I think of this site as private – even though it isn’t – and didn’t want to upset anyone.)

Cheers,

Graham.

Well, blow me down…

Ready for a bit of deja vu?

I have just been contacted by the NSW Writers Centre and told that my second novel “The Fibonacci Killings” has been shortlisted for their genre fiction awards.

How spooky is that?

The novel is a murder crime yarn set the near future in a world I have constructed called “Three lives”. You get to live again if you die by uploading the chip inserted at birth into a clone body and hay presto! your alive!

The only drawback is that it can happen twice – hence the three lives (It makes sense, honest)

Into this world I unleashed a psycopathic killer who collect these “lifechips”, and he picks his victims by using the mathematical Fibonacci sequence. Always knew that maths would come in handy.

Anyhoo,,, I find out if I get anywhere in another month or so, at the moment I am one of 19 selected from the 200 entrants.

Back in tha saddle again,

terry

Concept Sci-fi winner announced

…and it’s not me!

But, I’m pleased to say the story that did win, ‘Renewal’ by Greg McElhatton, was pretty good. So that’s OK.

As promised, my own story is going in the Fiction section.

Cheers,

Graham.

Sometimes He’s Happy, Sometimes He’s Sad

Today? Well you work it out.

I just got an email from Bernadette saying Orbit won’t be publishing Time and Tyde. She didn’t give a reason (except it ‘wouldn’t suit our Orbit list.’)

Strangely, I’m not too despondent. I still like the book enormously and the one I’m writing at the moment is also good. One of them will find a home one day, I’m sure.

Besides, Time and Tyde got me into the Bribie Island gig, it got me noticed by one of Australia’s leading publishers, and I got to meet all you guys! Not bad going, really. It also got me started on seriously trying to sell my stuff. A mixed blessing, perhaps, but I have been writing more and (I believe) better than ever since Bribie Island. I have certainly become better networked into the world of writing and I certainly know a lot more about who and what is important in that world than I used to. These are all good things.

And, of course, Orbit isn’t the only publisher in the world – or even Australia. The good news about Bernadette’s rejection is that it ends the ‘option’ Orbit had on Time and Tyde. I was beginning to realise that an option like that could be quite constraining. (Imagine trying to sell a book to another publisher while Orbit still had an option on the previous one.) Now I’m free to go where I like.

On the other hand…

Ah well.

I really hope someone among us has more luck than I did.

Graham.

Whoo hoo!

I’ve just learned that I’m on the shortlist for the Concept Sci-fi magazine 150-word flash fiction competition. I’m not quite sure why I’m so very chuffed about this – but I am! So chuffed, in fact, that it feels as good as winning.

Graham.

Waiting to exhale and inhale and exhale…

Luke Keioskie writes:

Am I the only one who gets driven crazy by the waiting game?  Does anyone else desperately check their email, hoping to see a publisher’s name in the address and, finally, find out whether your work is up to scratch?  Am I the only one waiting for an answer?

I can’t be.  Too often when writers get together the talk turns to the other side of the game and just how long it takes for a novel to go from your brain to the book shelves.  A friend of mine had his first adult novel accepted by Random House.  He started writing it in 2006, heard a positive ‘we like it but it needs work, do this, do that’ in 2007, had a face-to-face meeting with the publisher in 2008, and now the novel is due to hit the shelves late 2009.  And he’s published more than 50 children’s books in the past!  This doesn’t bode well for us emerging/developing writers, does it?  We tend to wait longer just to hear a ‘no’.  My record is 9 months for a rejection, and that’s not counting the rest that don’t even bother to get back to me.

Novel writing teaches you to be patient.  Well, in truth, it forces you to be patient. 

But how much longer must this go on? 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

BWF Report

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.