Monthly Archives: May 2009
Writing Week – The Autopsy
So, here I sit back at work after a week away, doing nothing but writing.
Okay, I lie.
I didn’t just write. I threw temper tantrums. I ate astonishing amounts of choclit and consumed such vast quantities of sugar that for brief periods (before the inevitable sugar crash) I could
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On the Importance of Marketing
Step 1. check your audience.
Step 2. check your product name is sexy and appealing.
Step 3. epic fail.
Ditmar-y Goodness
The Ditmar shortlist* is out and filled with talented folk and some very good friends (especially Jason and Pete, both up for Best New Talent) – congrats to all! Let there be frog cakes!
Best Novel
———-
Fivefold, Nathan Burrage
Hal Spacejock: No Free Lunch, Simon Haynes
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan
How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier
Daughter of Moab, Kim Westwood
Earth Ascendant, Sean Wiliams
Best Novella
———–
Soft
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Daily Cabal – Lantern
I hear a ship’s bell at night, no matter how I block my ears. It’s loud as a crying soul. I hear the rush of the sea, too, though this house is landlocked but for the pond and the well. It’s all connected, I guess, the water of the world.
We used to live on the coast, once, my family
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Random Unfinished Thought – On Whether Characters Need to be 'Liked'
Do my characters have to be ‘likeable’?
Having had a couple of short story rejections this week (which is a designated taking-time-off-work-and-writing-like-a-caffeinated-monkey week), this is something I’ve been pondering. One of the rejections said “We didn’t like the main character”. This started me thinking about the received wisdom of readers needing to like your characters. (Admittedly, it also caused me to make
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Brisneyland by Night – Part Three
Ziggi dropped me home. I handed him a wad of the notes Bela had given me. Somehow it didn’t feel like my money. ‘Same time tonight.’
He nodded; drove off. I limped up the path. The jasmine was thick on the front fence, overpoweringly sweet …
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The Daily Cabal – Twice!
I will have new stories at The Daily Cabal on Thursday and Friday this week. Brisneyland by Night – Part Three continues Verity’s adventures through a Brisbanian urban fantasy land (and I apologise to West End, I really am very fond of it). Lantern is just a
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Currently Reading, etc
On the bedside table at this very moment:
Catherine Valente’s Palimpsest (great word)
Diana Norman’s Daughter of Lir (an old fave, which I am revisiting)
Alex Bell’s Jasmyn (ARC for Strange Horizons)
Watching:
Terry Jones’ Crusades