I have learned much at the knee of Veny Armanno (QWC’s Year of the Novel), Kim Wilkins (Year of the Edit) and Nick Earls, whose generosity in inducting Brisbane’s debut authors into the world of publishing was stretched to capacity this year.

My education continues, online, following writer’s websites (a few of my  favourites are on the lower right of the screen), and in real life, at festivals, writer’s get-togethers, and through reading till my eyes bleed.

But almost everything I have learned as a writer, I have learned by writing and putting it out there.

I now have a discerning first reader who is capable of pinpointing what hasn’t made it onto the page (but needs to be there), and what clunks in the otherwise smooth action of my story.

Feedback may not be the hallelujah chorus of my dreams, but neither is it a direct thrust to the heart. It is certainly an opportunity to see my work through trusted, more objective, eyes.

When I scanned the initial response to my latest work, I had to admire my first reader’s ability to season praise with constructive criticism. She hit on a couple of niggling issues that I had pushed away during the writing process (things I probably hoped to get away with and didn’t.)

It reminded me of James Roy on the adverse comment in an otherwise favourable review: ‘That’s like saying you’ve got a beautiful baby, but it’s got big ears. Big deal. You’ve still got a beautiful baby.’

I’ll hang on to that thought while I’m doing my revisions.

I’ve got a beautiful baby … (but that’s not going to stop me pinning back those ears.)

Similarly, in the USA, authors were urged to ensure that

“the problem of the crime must be solved by strictly naturalistic means. Such methods for learning the truth as slate-writing, ouija-boards, mind-reading, spiritualistic se’ances, crystal-gazing, and the like, are taboo. A reader has a chance when matching his wits with a rationalistic detective, but if he must compete with the world of spirits and go chasing about the fourth dimension of metaphysics, he is defeated ab initio.”

 (Thanks to Timothy for bringing these gems to my attention.)

We all know that times have changed – oh, how they’ve changed – and nowadays when it comes to murder mysteries it’s a mumbo-jumbo free-for-all. And that’s tricky, really, because wouldn’t you think that a psychic investigator would be able to, well just psychically solve the mystery? And that’s why, to maintain the mystery, the psychics get to “know stuff” but they’re not omniscient – see, not an oxymoron after all.  Just a tangled web … or a convoluted deus ex machina, if you prefer. Here are a few of the ones I’ve read:

Charlaine Harris has written a number of murder mystery series, two of which involve definite mumbo-jumbo. The Southern vampire series, starring a telepathic waitress called Sookie Stackhouse, is so much fun it’s been turned into a TV series called True Blood (first book Dead until dark).  Sookie’s telepathy requires work from her to filter out all the “white noise” of everyone’s thoughts, and some people are not good broadcasters.  Vampires are just empty holes of nothingness, and that’s why she likes them. Mmmmm, the soothing silence of the undead.

Harris is also responsible for the Harper Connelly series (first book Grave sight). Harper survived being struck by lightning, which left her with a gammy leg, bad headaches and an ability to find the dead and see their deaths. She makes a living by offering her unique services to people trying to locate dead relatives and to people who want to know how their loved ones really died. It’s a much grimmer series than the vampire ones, but I’ve been enjoying them all the same.

For a bit of a weird combination Carrie Bebris has appropriated Jane Austen’s beloved couple for her Mr & Mrs Darcy mystery series (and really, these days, what self-respecting person who wants to call themselves an author hasn’t decided to revisit Pemberley in print – oh, there’s a post in there, I just know it). You didn’t realise Elizabeth Bennet was psychic when you read Pride and prejudice, did you? Neither did Miss Austen, but that’s OK. If you can get past that first, ridiculous, hurdle the series is quite fun and manages to rip along, visiting the Austen oeuvre as it goes – start at the beginning with Pride and prescience.

And for more fun try the lovely Gina Champion series – she’s a tarot reading, psychometric teenager who lives in a small beachside Aussie town. Author Kim Wilkins loved the Nancy Drew books as a child and Gina is her homage to them. I find Wilkins adult novels really depressing (she doesn’t seem to believe in happy endings… for anyone) but this series, designed for a teenage audience, are great. The first is Bloodlace.

There’s plenty more where that lot came from.

Any recommendations?

There was a great article in the QWeekend on Sat 15th from Matt Condon detailing the the trip we took back in June. It had me chuckling and smiling all over again.

I’m halfway through after a day of varied ‘stuff’ (including Write-Club), but I’ve been reading steadily.

And it’s freaking awesome!! Not only is the gentleman in question the nicest man in Australian horror, he’s also a great writer with admirable control of his craft. It’s horror, but not gross-out horror. There are creepy gross bits, sure, but there’s also that creeping psychological horror that’s much harder to pull off because it requires subtlety in the writing. His observations about characters and places is finely detailed and wonderfully real. It’s always nice to recognise Brisbane and see it in a strange light (the last time I enjoyed it this much was in Kim Wilkins The Infernal). I highly recommend it!

“The bones of a city don’t change. Perhaps its skin grows tight or flaccid as suburbs grow fashionable or become declasse; crow’s feet spread from pockets – new streets, new arteries into fresh corpulence. But the skeleton of its founding roads, the blood of its river, the skull of the low mountain that looms over it with its thorny crown of television towers like its own blinking Calvary … these things hadn’t changed.”

http://www.stephenmirwin.com/news_events.html

I cracked an eye open just after dawn. Poked a toe out from under the covers, testing the waters. Not too cold. I flipped back the blankets and pulled on some layers and headed toward the lounge-room. There was a bite in the air but I didn’t care. At the end of the corridor was a long awaited gift. I walked to my Mac and flicked it on. In under three heartbeats, it sprang to life. I opened my browser and clicked on the link and there it was.

‘Year of the Novel Online with Kim Wilkins’

“Come in, the water’s fine..”she wrote. And so I waded into the warm waters. Sanity had arrived in the form of a year long course that would guide me on how to unpack the novel that is stuck in my head. Well crafted instruction that will lead me to construct a story without the use of a single Allen key, and hopefully without a single screw, bolt or nut left unturned. Every fortnight for the next year, I will unpack another piece of my story under Kim’s guidance. I will spread her instructions on the floor before me, smoothing the edges and paying close attention to detail. I will be decisive and flexible as I stretch myself beyond my known limits. I will nail this story to paper. At last.

Kim Wilkins is not only annoyingly talented, productive and good-looking, she’s also very, very clever on matters of writing and such. So have a look  at this for some most excellent hints and advice on editing.

The science of editing

Read the rest here http://fantasticthoughts.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/the-science-of-editing/

After months of deliberation, I made the move. Packing my words into a small cardboard box and making the trip to another domain. To a place that feels somehow more like “home”. With a shiny new blog, I am hoping to gather my writing momentum again. It’s been lacking of late and has perhaps packed itself into a box and moved house as well. 

I finished the Year of the Edit with Kim Wilkins. It was such a valuable experience. Kim is an amazing teacher and there was never a dull moment. I was one of the first up for critique. I think that’s when my writing momentum shrivelled and died. The feedback was accurate and necessary. The first ten pages of the story I submitted, I have since realised, is not the story I want to tell. I spent the months during the course pondering. What is my story? Where did it go? I feel I know it inside and out but how do I get that sensation down on the page? 

As the course progressed, I listened and learned, took notes but felt like I didn’t have a “real” story anymore. I had nothing to apply all the great knowledge to. I felt like a fraud at times. My own work stalled in the process as others sped down the track leaving me in their dust. I changed gears for a while. Gently pushed my WIP aside to dabble with a couple of short stories. Something to take away the feeling of failure I seemed to have taken on board. But each word I wrote for “another story”, felt like I was cheating my one true love; the story that feels a part of me, the story that seemingly won’t rest until it has been birthed to the world. 

So I have all this editing knowledge. I know the pitfalls to avoid, ways to freshen my manuscript, how to straighten out story line kinks and fill in gaping black plot holes. What I don’t have anymore is a manuscript that portrays the true story I want to tell. And that makes me miserable. How do I fix this? I start again. But not on my own. 

On the first day of August, I will begin Year of the Novel online with Kim Wilkins. It is strange to first do an editing course on a manuscript you thought was heading in the direction you wanted to go. But alas, why do things by the book? I’m doing it this way for my book. I am doing it because I believe in my story and I want to tell that story as well as I can. And with Kim’s guidance, I know I can do this. 

I’m taking a page from author Julia Green’s book. 

‘Practise lots. It can take a long time to get a story right. Don’t rush it. Let it take the time it needs. Do lots of re-writing. Talk to other people who write. Believe in your story.’ 

So here’s to my first post on a new blog, with a new plan. I’m off in search of my happily ever after. Even if I have to write it myself.

Constance Blackchurch has long been curious about her mother, who has been missing for the last sixteen years. Overhearing a conversation between her father and her aunt, Constance learns of rumors that her mother may be living in Ceylon. And so Constance decides to stow away on her father’s ship, hoping for a reunion with her mother.

Alexandre Sans-Nom is a pearl diver, bought by Gilbert De Locke as a child, searching for a way to escape his servitude. Constance knows she should avoid Alexandre, but she is drawn to him despite their class difference, and when they fall in love, what chance do they have of remaining together?

Unclaimed Heart features several subplots besides the romance, namely the disappearance of Constance’s mother and the conflicts between De Locke and Constance’s father, and De Locke and Alexandre. But these things didn’t capture my attention. We’re told so much about all the characters and their backstories so early on that it lessened the tension. It made things less suspenseful, even a bit anticlimactic, because there was little mystery to the main characters.  Wilkins tells us so much about the characters’ motivations and their histories almost from the first time they are introduced, and the foreshadowing is sometimes so heavyhanded, that the conflicts later in the story came as no surprise.

The focal point of the novel was then the romantic relationship between Constance and Alexandre, and however sympathetic readers might find their plights, their relationship just wasn’t compelling enough to carry the story on its own. Did I want them to get their HEA? Well, I suppose so. I read the novel straight through in one sitting. And I certainly wasn’t upset by their implied HEA, not saying, “No, no, you need to find someone else,” to Constance, or Alexandre, as I read. Wilkins made me believe in Constance and Alexandre’s attraction to each other, but not necessarily in their love. This might be enough for some readers, but it wasn’t enough to make Unclaimed Heart completely satisfying for me.

Unclaimed Heart will be published on July 9. It has also been reviewed by The Compulsive Reader.

Essentially it’s about the tension between writing and life. The idea of being a writer with no children and nothing to distract you from writing (the sing-song of ‘Mummy, Mummy, Mummy’ can make a psycho of the best of us) is very appealing. I am in charge of my time. I don’t get hijacked by nappy changes, feeding requirements, bath times, or a husband who cannot find his socks[ii].

I am amazed and awed by writers like Kim who manage to be productive, successful writers and productive, successful humans with families. Having to balance ‘life’ with writing is hard. It’s forty-seven different kinds of hard. It’s hard on top of the usual hard associated with writing – finding inspiration, getting it onto paper, editing, revising, organising submissions, approaching agents and publishers, doing readings, promotional tours – as well as ‘minor’ things like finding time to eat, sleep, bathe, and make coffee. If you’ve got a family, you can add these to your task bar:

• spending time with your kids so they’re not raising themselves (because remember: they will select your nursing home);
• spending time with your partner so they don’t forget who you are and start shagging the nanny/manny;
• contacting your parents and siblings to assure them that you’ve not been eaten by German Shepherds this week;
• talking to your friends so they don’t start conversations with ‘Angela? Y’know, I once had a friend called Angela, tall woman, existed on choclit and whisky. Grumpy – veeerryyyy grumpy. Disappeared one day carrying only a laptop, a marked-up manuscript and a red pen. Was muttering about serial commas.’

In order to write you try to fit things in the cracks – whether you fit your life in the cracks your writing leaves, or your writing in the cracks your life leaves depends on you. As a writer, you make sacrifices – because, let’s face it, something’s gotta give if you don’t.

Things that sometimes go include:

• Relationships. It’s hard to be in a relationship with a writer – we naturally want to spend time on our own; we’re nature’s hermits. We want to love you, indeed we do love you, but we still want and need to spend time on our own playing with people who don’t exist.
• Children or the chance of them (eventually the ovaries give up the ghost and turn into raisins).
• Money. Having a high-powered, high-paying career generally doesn’t facilitate an easy writing career – you may have the money but you don’t necessarily have the time to write. I embraced poverty when I stopped fighting the urge to write – I only wish I hadn’t French kissed it coz now it won’t leave me alone.
• A social life. The pull of the pen is very strong. Writers tend to walk around with notebooks in their pockets/handbags and are likely to begin scribbling in said notebooks (or on cocktails napkins if nothing else is available) in the middle of movies, parties and, yes, dates. Some of us also talk to ourselves and this can be disconcerting for the more normal (i.e. non-writing) members of the universe, and can cause social awkwardness.

All of these sacrifices hurt. They are not things we throw away easily. We write because we have no other choice – I’ve said before, if I don’t write, my head will explode. Okay, maybe not literally, but if I don’t write, I will get cranky. There are all these stories bouncing around in the rubber room that is my brain and they need a way out. I fear that my sacrifices are based purely upon my own selfish need to write.

Jeff VanderMeer’s Booklife has a section on sacrifice and it’s a great dissection of the choices writers make, the things we lose and leave behind, what we’re willing to give up and what we, in the end, have no choice about giving up. So, what do you give up to write?

If it’s any comfort to people who are balancing family and writing and think my unencumbered life is perfect for a writer, well, yeah, some days. But chances are I probably will be eaten by German Shepherds.

[ii] It should also be noted that I generally cannot find my own socks.

Smoking … was published in Dreaming Again last year. The collection won a Ditmar (for best collection) at the National Science Fiction Convention in Adelaide earlier this month. Cat Sparks also won a Ditmar, and Sean Williams was deservedly awarded the Peter McNamara award for being an all-round awesome dude. This year’s Ditmars were hard to fault, in fact, with very deserving winners across the board. I was quite chuffed to see Rob Hood, Margo Lanagan and Kirstyn McDermott land theirs, and took delight in the awarding of the William Atheling Jnr award for criticism or review go to Kim Wilkins for a superb, scholarly article about genre bias. The full list of winners can be read here.
]]> http://angelaslatter.com/2009/06/08/home-from-natcon-and-here-are-the-ditmars/ Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:34:06 +0000 angelaslatter http://angelaslatter.com/2009/06/08/home-from-natcon-and-here-are-the-ditmars/ Results of the Ditmars are below … more comments will follow about NatCon, but that will be tomorrow when my brain is talking to me again … I only got off the plane an hour ago.

A. Bertram Chandler Award
Rosaleen Love

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism and Review
Kim Wilkins, an article about Australian fantasy fiction in the Journal of Australian Studies

Best New Talent
Felicity Dowker

Best Professional Achievement
Angela Challis, for Black, the Australian Dark Culture Magazine

Best Fan Production
ASif!, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Gene Melzack

Best Fan Artist
Cat Sparks for Scary Food, Paul Haines Cancer is a C*NT fundraiser!

Best Fan Writer
Rob Hood, for Undead Backbrain

Best Professional Artwork
Shaun Tan, for Tales from Outer Suburbia

Best Collected Work
Dreaming Again, edited by Jack Dann

Best Short Story
Tie between Margo Lanagan “The Goosle” and Dirk Flinthart “This is not my story” (ASIM #37)

Best Novella/Novelette
“Painlessness” by Kirstyn McDermott

Best Novel
“Tender Morsels” by Margo Lanagan

Peter McNamara Award
Sean Williams

Author blog:

Hexebart’s Well

Could you take a minute and explain what The Veil of Gold is about?

It’s a supernatural thriller set partly in Russia in the present, and partly in the Russian world of fairytale. It’s about three people who become entwined in a centuries-old conflict between magic and politics in Russia.

What was the process like in getting your first book published?

That was twelve years ago, so I barely remember. I think it was 5 parts fun and 5 parts stressful. Still the same these days really. Writing them is great; publishing them is always a bit fraught.

Were you a big reader as a child/young adult? What were some of your favorite books and/or authors growing up?

Always loved reading. I loved Enid Blyton’s Enchanted Wood books; Anne of Green Gables; Narnia… then later Tolkien and the fantasy genre.

Would you mind talking a little bit about your literary influences?

They are so broad that “a little bit” won’t cover it. I read masses of Stephen King, but also have a degree in literature so have read masses of Milton, too. I’m currently obsessed with medieval literature, especially the very early Anglo-Saxon stuff. What influences me is changing all the time.

Are you or have you ever been a gamer? What has your gaming experience been like (board games, pen & paper RPGs, console & computer games, etc.)?

Really, I’ve only ever been interested in computer games. Some of my faves over the years have been Sim City 2000, Caesar III, and Streetfighter II. I am currently loving Super Mario Kart for the Wii. And then there’s World of Warcrack: see below.

Have you ever ventured into online worlds? If so, please explain what that experience has been like.

World of Warcraft is it for me. I play pretty casually and am levelling slowly (I’m only at 77 and this is months after the latest expansion). Some weeks I won’t play at all, then I’ll have weeks when I go nuts and it’s all I’ll think about. When I was in the end-game before WotLK, we used to raid a couple of nights a week. I just loved it. I became gear hungry; I would think about it all the time. I would dream about epic drops.

I love the social aspect of the game. I play with my husband and with some other friends, and we are in a super family friendly guild with a lot of people and their 30s and older. I also love the high fantasy of it. And, as a medievalist, I really get off on the cool medieval details. Some of the viking settings in Northrend are superb.

I don’t know why there’s all the hype about Second Life. WoW has over 11 million subscribers; it’s hugely culturally important. And Second Life blows chunks.

Would you say that your gaming experience has had any effect on you as a writer? Please explain.

I don’t know if it has. The reason I started playing WoW was that I was thinking about writing a fantasy novel. My husband had been playing WoW since 2004, and he said I should try it to see if it gave me any inspiration. I think it worked negatively, actually. Even though I certainly got some inspiration it also ate up a lot of my time. But everyone has to have a hobby, and it’s a nice way to unwind. I have a lot of other things I do that inspire my writing far more. Reading is still it for me.

It appears you have a paper in the works entitled “Awesome Cleavage: Feminising Medieval Violence in World of Warcraft.” Would you mind talking a bit about this?

I’m presenting it at the Cultures of Violence and Conflict conference in Brisbane, Australia this year. It’s about how we reimagine medieval women’s agency and power in WoW (I play a warrior, for example, and she’s just as strong as the men) but we do so within really stereotyped Western patterns (the whole massive breastplate thing). So even when they were staging Wagner operas in the 19th century, the armed women like Brunhilda were still unmistakably women, with very evident breasts and long hair and bare arms. In fact, in the original medieval source material, women who put on armour were disguised as men. When Sigurd first saw Brynhildr, he mistook her for a man. So it’s this fantasy of what medieval women’s power and agency was like.

Grind is a term used frequently in gaming vernacular referring to something that is rather repetitive or unpleasant that one engages in in order to progress in the game. Would you say there is grinding in the writing process? Please explain.

There sure is, and I’m doing it at the moment.The thing to remember about grinding though is that it has its rewards. We wouldn’t do it otherwise. So killing 100 mobs to go up a level is boring, but then you level and it’s “ding, I’m so happy”. Same when I’m making my way through a chapter of a book, and it’s hard work. I just keep pushing forward because I know I’ll be so happy when I crack the chapter. It’s actually a good quality to have as a writer: the ability to grind. People can become such perfectionists that they never finish a novel. I grind them out, then fix them up. You can’t edit a blank page.

By contrast, what would you say is one of the most rewarding things about being a writer?

Just being able to wander around in my imagination and chase my passions down rabbitholes. And get paid for it.

Would you have any words of advice for the would-be-writers out there?

Read a lot, write a lot, and don’t join a hardcore raiding guild.

You wake up to a world where The Veil of Gold has been made into an MMO. What race and class would you play and why?

I would be the human. I just prefer to be my own species. As for class, the main character is kind of a mage figure, so perhaps I’d roll her. But really, when I’m gaming, I like to be the pretty girl who smashes people up with a giant weapon. Or her bare hands.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with this gamer/reader audience?

If you want to see the future of narrative, it’s in games. As written entertainment goes digital, I think we’ll see more and more quality writing in games. It’s going to be awesome.

It’s a guilty pleasure, which I have shelved (temporarily) after eavesdropping on other authors’ daily word counts on facebook.

There’s John Birmingham, working to deadline on his new thriller, with chest-thumping accounts of his daily tallies:

“Haaaaaar!!!!! Smashed thru the last eight hundred words & carried on for another three. Five thousand words for the day. This IS SPARTA!!!!!

He is Writer, hear him roar. Thank God I’m a girlie, or my goolies would have shriveled at the mere thought of trying to compete with all that writerly testosterone. Talk about inducing performance anxiety: his word count is sooo much bigger than mine.

I am Re-writer, hear me keep my word count to myself. Once I did manage to unwrite five thousands words of pure shite in a single day. But write - uh uh, no way.

No less impressive is the versatile and productive Kim Wilkins, who gets up before her two kids to knock off a couple thousand words before breakfast. Now that’s commitment. Which, incidentally, is also the key difference between the professional writer and the amateur.

The professional writer writes, even when it’s hard. The amateur waits for inspiration.

(That’s from “Confident vs delusional writers” in A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. It’s an entertaining post, well worth the visit.)

I’ll be honest. I struggle with the first draft. Its imperfections bug me and I’m constantly side-tracked by the need to fix them.  But as Hemingway said ‘All first drafts are shit’. Get over it.

So each day now, I tell myself, just concentrate on getting it out. Write first, then you can polish with impunity, later.

I’m not alone in my fixation on polishing. Kate Grenville did thirty-eight complete drafts of The Idea of Perfection – and won the Orange Prize for fiction.

Melina Marchetta says she must have rewritten the prologue for Finnikin of the Rock fifty times; it won an Aurealis Award and she’s been at the top of her game for more than a decade.

Marcus Zusak says he would have rewritten sections of the The Book Thief a hundred times – and he made it onto the New York Times Children’s Bestseller List.

But that doesn’t alter the fact that first, we must write. In my case, a thousand words a day till it’s done. And then, the exquisite pleasures of the rewrite. Polishing my ladies, without feeling guilty, until I am spent.

Samuel Wagan Watson, Matt Condon, Anita Bell, Madonna King, Rebecca Sparrow, Kim Wilkins, Sally Collings, Josie Montano, Jack Heath, Venero Armanno, Karen Foxlee, Sarah Armstrong, Simon Higgins, Martin Chatterton, Peter Meares, Sean Leahy, Allison Rushby, Jonathan Harlen, Peter Watt, Bronwyn Parry, Cate Kennedy, James Knight, John Harms, Sally Rippin, Anita Heiss, Michael Jacobson, Toni Jordan, Kathryn Fox, Katherine Howell, Sydney Bauer, Kathy Wilson, Debra Adelaide, Tony Park and me.

First up, there’s the LITERARY FEAST

Share an evening of conversation and fine dining with over thirty of Australia’s most talented authors at this year’s Literary Feast, the signature event of Gold Coast City Council’s Literati program. As you relax and enjoy dinner, complimented with Sirromet wines, authors will move between tables for each course, sharing the story behind their stories, giving a unique insight into their writing.

Venue: Gold Coast Arts Centre
Date: Friday 29 May 2009
Time: 7pm
Tickets: $75
For tickets visit http://gcac.com.au or phone (07) 5588 4000

Then there’s the LITERARY YOUNG GUNS session (for readers aged 12+)

Jack Heath (The Lab) and William Kostakis (Loathing Lola) are two of the hottest young authors around for young people. Both award winning authors have a great story to tell. Join them for this ‘not to be missed’ author session.

When: Saturday 30 May
Time: 10.30am – noon (… I’m on for 1.5 hours? STRESSPLOSION)
Where: Robina Auditorium (in the Robina Branch Library building)
Bookings: Although these sessions are free of charge, places are limited and fill quickly. To avoid disappointment, book your seat now with the host branch library. Phone (07) 5581 1600.

Want to see what else is on? Check out ze .pdf HERE, featuring my swanky new non-smug author photo.

[Note to the long-dead Mr Fowler: my forehead has been geysering in a Monty Pythonesque fashion onto my computer screen for days now, but it isn't getting any easier.]

I tried to blame my two-day-old headache on the decaffeinated beans that I found in my grinder. But then the discovery of Il Perfetto Espresso in a dusty recess of the larder put paid to that theory. After two cups, the head still hurt. And I think I know why.

The word count on the work-in-progress ground to a halt just shy of the 44,000 word count, while I prowled, growled and pawed at my keyboard. Not writing, but paying bills, finishing quarterly accounts and filling in the BAS that’s due Monday. When I flicked back to the WIP, nothing happened. My brain bled like stink, but the words, they just wouldn’t come.

Then Kim Wilkins popped up on facebook – Kim is writing crap, but at least she’s writing – and jealousy spiked through my veins. Wot a skite.

I’d kill to write crap. But I’m literarily constipated – blogstipated, as Belinda Jeffrey would say – and my dear departed dad’s words keep buzzing round inside my skull like blowflies: “Shit, or get off the pot.”

I know, I know. Straining doesn’t help and busting my foofer valve will just add to my woes. But I can’t walk away and do something else. Not with the WIP in crisis.

So I’ve been tinkering with the problem, hunched over my writer’s toolbox, showing my crack.  I think I’ve located the blockage. A couple of main characters that need the screws tightened, that need to be pushed harder and further, to force them to drop the mask and reveal their true natures.

Writers know that true character only comes out under pressure; the greater the pressure, the greater the revelation. If you want to find out if a character has iron in her filings, hit her hard as you can, right in the heart. Force her to act because it is her choices under pressure that will define her.

I’ve been going too easy on her, I can see that now.  I’ve let my sympathy for what’s she’s been through cloud my judgement. It’s time to hitch up the duds and wipe the blood from my brow.

It’ll take a big wrench to fix it, but that’s OK. I’ve got one in my writer’s toolbox.

Kim Wilkins’ The Veil of Gold has been named to the 2009 ALA (American Library Association) Reading List in the fantasy genre!

The Reading List annually recognizes the best books in eight genres: adrenaline (which includes suspense, thriller and adventure), fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and women’s fiction. This year’s list includes novels that will please die-hard fans as well as introduce new readers to the pleasures of genre fiction.

The winning titles were selected by the Reading List Council, whose members include Neal Wyatt, chair, Richmond, Va.; Joyce Saricks, vice-chair, Downers Grove, Ill.; Jennifer Baker, The Seattle Public Library; Arlene Griffin, LSSI Library North Jackson Madison County Library; Mirja Johanson, Perrot Memorial Library; Lucy Lockley, St. Charles City-County Library District; Robert Renwick, Brooklyn Public Library; Jacqueline Sasaki, Ann Arbor District Library; Sharron Smith, Kitchener Public Library; Tapley Trudell, San Antonio Public Library; and Alan Ziebarth, Chicago Public Library.

Authors of these selected titles will be invited to speak at the Literary Tastes Breakfast, a ticketed RUSA event at the ALA Annual Conference. Find out more about RUSA events at the conference—scheduled for July 9-15 in Chicago—at www.ala.org/rusa.

Fantasy
Veil of Gold by Kim Wilkins, Tor Books, 0-7653-2006-1
The discovery of a golden bear in the walls of a derelict St. Petersburg bath house lifts the veil between the real world and that of fairy tales. Treachery is rampant and death is ever-present: stories aren’t safe, and love

Two Additional Tor Titles Made the Short List in the Fantasy & Horror Genres!

Fantasy

Shortlist
The House of the Stag by Kage Baker, Tor Books (0-7653-1745-1; $25.95; 384 pages; On-Sale Date: September 16, 2008)
Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear, Roc
Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost, Ballantine
Small Favor by Jim Butcher, Roc

Horror

Shortlist
Coffin County by Gary A. Braunbeck, Leisure
Infected by Scott Sigler, Crown, 9780307406101
The Killing Circle byAndrew Pyper, St. Martin’s Minotaur
The Wolfman by Nicholas Pekearo, Tor Books (0-7653-2026-6; $23.95; 288 pages; On-Sale Date: May 13, 2008)

View the entire list here.

The spectre of Aussie literary blokes being transformed into all-American guys looms large on the Australian literary horizon.  Taps will become faucets; nappies, diapers; and even our dear old Mums will have to answer to Mom if the Productivity Commission isn’t made to see reason.

Its review of copyright restrictions on the parallel importation of books could make overseas versions of popular Australian books the only version we are able to purchase here.

Removing existing copyright protections guaranteeing that books must be published here within 30 days of their overseas release, would open the floodgates to overseas versions of Australian books, swamping a local industry that is already struggling with low profit margins and worsening economic conditions.

Readers, writers and the local publishing industry would all suffer.

Gone are the days when writers being published overseas merely had to contend with Americanization of our spelling.

High profile authors such as Nick Earls and Emily Rodda have gone public with their experiences of American publishers wanting to change everything from setting (the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly being deemed unacceptable for an American audience) to vernacular (Aussie kids asking “Mom” for “cookies”) to omitting scenes (because they don’t “get” our humour).

As Nick Earls told the Productivity Commission: “..it’s important to us as a nation that we keep reading, seeing and hearing our own stories. Children need to grow up with access to Australian stories — stories that speak of places they know, in a language they know, and that validate the world they live in.”

Yet when I checked the Productivity Commission’s website today, only eighteen people have cared enough to comment. Yay for the likes of Kim Wilkins, Nick Earls, Sean Williams and Pamela Freeman. Boo hiss for the rest of us. Time to get our finger out [or you'll be substituting an Americanism here].

I would love to see my own novel Dust, published overseas. Yes, I would struggle with any changes to the Australian vernacular that is so much a part of the voice, but I would accept that some changes are needed in order to be understood by an overseas readership.

However I could not accept that an internationalized version of my book could be the only one available to readers in my own country, in my own culture, in my own backyard. And I’m going tell that to the Productivity Commission before submissions close on 20 January.

Being a writer makes a virtue of my bad habits. I was a shocking liar as a kid, but now that I’m an adult, I’m using my powers for good rather than evil.

Q. If that’s your virtue, what’s your secret vice?

A. Turkish Delight and writing something that makes me laugh or cry out loud. Now that’s addictive.

Q. How long did it take you to write your first novel Dust?

A. Way too long. I did everything wrong in the first draft and had to pull the whole thing apart and start again from scratch. It taught me a lot though and I hope never to make any of those 147 basic errors again.

Q. What was the motivation for writing your first novel?

A. Long story. I’ve devoted a whole page of my website to the answer so Click this link On writing Dust if you haven’t already. It’s for everyone who loves writing and loves their Dads.

Q. What is the best writing advice you have ever received?

A. Don’t give up after the first draft; the real writing starts with the rewrite. Write every day – the more you write, the better you get. Join organizations like the Queensland Writers Centre. Do courses, be prepared to learn from other writers and never be afraid to show people your work. QWC workshops I did with Veny Armanno, Kim Wilkins and Kate Eltham taught me things that I may never have been able to figure out for myself.

Q. Do you have a pet hate?

A. Advertising – it’s horrible that people are manipulated into wanting a whole heap of stuff they don’t need.

Q. Who are some of your favourite authors?

A. Peter Temple – he’s probably going to hate me saying this, but I just love all his early work, the Jack Irish novels, Iron Rose and Shooting Star – he just nails dialogue and the Australian vernacular. In YA, I am a big fan of Marcus Zusak and Melina Marchetta, and Karen Foxlee’s debut novel The Anatomy of Wings is just wonderful. Ditto the Mallory detective novels by US writer Carol O’Connell and the Jackson Brody novels by British writer Kate Atkinson.

Q. If you were an animal, what would you be?

A. I’m a fool for my dog, Huggy, but have to say that personally, I’m more of a cat – I have the requisite laziness, attention to personal hygiene and tendency to bite if rubbed up the wrong way!

This is one of those cases where I pretty much got the book based on the cover. And that’s saying something, since it’s only available in the US as a hardback. But I did read the premise, noted it was a fantasy that focused on Russia, and decided that was pretty much all I needed to know. Besides, it’s a pretty cover, though if I remember right, I think it was the spine of this book that got my attention before I ever saw the cover.

Anyway. When I read Ekaterina Sedia’s A Secret History of Moscow and Sergei Lukyanenko’s The Night Watch, this was what I was looking for: a solid fantasy which uses the basis of Russian history and folklore to create and maintain an engaging but different story. The irony is that the author of this particular tale isn’t even Russian, but Australian (she grew up in Australia, anyway; she was born in London). I don’t know what that says about me to the style of story or what, and I do know that I would’ve been more confused if Sedia’s A Secret History of Moscow hadn’t given me a down-and-dirty dose of Russian mythology. But Sedia’s book was an urban fantasy, with place as much a character as the people, whereas this, The Veil of Gold, is contemporary. Place is important, yes, but not as important as the magic.

The premise: When a statue of a golden bear is discovered in the walls of a bathhouse, Rosa believes it was no accident: the bear wants to be found. Her uncle believes it’s of great worth, but Rosa, who inherited a touch of magic from her mother, knows better. She knows the bear is very, very important. She contacts her former lover Daniel to help figure out the mystery, but along the way, Daniel, along with the bear, go missing in a landscape of impossibility, leaving Rosa in the real world with few ways to find him. Her search leads her to the Chenchikov family, and the Chenchikov family leads to more secrets, putting Rosa at risk and decreasing her chances to ever find Daniel, let alone learn what’s so important about the golden bear.

Spoilers, yo.

The prose sucked me in immediately, as did the characterizations of the three main protagonists, Rosa, Daniel, and Em. Daniel particularly so, because his character brought to mind a good friend of mine, and while I think my friend is made of stronger stuff, I could easily see my friend acting, with ease, in Daniel’s role, and that was particularly enjoyable, as I don’t always have strong images of characters when I read (no matter how descriptive the author is).

The Veil of Gold is a frame story. We meet “Papa Grigory,” who, through-out the book, tells us the tale of the present, as well as the history of the golden bear and how she acted as an observer through-out Russian history and the breaking of worlds. Once, magic was free to roam Russia, but when a ruler converted to Christianity, the worlds split into two: the Mir and the Skazki. The Mir is the real world, and the Skazki is where all magical creatures and myths reside, and all of those creatures and myths are particularly dangerous to humans.

It’s the world of the Skakzi that Daniel and Em get sucked into, thanks to the golden bear, as they accidentally pass through a veil between the worlds. Rosa tries to follow them, but learns she doesn’t have enough magic. Anatoly, the patriarch of the Chenchikov family and also a volkhv, offers to teach her the magic she needs if she’ll stay with the family to tutor his son and help his wife around the house. These duties belonged to his daughter Elizavetta, but she’s taken with a mysterious illness that threatens her life.

At first, it didn’t seem that the stories would ever meet. The Chenchikov family seemed like a bump in the road, but it developed and got deeper: Rosa learns that the real reason Elizavetta is sick is because she accidentally killed her first husband (who she loved deeply) and his revenant is haunting her, calling her back and sucking away her life force. Anatoly is using all the magic in his possession, which includes stealing the magic away from Ilya, Elizavetta’s second husband, and Rosa, in order to banish the spirit, to no avail. Rosa learns the truth: Elizavetta is still in love with her first husband, so much so that her inability to let him go (there’s tons of pictures, and she sleeps with a lock of hair under her mattress) keeps him tied to her and this world.

If there’s one flaw that I noticed in the story, it’s this: Rosa unravels the truth of this family. She uses that truth to set Ilya free from the magic that’s keeping him there, then she uses it to force Anatoly into helping her cross the veil. What puzzled me was this: when she learns that it’s Elizavetta causing the revenant of her late husband to return, why doesn’t she share that information with Anatoly? In theory, she knows he’s using magic (HER magic) to banish the revenant, and that it’s a wasted effort. Shouldn’t she approach him and let him know WHY the magic isn’t working so he knows that he doesn’t need to keep stealing it?

Aside from that, the way Wilkins pulls the story together is really satisfying. Though I am suddenly reminded of another quibble: Rosa entered the Skazki at the same place Daniel and Em did, and she meets the leshii, just like Daniel and Em. What I don’t understand is how Rosa found Papa Grigory’s place so easily, and they didn’t. Does his protective bubble also hide it from sight, so he purposely showed it to Rosa when she crossed? It’s the most logical answer, but not one explained.

I also enjoyed Daniel’s and Em’s series of misadventures. Things fit together pretty well, and I liked how the Skazki had rules, and I liked how both characters were weighed down by human needs, like how one misadventure starts because Em needed to pee. Em was an interesting character, and I was sorry for her loss, but it was a good death. And frankly, there’s just so much to love about the world-building of the Skazki that I don’t know where to begin. Again, it goes back to the internal rules of the place: the inhabitants want gold, the inhabitants can and will kill humans (some in grotesque and frightening ways), and if you’ll escape your NATURAL death by living in the Skazki (aka, the way you’re fated to die), but if you can still die there unnaturally, and your soul will be stuck there forever.

In many ways, it was a difficult book to put down because of the characterization, world-building, and the story. I felt like I learned more about Russia and its folklore, even though it’s told through the fictional veil. And the prose was very lovely to read through. I’ve heard some complaints about the end, but I thought the resolution was pretty obvious, and not really abrupt. What questions are left to be answered? Oh, one could wonder what becomes of Totchka and whether or not modern doctors can cure her, but I suspect that’s a given, and if it’s not a given, then the author would have a sequel on her hands. So you can assume the girl’s safe until told otherwise. Likewise, it’s obvious that Daniel recognizes Rosa in Elizavetta’s body, and the only question there is why the mother and the little brother don’t recognize the difference. I suspect the mom will, even if the boy doesn’t. But I do expect a happy ending for Rosa and Daniel, now that she’s found her way to cheat her natural death.

And can I say I really loved Rosa’s secret? I was expecting something really big and magical, and what we get instead is a very simple, very human disease that pushes Rosa to living dangerously, fully, but without attachments. That, I thought, was poignant, though I am curious what’ll become of her actual body. Will it stay in Skazki until the body of Elizavetta dies? Not sure, but again, I don’t think that’s important. What’s important is the resolution of Daniel and Rosa, and I think it’s a lovely resolution.

My Rating

Must Have: since she’s an Australian author, Wilkins’s work is going to be very hard to find in the States (her American debut, The Autumn Castle, is already out of print), so I suggest if you’re the slightest bit interested, you’ve got to give this book a shot. It’s a lovely contemporary fantasy that educates as much as it entertains, and it uses a non-traditional backdrop for its magic and folklore (did I mention how much I loved Rosa’s use of magic? SO MUCH.). Fans of Guy Gavriel Kay’s Ysabel and fans of Ekaterina Sedia’s A Secret History of Moscow and even Catherynne Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales or fans of Charles de Lint should not let this book slip from your grasp. It’s a lovely read with lovely prose, and I’m really, really glad I got seduced by the cover art on this one. REALLY glad. Next time Wilkins releases something in the US, you can bet I’m picking it up ASAP.

Next up:

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Pulp Fiction and the Queensland Writers Centre are celebrating the release of Dreaming Again, edited by Jack Dann, in Brisbane on Tuesday 23rd September, 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start at QWC, Level 2, 109 Edward Street, Brisbane. To quote them: ‘There will be readings, there will be signings, but most importantly there will be nibbles and drinks — and books!’

It’s free – but bookings are essential so there’s enough of the aforementioned nibbles and drinks! To RSVP, phone Pulp Fiction Bookstore on 3236 2750 or email pulpfictionbooks@bigpond.com

And if you haven’t got a copy of Dreaming Again yet, wait til you go to the celebration, as all profits from sales of the book on the night will go to the Clarion South Writers’ Workshop. A number of writers in Dreaming Again are Clarion South alumni – ‘survivors of a six-week writers’ boot camp!’.

Dreaming Again contains 35 stories by authors such as Isobelle Carmody, Terry Dowling, Margo Lanagan and Garth Nix — along with Brisbane’s own Peter M. Ball, Rowena Cory Daniels, Trent Jamieson, Chris Lynch, Jason Nahrung, Angela Slatter and Kim Wilkins – and the organisers expect that a number of these fab authors will be there on the night.

Don’t forget that Jack Dann is a special guest at  Conflux 5: Dreaming, which runs from October 3 to 6! See www.conflux.org.au for the full details. If you haven’t signed up to go yet, please do! The Voyager team will be attending, and it’s sure to be fantastic – and a good reason to go to Canberra …

Traci Harding will soon be taking part in the annual celebration of all things Traci: Trazfest 2008, from Friday October 3 – Monday October 6 2008. Trazfest is the chance to meet Traci and other fans in a relaxed three-day event which includes the Trazling Awards Night (during which a Talent Quest & Costume Party takes place). This year it’s at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast. You must pre-book, so visit Trazling.net or Traci’s website for more information or email trazfest@trazling.net.

Taking a job on an isolated island in the Sea of Norway, scientist Victoria Scott wants a quiet place to finish her doctoral thesis. But Victoria isn’t prepared for the strange shadows outside her cabin window, the rumors of a murderous hag who sucks one’s soul during sleep, and the tales of mythic monsters lurking in the forest. More frightening than the island’s nightmarish mysteries: to Victoria, everything is hauntingly familiar.

When an enigmatic stranger appears on the island, Victoria’s sense of foreboding peaks. For she learns that they are connected by a conflict centuries old—one that can end only with her death…

Giants of the Frost is a pretty solid fantasy read. The narrative flows smoothly.  It’s a horror story and a love story full of Norse folklore/mythology. I was sucked in by the narrator, Victoria, who comes to this isolated island amidst talk of it being haunted. Such talk about ghosts doesn’t move Victoria. She doesn’t believe in them. Her first night out there she starts to see and hear things that shakes her belief in ghosts. I won’t reveal more of the story for fear of spoilers. If you enjoy Norse mythology, then this is the book for you. I look forward to reading more by Ms. Wilkins.

The cause wasn’t helped by finishing my “just boring enough” book. The one that earlier wasn’t interesting enough to stop me working, but good enough to not discard. The book in question was The Resurrectionists by Kim Wilkins. I blame the great debate at Continuum for thinking that it might be worth a read. It started really well with the characters and situation being set up quickly and engagingly. The horror situation was set up and an atmosphere created. And then it just meandered along without really getting anywhere. Well it did go somewhere I suppose – just very slowly. But it never actually stopped and the characters and situation continued to interest enough to keep it going. And then it stopped – just like that it was all resolved. Oh well – onto the next book.