Monday, May 31, 2004

PREGNANCY MUSIC

Before the doofus that is me managed to bugger up his blog and lose his message board (Check out the new one, below), Luscious started a discussion about what music she should listen to during her pregnancy to ensure a normal, well-adjusted baby.

Lots of nice, relaxing music on her playlist: Queen, Sting, James, Peter Gabriel, and so on and so forth.

No punk, she cried. And especially no Cramps! The Cramps sound awful. I've never heard them, and they still sound awful.

I love a challenge.

I've just spent the last 5 minutes watching the Luscious One and Erin dancing round the room to 'Creature From the Black Leather Lagoon'.

You can try, but you can't hate The Cramps :)

HOSPITAL

Found our back-up hospital today, at the 3rd attempt. My sister-in-law gave birth to both her children there, and raved about it in a recent conversation.

So we've got a midwife, a hospital, and a care doctor organised. All we need now is for Nemo to make it.

Friday, May 28, 2004

NOVEL PROGRESS

Finished chapter 2 today and made it 250 words into chapter 3. It finally feels like I have some ground under my feet. The more I write the more I think I might just be able to do something at novel length. Whether it'll be any good, of course, remains to be seen, but at least it's an advancement. I know I need to write novels to have any sort of real career, so it's just something I have to grit my teeth, roll up my sleeves, do lots of other cliched things, and finish.

THE KIDS ARE BACK IN TOWN

So we've finished Big Brother and now American Idol is screeching it's final episode in the background. Is there a teenage girl in the house? What do you reckon? :)

Thursday, May 27, 2004

SALE

Just received word from the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild that they've accepted my story Vortle for their 4th anthology, Encounters.

Yay :)

BABY NEWS

Nemo reached 12 weeks yesterday, and we're only a week away from entering the 2nd trimester. Slowly but surely, despite all the pain and stress, we may be having a baby :)

13 WATCH!

Sent two more stories to magazines on my list-o'-13 today. Asimov's and Oceans Of The Mind have been ticked off, and now I only have to send to Gothic.net, Leading Edge, The Strand, The Third Alternative and Weird Tales to complete one of my major tasks for the year.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

PETER PAN

You know, Luscious is a very romantic woman, but sometimes...

Watched the live action version of Peter Pan on the weekend. Now, I expected the boys to shout "I don't believe in fairies" every time Tinkerbell appears on screen, but Luscious?

Mind you, shouting "I believe in pirates" when Hook kills 2 of his crewmates had me rolling on the floor laughing. :)

KSP OPEN DAY

The Katharine Susannah Prichard Writer's Centre had an open day on Sunday. Luscious and I took the kids along as it was advertised as being kid-friendly. Erin decided not to play ball pretty early on in the piece, so Lyn decided to take ehr and Cassie (who was bored out of her skull) to a nearby friend's place.

The boys seemed to enjoy themselves: the KSP centre has a huge garden that they ran around for a lot of the day; Aiden shanghaied the camera and took about 40 shots (good ones too- for an 11 year old he has a wonderful eye for photography); they made bookmarks in a craft session and had a sausage sizzle for lunch.

Mind you, a solid hour of bush poetry readings to start the day is enough to make anyone lose the will to live...

Friday, May 21, 2004

I LOVE YOU, KEITH STEVENSON

The latest issue of Aurealis has an editorial by Keith Stevenson, in which he discusses how he came to choose certain stories. Of Father Muerte & The Theft, which appeared in issue 29, he says: "Lee Battersby's creation had great atmosphere- comfortable, entertaining and satisfying... he sets up all sorts of questions in the mind of the reader about Father Muerte, Costa Satanas and the other inhabitants, and provides some tantalising answers that leave you begging for more. This story just felt like an instant classic. And since we published it, I've been badgering Lee to produce further installments."

Ooooohhhh. Instant Classic. I'll humbly accept that :)))

A NICE REJECTION? WHU...?

A really positive rejection from Ellen Datlow at Sci-Fi.com in the mail today. Scifi.com is one of the top 3 SF markets out there, so having the editor describe your story as moving, and state she wants to see more, is encouraging indeed. Of course, that will involve getting off my arse and writing some more...

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

BABY NEWS

11 weeks today. Lyn's still not well, still weak, and we're still nowhere near out of the danger zone yet, but as we were told not to be surprised if we lost Nemo before 7 weeks, we have a day of baby happiness today

BUGGER

A rejection from Argosy in the mail yesterday, in which they mention their new policy of not accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Sod it. It's a policy that bloody annoys me as a writer, because it simply means a closed market to someone of my stature, and I can ill afford to lose major markets I'm trying to crack.

A professional, committed writer would shrug, redraft the story, and simply send it off to another market. I'm going to do that, but I'm going to stomp my little feet first.

Sunday, May 16, 2004

TICONDEROGA ISSUE 2

Is up! Short stories by the altogether groovy Geoffrey Maloney and Trent Jamieson, interviews with fabbo Perth writer KA Bedford and Agog Press' Cat Sparks, book reviews, an editorial by yours truly, and more free items of gonzo goodness. Go see!

WHO IS NUMBER ONE?

Watched the 2nd DVD in The Prisoner series the other night, comprising episodes 5-8. I'm still loving it: I haven't been this excited about a TV show since I discovered Red Dwarf about 10 years ago, and I don't remember an SF movie or series this dense, intelligent, and enigmatic. Good pal Cheshire sent me a list showing various orders in which the episodes can be watched: Patrick McGoohan's order for the 'core' 7 episodes leads me to ponder the phrase "Movie Night"... :)

GROUPS, AND WRITING IN THEM

Attended the monthly KSP SF writing group today, and came away with mixed feelings. To my mind, the main function of a writing group is to write, and I'm bemused by a group that doesn't take the opportunity of being together to do just that. Being the obsessive writer-geek that I am, I'm aware that all I need to write is an excuse, but I've never been terribly interested in getting together and spending 3 or 4 hours critiquing everyone's work with nothing else involved. It's important to get another's view on your work, b ut it's not the only thing you can do with a dozen like-minded people in close proximity with the sole purpose of being SF writers.

It brings back to me very strongly the notion that it's important, if you're going to be part of a group, to be part of one that fits your needs. After all, it's voluntary, and any activity that doesn't involve writing is taking you away from the reason you're in it for the first place: the writing. I'm coming to the same conclusion with some of the mailing lists I'm on: a quick scan of the members shows that almost none of the big-name Oz SF writers are present, and it's impossible to escape the feeling that while the rest of us are gabbing, they're off somewhere else, writing. And I don't know anymore if I can afford the time...

Events in the real world over the past few weeks have left me pondering my approach to most of what I do, and it's beginning to feel like I need to turn that re-assessing eye onto my writing practices as well.

Monday, May 10, 2004

10 QUESTIONS

This seems to have popped up on a couple of people's blogs and livejournals recently, so in the interests of cat vacuuming:

1. What's your favourite colour?
Maroon

2. When was the last time you told your mother you loved her?
The last time I saw her, a week or so before she died.

3. What about your dad?
It's been a while.

4. What is your (secret) guilty pleasure?
Nottingham Forest Football Club. It's hardly secret, but I'm definitely guilty about it :)

5. What is one worthwhile thing do you do on a (semi)regular basis?
Tell Luscious how I feel about her.

6. Is your (main) current relationship: platonic/sensual/lustful/physical/emotional
All of the above: that's why it's so perfect :)

7. If you could change one thing in the past, what would it be?
I'd have realised I wanted to be a writer at 13, rather than spending years doing stuff I was patently unsuited for.

8. What is your favourite type of weather?
The wet. You can take the boy out of Nottingham...

9. What does your "money's no object" holiday entail?
Europe, in minute detail, every museum, art gallery, plaque, statue, monument, castle, hole in the ground, and remotely interesting historical moment uncovered and examined.

10. Do you still have a toy or some physical object from your childhood?
Yup. Plenty of stuff I inherited when my Mum died, along with bits and bobs I've kept along the way.

Sunday, May 09, 2004

HOSPITAL

Went to see our first hospital with a view to having Nemo there today. We find it important to do baby things: it helps us keep in touch with Nemo even though we're still in danger of losing it.

Writing on the novel and the two Father Muerte stories have stalled this week, as a result of the recent upheavals. I'm hoping to get back on track this coming week. Keep tuned.

Friday, May 07, 2004

DINNER

Enjoyed the company of Cheshire and Callisto last night for dinner. While the girls watched Big Brother, Chesh updated a few bugs in my computer while I watched him (my main technical skill) and we talked comics. Like me, he would love to get a script or two sent over to the big companies and see if he can pick up some work, but while I'm fiddling with something featuring Quicksilver, he has his heart set on Dazzler.

And for the record, the Luscious One makes the best tacos going...

A NEW SALE

Tales of Nireym is one of the few straight fantasy stories I've written, and Orb have just told me they want it. With my recent sale of Through The Window, Merrilee Dances to ASIM, that leaves me without a traditional fantasy story in my envelope-pile. Guess I'll have to start reading those folklore books again...

TICONDEROGA 2

Completed and sent in my editorial for Ticonderoga Online Issue 2 this afternoon. It comes out on the 15th. Be there.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

SYMPATHY

A message of sympathy and support for pal KA Bedford, who lost a good friend to cancer in recent days. Both Luscious and I know what it's like to lose those close to you: we're thinking of you.

THE PRISONER

Saw the first 4 episodes of Patrick McGoohan's extraordinary TV series from the 1960s, The Prisoner, the other day. I'd been on the lookout for years, amidst constant raving from addicted friends.

I'm addicted. Now to find the box set...

Monday, May 03, 2004

FAT LITTLE HAIRY WRITER ON THE WEB

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is pretty simple, actually: go along to Peridot Books and read my story in issue 21, posted this month-- The Habit of Dying has a somewhat long and colourful history, involving non-payment, legal threats, and blacklisting (Remember kiddies, do NOT submit to Alien Q...) but thankfully the urbane and altogether froody Ty Drago and friends have rescued it from story oblivion, and you can see it at their brill website right now.

Go on then. Off you go...