Tansy's Cloister

2005-08-15T12:26:00.000+10:00

I'm moving this blog over to LiveJournal - come and join me!Velvet Threads - Reading, Writing & Other Fantastic Pursuitshttp://www.livejournal.com/users/cassiphone/

2005-06-14T11:16:00.000+10:00

2005 Ditmar AwardsThe 2005 Australian National Science Fiction Achievement 'Ditmar' Awards were presented at Thylacon, the 44th Australian National Science Fiction Convention, on Saturday 11 June 2005, in a ceremony at the Wrest Point Hotel, Hobart, Tasmania. The awards were presented by Cary Lenehan. The winners were:Best NovelThe Crooked Letter, Sean Williams (HarperCollins Australia)Best

2005-06-02T11:21:00.000+10:00

Thylacon is eight days away. I'm actually starting to look forward to it, and not just because I'll be getting my life back afterwards. Last time I went to a science fiction convention, I wasn't pregnant yet. Now I have a nearly-five-month old beautiful baby girl, and a new house (more rooms than we actually need right now!!!) and an entirely different life.Not that the old one was bad, it was

2005-06-02T10:57:00.000+10:00

My new housemum existence (as opposed to the old gadabout bookshop-haunting student existence) means that I don't get out much. The upshot of this is that I am spending less money on impulse-buy books from actual bookshops, and spending more on buying books online. Funnily enough, it works out that overall I spend less money on books, because I'm a lot choosier when lashing out for postage.I

2005-04-05T22:27:00.000+10:00

Sci Fi & Other Strange Stuff Quiz NightWhen: Monday 11th AprilWhere: New Sydney Hotel, Bathurst Street, HobartCost: $4.00 per personTime: Registration 7.30pmCategories are: Sci Fi TV, movies, Hits & Misses (geography), storylines (books), All hail the great thingy (religion), smart people(science) and of course Strange Stuff! Gather your friends and form atable.

2005-03-19T11:22:00.000+10:00

The latest from Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine:The Andromeda Spaceways NewsletterKeeping you up-to-date every with everything happening at ASIM!Terry Pratchett!!Dave Luckett scored an interview with Terry Pratchett when he visitedAustralia last year, and we've got the interview to prove it! Checkout issue 17 for our six-page feature Terry Pratchett article as wellas our usual mix of

2005-02-20T09:06:00.000+10:00

Things I can do while breastfeeding:Read magazines Read small paperback novelsRead reasonable-sized trade paperbacks (with some difficulty)Answer the phone (if someone handy picks it up and passes it to me)Eat dinner (only occasionally balancing dinner plate on baby)Turn radio on and off (if sitting in correct chair)Write in notebook (if feeding on left breast)Check email (if laptop set up

2005-01-31T17:41:00.000+10:00

Ditmar nominations are open now! The Australian SF ("Ditmar") Awards recognise excellence in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by Australians. As of the 1st January, nominations for the 2005 Ditmar awards can be made in the following categories: Professional: Best Novel; Best Novella or Novelette; Best Short Story; Best Collected Work; Best Artwork. Fan: Best Fan Writer; Best Fan Artist;

2005-01-27T13:39:00.000+10:00

ASIM #16 has been released. This is a very belated post, but still important. Not least because I have a new Delta Void story appearing in this issue. :) But if you're in Hobart, it won't be in the shops yet because I haven't delivered the issues. Been a bit busy this week! Check out www.andromedaspaceways.com to find out how to order your issue, or to locate your nearest stockist.

2005-01-27T13:30:00.000+10:00

And while I was busy getting to know the new little person in my life, my fellow members of the writing group RoR blitzed the Aurealis Awards. Check this out: RORees WIN several AUREALIS AWARDS. Science Fiction novel Division for 2004 -- Maxine McArthur 'Less than Human'. (critiqued at ROR) Fantasy Short Story Division 2004 -- Richard Harland 'Catabolic Magic'. (joint winner). Horror novel

2005-01-26T15:40:00.000+10:00

It's Aurelia Day! We brought our beautiful new baby home from the hospital today. Aurelia Iris Finch was born at 1:48 pm on 21 January 2005, weighing 3.954 kilos. She had a head full of dark hair (now lightening rapidly!) and the deepest, darkest set of blue eyes the world has ever seen. We love her to bits, obviously. Also, she managed to be born exactly on her due date. I claim total

2005-01-08T20:41:00.000+10:00

Given that 2004 was the first year I actually kept a reading journal, let's look at the results: Top 10 Books Read (for the first time) this Year: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susannah Clarke Midnight Lamp - Gwyneth Jones Paladin of Souls - Lois Mcmaster Bujold Pattern Recognition - William Gibson Beauty - Sheri S Tepper Sunshine - Robin McKinley 1610: A sundial in a Grave - Mary Gentle Up

2004-09-07T10:21:00.000+10:00

I've just submitted Queen of Courtesans, another novelette starring Bounty Fenetre, to Scrybe press who recently published Hobgoblin Boots. It occurred to me that I've been on a very strange, backwards and forwards kind of road with this particular character. Bounty first appeared in something of a cameo role in Liquid gold, my second Mocklore novel. Her only significance was as Aragon

2004-08-10T11:11:00.000+10:00

Hobgoblin Boots, a new comic fantasy novelette by Tansy Rayner Roberts, set in the Mocklore Empire, has just been published as a chapbook by Scrybe Press. "Bounty Fenetre leaves home to Seek Her Fortune, to turn her favourite boy into a swashbuckling hero and to acquire some midriff-revealing chainmail lingerie. Along the way, she faces deadly dangers such as homicidal exotic dancers,

2004-04-20T18:49:00.000+10:00

Okay, I've been very slack about this blog and Finchy pointed out that it looks like a strange fetishist mathematician has been attacking it (ie too many statistics, not enough Tansy). I'd love to write lots now but can't because I'm going to Canberra tomorrow for Conflux! Yes I'm going early, but that's for specific writerly things. I'll try and keep some kind of log while I'm away -- my con

2004-03-08T10:29:00.000+10:00

February Booklog: Books read: 22 New reads: 16 Re-reads: 6 Fiction: 19.5 Non-fiction: 2.5 Genres: Fantasy (7.5), SF (6), Crime (3), Historical (2), Biography (2), Chick Lit (1), Cookbook (0.5) New authors: Kage Baker, Robert Harris, George McDonald, Cornelia Funke, Dan Simmons, M.J. Simpson ebooks: 2 Source countries: US (11.5), UK (7), AUS (2.5), Germany (1) Top 5 books read in February:

2004-02-26T08:25:00.000+10:00

The 2005 National Science Fiction Convention will be held in June 2005 in Tasmania. The theme of Thylacon 2005 is 'a walk on the wild side,' and the wild and woolly committee of this ferocious event are very excited to announce that hot new writer Marianne de Pierres will be our Australian Guest of Honour. For those who like their SF conventions with a hint of mystery, danger and the occasional

2004-02-10T08:18:00.000+10:00

Mocklore is back! In March/April this year, US publisher Scrybe Press will be publishing a new Mocklore novelette, "Hobgoblin Boots," as a printed chapbook and ebook. It should be widely available from various sources, including the publisher's own site (www.scrybepress.com), Amazon and Fictionwise. So if you wondered what the story was behind Bounty Fenetre, the chick in chainmail who enjoyed

2004-02-01T20:31:00.000+10:00

Reading update: After keeping a spreadsheet last year (quite obsessively, I might add) to document the books & stories I was reading for the Aurealis awards, I thought it might be interesting to do the same this year to log every book I read. The results so far have been a bit disturbing -- I didn’t think I could possibly read more than 50-60 books a year, but in January alone I read 21! Hate

2004-01-30T08:19:00.000+10:00

If you want to nominate for the Ditmars but are coming up a blank on the 'Best Artwork' category, Trudi Canavan has put this amazing website together with images from all the book & magazine covers of the year that are eligible (ie by Australian artists, speculative content). Check out: http://www.spin.net.au/~trudi/ditmarart.htm to see her good work, and to marvel at the wealth of SF & fantasy

2004-01-21T09:19:00.000+10:00

The Ditmar nomination forms are available now at: http://www.camrin.org/ditmar.html These are awards for recognition of excellence in SF & fantasy professional and fan achievements for 2003. You don't have to be a member of this year's Natcon to nominate (although you do in order to vote). If you are nominating, please make an effort to fill in all the categories that you possibly can -- Best

2004-01-17T08:57:00.000+10:00

I’ve been following the Clarion South project with great interest, mainly out of sheer awe. The idea of giving up six weeks of real life to immerse oneself in writing seems both brave and terrifying to me, and I don’t even have kids or a real job! Then again, that may be why I don’t feel the need to take such a huge step. I have my precious two days a week at home ot write uninterrupted,

2004-01-15T10:41:00.000+10:00

Novel progress: The Creature Court (still working title) is currently at about 42,000 words after three and a half months of solid writing. 11,000 of those words were written in the first 11 days of the year -- that’s what happens when I take a break from uni! I’m back to my real life schedule now which means two days at home & three at my office at uni each week, plus weekends. My aim is to

2004-01-02T08:43:00.000+10:00

Applications for the EnVision novel writing workshop are now open. Check out www.sf-envision.com And a Happy New Year!

2003-12-22T08:41:00.000+10:00

My short story "Fairy Godmother Express," which first appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #1, has just been reprinted online at Eotu Ezine, with some very nice layout.

2003-11-26T14:47:00.000+10:00

More Envision news -- press release courtesy of Cory Daniells EnVision 2004 A 5 day Speculative Fiction workshop where writers get to polish their manuscript under the guidance of published authors who specialise in this genre. This year's workshop will be even bigger and better! Not only will attendees get hands on experience working with published authors, but they will get an insight

2003-11-11T09:35:00.000+10:00

Issue #9 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine has just been released to subscribers. A Carthaginian soldier attempts to beat the Romans at their own game... a corporate time traveller discovers a terrible secret... the Fates take a day off to discover nightclubs and Prada handbags... a space tour company makes its low class tourists pedal the ship across the galaxy... a wife confesses that

2003-11-11T08:28:00.000+10:00

Excellent news – I recently received an Arts Tasmania grant to write my children’s novel, Seacastle, in 2004. I’m pretty sure this is the first time that Arts Tasmania has given funding towards a project in the fantasy genre, which is very encouraging. After all, crime fiction has been getting grants for years. I’m also joining the Envision workshop programme in 2004 as a tutor – this is a

2003-10-03T10:44:00.000+10:00

I was just interviewed for ABC radio about my upcoming public lecture about sex, poison, politics and the imperial women of Rome. The interview will be broadcast on Sunday 5 (AM 936 Hobart & AM 711 Launceston) sometime between 11am-1pm. Lecture details: SEX, POISON and POLITICS – The First Five Empresses of Rome. Ms Tansy Rayner Roberts, PhD student, University of Tasmania. Augustus,

2003-09-25T11:07:00.000+10:00

Ashley in South Africa (isn’t the internet an amazing thing?) responded to my query on whether there should be more comic fantasy in the bookshops: “My answer is a definite YES. The whole reason why I was reading your blog in the first place was because I was looking for names of comic fantasy authors. I've run out of Terry Pratchetts, can't get hold of the latest Jasper Fforde and am finding

2003-09-24T07:58:00.000+10:00

Luke asked me about some epic fantasy to recommend. I did put a top 5 together, then looked them over and realised none are strictly speaking epic fantasy. I love Feist & Wurtz’ Empire series, Jennifer Fallon’s Second Sons trilogy, Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy and The Queen’s Necklace by Teresa Edgerton simply because they are epic in scale, but more concerned with politics and intrigue

2003-09-21T18:09:00.000+10:00

Zine and Heard is a Blank and Free event at the Bond Store, Hobart (Tasmanian Museum) from 2pm-4pm Saturday 27th September, looking at comics, zines & small press. Should be interesting. I’ve been asked to do a 10 minute talk on the significance of SF & fantasy in comics, plus plug & sell Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Speaking of ASIM, issue 8 is out as we speak. It has some good

2003-08-13T20:31:00.000+10:00

Hi Tansy, It's Luke here (from your Thursday night writing class). Thought I'd e-mail you re your blog entry the other day as Thursday nights we're usually too pressed for time to go into this sort of conversation. Personally, I think it's amazing that with the glut of epic fantasies in bookshops these days that publishers aren't willing to diversify. The fantasy genre really needs to be

2003-08-06T14:36:00.000+10:00

Speaking of comic fantasy (and on a much lighter note) issue 7 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine has been released! Now I am totally biased when it comes to this particular publication, but I think it's the most interesting spec fic magazine being published at the moment, not least because of its emphasis on funny & entertaining spec fic. Issue 7, edited by Terri Sellen, is another great

2003-08-03T13:08:00.000+10:00

I have recently been informed by a very reputable agent that most publishers won't touch comic fantasy with a bargepole. This is understandably a little irritating to me, since I have a manuscript that people keep asking me about (Mocklore #3) which I can't get published. Many readers including the aforementioned agent (who I do not blame in the least since she was very sweet and apologetic)

2003-08-03T12:55:00.000+10:00

If Melanie, currently living in Japan, who sent me a lovely email on the 14th July, reads this, could you resend your email address to me so I can send you a reply? My version of Outlook or as I have affectionately renamed it, Evil Outlook, has an allergy to Yahoo email addresses and tends to swallow them whole, leaving me with an anonymous message. I would like to reply to your letter, Melanie

2003-07-09T10:45:00.000+10:00

Just to prove that I am not a total blight on society who sits around reading books all day, I made a proper beginning on my new novel yesterday -- while I was supposed to be doing something else, obviously. It’s called The Creature Court, and is not comic fantasy! More the dark, sensuous, creepy kind of fantasy. At least, I hope so. It revolves around the two-sided city of Aufleur: the

2003-07-09T10:20:00.000+10:00

I have two reading obsessions currently running side by side and feeding into each other: Dorothy L. Sayers (rediscovery) and Lois McMaster Bujold (new discovery). Am currently feeding my obsession with many crumbly paperbacks, dragged out of two separate libraries as well as a few second hand bookshops. It does mean that I end up picturing Miles Vorkosigan with a monocle but hey, who doesn't?

2003-06-23T11:00:00.000+10:00

Tansy on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: (slight spoilers but not big toothy ones) Well, I’ve read it! Actually, I finished reading it at a few minutes past midnight on Saturday, which I’m aware means I was pipped at the post by several twelve year olds who were done by teatime, but I was sensible and didn’t head into the bookshop until the middle of the afternoon. No queueing for

2003-04-30T11:30:00.000+10:00

It's a week since I got home from Swancon, so I should probably get around to talking about it! The convention was fantastic, not quite the best ever (ConVergence last year v. hard to top) but pretty damn brilliant all the same. Got to catch up with lots of old friends and meet new ones (plus meet previously e-only friends which is always good). The fabulousness of the con was entirely despite

2003-03-30T08:31:00.000+10:00

More exciting SF and fantasy news for Tasmanians: I am officially down to run two Adult Ed courses in the winter term this year: a long one on writing SF and Fantasy stories to sell and a shorter one on reading Australian SF & Fantasy authors. Hope to see some of you there. I think the course guide comes out on the 17th May.

2003-03-30T08:29:00.000+10:00

Well, the Aurealis Awards winners have been announced. The most exciting of these for me is the Peter McNamara Convenors Award, which was given to Robbie Matthews for his important contribution to local genre publishing both with the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Yay Robbie! It's nice to see the Canberra anthologies (Nor of Human and Machinations

2003-03-30T08:24:00.000+10:00

Another great book I read earlier this year was the latest Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake book, Narcissus in Chains. I’ve resisted buying this one for a while (trying not to buy books unless I’m actually desperate for something to read, in the hope of keeping within my newly miniscule budget) but could resist no longer. Having read and enjoyed the book more than I thought I would (I loved the

2003-03-20T17:32:00.000+10:00

Attention Tasmanians! The Readers and Writers festival is doing an SF weekend in Hobart this weekend coming! Saturday 22 and Sunday 22 March. Sean Williams, Cory Daniells, Kate Forsyth, Maxine McArthur, Marianne De Pierres & Dirk Flinthart are all coming down for it. We’ll have discussion panels (starting from 10 am) & SF movies (Soylent Green and Westworld, apparently) showing throughout the

2003-03-20T17:27:00.000+10:00

I haven’t mentioned it so far (I don’t think) but I did finish Mocklore #3 and get it out of the house in mid February -- such a relief! I had to photocopy it six times (there’s a day of my life I’ll never get back) and post it out to my fellow RoR members. I have six manuscripts sitting by my desk to critique, then we all meet up in the Blue Mountains in April (first weekend in April, very

2003-03-16T14:40:00.000+10:00

I’ve been remiss in keeping up this weblog lately, but can’t let slide the exciting nomination list for the Ditmars this year. Not only have Chuck and I been recognised for AustrAlien Absurdities, an anthology we’re very proud of, but Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine has also scored a nomination in the same category: Best Australian Collected Work. Actually, the category I’m most excited

2003-02-11T08:59:00.000+10:00

Now for my Book of the Month for February -- yes, I know it’s early. It may still get eclipsed, but at the moment I find that difficult to imagine. Crime is a genre particularly given to subgenres, from the traditional (historicals, romances, SF) to the more specific hobby-based themes (cats, cooking, horses). I was quite delighted when I first came across the works of Jill Paton-Walsh, who

2003-02-02T15:05:00.000+10:00

No weblog entries for a while, I’m afraid, due to my desperately trying to get my novel something like finished before I have to send it off to the RoR workshop members somewhere around the middle of next month. I keep adding new plot lines, unfortunately, which means more work further down the track. Still, once it’s gone I can happily ignore it for a month and a half before starting the whole

2003-01-12T08:14:00.000+10:00

Have't updated for ages, mainly because I've been busy writing! 30,000 words in December (that's what happens when you get up early) and I finished Draklight (Mocklore #3) on New Years's Day -- now I'm busily tearing it up into pieces and rewriting/editing it all, then putting it back together in time to send off for the RoR workshop in April. And I've been reading, of course: my Dad

2002-12-15T15:58:00.000+10:00

I’ve been reading, naturally, although I am sticking to my resolution not to buy any more books until the New Year (the new Stephanie Plum Christmas novella is sorely tempting me). The State Library has done well by me, though. I’ve been working through Christmas Forever, a great anthology of festive SF, and I finally managed to track down the third book in Richard Harland’s Eddon and Vail

2002-12-15T15:56:00.000+10:00

Haven’t been keeping up with this much lately, mainly because I’ve been writing so much! 20,000 in the last two weeks, possibly the best I’ve ever done. The new book is long enough to be a book (actually, it’s longer than Liquid Gold already) but the story isn’t finished yet. Not sure how long it’s going to end up! I still want the base manuscript done by Christmas though, so I can have a

2002-11-28T16:56:00.000+10:00

All you Tasmanians out there on the web, I have news about the Readers' and Writers' Festival next year: lots of SF/fantasy writers will be coming! Apart from the locals (me & Dirk Flinthart) we have Cory Daniells (the T'En trilogy), Marianne De Pierres (who has just sold a cyperpunk trilogy to Orbit, lucky wench), Sean Williams (author of just about everything, surprised he has time to come to

2002-11-28T16:51:00.000+10:00

Not just reading, am writing too! New Mocklore book is 68,000 words and counting and almost definitely is called Draklight. No there aren't any metallic or liquidy references, I couldn't figure out any good ones. The first two were coincidence, anyway!

2002-11-28T16:49:00.000+10:00

I had a wonderful library day last week, when two desperately-waited-for books I had ordered came in at the same time: Gwyneth Jones’ Castles Made of Sand (slight SPOILERS to follow) and Colleen McCullough’s The October Horse. The only problem was picking which to read first. Now I’ve been a diehard fan of the Masters of Rome series since I was fifteen, and I’ve been waiting for this next

2002-11-14T09:42:00.000+10:00

I’ve just finished reading Gwyneth Jones’ Bold as Love, which has had me mesmerised for the better part of this week. I literally screamed when I reached the last page and saw words To Be Continued -- and yet it was not an unsatisfactory ending. The book was a contast balancing act between beauty and terror, following beloved characters through one unspeakable horror after another, with relief

2002-11-07T07:34:00.000+10:00

The Andromeda Spaceways Newsletter November 5, 2002 Keeping you up-to-date every with everything happening at ASIM! Sampler Now Available Curious about Andromeda Spaceways, but too cheap cautious to buy? Or you've read ASIM and want to let everyone else see how good it is? Well, wait no longer! The Andromeda Spaceways Sampler #1 is now available. Fourteen pages of ASIM Fun! Getch'er Mugs

2002-11-05T18:11:00.000+10:00

Major dramas on Sunday morning -- that'll teach me to get up early & start working before 9 on a weekend. Luckily I have a partner who can cope with me hysterically weeping about the fact that I've been working on the exposition chapters all morning and have come to the horrible realisation that my plot (60,000 words into the book) makes no sense whatsoever. He held me, comforted me, and even

2002-11-03T07:45:00.000+10:00

I have been resolutely trying not to add any more stories to my issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine -- for now. I've already filled it 3/4 full, due to various stories I simply couldn't allow to be rejected. That's the one trouble with our system -- each editor only gets one issue. No pushing a good story over to the next issue (unless that editor wants it). I've been particularly

2002-11-03T07:28:00.000+10:00

It's been an exhausting week! I've been working as an exams supervisor, lots of walking up and down aisles slowly, handing out spare booklets, confiscating drink bottles, handing out tissues, escorting people to the toilet, glaring at them when they delay giving me their exam paper at the end of the session, sorting papers with a surprising level of mathematical & computer-like accuracy... my

2002-11-02T09:01:00.000+10:00

This was recently sent out to various email newsgroups, etc: AustrAlien Absurdities: Press Release. The purpose of this email circular is to announce that the initial 500-copy print-run of AustrAlien Absurdities (Agog! Press, May 2002) has almost sold out, and that copies will therefore only be available for a limited time. While Tansy and I have been extremely happy with the response to - and

2002-10-21T19:01:00.000+10:00

I resubscribed to Aurealis today after a long hiatus -- I was pretty impressed with their con issue this year. I think the style of the magazine under the new editor suits me better than previously. I used to only enjoy one or two stories per issue but with issue 29 I liked all but one! Plus I found out Maxine has a story in issue 30, and that settled it. I'm officially a subscriber again, or

2002-10-21T18:58:00.000+10:00

Belated, of course, but the most exciting thing that happened last week was the arrival of my copy of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Third issue out in the month it was supposed to -- pretty impressive stuff. Of course, as a member of the co-op producing the thing, anything I say should be taken with a pinch of salt... Les has done another blinder of a cover for us, and a brilliant

2002-10-15T18:03:00.000+10:00

The reading on Saturday went pretty well - my story got a serious workout in the days (and hours) before it, though. Nothing like an impending public reading to tighten your prose! Trouble is, I cut out the first two and last three pages to make it a perfect 20 minute reading, and only polished the middle bit, so even though the bit I read is definitely at a publishable stage, I still need to

2002-10-09T15:57:00.000+10:00

Wednesday is my writing day. The tradition goes back to my regular undergraduate days at uni, when I usually had at least one full day without lecture or tutorial - in other words, had no requirement to leave home. During Honours I think the day was a Tuesday or Thursday, and once I started postgraduate work it became resolutely a Wednesday. This is the day when, usually, I do not leave the

2002-10-09T13:56:00.000+10:00

Scrub that, the reading is actually at Gallery 3 in the museum itself, next to the gothic archictecture exhibition, for the ambience. Still from 2-4. Apparently there will be drinkies.

2002-10-09T08:37:00.000+10:00

I'm doing a 20 minute reading on Saturday 12 October, as part of the Blank & Free: poetry & prose readings, from 2-4pm in the historic Bond Store at the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery (enter via the Courtyard between Davey & Macquarie Sts, Hobart). The theme is 'gothic' and I'll be reading from my new (still unfinished but hopefully will be soon) story, "The Chaos Cathedrals." The other

2002-10-08T07:56:00.000+10:00

A biography of a science fiction writer is a pretty rare thing, which was why I was intrigued to pick up Dragonholder, by Anne McCaffrey's son Todd McCaffrey, at the library yesterday. It's not a particularly long read, the conceit being that it is a scrapbook of photos with some text, although the photos were a bit thin on the ground. Particularly, I couldn't help noticing that although we got

2002-10-06T21:05:00.000+10:00

I just finished reading The Eyre Affair, and this has to be my book of the year. I only picked it up because the sequel looked interesting (and Richard in Ellison Hawker Books said, what, comic fantasy and you haven’t read it) and promptly fell in love with the character, text, even the damn layout of the book. Should point out that Jane Eyre is one of my least favourite classic works of

2002-10-06T21:00:00.000+10:00

Had a great meeting of the Invisible College writing group on Saturday - 5 people turned up which is a definite improvement on most of our meetings this year! My long gothic story got a good workout which is both good and not so good because now I have to figure out how to fix the damn ending. I had written myself into a corner, with my heroine necessarily dead (for travel purposes) and

2002-10-02T15:24:00.000+10:00

FastCounter by bCentral

2002-09-30T10:28:00.000+10:00

This turned into a very long post, I’m afraid! I received my contributor’s copy of Machinations, the second Canberra SF Guild anthology a few weeks ago. Shamefully, I had only acquired a copy of their first book, Nor of Human, a few months earlier at ConVergence, even though it had been available via mail order for at least a year (so much for supporting local produce - at least I got there in

2002-09-29T14:54:00.000+10:00

My main writing challenge at the moment is a story I’m working on for a reading I have to do on the 12th October. The theme is ‘gothic’ and I decided to do a sequel to a story I’ve been working on since Rome, “The Chaos Train.” Writing a sequel to a story you haven’t finished yet is definitely challenging, but once I came up for the title for the new one (The Chaos Cathedrals) I couldn’t resist

2002-09-29T14:53:00.000+10:00

Have finally broken the 50,000 word barrier on the new novel, which still does not have a title. Am speculating on using something along the lines of ‘Heroes and Villains’ since this is an overall theme. Can’t think of any way of continuing the watery & metallic themes of the first two titles, so will probably not bother.

2002-09-08T15:35:00.000+10:00

I’ve had short stories published before, but never in anthologies before this year, which left me unprepared for a completely new experience - having short stories reviewed! As an editor of AustrAlien Aburdities, I eagerly awaited the reviews to find out - what else - which stories were singled out for praise. The anthology has existed in mine & Chuck’s brains for years before it was published,

2002-09-07T11:30:00.000+10:00

The two books I have most enjoyed reading recently are The Queen’s Necklace by Teresa Edgerton and Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley. I’ve been a big fan of Teresa Edgerton since finding my first battered copies of her Green Lion Trilogy, the first novels she ever wrote (the first one, Child of Saturn was published by Ace in 1989), which were a lovely combination of adventure & romance with

2002-09-05T10:07:00.000+10:00

I’ll start with a general update, since this weblog thing is pretty new to me (although I think I’ll be getting addicted very soon! My current major writing project is the third Mocklore novel (actually the second third Mocklore novel but that's a really long story) which is currently nameless, something very stressful for me. Usually I know what a book is called at least three years before I

2002-09-04T10:56:00.000+10:00

Welcome to my new web log! The Cloister is my study/writing room, which is currently wall-to-wall with boxes, papers, books... I'm not the tidiest of people by nature, and I like to have at least twelve dozen things 'right where I can reach them,' which basically means piles of really useful things gathering dust. Still, I have a comfy chair and I love my imac, even if it doesn't entirely work.

2002-09-03T19:30:00.000+10:00

Pre-blog News from the Cloister 1/07/2002: Just got a very weird acceptance from Fiction Inferno - not only are they publishing a story I sent them ages ago, but apparently it is the runner up in their flash fiction competition. Didn’t know I’d entered a competition... 12/06/2002: Back from ConVergence! Had a fabulous weekend, catching up with friends and meeting new people. Absolute