EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

Woo yay I’m officially older than I used to be. As time has wandered on I’m tending to find that I’m blurring the boundaries around the cursed day itself, and spreading the celebrations across a full week. This year’s Birthday Week has been full of treats, and has pretty much dulled the blow of the dread four-one.

To start then, one of the most eagerly anticipated comebacks of the year, a band who’d been away for far too long hit the UK. We were one of the lucky few to get tickets for their gig.

No, not flippin’ Led Zep, although we are talking about a band whose drummer also died suddenly and too soon. We caught Crowded House at Wembley Arena last Sunday. We’ve been part of this community for a while, and it was a huge rush to see the boys in full cry again. The last time we saw Neil Finn was as part of the Finn Brothers tour, the night after Paul Hester, the mercurial Crowded House drummer, had been found dead in a Sydney park. That evening was part wake, part celebration, and one of the strangest concerts I’d ever been to. Bic Runga, the support act, kept bursting into tears during her set. Hester’s place was taken by a mike stand and snare drum stage centre, a tribute to his place in the band.

This time was a much more celebratory occasion. Most of the outstanding Time On Earth album got an airing, and of course all the hits, which I roared along to with abandon. This is part of the fun of a Crowdies gig, of course, and if you don’t get chills from a full Wembley Arena flawlessly singing Four Seasons In One Day with no input from the band whatsoever (in fact they’ve been known to put down their instruments and just listen at this point in proceedings) then you’re dead from the hips down. A joyous, transcendent evening. 

She’s a Vintage VR100, a punky plank I’m planning on thrashing mercilessly. Simple, stripped back, a no-nonsense grin machine. And even Clare approves of the choice. I’m so happy I could just fall over.

Finally, a couple of sites that deserve your perusal. My good friend Dr Timothy P Jones has started a blog where he turns the news stories of the day into poetry. This site is getting better by the day, and I’m waiting for the day when he responds to my challenge to summarise the Daily Sport.

Scott Johnson has hit the nail on the head well and truly with this one. I’m at least 20 of these!

Fantastika was a word I thought I’d find being used much more frequently this year. First brought up by Warren Ellis (of course), it describes the supergenre that encompasses SF, fantasy and horror. When “literary” authors dip their toes into genre fiction (or in the case of Margaret Attwood and more recently Jeanette Winterston, dive in fully clothed, and then claim that what they have written is not SF because SF is rubbish about cloning and robots and space aliens) they are adrift in the seas of fantastika, and it is a thoroughly refreshing dip. Being a writer of fantastika means that you can play with all kinds of genre conventions, and twist them into new shapes that better suit the story that you wish to tell. In my latest (work in progress) book, I’m happily throwing all kinds of junk together, mixing magic with an arms race involving petrol-driven mecha. It’s enormous fun to write, and hopefully will be as much fun to read.
Anyway, co-writer of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, John Clute, has come up with a road map for fantastika that’s instantly got me thinking anew about the structure of my book. It’s a fascinating read in it’s own right, and claims a new and unexpected writer to the fold.

(ganked off Warren Ellis – who else?)

Hey, you. How’ve you been?

I know, I know. Don’t sulk. It’s been a tough month. I’ve posted when I can, and I feel I’ve neglected you some.
Still, it’s been worth it.
First things first.

Yeaaah, bitches. How you like me now? Fifty large in one short month. It was, as last year, a triumph of discipline over the urge to dork around pointlessly on the internet. it always felt good to load up new stats on the Nanowrimo page, and this year i got around to posting on the forums, making a few friends, keeping the challenge going. The astonishing thing was how much some of these guys could write. At the ThankGodItsOver regional meet last week, there were people sitting by me who had managed three times my total. Six figure writing stints. That’s somewhere in the region of five thousand words a day.

I managed four and a half one long Sunday, and ended up knackering my wrist and my keyboard. I know my pace, and I’m sticking to it.

i found the best place for non-distraction head-down poundage was the 7.10 from Reading to Paddington. A slow train, with no access to the net. Perfect. On a good day, I could have a thousand words done by the time I hit London.

So, I’ve done the fifty, and I’m only just halfway on the first draft. I’m having a tiny break, then continuing at a slower word count. With luck and a fair wind I should be done on the first draft by Christmas, a polish in the new year, then start setting up to market it. Just in time for Nano’s Script Frenzy in April.

Lord knows where this masochistic streak in me came from.

To all those that made their targets this November, to all those that fell along the way, to anyone that just decided to pick up a pen or sit at a keyboard and give it a go – brothers and sisters, I salute you. The quest to quench the creative urge is the most honourable one of all, and one that deserves a toast.

To the words, my friends. To all those damn words.

although I’m not sure how often I’ll be doing this it would appear that the iphone is a viable mobile blogging tool. I’m certainly very impressed thus far!

More coming, once my brain reboots.

This is a lot of fun.
Canon play, bringing the Eighth Doctor back into the fold, and lots of fun with old and new friends – all in a charming cartoony style. I LOVE this. Fanfic done right.
(via Progressive Ruin)

I like to hope that Verity Lambert would have found it hugely amusing…

Ooh, and while we’re on the subject, this was rather good, wasn’t it?

My days are quite structured now.

You may have noticed a new widget in the sidebar, keeping track of the wordage I’m hammering out for NaNoWriMo. At time of writing, I’m just about back on track after a lazy weekend. But man, I’d forgotten how disciplined you had to be just to keep your head above water with this challenge.

The food special in yesterday’s Indie was notable for it’s insightful articles and lack of the usual wibble that spoils it’s feature writing. Principally I guess as the bulk of the material was written by the chefs and restauranteurs themselves. The Heston Blumental/Alain Ducasse double header is especially worthy of your attention.