You'd better believe it!
The impossible has become the possible.
Explicarium and character illos to go...
(plus further correcting of a 3rd draft - here's hoping that will not be too great a task)
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Digital v Analogue
Apparent Technology Luddite warning!
(though, in such a medium as a blog this is a nice irony)
One of the problems with digital is it is very hard to archive long term, which will bemuse future historians I think. We've had computers in the mainstream for how long now? Maybe 30 years tops; and how many operating systems have we gone through? My the original files of my old stories written on my parents Amstrad 664[TM] are gone, baby! The only version of them extant, printed copies.
One day - and maybe the youngest of us here will be alive when it happens, but I am thinking a couple hundred years time - they may well come to the conclusion that paper is the most advanced step for (especially long term) storage of information. I certainly think the complete digitisation of the world is not as necessary as the digitisers would have us think... but that is just me. No one ever seems to think it necessary to really ask "Just because I can, does it mean I should..?"
Having said that, if reading a Kindle[TM] is just like reading a real book, then I am ok with that.
New poll - all very off topic at the moment, hope people don't mind. Just shows we can function on a level other than the Half-Continent.
Also, for those of you who have not read it, please have a squiz (sp?) at my last post regarding the rather troubling developments in the world of publishing here in Australia.
Advice: Letting your porridge go cold then still eating it is NOT the best way to start the day...
(though, in such a medium as a blog this is a nice irony)
One of the problems with digital is it is very hard to archive long term, which will bemuse future historians I think. We've had computers in the mainstream for how long now? Maybe 30 years tops; and how many operating systems have we gone through? My the original files of my old stories written on my parents Amstrad 664[TM] are gone, baby! The only version of them extant, printed copies.
One day - and maybe the youngest of us here will be alive when it happens, but I am thinking a couple hundred years time - they may well come to the conclusion that paper is the most advanced step for (especially long term) storage of information. I certainly think the complete digitisation of the world is not as necessary as the digitisers would have us think... but that is just me. No one ever seems to think it necessary to really ask "Just because I can, does it mean I should..?"
Having said that, if reading a Kindle[TM] is just like reading a real book, then I am ok with that.
New poll - all very off topic at the moment, hope people don't mind. Just shows we can function on a level other than the Half-Continent.
Also, for those of you who have not read it, please have a squiz (sp?) at my last post regarding the rather troubling developments in the world of publishing here in Australia.
Advice: Letting your porridge go cold then still eating it is NOT the best way to start the day...
Monday, 20 July 2009
2nd Draft Joy - plus, off topic: Parallel Importation Folly
I am feeling pretty good having just handed in the first 20 chapters of the 2nd draft of Book 3 (with about 7 or so to go) to my editor, Celia, here in Oz. This is a tunnel after all, not the ceaseless dark of endless night I feared. Phew! I was beginning to wonder there...
I am also feeling rather bemused because here in Australia our government is contemplating the abolition of Parallel Importation Restrictions in our country. This might appear as a good thing, yes? 'Restriction' is a bad word - we should get rid of 'restrictions', it sounds like they are impinging on our 'freedom'.
Yet the purpose of Parallel Importation Restrictions (and they exist in the UK and US as well) is to provide a frame work by which an author can make income from the licencing of the copyright of their story within the three major English speaking markets. So these 'restrictions' actually create clear boundaries by which the publishers in each country knows how to behave towards both authors and the others publishers' markets, and an author themselves has chance to licence their copyright to its fullest potential. So these 'restrictions' actually provide clarity and strangely, a kind of 'freedom'.
The oft-stated benefit of their removal here will be to reduce the price of books by opening our market to cheaper foreign editions. Its real effect, I am afraid, will be to seriously harm Australian authors' ability to make a living from their trade and diminish their access to a viable local publishing industry... and is unlikely to do much to revive people's interest in books, for it is interest in reading itself in this age of easy entertainment that is the problem, not the price of the material to be read.
Those lobbying for such a law are the Mr Bigs (K-mart, Target, Big-W, Coles & Dymocks, styling themselves the Coalition for Cheaper Books) seeking cheaper books, telling us with such genuine pleading concern for we the reading public that their main aim is literacy. They say that cheaper books will improve reading as more people can afford to buy them. (When corporations pretend care for people I see red flags going up all over the place.) What I hate most about this line of argument is that it seems such a cynical play for the higher moral ground, as if these corporations genuinely care for you and yours and need to defend your rights to a literate future. Shareholders and profit margins are their domains, don't be fooled folks.
What-is-more, it is not even true for two reasons, a/ it is unlikely that the buying public will see much bar a token reduction in book prices as the Mr Bigs simply pocket the increased difference, & b/they are called libraries, been around for a while now and books there are FREE there.
What I resent about all this is why it is I who should subsidise the bookselling industry here, if Amazon can figure a way to distribute books so cheaply, why can't our local sellers do the same? Industry reform seems a better option. It is not the authors' fault for bad business models in other parts of this whole book thing.
If there were no Parallel Importation Restrictions in place 6 years ago (2003) when I first dropped my notebook in front of Dyan Blacklock, my publisher and discoverer, there is little likelihood she would have given me the opportunity to write she did. She would have been unwilling to risk making Monster-Blood Tattoo happen only for it to be taken up by a foreign publisher and have those overseas editions being sold back here into Oz in direct competition with the Australian one.
Bizarre, huh... But that is what our government is contemplating.
The very real problem posed for me (and every other author potential or realised in this country) is if Parallel Importation is allowed to occur here in Australia, do I a/go with overseas publishers and forgo an Australian edition OR b/refuse to publish anywhere else but Australia in support of the local industry. Either way I lose income and someone out there in one country or another will find it hard to get copies of my books.
Far out! I would just like to write books and sell them fairly, you bureaucratical glaucologues (see Explicarium Book 2) - enough with the potential moral dilemmas already!
As you can see I am a tad worked up about this; why would I not be? My livelihood is at stake here.
But then again, why should I hope to make a living from this writing thing anyway? After all, that 'creativity' stuff is really just for children and grant-sponging hippie no-hopers isn't it? Surely I should grow up, cut my hair and get myself a real job...
An excellent article I have read on the matter is by James Bradley over at City of Tongues. (The comments are worthy reading, allowing him to expand his point)
It is important to note that neither the US or UK have any intention of abolishing their parallel importation legislation. I do not think the Australian publishing market could survive long as anything more than a discount warehouse for foreign importers under such an onslaught (and I am not sure the Coalition for Cheaper Books really cares if such a thing occurs - indeed, I have this suspicion it might actually play into their careful economic schedules).
So, regardless of my own left-wing opinions on corporations, if you value that someone like me (and you too, working away on your own masterpiece) can be given a chance to get their passion published and to make a living from that passion here in Australia; if you hold dear the existence and breadth of subject matter of your local independent Australian bookseller, then please, let your voice be heard (prayers, letters, blogs - you name it).
Here is a link to guidelines for writing letters to MPs on this issue (yes it is that serious) and their addresses at SAVINGAUSSIEBOOKS.
Here is an excellent article about the fiscal issues behind the current issue at SAVINGAUSSIEBOOKS.
Here is the website for the Australian Society of Authors (bless their cotton socks) that has many links to explore the issue further.
BTW, even folks in the UK (and Canada too) think it is a foolish idea.
Most of these links have been taken from SAVINGAUSSIEBOOKS, so I recommend you head on over there an explore a little further - and by all means, ask me more. Apologies if I have not made an ounce of sense.
I am also feeling rather bemused because here in Australia our government is contemplating the abolition of Parallel Importation Restrictions in our country. This might appear as a good thing, yes? 'Restriction' is a bad word - we should get rid of 'restrictions', it sounds like they are impinging on our 'freedom'.
Yet the purpose of Parallel Importation Restrictions (and they exist in the UK and US as well) is to provide a frame work by which an author can make income from the licencing of the copyright of their story within the three major English speaking markets. So these 'restrictions' actually create clear boundaries by which the publishers in each country knows how to behave towards both authors and the others publishers' markets, and an author themselves has chance to licence their copyright to its fullest potential. So these 'restrictions' actually provide clarity and strangely, a kind of 'freedom'.
The oft-stated benefit of their removal here will be to reduce the price of books by opening our market to cheaper foreign editions. Its real effect, I am afraid, will be to seriously harm Australian authors' ability to make a living from their trade and diminish their access to a viable local publishing industry... and is unlikely to do much to revive people's interest in books, for it is interest in reading itself in this age of easy entertainment that is the problem, not the price of the material to be read.
Those lobbying for such a law are the Mr Bigs (K-mart, Target, Big-W, Coles & Dymocks, styling themselves the Coalition for Cheaper Books) seeking cheaper books, telling us with such genuine pleading concern for we the reading public that their main aim is literacy. They say that cheaper books will improve reading as more people can afford to buy them. (When corporations pretend care for people I see red flags going up all over the place.) What I hate most about this line of argument is that it seems such a cynical play for the higher moral ground, as if these corporations genuinely care for you and yours and need to defend your rights to a literate future. Shareholders and profit margins are their domains, don't be fooled folks.
What-is-more, it is not even true for two reasons, a/ it is unlikely that the buying public will see much bar a token reduction in book prices as the Mr Bigs simply pocket the increased difference, & b/they are called libraries, been around for a while now and books there are FREE there.
What I resent about all this is why it is I who should subsidise the bookselling industry here, if Amazon can figure a way to distribute books so cheaply, why can't our local sellers do the same? Industry reform seems a better option. It is not the authors' fault for bad business models in other parts of this whole book thing.
If there were no Parallel Importation Restrictions in place 6 years ago (2003) when I first dropped my notebook in front of Dyan Blacklock, my publisher and discoverer, there is little likelihood she would have given me the opportunity to write she did. She would have been unwilling to risk making Monster-Blood Tattoo happen only for it to be taken up by a foreign publisher and have those overseas editions being sold back here into Oz in direct competition with the Australian one.
Bizarre, huh... But that is what our government is contemplating.
The very real problem posed for me (and every other author potential or realised in this country) is if Parallel Importation is allowed to occur here in Australia, do I a/go with overseas publishers and forgo an Australian edition OR b/refuse to publish anywhere else but Australia in support of the local industry. Either way I lose income and someone out there in one country or another will find it hard to get copies of my books.
Far out! I would just like to write books and sell them fairly, you bureaucratical glaucologues (see Explicarium Book 2) - enough with the potential moral dilemmas already!
As you can see I am a tad worked up about this; why would I not be? My livelihood is at stake here.
But then again, why should I hope to make a living from this writing thing anyway? After all, that 'creativity' stuff is really just for children and grant-sponging hippie no-hopers isn't it? Surely I should grow up, cut my hair and get myself a real job...
An excellent article I have read on the matter is by James Bradley over at City of Tongues. (The comments are worthy reading, allowing him to expand his point)
It is important to note that neither the US or UK have any intention of abolishing their parallel importation legislation. I do not think the Australian publishing market could survive long as anything more than a discount warehouse for foreign importers under such an onslaught (and I am not sure the Coalition for Cheaper Books really cares if such a thing occurs - indeed, I have this suspicion it might actually play into their careful economic schedules).
So, regardless of my own left-wing opinions on corporations, if you value that someone like me (and you too, working away on your own masterpiece) can be given a chance to get their passion published and to make a living from that passion here in Australia; if you hold dear the existence and breadth of subject matter of your local independent Australian bookseller, then please, let your voice be heard (prayers, letters, blogs - you name it).
Here is a link to guidelines for writing letters to MPs on this issue (yes it is that serious) and their addresses at SAVINGAUSSIEBOOKS.
Here is an excellent article about the fiscal issues behind the current issue at SAVINGAUSSIEBOOKS.
Here is the website for the Australian Society of Authors (bless their cotton socks) that has many links to explore the issue further.
BTW, even folks in the UK (and Canada too) think it is a foolish idea.
Most of these links have been taken from SAVINGAUSSIEBOOKS, so I recommend you head on over there an explore a little further - and by all means, ask me more. Apologies if I have not made an ounce of sense.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Beyond the Half-Continent.
Here is a (very!) rough prototype scribble of the possible formation of landmasses about the Half-Continent, a fair part of the southern lands of the Harthe Alle (snazzed up a bit with fancy computer trickery). This is still an ongoing exploration for me, which keeps things fun.
The pallid areas are landmasses, the orange to glaucous the oceans (the colour shift representing climactic/temperature change = north hotter as you approach the 'equator', cooler the further south you wend). The solid red mass is the Half-Continent as revealed to you in the Monster-Blood Tattoo books and on the map site. The names in parenthesis are largely old even forgotten appellations for the regions at the time of the Phlegms.
Given the size of the Half-Continent already, I think this would make the whole 'planet' rather large indeed. I believe that though our earth is the optimal calibration for life, a much larger globe is theoretically possible, and even if it weren't, it is now.
And welcome to our 100th follower!... and our 99th, 98th, 97th oh, dang it! Welcome to you all!
The pallid areas are landmasses, the orange to glaucous the oceans (the colour shift representing climactic/temperature change = north hotter as you approach the 'equator', cooler the further south you wend). The solid red mass is the Half-Continent as revealed to you in the Monster-Blood Tattoo books and on the map site. The names in parenthesis are largely old even forgotten appellations for the regions at the time of the Phlegms.
Given the size of the Half-Continent already, I think this would make the whole 'planet' rather large indeed. I believe that though our earth is the optimal calibration for life, a much larger globe is theoretically possible, and even if it weren't, it is now.
And welcome to our 100th follower!... and our 99th, 98th, 97th oh, dang it! Welcome to you all!
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Rewriting... Or a Contractual Collision
What we have below is two page layout views of the first few chapters of Book 3 (those who know MS Word will know what this is, which is probably most of you). The first is Draft 1, the second Draft 2 with all the changes tracked in red.
ADDENDUM as of 1/7/9 ~
WELL... the above is what you would have seen, but a contractual issue back o' house has me now removing said images - though they were diagrammatic and illegible - from the public space.
For those who saw them and were edified by them, glad to be of encouragement.
For those who did not, well, wow, they were the most spectacular things you will ever behold in your span of years upon this planet... there was certainly a lot of red on them anyway. You will be able to see them again once Book 3 is out... in a little while...
Apologies to my publishers for my careless enthusiasm to share.
Sorry folks, more normal transmissions will resume in their usual erratic manner.
Happy New Financial Year, btw.
ADDENDUM as of 1/7/9 ~
WELL... the above is what you would have seen, but a contractual issue back o' house has me now removing said images - though they were diagrammatic and illegible - from the public space.
For those who saw them and were edified by them, glad to be of encouragement.
For those who did not, well, wow, they were the most spectacular things you will ever behold in your span of years upon this planet... there was certainly a lot of red on them anyway. You will be able to see them again once Book 3 is out... in a little while...
Apologies to my publishers for my careless enthusiasm to share.
Sorry folks, more normal transmissions will resume in their usual erratic manner.
Happy New Financial Year, btw.
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
After Thingy...
Almost two weeks on (!) I surface from the Sea of Words - the Pontus Logia - to say what a swell time I had at Conjecture 2009; met many amazing folk - organisers, readers, writers and editors alike - though no one from here (thank you for asking Portals). Apologies to you Klesita for not letting you know earlier, would have been great to meet you - I could have answered you questions that are still rattling about my noggin, directly... How about I do so now anyway.
The one most on mind is...
One of the things that intrigues me more is how Clementine, been so far away from everywhere and more over been so far inland, became a centre of power. Most centres of power become that because their position is strategic in one way or another. What is strategic about this place?
I must admit when I look at the placement of Clementine/Benevente on the map I do scratch my head a little and wonder how it got to be so powerful. Its strategic significance is not nearly as relevant in the current (MBT) period as it was at the time of Dido and her most immediate heirs when that central portion of the Half-Continent was full of refugee peoples from the arrogance and subsequent collapse of the Phlegms. Clementine's current significance is that it guards the only passage across the great rift the Marrow and is the historied home of Dido's line, preserved now more because it is convenient for the member states to have it that way rather than its actual strategic importance. Does that help?
Alyosha has a triplet of inquiries still outstanding:
1) Near the beginning of the first book Fransitart says to Rossamund, “Say yer prayers and clean yerself afore th’ meal.” Never after, however, is there any mention of prayers, priests, religious beliefs, etc. Are there religions in the Half Continent? Do folks worship the emperor, Roman-style, or do any of the claves have a religious character?
Do you know, this is the hardest aspect for me in the whole invention... To put it simply folks worship any manner of things: Providence (not very common any more), the false-gods, monsters, ancient and potent therimoir swords, the heldins, an idea (re: many of the calendar claves). The most prevalent "religious" position of most Soutlanders is like a humanistic atheistic cross with certain superstitious fears of monsters.
2) The patrolled portions of the Wormway are dangerous, the lampsmen regard the Ichormeer with fear, and even the far-traveling Europe has never followed the road past Haltmire. In your Explicarium you tell how the family of the Warden-General of Haltmire perished due to wandering just a little way along the Wormway into the Ichormeer. Does anybody actually travel through the Ichormeer from Haltmire to Worms?
Not very often, no. In fact it requires a concerted effort to effect a full traversing of the Wormway, and the passage through the Ichormeer was a great military undertaking, lead by Imperial Engineers.
3) The origin of the lahzars is shrouded in mystery; but, an origin there must be. One of the other mysteries you weave into your story is the sad, strange tale of Biarge the Beautiful, and I wonder if the two mysteries are related – if Biarge’s mad experiments to save Freyr are in some way the source of the dark knowledge that birthed the lahzar-creating surgeries?
Hmmm... I like where you are heading, sir...
Now to dear Headtrip Honey, niggled by a couple of questions:
You stated somewhere that you imagined Europe to be about 29. In Lamplighter, we learn that she and Lady Vey were at school together (the calendar-training one). And we also know that Threnody is around 13/14. So how old is Lady Vey, and how old was she when she had Threnody? Because their being schoolmates would suggest she is close in age to Europe (although I suppose it doesn't HAVE to be so), and 29 would be awfully young to have an almost 14 year old daughter.
I have revised my sense of Europe's age just a little since penning (and now re-penning) Book 3, shall we say somewhere betwixt 29 and 33ish. Either way, her contemporaneous attendance with the Lady Vey at a calendar clave does not automatically mean they were/are the same age. Claves are not schools - people from all paths join them - and even schools in the Half-Continent do not function the same way as we find familiar. As for her age when bringing forth Threnody into the world, the Lady Vey was quite young, though certainly not 15.
Her second question is much simpler:
How does one pronounce Threnody's name?
THREN-uh-dee
(capitals indicate where to stress the word - I can perhaps hear certain more North American folks possible calling her 'thren-OH-dee'; that is not how I hear it in my noggin or say it, but then again I am Australian...)
Please, keep "overthinking", ma'am...
Excellent queries (as ever). If I failed to answer one of yours, could I ask you to please ask it again...? Now, back to editing for me...
The one most on mind is...
One of the things that intrigues me more is how Clementine, been so far away from everywhere and more over been so far inland, became a centre of power. Most centres of power become that because their position is strategic in one way or another. What is strategic about this place?
I must admit when I look at the placement of Clementine/Benevente on the map I do scratch my head a little and wonder how it got to be so powerful. Its strategic significance is not nearly as relevant in the current (MBT) period as it was at the time of Dido and her most immediate heirs when that central portion of the Half-Continent was full of refugee peoples from the arrogance and subsequent collapse of the Phlegms. Clementine's current significance is that it guards the only passage across the great rift the Marrow and is the historied home of Dido's line, preserved now more because it is convenient for the member states to have it that way rather than its actual strategic importance. Does that help?
Alyosha has a triplet of inquiries still outstanding:
1) Near the beginning of the first book Fransitart says to Rossamund, “Say yer prayers and clean yerself afore th’ meal.” Never after, however, is there any mention of prayers, priests, religious beliefs, etc. Are there religions in the Half Continent? Do folks worship the emperor, Roman-style, or do any of the claves have a religious character?
Do you know, this is the hardest aspect for me in the whole invention... To put it simply folks worship any manner of things: Providence (not very common any more), the false-gods, monsters, ancient and potent therimoir swords, the heldins, an idea (re: many of the calendar claves). The most prevalent "religious" position of most Soutlanders is like a humanistic atheistic cross with certain superstitious fears of monsters.
2) The patrolled portions of the Wormway are dangerous, the lampsmen regard the Ichormeer with fear, and even the far-traveling Europe has never followed the road past Haltmire. In your Explicarium you tell how the family of the Warden-General of Haltmire perished due to wandering just a little way along the Wormway into the Ichormeer. Does anybody actually travel through the Ichormeer from Haltmire to Worms?
Not very often, no. In fact it requires a concerted effort to effect a full traversing of the Wormway, and the passage through the Ichormeer was a great military undertaking, lead by Imperial Engineers.
3) The origin of the lahzars is shrouded in mystery; but, an origin there must be. One of the other mysteries you weave into your story is the sad, strange tale of Biarge the Beautiful, and I wonder if the two mysteries are related – if Biarge’s mad experiments to save Freyr are in some way the source of the dark knowledge that birthed the lahzar-creating surgeries?
Hmmm... I like where you are heading, sir...
Now to dear Headtrip Honey, niggled by a couple of questions:
You stated somewhere that you imagined Europe to be about 29. In Lamplighter, we learn that she and Lady Vey were at school together (the calendar-training one). And we also know that Threnody is around 13/14. So how old is Lady Vey, and how old was she when she had Threnody? Because their being schoolmates would suggest she is close in age to Europe (although I suppose it doesn't HAVE to be so), and 29 would be awfully young to have an almost 14 year old daughter.
I have revised my sense of Europe's age just a little since penning (and now re-penning) Book 3, shall we say somewhere betwixt 29 and 33ish. Either way, her contemporaneous attendance with the Lady Vey at a calendar clave does not automatically mean they were/are the same age. Claves are not schools - people from all paths join them - and even schools in the Half-Continent do not function the same way as we find familiar. As for her age when bringing forth Threnody into the world, the Lady Vey was quite young, though certainly not 15.
Her second question is much simpler:
How does one pronounce Threnody's name?
THREN-uh-dee
(capitals indicate where to stress the word - I can perhaps hear certain more North American folks possible calling her 'thren-OH-dee'; that is not how I hear it in my noggin or say it, but then again I am Australian...)
Please, keep "overthinking", ma'am...
Excellent queries (as ever). If I failed to answer one of yours, could I ask you to please ask it again...? Now, back to editing for me...
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Conjecture 2009
I am surfacing from my Pit of Editing [TM] (cesspit, maybe...?) to let those of you in the Adelaide vicinity know that I will be doing a reading and what they call an 'author appearance' on Saturday 6th June (this Saturday!) at this year's Conjecture Spec Fic convention.
Details as follows:
Saturday 2:30 - 3:30
1st floor Holiday Inn, Hindley Street, Adelaide
...then at 5:30 at same venue I will be helping to launch Richard Harland's most excellent new truly steampunk offering, Worldshaker, a novel definitely worth your time to read (I liked it so much they put what I thought of it on the cover). Along with this book I cannot recommend highly enough Richard's WritingTips website. You can even download a .pdf of the entire document for free FREE FREE from the site. Richard is an absolute legend for producing it, so go see, please! It is an veritable mine on the whole process of this thing called writing, from getting going to getting published - I have certainly learnt a thing or twenty from it.
Lots of excellent folks will be there all weekend, so, please, if you are able, come along.
(Apologies for short notice & to those who are unable to come even if they wanted to because they happen to live in another city or country...)
... Oh, & I will get answering on your excellent previous post questions very very soon, honest.
Details as follows:
Saturday 2:30 - 3:30
1st floor Holiday Inn, Hindley Street, Adelaide
...then at 5:30 at same venue I will be helping to launch Richard Harland's most excellent new truly steampunk offering, Worldshaker, a novel definitely worth your time to read (I liked it so much they put what I thought of it on the cover). Along with this book I cannot recommend highly enough Richard's WritingTips website. You can even download a .pdf of the entire document for free FREE FREE from the site. Richard is an absolute legend for producing it, so go see, please! It is an veritable mine on the whole process of this thing called writing, from getting going to getting published - I have certainly learnt a thing or twenty from it.
Lots of excellent folks will be there all weekend, so, please, if you are able, come along.
(Apologies for short notice & to those who are unable to come even if they wanted to because they happen to live in another city or country...)
... Oh, & I will get answering on your excellent previous post questions very very soon, honest.
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