Hold Your Breath and Dive In...

Tonight I started writing Tales of the Blue Jade Book 3, otherwise known as The Jeweller of Rassylon. I've spent the past 6 or 7 weeks nutting out an outline and filling my notebook with ideas and maps, and I've reached the point where I feel it's time to dive in (hence the very witty title of this post) and get started.

It's a funny bitter-sweet feeling when you start writing a new book. Part of me feels scared that I'll discover I've lost my ability to write, another part feels excited to be joining Dillen, Koto and Tajni on yet another adventure. However I feel, I have to push on and hopefully come up with something resembling a decent first draft by the end of the year.

As I mentioned, I've decided this time to completely scrap the "driving without headlights" approach and make a careful outline of what is going to happen in each chapter. I decided to do this when I realised that I wrote about 4 drafts of Mapmaker's Apprentice without any real idea where the story was going, and I could have reached draft 5 in a much shorter time if I had only taken the time to plot and plan and work it out as much as I could beforehand. That way I would have avoided the rather panicky last few months where the deadline started to loom and I ended up having to ask for an extra month to get it finished.

I'm happy with the outline I came up with for book 3, and to be truthful it poured off the pen much more easily than book 2 -- perhaps something to do with "book 2 syndrome", a malady that I am now firmly convinced exists. Let's hope it all works out in the end.

In other breaking news, I have a short story in the latest edition of Andromeda Spaceways.


It's called Zombie Dreams and it's about a zombie who decides all he wants in life (death?) is to become an architect. The idea first came to me when I was staring out the window of the bus on the way to work. That night I wrote a first draft, which I promptly decided was utter rubbish and confined to my hard-drive for all eternity. Then a few months later I happened to give it another read and thought it was actually quite good (amazing how time and distance can give you a new view of things) so I worked to get it up to scratch and sent it in. It's a comical story, obviously, but somehow it's quite special to me. No idea why, but I hope others are able to enjoy it too.

On a side note, my good writing buddy Liz has a story in the same edition, and she managed to have hers illustrated! (No jealousy there whatsover. Not even a hint). Congrats, Liz! It's a wonderful story indeed.

Happy New Year!

A couple of bits of publishing news..

ASIM #49 is out, with my poem, "Who the Hell is Willard Price?". You can get it here. The pdf costs around $4.5o, and the hard-copy about $8.00



Also, AntipodeanSF #151 is out with "A Random Booze-Up", aka "The Aussie Hobbit". This is free to read, and you can find it here.

Happy reading!

ASIM #48 ....

... has now been officially released. You can pick up a pdf copy (or hardcopy if you like) from here.

Exciting!

I also have the Willard Price poem coming out in the next issue, #49. That was a bit of a surprise, but a very nice one too.

Herbert Hits the Bright Lights

Here's the cover for the latest issue of ASIM, the one featuring the Hobbit Query Letter. I have to say, it feels strange to see my name on the cover of an actual published work. Bizarre is the word I'd use, like how I'd feel if I saw my name on a banner being dragged from the back of a bi-plane. But absolutely wonderful too. Particular thanks to Juliet Bathory for bringing it all together (oh, and picking the story too).

The issue isn't actually out yet, but it should only be a week or so if you feel like picking it up!

I have to say too, that is one seriously awesome cover....

More Updates...

I wrote a little while ago about the short story bug I'd picked up, and how I had a couple of stories get through to the shortlist for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. The first one, The Office of Fantastical Creatures and Dubious Legends, got knocked back, but I found out tonight that the second one, Zombie Dreams, has been accepted for #52, due out Aug 11.

I'm quite shocked, and absolutely stoked! It was great just to get something through to the short-list, but to get it accepted is enormously encouraging and extremely humbling at the same time, particularly when I look at the quality of stuff that gets in there.

*Deep breath*

Back to the real world -- I need to sign off and get into MMA. It's been a bit of a slog lately, perhaps the dreaded 2nd Book Syndrome is striking? Or maybe I still can't quite shake that short story bug....

Busy Little Bee

It looks like I've caught the short-story bug. I have no idea how, seeing as I haven't associated with any short-story writers in the last little while, not unless they were short-story writers and they didn't tell me (the rats!). Anyway, I've managed to hammer out two 2,500 word pieces, both of which have made it to the shortlist for ASIM (not that I'm all that hopeful, seeing as only 1 in 20 get from there into print), and I'm also writing something for a Fablecroft anthology on the theme "After the Rain".

Yes, I probably should be working on the contracted book 2 of GPL, but I am getting to do bits and pieces of that through the week (currently sitting at 38,000 words). If I could get one or two of these stories into print some time next year, it would be a good way of getting my name out there in prep for GPL coming out. That's my excuse, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

I'd cross my fingers, but they're too busy typing...

ASIM

I had some great news this evening - the Hobbit Query Letter is going to be published in the October edition of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

I do feel a tad like one of those 80's rock bands still living off that one song, but overall I'm chuffed to finally be able to lay claim to a publishing credit.

It's a great magazine. Even without my article in it I'd have no hesitation in encouraging people to check it out!

A Vision Most Clear

Today, I submitted my first ever short story for publication. I sent it to a rather cool looking online magazine called Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. They have a delightfully transparent submissions process, where the author is kept up to date as to where their story is in the slush pile. They identify three stages: Stage 1 means submission received, stage 2 means it's at the second reader, and stage 3 means it's been judged as good enough for the magazine, but needs and editor to pick it up. When you send your sub, you get a tracking number, and the number and stage are kept up to date on a website. How good is that!

The story is called A Vision Most Clear. It's slightly different, perhaps a bit quirky, but I like it. Will they like it too? I'll keep you posted!

And, as the great poet said, if you never give it a go, you'll never ever know.