Still Not Dead Yet

 Two... Two...

It's like those movies where someone finds an old spaceship that's been drifting for a thousand years, and after switching on a few switches and twiddling a few buttons the whole thing fires up and starts pulsing and glowing as if it really hasn't been gathering dust all that time. 

Actually I've never seen nor heard of a movie like that, but I like the image as a metaphor for firing up this Blog again after whisking it away from right under your noses nearly 10 years ago to the day. I can only imagine the torture I've put you all through wondering where on earth he went and whether he died or went to prison or why did he stop after all this time etc. 

Well, you know how it is. Life gets busy, we get older, the world changes under our feet. Does anyone actually Blog anymore, or has that been replaced with TikTok videos and podcasts? My head spins when I try and work out what's "in" at the moment and what all the young people are doing. I try not to even think about it anymore. As you get older you become less and less concerned with what's popular and hip and you become more interested in what you like and what you enjoy. Or at least that's my experience so far - how's it holding up for you? 

I used to enjoy writing this blog. I didn't quite realise that until tonight I logged in and worked my way through all my previous posts. My word - what a time capsule - what a window into a time and world that wasn't all that long ago but somehow seems like a lifetime. And now I feel like blogging again. It's highly possible that I will never feel like this again and this will end up as one more dangling little orphan of a post, separated from its ancestors by decades and never to have any children of its own. But who cares? Let us live for this moment and damn the consequences, as some wise man probably never said. 

People sometimes (I was going to write "often" but that would have been a lie) ask me if I still write. My answer is always a slight variant of the same theme. I wrote my books and short stories when my boys were small and went to bed early, leaving me a few undisturbed hours to focus. Now that they're hairy teenagers they go to bed way later than me, and the house is definitely no longer peaceful in the last few hours of the day. Of course I would have this no other way. But if I'm honest, it's not the entire reason I haven't written anything much in a decade. 

The real reason is that my experience as a published author involved lots of wonderful experiences that I was grateful for, but also a lot of negative things that still leave a bitter taste in my mouth. The details aren't important. It's sufficient to say that the hard work and frustration doesn't end when a publisher accepts your manuscript. In some ways, that's when it all begins. 

There's something else I want to say. I said above that the world has changed, and so it has. When I first conceived of the idea for what would become Tales of the Blue Jade, I was living in a world where it was completely acceptable for a white Australian of European descent to borrow elements of other people's cultures and attempt to blend them willy-nilly into his or her own work. 

This is no longer acceptable. And thank god. 

Nowadays it would rightly be called "cultural appropriation". I look back now with deep regret at what I didn't see at the time, and I have to say I am deeply thankful that the series sank like a stone and is no longer in print. It's next to impossible these words will ever get to anyone who needs to hear them, but all the same, I want to say publicly that I apologise for any offence I have caused. It was done with good intentions, but that doesn't make it good. 

That said, I would like to write again. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have ideas galore running through my little head, ideas that are not based on stealing from a culture not my own. I'm not sure if I could ever go through the torturous path to publication again, but I think I'd be happy just to get some of these ideas into writing, even if it was just for my own satisfaction. 

And so I fire up this long dead blog again. Let's see where this old star-ship can take us. 

A While Between Drinks

... yes indeed it is, but I'm happy to report that the story I mentioned in the last post has been accepted by Aurealis. I've been trying on-and-off for a few years to get into that mag so it's nice to finally succeed. When I find out which issue and when it's coming out I'll be sure to post it here for your perusing pleasure.

I'm also reading Stephen King's On Writing at the moment. It's been on my hit-list for several years. Lots of really good advice, some of which I've heard before and some of which is totally new. I should add that I don't agree with everything he says. The more I go on in this writing game the more I realize how important it is to distinguish between good writing advice and an individual author's personal taste. Often the two things get intertwined to the point you can't tell them apart.

That said, it's an excellent book and I would happily recommend it.

Still Here...

Salutations faithful blog reader. Yes, it's been just over a year since my last post, which I'm sure is a huge no-no in the book of blog-writing etiquette. And yet here I am posting once again, and it's very nice to be back.

"What has happened in the last year?" I hear you cry. Lots, but not a lot of writing. Part of that was due to my lack of motivation after Shamblers was rejected. Part of it was due to life just getting busy. We're in a new house now and there's lots to do, and those young boys who used to go to bed faithfully at 7.30 are getting older and staying up later. All of it chews into writing time, alas.

The good news is that this year I've set a goal to get back into writing again. I've already submitted a short-story to Aurealis, fingers crossed, and I've started writing a new novel which I have to say I'm enjoying more and more as each chapter oozes onto the page. With a bit of luck I might have something ready to submit by the end of the year.

I'm also hoping to shop Shamblers around to more places. I might be biased, but I think it's a pretty good story, and I'm sure there are lots of readers out there who would feel the same.

So that's my update. If the stars align, I might post another before a whole year goes by.

Sliding Doors

Just over four months after sending Shamblers off to the publisher I finally found out the book has been rejected. Apparently the powers that be in the wider arm of the company didn't think it was a goer. It's a bit of a blow, especially after hanging out for so long to find out and not really being able to get into anything else in the meantime. What scared me the most in their reply was the fact they didn't want to take any kind of risk because Tales of the Blue hadn't done very well for the company. Now that's a terrifying thought. If your previous published books are not considered a "commercial success"does that condemn you never to getting back into print again? Surely not!

So here I am, in many ways right back where I was 6 years ago when I was tidying up the final draft of Ghost of Ping-Ling for submission. Yes, it's scary. But it's also fairly exciting. Both my publisher and my editor liked Shamblers (bless their hearts). My beta-readers liked Shamblers (big wave to Teresa, Pete, Shilpa and Brendan). And I like Shamblers (and I'm not a bit biased). There's a lot of love here floating around for the book, so I feel I can allow myself just that little smidge of optimism as I reach out to submit the manuscript to as many publishers/agents as I can possibly find.

First off the rank was Allen and Unwin with their Friday pitch. I have to say, I don't feel particularly confident about that one, namely because I haven't had much luck with them in the past. I have this terrible fear they attach an enormous amount of importance to your 300 word synopsis and, quite frankly, my synopsis writing stinks. Let's hope this time I managed to come up with a better specimen.

In the meantime I'm trying to hammer out a query letter. I'd forgotten how much I hate writing those. Maybe then I'll start working through the list of agents I've been following for a while, if it gets to that.

And in the meantime, it's back to work. Time to dust off a couple of projects I've been working on for a while and see if I can make them into anything half-way decent.

Musings.

Tonight is our very last night in our home of 16 years. When we moved in here we had to plug a cord into the phone-line in order to get internet, our TV was 30 cm wide and could only receive an analog signal (which was frequently blurry), my mobile phone was the size of a brick, and Friday night entertainment meant driving to the video store to hire a VHS cassette of the latest release.

My hope is that when it comes time to move out of our new home, it'll be by teleporter.

To George, or not to George

So a few weeks back I got an email from a 10 year old girl in New Zealand, saying how much she loved my books. Words can't express how much it boosts an author's morale to get a letter like that. To date I think I've probably read it about 93 times, and I'm not done yet.

The only slightly negative thing about the letter was that it wasn't sent to me, at least not initially. It would seem the young writer googled my by name and came up with an author in the UK. Mercifully, the other Peter Cooper was able to track me down and forward it on, otherwise I would never have seen it. If that particular Peter Cooper is reading this -- cheers old chap. If I ever get any of your fan mail, I promise to pass it on.

This, of course, brings me back to a dilemma that I've blogged about before. My name is simply way too common.

If you google my books by title, you'll get me straight away. If you're reading this blog, you'll hopefully know that you can flip over to the profile page and get my email address from there. But if you try and find me by sticking my name into a search engine you'll get the phone book. Not only that, I haven't a hope of registering a sensible domain name. The .com is taken, as is the .com.au. I think I might be able to get the .com.nz, but it's unlikely anyone's ever going to try and find me that way anyway, so I think not.

So, what I'm coming to, is this. Should I be successful in getting another book published in future, I'm thinking fairly seriously that it will be under the name Peter George Cooper.

Not that that's my middle name. I don't actually have one. But I think George would be nice, given that it's my paternal grandfather's name, and a likely choice I guess, if my parents had ever considered giving me one (his other name was Herbert. I'm glad they didn't go for that one).

I could always follow a bit of a trend in fantasy novels at the moment and published under P.G. Cooper. It has a nice kind of "literary" ring to it, which might trick people into thinking my work is deeper and cleverer than it is. But no, I think the full version is better, should I use it at all.

And one of the big advantages is that the domain name is free. Which means, if I go ahead with it, I'll be able to get a proper authorial-type website happening, which is what people tell me I should have, being an authorial-type.

So there you go. That's where I'm leaning at the moment. Watch this space.

Movements.

So we sold our house a few weeks back, which means we're now able to buy the one we had a contract on. We'll be moving in January just after the holiday madness. The house we're moving to was built in 1870 and used to be the local school-house. It has no mains water, no mains gas, no air-conditioning and no electrical heating. We're relying on rainwater tanks and log fires. That's it.

Yes, that's a little scary, if the truth be known. In some ways it's like stepping back a hundred years. Our current house has ducted reverse cycle airconditioning and gas appliances and the whole shebang. What it doesn't have is a view from the backyard like this.

That's what I see when I step out of my new office. Which means when I get bored with editing or stuck on an idea for a new story, I can just waltz on out and breathe the air. Which makes any potential hassle more than worthwhile.

And anyway, I like the thought of having a bit of separation from the utilities we've depended on for so long. There's something freeing about knowing your water supply comes directly from the sky, rather than through some sort of mysterious treatment works and several kilometers of underground piping. And if it means we have to learn to manage it better, that's a good thing. Not to mention the cost savings, made even better by the fact there's a 3.8KW solar system on the shed roof.

It should be an exciting time! Now we just have to move. It's amazing how much stuff you pick up when you've been in once place for 15 years.

Groaning Shelves

I have a lot of unread books on my shelf. Over and over I tell myself I won't buy another book until I've read what I already have. Then it hits me. I walk into the bookshop and I get hit by the smell of the paper and the colour of the cover and the voice of the demon on my left shoulder saying "ooh! this look good!" and before I know it I've done it again. Another one to add to the pile.

So, groaning shelf of unread books, what's to be done?

Recently I had a brainwave. What I've been doing is this. Starting at the top left of the shelf I read my way across to the right. Every unread book I get to *has* to be read, or at least attempted, before I can move on. This way I force myself to get stuck into books that I might otherwise have let gather dust for a while, because they're too big or I'm-not-really-into-that-author-anymore or I'm-not-in-the-mood-for-that-one or some such thing. When I get to it, it comes out and I give it a go. It's a deal with myself.

And it's already had some wonderful and unexpected results! I read the first Tales of the Otori book (which came into the "too big" category, but also put me off because I suspected it might be a bit too "literary" for my tastes). It turned out to be so good I bought the other five in the series and devoured them in a few months. Now I'm reading Raymond E Feist's Magician, which has been in no category other than I-just-haven't-gotten-around-to-reading-it. Too early to say how this will turn out, but at least I'll find out one way or another.

And yes, the books are still coming in, and I doubt very much I'll reach the bottom right of the bookshelf any time soon. But I'm certainly going to get my teeth into what's there, and I'm confident of discovering some more dusty gems in the pile.

New Ground

I had the opportunity to give my first ever author talk a little while ago at Prince Alfred College. The audience was a group of about forty Year Twos plus teachers. I've been wanting to do school visits for a while now but holding down a full time "normal" job makes it a tad difficult. Fortunately this particular school is only fifteen minutes' walk from my work so I managed to squeeze the talk into the beginning of the day then power-walk to the office in time for morning tea.

Yep, I was pretty nervous preparing. I've always been in awe of people who can speak to kids that age and hold their attention, so having to step up to the plate and do it myself was something of a challenge. I tried to make it as visual as I could by projecting lots of pictures on a big screen to illustrate my points. I also brought in lots of props, namely a big box full of all my drafts for Ping-Ling plus some notebook and such. 

And I have to say it went great! The kids had been working on their own stories in class and discussing things like the editing process and how to plot, so what I had to say fitted in pretty well with what they'd already been looking at. They asked fabulous questions too, although a couple did ask me when I was going to organise to get their books published. Slightly awkward.

All in all it was great, and it reaffirmed how much I'd love to do that kind of thing more often. If only the day job didn't keep getting in the way.

A Post For Which I Could Not Think Up a Title.

Still waiting to hear whether Shamblers is up for publication or not. These things take time, apparently. In the meantime I can happily say I've done no writing at all. That's mainly because we've just signed a contract for a new house, and now we're frantically busy getting the old one into a fit state to sell. Selling your home of 15 year is very unsettling, not to mention time consuming.

I've also been reading. Currently I'm well into Clariel by Garth Nix, and loving it to bits. And yesterday a parcel came courtesy of Amazon (which, I hasten to say, I never buy books from unless they're out of print and difficult to get, as this one is) containing this little beauty.

I read this series when I was about 13 years old, courtesy of the school book club. Absolutely loved it. It'll be interesting to see how my adult self finds it. What I did notice was how thin it is. Thin! When I was 13 it seems like a tome.

Some New Thangs

So Shamblers has now been sent off to my publisher. Initial feedback is good but there are still a few hurdles to jump before it starts through the whole acquisitions process, if it does. Pretty well a repeat of this time nearly 5 years ago. Which I have to say, I'm pretty excited about. Deep down I was worried I might get an outright rejection, particularly as this book is very different from Blue Jade. The initial reaction is very encouraging. 

While I'm waiting, I'm thinking about picking up the Weight of Souls again. It's one of those books that's been hanging around my conscience for years. Over time I've picked away at it so it's in a pretty advanced state. I reckon a couple of months' solid work would have it good to go. No idea where I'd send it afterwards. It's not really a Scholastic type book, I don't think. In fact I'm not really sure what it is at all. Possibly YA? Maybe adult? One day I'll work out the difference, maybe. But whatever it is, I really like it, and I think it's worth continuing to plug away at it whenever I get time.

I'm also hoping to do a bit of reading. At lunch today I picked up a copy of Clariel by Garth Nix. I was a bit surprised to find only a single copy at the back of the shop on an obscure shelf with the spine facing outwards. Come on, folks, this is Garth Nix! This is a new Old Kingdom book! High time he visited that shop for a signing, I would say.

While We're on the Subject

Another day, another drawing. This is Fib Digonius, a character from Shamblers.

It may well be true that his best days are behind him. Just don't let him hear you say it.

A Short Wait

After many feverish hours I've finally finished Shamblers and sent it off to the publisher. My timing wasn't brilliant as I found out after I sent it that she's having a week off, so I won't find out whether it's publishable until sometime next week. At least it's not as long as the 3 months I waited the first time round.

Speaking of holidays, I'm on holiday myself this week, and seeing as I now have some evenings free I've been getting into some character drawing. Here is Monsieur Le Ponce De Montbatton, a character from my (as yet unpublished) story The Circus on the Head of a Pin.

This is a pencil sketch that's been enhanced by Photoshop, which I downloaded yesterday and which I've been desperately trying to use. After much trial and error, this is the result.

I must say I'm pretty happy with it. Still lots to learn, but I have 30 days before the Photoshop trial runs out so I should be able to give it a good go.

Holidays

This is the week every year when my wife and sons go away with the inlaws and I have the house to myself. As has been the case for the last few years, this means some dedicated writing time, and today didn't disappoint. I've been beavering away at the latest draft of Shamblers for the past six months, and for a while there I was hooting along and it looked like I'd be ready for submission in no time at all. Then I hit a wall and for the past few weeks I haven't been able to get myself back into it again. Thankfully today I knocked off two chapters and that takes me to the half way point of the book. Tomorrow I'm hoping to do another and at least four or five more before the family comes back on Friday.

Part of the reason I've been a bit slack the past few weeks is I've been reading Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori Book 0 (yes, it's the prequel), Heaven's Net is Wide. I actually bought the book years ago for half price when Border's closed, but something about its sheer size and the fact it was in the literature section put me off trying it out until now. And I have to say, in the words of the young folk of today, it's simply awesome. Easy to read, difficult to put down, beautifully written all the way through. After a few duds on my reading list lately it's great to find that unexpected gem, even if it has seriously dented my writing time. At least I have a little extra time this week to catch up.

Time for a Jolly Good Moan.

Goodreads have this great idea where authors can list their books as free giveaways and people can vie to get copies. The idea is that authors submit their books in the hope they might raise awareness of their work and also garner a few more reviews than they might otherwise get. I've been involved in two giveaways now, one for Jeweller and one for Ghost of Ping-Ling. In both cases I sent out three copies of the books to various locations around Australia and New Zealand. For the mathematically inclined, that's six books.

Alas, my efforts have only garnered a grand total of one review, which is disappointing because Goodreads stipulates that by entering one of these giveaways you agree to write a review. We authors might be a generous lot but the reason we're willing to pay to send out books all over the place is not simply to give people something to read on a wet afternoon. We want reviews! We want feedback!

And yes, even bad feedback will do. Weird as this might sound, and I think I probably speak for most writers when I say this: our nightmare is not having people read our books and hate them. Our nightmare is having nobody read them at all. That's why we happily send out free copies of our books.  

So if you happen to be reading this and you were one of the beneficiaries of my giveaways, please, please, please take the time to read what you were sent, and even if you don't want to write an actual review you can at least give a star rating. I would really appreciate it. And no, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. Actually, I am trying to make you feel guilty! Very, very guilty. I fear the only thing you can do to assuage such terrible guilt is scurry off and get reading and reviewing. Immediately!

And if you're reading this and you weren't the recipient of one of the giveaways, maybe you should have been! That's not to say you can't still do me a huge favour and give me a review. You can sign up on www.goodreads.com and do the deed. Go on, it'll make all of us feel good.

Feelin' Philosophical

Well the dust has settled, the books are published, and in many ways I'm back where I was four years ago, trying to scrape together a novel and hoping it'll be good enough to get accepted. It's funny how the whole giddy ride of editing manuscripts and signing books and speaking at conferences seems like a distant memory, perhaps even a dream I had once that blurred into reality. At least I can look up at the books on my shelf and know it was real. 

And the writing goes on. I'm about to hit 50K words on the first draft of the new project. I've even managed to con a couple of beta readers into taking a look at it for me when it's ready. I'm happy to report that the excitement is still there, that wonderful feeling you get when you see a story begin to move beyond a few notes on a page into a living, breathing entity, with a life well beyond what you had originally envisioned. I'm looking forward to seeing where it ends up over the next few months.

It has zombies. Lots and lots of zombies.

But not quite how you're used to seeing them.

The Plot Thickens

I'm in the middle of plotting a new story at the moment, using a whiteboard and notebook. I bought the whiteboard about two years ago exactly for this purpose, but so far the only people who've used it are my three sons, mostly to surreptitiously write rude words on when nobody's looking. I can't believe how useful it is to be able to set out ideas and sit back and look at them on a board, as well as to be able to easily rub them out and write new thoughts in. It gives a sort of bird's eye view in a way that staring at a page doesn't (for some reason).

So now I have the first germs of an outline. My next step is do something potentially a bit odd. At some point in the past I read some advice that went along the lines of this: if your story isn't worth telling in a pub, it's not worth telling. And no, the next stage in my plotting process isn't me going to the local pub and boring people senseless with my outline (although the idea is tempting). Instead, what I'll do is tell myself the story, out loud, as I would if I were in a pub, or around a camp fire, or wherever. I haven't done it yet, but I suspect it will be a useful exercise in testing the flow of events and the level of tension as the story progresses. If it's not, I've learned a lesson and nothing's been lost.

So if you live in Adelaide and you see someone driving down the road in the next few days talking to himself in an animated manner, with no blue-tooth headset in existence, it could be me. Please feel free to wave, and to offer any plot advice you may happen to have up your sleeve.

Not Dead Yet

Well my golly gosh it's been a while. So much for the New Year's resolution to be more consistent here and so forth. Anyway, here I am again as another year grinds rapidly to its conclusion.

And it's certainly been a busy one. By my count I've written two first draft's of two separate novels, plus 20,000 words of another, as well as 2 junior novels at 7,000 words each. None of them are finished, and I won't be submitting any of them anytime soon. Instead I'm busily plotting yet another story, which I'm hoping to be substantially into by Christmas.

Why so many different stories? It probably has something to do with the fact I have difficulty making my mind up. Or do I? No, maybe I don't. No, scratch that, I think I probably do. It also has something to do with the fact that the second book or series an author publishes is fairly important in the scheme of things for cementing a readership and a "brand", and to be honest I'm still trying to work out exactly what that brand is.

That's not to say all those other stories are wasted. At least one of them will be revisited in coming years, and elements from the others might turn up in one form or another. And even if I never use any of it, there's nothing like writing thousands of words for polishing up your craft.

And speaking of craft, I stumbled across (Ha! Not really, I found it by obsessively searching on Google) this excellent review of Jeweller of Rassylon this morning. There's nothing quite as gratifying for an author as when a reviewer 'gets' your story, as this lovely person certainly has.

Enjoy, and I hope it won't be months before I post another update.

Time is Ticking Away .... Tick Tick Ticking Away....

There's only about 7 hours left in the Jeweller of Rassylon giveaway (see widget on the right hand side of this blog). If you live in Australia and you haven't entered, you best get in fast (as the sales people say: "Hurry! Time is running out!").

I thought I should briefly explain why the giveaway is only for people in Australia. My aim in doing a giveaway is to raise a little bit of awareness of the book, but seeing as at this stage the book is only available in Australia in New Zealand, it seemed sensible to focus on that market only. And yes, I forgot New Zealand. I went to add it afterwards but Goodreads said I would have to restart the giveaway and I didn't want to do that. Apologies to anyone over the Tasman who missed out. I promise next time to include you! 

Video Interview

I did an interview on camera recently at Pegi Williams Bookshop. You can see it here if you're interested. I push waffling to new limits, but it's a neat summary of my process of getting Blue Jade into print. Thanks to Rebecca and James for inviting me to come.