Rated from * to *****
*** Armageddon's Children, Terry Brooks, 2006. A young adult fantasy/science fiction novel that is just about all prologue for the coming books in the series. The characters are clichéd, eg a mystical American Indian, but I enjoyed his post-apocalyptic world where magic and genetic engineering are set to battle it out. By the end it had me wanting to read the next book in the series so it had achieved its purpose.
** Asimov Magazine, July 1999. I enjoyed and remember the opening story, Soherzo with Tyrannosaur by Michael Swanwick. An article about the future of science-fiction writing by Norman Spinard was interesting.
* The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson, 1995. Having read Snow Crash by the same author I was expecting a great original read, but what I got was more of the same and a couple of main characters that I didn't care about by the end of the book. The setup broke down halfway through this long book, and lead to a ridiculous climax where hundreds of supergirls battled kungfu-ing Asians.
* Andromeda Inflight Spaceways Magazine, Issue 4, 2002. I know this magazine was set up to create a market for Australian writers of pulp speculative fiction. So the stories aren't meant to answer questions like the meaning of life. The stories are meant to be humourous, but to me, most of the stories were unfunny and instantly forgotten, except one, which had, what I can only assume to be, the unintended message from its American author that sinners can buy their way into heaven. I didn't rush out and join an evangelical church.
*** Asimov, January 2001. Some great stories in this one. Stories with hanging endings that left room for speculating what happened next, like Allen Steele's Stealing Alabama.
*** That Eye, The Sky, Tim Winton, 1986. This is the second novel of Winton's I have read and like Riders it had, to me, an unresolved feeling, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a very sad young adult novel about a family slowly imploding after a car accident turns the father into a near vegetable. The characters are mostly believable, with one wild eccentric sometimes straining credibility.
*** Great Short Stories of the English Speaking World, Vol 1, 1977. A great assortment of stories written over centuries. My favourite was The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton and I was glad that I read The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell before going to see one of last year's most interesting films, Zodiac.
**** The Quarterly Essay, His Master's Voice – The Corruption of Public Debate Under John Howard, David Marr, 2007. Gave a lot of examples of how John Howard successfully silenced debate by denigrating anyone who gave an opinion contrary to his.
*** My Life As A Fake, Peter Carey, 2004. Another exploration of self-deception by Carey. I love his non-judgemental style of writing and his always totally flawed characters.
**** The Future Happens Twice, Matt Browne, 2007. One of the best science-fiction novels I have read. Part thriller, but mostly an adventure story, it explores the ethical challenges of future intergenerational space exploration. I look forward to the sequel.
A blog about writing, science fiction, the future of publishing, books, and me.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
How much writing do I need to do before I get published?
Hi all,
I was reading a post on Stephen Dedman's blog on livejournal.com and he mentioned Ian Irvine's writing rules at www.ian-irvine.com. Ian reckons a writer needs to write for 10,000 hrs before they will complete a publishable novel. That's the equivalent of treating writing as a full-time job for five years. I estimate that I have spent around 3,000 hours actually writing and editing over the years. If I also include critiquing of other writer's work, which I consider essential to learning about writing, I could probably add about 500 hours. If I included the writing courses I have done - without the time spent writing and critiquing included above - I could add about another 800 hours. And if I included the time I have spent reading writing books then I could add about another 200 hours. So all up that gives me about 4,500 hours, barely halfway.
I have also read that the first three novels a writer writes are practice. It took Peter Carey ten years to write his first three novels and none of them got published. I have completed the first draft of one novel, which I aim to rewrite this year when I finish the first draft of the novel I am currently working on. I estimate I am about a third of the way through that first draft. I am also a third of the way through another novel and 15,000 words into another. So realistically, I am nowhere near finishing three novels. By finishing I mean rewriting them a number of times and then polishing them.
I have also heard of the 1,000,000 word rule. The first draft of the novel mentioned above is 126,000 words. I am somewhere around 40,000 words into my current novel, and I have written about 40,000 and 15,000 words of two other novels. I would estimate that I have completed about 80,000 - 100,000 words of short stories and another 50,000 words of writing exercises. Within those word tallies above, there are at least 200,000 words of corrections and deletions. That gives me about 571,000 words, so I am about halfway.
So it would seem I am about halfway to having a publishable novel. It feels like I am only about halfway too. One thing is for sure, I need to do a lot more writing. So far this year I have written every day. I now aim to increase the amount of writing I do every day.
Graham.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Review of Matt Browne's "The Future Happens Twice"
Hi all,
The Future Happens Twice is one of the better science-fiction novels I have read. Its originality and Matt’s uncomplicated writing style made it a delight to read. Matt’s extensive research for the novel also shines through as I never found myself thinking an element within the novel was implausible.
It is a hard science-fiction novel. By hard I don’t mean it’s hard to read, far from it. Matt Browne writes in a simple style that doesn’t intrude on the story. His style is reminiscent of the uncomplicated writing of Dean Koontz, Margaret Atwood and Peter Carey. You won’t be re-reading jargon laden and unnecessarily complicated sentences in The Future Happens Twice.
By hard science-fiction I mean that Matt Browne has created a universe true to today’s science and what scientists think will be possible in the future. Some of the hard science-fiction elements in the novel include: cloning, nanotechnology matter-compilers, artificial wombs, believable androids, realistic alien life-forms, and intergenerational space travel.
The best thing about the novel is its originality. I’ve read and watched a lot of science-fiction and I never found myself thinking that Matt’s novel sounded familiar. It is part-thriller and very much an adventure story as Matt explores one possible future for humanity.
It is a story where a group of scientists set out to ensure that the human race survives an end-of-civilisation event. To help ensure our future, scientists conduct a series of ethically questionable experiments on the unsuspecting crew of a spaceship and their relatives on earth. Some of their test subjects become aware of the experiment, jeopardising its continuation and human kind’s future.
His characters are full of human desires and flaws. There are no one-dimensional, chiselled-from-stone characters in this novel.
I would recommend the Future Happens Twice to anyone who likes to read plausible, simple to read, exciting, adventure/thriller novels set in the not too distant future.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Sophie Mirabella's boycott of the apology.
Hi all,
If you didn't know, Sophie Mirabella was one of three or four opposition members to boycott Kevin Rudd's apology for past government policies to the Stolen Generation. Unfortunately Sophie is my local member. The local regional newspaper, The Border Mail, calls her the "darling of the far-right". I would tend to agree.
There has been a strong response against her boycott from the electorate of Indi. 150 people took out a newspaper ad in the Border Mail, and about 40 letters, 34 or so against her stance, appeared in last Saturday's edition of that paper. On regional ABC radio phone calls and read out texts went about 50/50, but that was probably the ABC trying to show a lack of bias. Last Thursday 400 people attended a rally in Wangaratta to show that they were against her boycott and supported the apology.
Sophie evaded a question on radio about whether she thought that Aboriginal children had been stolen by stating that none had been taken in Victoria according to one report she had read. She said the issue of the Stolen Generation was divisive, she certainly proved that. In a speech against the apology she often quoted Noel Pearson.
Sophie did not inform the electorate that she would boycott the apology before she did so.
Below is a letter I have just put in the mail.
Sophie Mirabella,
117 Murphy Street
Wangaratta Vic 3677
Dear Sophie,
We are writing this letter to express our disgust at your boycott of the Australian Government’s apology for past policies that lead to the Stolen Generation.
Some have called your decision to boycott racist, which is, as yet, unproven. We believe your boycott resulted from ignorance. We believe you limited your research on the complex issue of the Stolen Generation to those opinions supporting yours, as over the past few years the Age and the ABC have had hundreds of stories from Aborigines who were stolen from their parents.
You consistently try to argue that all the Aboriginal children were taken for their own good and that none were stolen from their parents in Victoria, but we have read and heard hundreds of stories from the Stolen Generation and know your claim is either maliciously or ignorantly wrong.
Your attempt to whip up fear that the apology will cause huge compensation payments has failed to scare us. Compensation funds have already been setup in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. In South Australia a member of the Stolen Generation recently had interest added to their successful court claim. In our opinion, the Stolen Generation and their families should be compensated for their pain and suffering, just as illegally deported Vivian Alverez-Solon was.
In the end, your opinion only matters in that it stains the voters of Indi with your ignorance. What really matters is the reaction of the Aboriginal people, which on the whole seems to be a mixture of happiness and relief. Note: Noel Pearson does not have a monopoly on Aboriginal opinion. Perhaps you could talk to local Wally Cooper.
Graham Clements Neil Clements Doris Clements.
If you didn't know, Sophie Mirabella was one of three or four opposition members to boycott Kevin Rudd's apology for past government policies to the Stolen Generation. Unfortunately Sophie is my local member. The local regional newspaper, The Border Mail, calls her the "darling of the far-right". I would tend to agree.
There has been a strong response against her boycott from the electorate of Indi. 150 people took out a newspaper ad in the Border Mail, and about 40 letters, 34 or so against her stance, appeared in last Saturday's edition of that paper. On regional ABC radio phone calls and read out texts went about 50/50, but that was probably the ABC trying to show a lack of bias. Last Thursday 400 people attended a rally in Wangaratta to show that they were against her boycott and supported the apology.
Sophie evaded a question on radio about whether she thought that Aboriginal children had been stolen by stating that none had been taken in Victoria according to one report she had read. She said the issue of the Stolen Generation was divisive, she certainly proved that. In a speech against the apology she often quoted Noel Pearson.
Sophie did not inform the electorate that she would boycott the apology before she did so.
Below is a letter I have just put in the mail.
Sophie Mirabella,
117 Murphy Street
Wangaratta Vic 3677
Dear Sophie,
We are writing this letter to express our disgust at your boycott of the Australian Government’s apology for past policies that lead to the Stolen Generation.
Some have called your decision to boycott racist, which is, as yet, unproven. We believe your boycott resulted from ignorance. We believe you limited your research on the complex issue of the Stolen Generation to those opinions supporting yours, as over the past few years the Age and the ABC have had hundreds of stories from Aborigines who were stolen from their parents.
You consistently try to argue that all the Aboriginal children were taken for their own good and that none were stolen from their parents in Victoria, but we have read and heard hundreds of stories from the Stolen Generation and know your claim is either maliciously or ignorantly wrong.
Your attempt to whip up fear that the apology will cause huge compensation payments has failed to scare us. Compensation funds have already been setup in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. In South Australia a member of the Stolen Generation recently had interest added to their successful court claim. In our opinion, the Stolen Generation and their families should be compensated for their pain and suffering, just as illegally deported Vivian Alverez-Solon was.
In the end, your opinion only matters in that it stains the voters of Indi with your ignorance. What really matters is the reaction of the Aboriginal people, which on the whole seems to be a mixture of happiness and relief. Note: Noel Pearson does not have a monopoly on Aboriginal opinion. Perhaps you could talk to local Wally Cooper.
Graham Clements Neil Clements Doris Clements.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The future of the book (part two).
Hi all,
In a previous post (January 6th) about the future of the book, I mentioned a few articles I had read that suggested novel writers might have a greater chance of fighting off the distractions of computer games and movies if they wrote stories that did the one thing that movies and games can't do as effectively: explore the inner working of their character's mind. There seemed some logic to doing this: why read an action adventure story if you can play an action adventure game or watch an action adventure television program.
In Japan a new phenomenon suggests that novelists might be more successful if they don't explore the inner workings of their character's minds at all. Novels written and read on mobile phones have become all the rage. Five of the top ten selling novels in Japan last year first made their appearance as mobile phone serials. These mainly romance novels use pauses to indicate that a character is thinking. What they are thinking is obviously up to the reader's imagination.
I may also have been wasting my time reading many science-fiction, fantasy and literature short stories and novels as the writers and readers of these Japanese text novels have little or no knowledge of what novels and stories have gone before. But, I will continue to read my favourite authors and award winning novels and short-stories. If I am wasting my time it will have been enjoyable waste of time.
I did like a remark by Ethan Hawke's character in a film that distracted me the other night. In Fast Food Nation he said something like: people who follow their passion, even those who are not the successes they set out to be, die happier then those who quit their passion or have no passion.
Graham.
In a previous post (January 6th) about the future of the book, I mentioned a few articles I had read that suggested novel writers might have a greater chance of fighting off the distractions of computer games and movies if they wrote stories that did the one thing that movies and games can't do as effectively: explore the inner working of their character's mind. There seemed some logic to doing this: why read an action adventure story if you can play an action adventure game or watch an action adventure television program.
In Japan a new phenomenon suggests that novelists might be more successful if they don't explore the inner workings of their character's minds at all. Novels written and read on mobile phones have become all the rage. Five of the top ten selling novels in Japan last year first made their appearance as mobile phone serials. These mainly romance novels use pauses to indicate that a character is thinking. What they are thinking is obviously up to the reader's imagination.
I may also have been wasting my time reading many science-fiction, fantasy and literature short stories and novels as the writers and readers of these Japanese text novels have little or no knowledge of what novels and stories have gone before. But, I will continue to read my favourite authors and award winning novels and short-stories. If I am wasting my time it will have been enjoyable waste of time.
I did like a remark by Ethan Hawke's character in a film that distracted me the other night. In Fast Food Nation he said something like: people who follow their passion, even those who are not the successes they set out to be, die happier then those who quit their passion or have no passion.
Graham.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
what's happening
Hi all,
I enjoyed my first day back at work, partly due to my nemesis not being there, but more due to a new teacher-librarian who is there two days a week - she seems open to suggestions. There also wasn't the mad rush to return books before the end-of-year overdue letters were given to students.
I got the quickest turn around for an application and then interview on Monday. I applied for a long shot - I thought anyway - with an email and got a phone call for an interview thirty minutes later. I had the interview today and did okay, I think.
I've written some of my novel every day this year. Habits become habit forming, I hope. I am still not up to my ideal modest word count per day, but it is on the increase.
I've been fooling around with technocrati, a search engine for blogs. At the moment I have three blogs, one at myspace, one at livejournal and one at blogspot. I will probably eventually ditch blogspot and then carry on with one of the others, depending on which one is getting the most hits. They all have the same posts, from whatever day they were started. I still haven't registered my blog with google, which I might try and do right now.
Graham.
I enjoyed my first day back at work, partly due to my nemesis not being there, but more due to a new teacher-librarian who is there two days a week - she seems open to suggestions. There also wasn't the mad rush to return books before the end-of-year overdue letters were given to students.
I got the quickest turn around for an application and then interview on Monday. I applied for a long shot - I thought anyway - with an email and got a phone call for an interview thirty minutes later. I had the interview today and did okay, I think.
I've written some of my novel every day this year. Habits become habit forming, I hope. I am still not up to my ideal modest word count per day, but it is on the increase.
I've been fooling around with technocrati, a search engine for blogs. At the moment I have three blogs, one at myspace, one at livejournal and one at blogspot. I will probably eventually ditch blogspot and then carry on with one of the others, depending on which one is getting the most hits. They all have the same posts, from whatever day they were started. I still haven't registered my blog with google, which I might try and do right now.
Graham.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tv antennas, critiques, writing etc
Hi all,
My holidays end this week - next week I will back at work in my part-time library position - so I finally got around to doing some of the things that I need to do while I've got the extra time. I visited the optometrist and finished up getting two new pair of spectacles, one for reading and one for watching TV etc. The pair I was using for reading has now become my computer glasses and the pair that were my computer glasses don't really preform any function any more. I will be interested to see if I make fewer typos now I've finally swapped computer glasses. The shop had a buy one, get one free deal for the glasses so there purchase didn't break the bank.
I finally went looking for a new pair of runners. It would have been nice to get a pair similar to my last pair which lasted for 13 months and about 2000 walked kilometres. We had a new Athlete's Foot open in Wang and they had a sale on last month, but their sale prices were more expensive than Sportspower's normal prices. I do make it a bit harder for myself by refusing to buy Nike because of their continued disregard for the sweat-shops their products are made in. Surely they could give some of the 100 million sponsorship of Tiger Woods or the 80 million sponsorship of Venus Williams to their workers.
Lightning struck the transmission tower for all the commercial television channels in Wang on Wednesday night knocking out all the channels on our televisions. I thought something had happened to our antenna so I went up on the roof and had a look, and naturally couldn't find anything wrong with it. I then climbed under the house and fiddled with the connector and I've been fiddling with it ever since, having spent about six hours in three attempts to get the fickle reception going again. I could get the reception right on two televisions, but not the third, and as soon as the third one was okay, one of the others faded. The constant static electric shocks from the cables didn't help my mood - my thumbs are still sore. The main problem ended up being an overstretched antenna connection plugged into the back of the televisions, so I replaced the cable. At least I hope that was the problem. I could really identify with the guy on the Amazing race who freaked out when he couldn't get his car into gear.
I did my first critique of the year. As usual I read the story, wrote a few notes, and then waited until the next day to re-read the story, this time writing down a lot more and correcting anything I saw as I went. It was just as well I read it a second time because I missed a crucial plot point the first time around. I posted the critique and got a response from its author answering some of the questions I had raised. I hope the story's writer realises that, if he is to satisfy a reader like myself, he must put those answers somewhere in the original story. But it may just be me, I might have no concept of the subtleties of literature. Anyway, it was a very good story.
I finally got my newspaper reading up to date, Yaaa, and now feel a lot more qualified to comment on currents events. I do hope the federal government's Sorry to the stolen generation is successful, but I see the rednecks are circling. I wonder how much different Aboriginal society might be today if there wasn't a rampant policy of assimilation and land dispossession, and if Aborigines had been paid for work they did last century when thousands of them were ripped off by their white masters.
I have been writing every day, so I am starting to feel like a real writer, but the word count is still not that good and has dipped in the past two weeks as I have been editing what I have written so far. So I must now go and do some writing.
Graham.
My holidays end this week - next week I will back at work in my part-time library position - so I finally got around to doing some of the things that I need to do while I've got the extra time. I visited the optometrist and finished up getting two new pair of spectacles, one for reading and one for watching TV etc. The pair I was using for reading has now become my computer glasses and the pair that were my computer glasses don't really preform any function any more. I will be interested to see if I make fewer typos now I've finally swapped computer glasses. The shop had a buy one, get one free deal for the glasses so there purchase didn't break the bank.
I finally went looking for a new pair of runners. It would have been nice to get a pair similar to my last pair which lasted for 13 months and about 2000 walked kilometres. We had a new Athlete's Foot open in Wang and they had a sale on last month, but their sale prices were more expensive than Sportspower's normal prices. I do make it a bit harder for myself by refusing to buy Nike because of their continued disregard for the sweat-shops their products are made in. Surely they could give some of the 100 million sponsorship of Tiger Woods or the 80 million sponsorship of Venus Williams to their workers.
Lightning struck the transmission tower for all the commercial television channels in Wang on Wednesday night knocking out all the channels on our televisions. I thought something had happened to our antenna so I went up on the roof and had a look, and naturally couldn't find anything wrong with it. I then climbed under the house and fiddled with the connector and I've been fiddling with it ever since, having spent about six hours in three attempts to get the fickle reception going again. I could get the reception right on two televisions, but not the third, and as soon as the third one was okay, one of the others faded. The constant static electric shocks from the cables didn't help my mood - my thumbs are still sore. The main problem ended up being an overstretched antenna connection plugged into the back of the televisions, so I replaced the cable. At least I hope that was the problem. I could really identify with the guy on the Amazing race who freaked out when he couldn't get his car into gear.
I did my first critique of the year. As usual I read the story, wrote a few notes, and then waited until the next day to re-read the story, this time writing down a lot more and correcting anything I saw as I went. It was just as well I read it a second time because I missed a crucial plot point the first time around. I posted the critique and got a response from its author answering some of the questions I had raised. I hope the story's writer realises that, if he is to satisfy a reader like myself, he must put those answers somewhere in the original story. But it may just be me, I might have no concept of the subtleties of literature. Anyway, it was a very good story.
I finally got my newspaper reading up to date, Yaaa, and now feel a lot more qualified to comment on currents events. I do hope the federal government's Sorry to the stolen generation is successful, but I see the rednecks are circling. I wonder how much different Aboriginal society might be today if there wasn't a rampant policy of assimilation and land dispossession, and if Aborigines had been paid for work they did last century when thousands of them were ripped off by their white masters.
I have been writing every day, so I am starting to feel like a real writer, but the word count is still not that good and has dipped in the past two weeks as I have been editing what I have written so far. So I must now go and do some writing.
Graham.
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