Hi all,
I expected to be in a state of panic today as I prepared for cataract surgery on Wednesday, but after a meeting with the opthamologist last week I am relatively calm. Firstly, the opthamologist explained to a more receptive patient (me) the reason he had said there was slightly less of a chance of success with my eyes. He said the membrane under the lens on both of my eyes was thinner than normal, so there was a chance that it could split which would mean a hastily arranged second operation that usually fixes that problem. After initially refusing to give me any odds on the overall chances of success, he said it was probably 400:1. After a bit of thought, I decided I would play blind-in-one-eye roulette with a 400 chambered pistol.
The second reason is that, due to an infection, I have had to postpone the cataract surgery for three weeks. Nothing like putting time in the way of a good panic. The first cataract won't be done until the 9th of November and the second two weeks later. I have had a good practice, so my panic will probably be much better next time.
I am no longer editing Stalking Tigers, I am redrafting it. I have deleted and rewritten so much of chapter nine that I can no longer call it editing. The redrafting is mainly due to the compounding of subtle changes I have made, in previous chapters, to the two main character's behaviour that have rendered later actions out of character. It will still get to the same ending, but by a different route.
When reading Saturday's Age I thought I had slipped into an alternative universe, one where ignorance and peer group pressure didn't exist. In the book section there were not just one rare review of a science fiction novel, but two. And one of them was by an Australian author. Shit, hardly any books must have been released last week. The Australian was KA Bedford's, Time Machines Repaired While U Wait, which has just been published in Australia. I read the imported version earlier this year and thought it one of the better science fiction novels going round. I posted a review on this blog a few months ago (one of these days I will teach myself how to put in a link to a previous post, but not today as I will be too busy writing a panic guide).
Graham.
Hi all,
The countdown has begun: only nine more days until I have cataract surgery on my left eye. My stress levels are rising as I ask, what happens if something goes wrong? If the cataract surgery is unsuccessful and leads to my vision becoming worse in the left eye, I am highly unlikely to agree to surgery on the right eye, at least not until I consult a number of opthamologists (eye surgeons). I suppose I could get increasingly thicker glasses so I could read with the right eye, so at least for a few years I would be okay. Hopefully by then, new procedures would ensure success with the removal of the cataract from the right eye. And maybe they will eventually be able to fix the damaged left eye with stem cells or some new technique. All will not be lost if something goes wrong. Still it is a bit of a worry.
I finished editing chapter eight of "Stalking Tigers", only another twenty chapters to go. I added 2,000 words to it, which I wouldn't want to do for the other chapters or the novel could blow out to around 170,000 words.
I am hopeful that after the next month, with new eye lenses, my eyes will no longer strain to see commas, and my writing and reading output will dramatically increase.
Graham.
Hi all,
I'm still editing chapter eight of Stalking Tigers. I'm doing very little writing or reading at the moment due to tired eyes, general tiredness and devoting time to other things, like gardening. Warmer, wetter weather has caused a weed and snail surge in the garden, as well as a rapidly growing lawn. I was only going to plant tomatoes and lettuces over the warmer months so I wouldn't have to spend too much time watering, but I have already added carrots and will soon plant some beans. Oh well, I can consider it research for my novel as some of the story revolves around the stranded characters becoming self-sufficient in food.
Dan Browne has knocked Stephenie Meyer off the top of the bestseller lists. His new book, which has been getting good reviews, sold 126,000 copies in Australia last week.
The new science fiction series FlashForward looks promising. It's based on a Robert J Sawyer novel and like Lost has a continuous story line. Its premise has everyone in the world blacking out for 2mins and 17 secs. During that time they all experience a flash forward to the same moment six months in the future. It's currently on Monday nights at 8.30 on Seven, but probably will be shunted back to 10.30 in a couple of weeks and then disappear from the screens until it turns up on pay TV.
I went and saw two science fiction movies last week - another reason I did not do much editing. Only one of them lived up to their great premises. Surrogate was set in a near future world where the majority of people live their lives through a personal android they're virtually linked to. The movie turned into a pedestrian thriller with an awful ending, one often used in science fiction where some fascist decides that what is good for him is good for everyone. Bruce Willis - its star - should have remembered the lessons from 12 Monkeys (one of the best science fiction movies ever made) where a fascist releases a virus and kills 99% of the world's population.
The other film was District 9, where a huge spaceship stops over South Africa and over a million aliens are accepted as refugees. Years later they are living in a huge ghetto and racism against them is rampant, so the authorities decide to move them far away from the general population (sort of like putting refugees on Christmas Island). It has a gimmick of being filmed in a documentary style for much of the movie and has some of the most seamless special effects I've seen, with the computer generated aliens blending perfectly into real world scenes. Its ending leaves plenty of room for speculation. I reckon its one of the most original and better science fiction movies of recent years.
Graham.
Hi all,
Literary Agent Nathan Bransford wrote a good post on "show not tell" last week. I am reasonably sure I am aware when I am telling and not showing in my own writing. When critiquing I frequently point out instances of telling, eg, when the POV character is described as sad or unhappy. I also often point out instances of the author writing "he felt like" or "she looked at", where writing what he felt or describing what she looked at would do away with the need to tell of that action.
I still tell in my writing. In the novel I am working on, where the characters take a logical sequence of steps to set up their lives on a newly terraformed planet, every now and then, to speed the story along, I tell the reader a summary of what has happened between shown scenes. I might tell them how they did put in the building's foundations before a scene where I have them putting up the walls.
I've just read the national bestseller lists for last week and Stephenie Meyer's novels are back on top again, she has numbers 1,2,3,5 and 10. Her sales might have been given a boost after her novels where banned from some school libraries in Victoria for being too "racy".
I am still slowly editing chapter eight of Stalking Tigers, with the amount of time spent on it decreasing last week. Having tired eyes and blurring vision doesn't help.
Graham.
Hi all,
Last week was one of the most stressful in my life. My father, who has the early stages of dementia, had a hernia operation on Monday. His health is not that great so the operation was not without risk. The operation went well, but at 11.30 that night I was awoken by knocking at the back door. I opened the door and it was my father in his PJs and dressing gown with an intravenous needle in his arm. We found out later that he had also removed a catheter, before shuffling out of the hospital about one and a half kilometres away. I asked him why and he kept on saying, "there was nobody there". The pain killers were obviously making his dementia worse. A call to the hospital found them frantically looking for him. They had called the police, who arrived a few minutes later and took him back to hospital. My father's deteriorating mental state is a huge and saddening worry.
On Tuesday I went to the dentist to have a crown put on a tooth. Unfortunately, as the dentist was putting it on, he noticed another problem, so I have another trip to the dentist in a few weeks.
Wednesday I went to an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) and found out about the cataracts that had mysteriously developed on my eyes. I was in for a couple of shocks. Firstly, the unsympathetic doctor said that there was less of a chance of success of removing the cataract form my left eye than the usual 95 out of 100. Why, I am still yet to find out as I was freaking out at that stage. Then I found out the cost - about $1850 for both eyes done in a public hospital in Benalla 50k's away, or $3700 at the private hospital in Wangaratta (the same private hospital my father had walked out from). Or I could wait 9 months on the public waiting list. I opted for the Benalla public hospital, with the left eye due to be done on the 21st of October.
After I got home, I fumed about the ophthalmologist's attitude, but unfortunately there is only one in Wangaratta, perhaps only one in the surrounding region. When my eyes cleared from the examination's eye drops, I read the information pamphlet given to me. I then wanted to know why me as cataracts don't usually become prominent until people are in their 60's, and that is over a decade away for me. I also wanted to know why my chances of success were worse. It is not as if I am unhealthy, in fact, I reckon I would be fitter than 80-90% of people my age as I swim three kilometres three times a week and lift weights three times a week. I also walk a lot. I rang the ophthalmologist on Thursday, but he, of course, was in surgery. He still has not rung back. I did get some answers from the receptionist, but not to the above two questions.
On Thursday I did some research on cataracts on the web that provided me with little reassurance.
On Friday I woke up with diarrhoea - probably due to stress - and missed work.
So I had a wonderful week. But surprisingly, I did more editing of Stalking Tigers last week than I did the week before. As they say in the not classics: go figure.
Graham
Hi all,
I wasn't as tired last week so I spent a bit more time editing Stalking Tigers than in previous weeks. Perhaps my goal at the moment should be to increase the amount of writing/editing/reading I do from week to week. I actually did some fiction reading too.
I went "inactive" on critters.com and I am surprised that I haven't been booted from OWWW because of my lack of critiquing. I have decided to devote my critiquing energy to KSP, but I won't be doing much until after my eyes are fixed. I continue to worry about my appointment with the eye doctor this Wednesday.
Stephenie Meyer's run of having the top four selling books in Australia has finally ended, with Kathy Retchs now holding the number one spot, followed by Meyer and then Richelle Mead (with another bloody vampire story). Meyer then has four to six. This could be only temporary as her sales will probably increase after some Victorian school libraries banned her novels for being too "racy".
I hope for more positive posts in the weeks to come.
Graham.
Hi all,
Ridiculously tired last week. Went to bed at 6.30 on a couple of nights. If I had not figured out that I am a bit stressed at the moment, then I would be worried about it. Stressed about my cataracts; stressed about work, where ongoing renovations see the place in an orgy of disorganisation every morning; and stressed about my father's up coming hernia operation (my dad's health isn't great).
My father's operation is in just under eight days, so hopefully my stress levels will reduce after that. I see the eye doctor two days later and who knows what that will do to my state of mind. But the renovations just go on and on. So it would appear that I am not going to get much writing and editing done over the next couple of months.
I am about half way through editing chapter eight of Stalking Tigers. No critiquing or fiction reading last week.
At least the Lions won.
Graham.
