Chili, Chili, Chili.

I went out into the garden yesterday morning and picked lots of chili from my vegetable patch. Ended up with over a kilo. So I made my world famous Sweet Chili Sauce that I end up pouring on just about everything I eat. It's a pretty good sauce, even if I do say so myself. My wife's boss has a standing order for it. While I pottered around in the kitchen, pretending I was on MasterChef,  I listened to some XTC - Apple Venus. Some might think this an obscure album - it's certainly under-appreciated. (yeah Paul, my copy is autographed!)

And I've been writing lots. Subbed two stories last week, rewrote another, started writing a new one, and generally feeling good about it all. The mentorship I undertook with Paul Haines last year (through the AHWA) really seems to be paying off. I'm drafting less, and getting to the final product a lot quicker. The stories flow a lot better, and have a lot fewer irrelevant parts within.

And then it's back to school tomorrow. Busy time ahead, with lots of marking coming up as we approach the mid year.  We have our athletics day this week too. A day I don't ever look forward to, but usually end up enjoying. And film club tomorrow night - Coen Brothers' A Serious Man. I always love going along, if only for the social aspect. I managed to convince a few friends to join and we go out for dinner first.

I believe it's mixed grill this week.

It Just Doesn't Seem to Make Sense.

Last week I read an internet article written by someone involved in publishing.  This person was writing about small press publishers and how important they were to not only emerging writers, but to the publishing industry in general. The writer commented on how these small publishers filled niches and satisfied readers of genre that the larger publishers wouldn't touch due to economics.

So far, so good.

Then this writer selected a couple of small publishers (by name) and proceeded to praise one (publisher A) while viciously attacking the other (publisher B). Publisher A could do no wrong, while Publisher B was doing nothing but harm to writing in general. The reasons given? Publisher B had poor editors, terrible layouts (with examples given) and was heavily criticised as being nothing more than fans turned publishers.

Fair enough.

Except for one thing.  It so happens I have several anthologies from both these publishers. And what I've noticed is this.  The perceived faults with the layouts described for publisher B are exactly the same as those found in publisher A's work. I found as many 'missing words' in sentences in both, while in Publisher A's work, I found more mistaken homophones - really obvious ones too. As for the quality of the selected writings? Well, I found both had excellent inclusions, both had a couple of average ones, while Publisher A even had one or two that were just poorly written with several examples of confusing and amateurishly constructed sentences and paragraphs that were embarrassing to read.

I enjoyed the work from both publishers - I just wonder what the writer of the article had against Publisher B, and whether the writer had any sort of interest in Publisher A. And, of course, it's a shame there were grammatical and editing mistakes in both of these publisher's works.

It does make you remember one thing, though. Keep an open mind on reviews, unless you see the same comments pop up over and over again.

(Unfortunately I didn't bookmark the article at the time, and can't seem to find it now.  I'm sure it must still be out there under layers of other webpages.)

Five Weeks To Go.

Only five weeks or so until Worldcon 68/Aussicon 4, and I must say I'm really excited.

Just over two years ago I was reading online about Continuum 5, and at that stage I'd never been to a convention. The information online was rather sparse - it seemed to be all about steampunk, which I didn't know much about. In fact I wasn't really sure what went on at Continuum.  For all I knew I might have been joining a cult (some may suggest I actually was) But in the end I decided just to go anyway.  And I was really glad I did.  I had the most wonderful time and met some fantastic people.

And so I convinced a friend to come along with me to Continuum 6. And he had a great time too. So much so that he not only signed up for Continuum 7, but Worldcon as well.

As a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association, I've now signed up for the Nightmare Ball. Sounds like it should be a lot of fun. I'm planning to meet up with fellow writer GNBraun for the first time there, as well as a few other people I've met over the years. And, of course, at the actual convention I'll not only see a lot of faces I know, but meet up with lots of new people too.

So if you haven't signed up for Aussiecon yet, what's stopping you?

It's The Same Old Story... Or Is It?.

A while ago I wrote a story that I really liked. A few other people really liked it too.  I sent it out, and it received great comments, but no one picked it up. I was told it was well written, but basically lacked action. The protagonist is passive.

Which is true - he is. And that was how I wanted the story to be. Paul Haines, under the mentorship program sponsored by the Australian Horror Writer Association, has been workshopping it with me.  He's given me some fantastic feedback on the story and has caused my thoughts and ideas to head off in areas I hadn't considered.

And so now I'm rewriting parts of the story, introducing a new character, and just trying to tighten the thing right up.

But all this is flowing over into the story I'm currently writing. I've started applying these thoughts over there as well, and it's making for a much better story.

I've never been overly fond of critique groups - my minimal experience with them hasn't been great - but I definitely see the value in having readers who know what they are talking about. And I've been fortunate enough to build up a couple of them.  I just need them to get a little harsher with me.