Sites of Great Writers

RIP Anne McCaffrey, Vale Dragonlady

November 23, 2011

anne mccaffrey RIP Anne McCaffrey, Vale Dragonlady When I got up this morning I was checking through the social networks over breakfast and saw from Trent Zelazny’s Facebook page that Anne McCaffrey had died of a stroke yesterday. It hit me like a speeding a truck and a small part of my childhood died too. To say that Anne McCaffrey was instrumental in the person and writer I have grown up to be would be an understatement. I immediately put my condolences out through Twitter only to realise that the news hadn’t spread yet. I’m usually a bit behind on this stuff, but suddenly I found myself being the first person people had heard the news from. It was an unusual experience for me, but a profoundly touching one as I saw the massive heartache that Anne’s passing caused, saw so many other people as deeply affected as I was.

I discovered McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books when I was a child, maybe ten or eleven years old. Already a voracious reader, I was always on the lookout for the next great story. McCaffrey’s books transported me. When I realised there were several of them, I couldn’t believe my luck. I felt like a prospector striking gold. Always a fan of dragons, here were books that made dragons into something nobler and more beautiful than I could have imagined. Here was a world so rich in detail and populated with such wonderful characters that I truly wished I could slip between and go there. If someone had offered me a one way ticket to Pern, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

RIP Anne McCaffrey, Vale Dragonlady At about 12 years of age, I wrote my first ever fan letter to an author. I needed to tell this lady how much her books meant to me, how wonderful they were. In the back of one book I saw a note, with an address for any correspondence. I found it hard to believe that such a thing was possible, but I sat down and wrote my letter and asked my mum to post it off. Weeks passed. Weeks are a long time for a twelve-year-old and I thought, Oh well, it was worth a try. It was no surprise that someone as magical as Anne McCaffrey wouldn’t have time to write to some precocious kid in England.

Then a postcard arrived. It had dragons on the front. On the back was a handwritten response from Anne McCaffrey, telling me how pleased she was that I’d enjoyed her books, and how much she appreciated my letter. I was stunned. In my letter I’d told her how I wanted to be a writer one day too, and that I hoped I could maybe write books as good as hers. In her reply she said, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t.” That still resonates with me to this day. I do write books now, and maybe one day they’ll be as good as Anne McCaffrey’s.

I wish I could find that postcard. I kept it safe, but it was close to thirty years ago and I’ve moved many times since then, to the other side of the planet. If I ever find it, I’ll scan it and post it here. Regardless, it lives on in my memory as one of the most important things I’ve ever owned. It shaped me as much as her stories did.

Anne McCaffrey was a class act. An absolute legend who touched the lives of millions. It’s a world worse off without her in it, but we’ll have her stories forever. When I read the news over breakfast this morning, it was raining heavily. I sat at the table, staring out the window at the lancing rain and thought about the thread. I imagined riding a dragon out to burn the thread before it could harm the people below. I remembered just how magical those stories of dragons and guilds were. And all her other stories too, the Crystal universe and Ireta, Talents and Freedom, and so many more. Vale, Anne McCaffrey. If you listen really hard, you can hear the dragons keening.

Chuck Wendig – the writer other writers need to read

By alan

September 16, 2011

Chuck Wendig the writer other writers need to read How do you like that blog post title? Make sense? It should, and it’s true. I came across Chuck’s work from a variety of sources, mostly Twitter-related. And I’m glad I did. You’ll thank me too. I take thanks in the form of alcohol and sexual favours. Or you could buy my books to express your thanks. See what I did there? What are you thanking me for, you ask? How many questions can I put into an opening paragraph? Shall I see? Don’t push me, punks.

Perhaps I’ve had too much coffee today.

Chuck Wendig is a “novelist, screenwriter and freelance penmonkey”. Here’s his bio:

Chuck Wendig is equal parts novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with wife, dog, and newborn progeny. His “vampire in zombieland” novel, DOUBLE DEAD, releases in November, 2011, and he just signed a two-book deal for BLACKBIRDS and MOCKINGBIRD with Angry Robot Books. He has two e-books available: a book of profane writing advice (CONFESSIONS OF A FREELANCE PENMONKEY) and a short story collection (IRREGULAR CREATURES).

“So what do I care?” you’re asking. He’s just making you jealous with his success. Well, that’s why you should read his blog and his books. He’s the hardest working motherfucker in writing, as far as I can tell. The man’s output is astounding. And he gives so much of it away.

I’ve got his ebook, Confessions Of A Freelance Penmonkey, and it’s brilliant. Packed full of juicy tips for writers like a teenage boy’s wastepaper basket is packed full of tissues, only marginally less disgusting. But you don’t even have to buy his books to get his sage advice. He tells it like it is, which is another reason I’m so enamoured of the man. You know me, I don’t like a pussyfooter.

He blogs at his site, Terrible Minds, and is famed far and wide for his 25 Things… lists. Here are a few of my favourite recent postings:

25 Ways To Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story

25 Things You Should Know About Queries, Synopses, Treatments

Twenty-Sided Troubadours: Why Writers Should Play Roleplaying Games

Okay, that last one isn’t a 25 Things… list. Sue me. Actually, don’t – I’m a starving writer and all you’d win in a lawsuit is some suspiciously stained old clothing. And no one wants that.

Yeah, I can hear the grinding of your grudging agreement from here. This bloke knows his shit inside out (don’t think too hard on that expression) and he’s willing to share it (or that). Get yourself over to Terrible Minds and share in the good stuff. Every writer owes it to themselves. I’ve got loads of good stuff out of Chuck and you should too, before the man is a hollowed-out husk, rasping in a gutter somewhere, sucked dry by his own generosity.

Go. Now. Become better.

Aussie authors on Twitter

By alan

June 5, 2011

I love Twitter and spend a lot of time chatting with people there. I find out out great information. I get most of my news from Twitter these days, from following the BBC, ABC, Reuters and so on as well as links from other people. There’s a world of interaction and information out there and, if you follow the right people, Twitter is like a huge curated news feed of stuff you find interesting, plus chit-chat with like-minded people.

With that in mind I thought I’d put together a list of all the Aussie authors I could find on Twitter. I’m an Aussie author, albeit a British ex-pat one, and I regularly chat with loads of other great Aussies. I started with a handful of them I could bring immediately to mind.

And Holy crap, I’ve created a monster! I put the call out on Twitter and Facebook about this and it went bananas, so I’ve had to call a stop to it. I can’t keep up! If you responded on Twitter and I’ve missed you, I apologise – my @reply column went crazy. But please do add yourself or anyone I’ve missed in the comments.

So following is a list of Aussie authors that tweet – writers Down Under represent! Let’s make this post a one stop shop for all your Australian author tweeting needs! (Don’t forget to check the comments.)

Joanne Anderton – ‎@joanneanderton
Karen Andrews – @Miscmum
Kathryn Apel – @KatApel
Peter M Ball – @Petermball
Lee Battersby – @leebattersby
Alan Baxter – @AlanBaxter
Adrian Bedford – @kabedford
Deborah Biancotti – @deborah_b
Russell Blackford – @Metamagician
Georgia Blain – @MeGeBe
James Bradley – @cityoftongues
Adam Byatt – @revhappiness
Trudi Canavan – @TrudiCanavan
David Carlin – @dcarlx
Greg Chapman – ‎@darkscrybe
Jodi Cleghorn – @JodiCleghorn
Neil Creek – @neilcreek
Sophie Cunningham – @sophiec
Belinda D’Alessandro – @bdabooks
Killya Darling – @KillyaD
Josh Donellan – @jmdonellan
Felicity Dowker – @FelicityDowker
Tom Dullemond – @Cacotopos
Joanne Ellis – @JoWritesRomance
Annie Evett ‎- @annieevett
Karen Lee Field – @karenleefield
Jason Fischer – @jasonifischerio
Rebecca Fraser – @BecksMuse
Katrina Germein – @katrinagermein
Laura Goodin ‎- @lauragoodin
Donna M Hanson – @DonnaMHanson
Marieke Hardy – @mariekehardy
Narrelle Harris – @daggyvamp
Pip Harry – @PipHaz
Erica Hayes – @ericahayes
Talie Helene – ‎@TalieHelene
Robert Hoge – @RobertHoge
Cally Jackson – @callyjackson
David Jacobs – @il_beavo
Trent Jamieson – @trentonomicon
Patty Jansen – @pattyjansen
Kathleen Jennings – @tanaudel
Deborah Kalin – @debkalin
Pete Kempshall – @petekempshall
Tessa Kum – @sirtessa
Nansi Kunze – @NansiKunze
Kylie Ladd – @kylie_ladd
Margo Lanagan – @margolanagan
Martin Livings – @martinlivings
Nikki Logan – @ReadNikkiLogan
Joshua Londero – @judgewhisky
Emily Maguire – @EmMaguire
Bronnie Marquardt – @maidinaustralia
Nicola Marsh – @NicolaMarsh
Walter Mason – @walterm
Kirstyn McDermott – @fearofemeralds
Andrew McKiernan – ‎@AndrewMcKiernan
Sharlene Miller – @MillerBrown1
Jennifer Mills – @millsjenjen
Vanessa Monaghan – @vanessamonaghan
Tara Moss – @Tara_Moss
Lily Mulholland – @lilymulholland
Nicole R Murphy – @nicole_r_murphy
P M Newton – @pmnewton
Tracey O’Hara – @traceyohara
Wendy Orr – @wendyorr
Favel Parrett – @favelparrett
Ben Payne – @granfalloon
Mark Pesce – @mpesce
Amanda Pillar – @amanda_pillar
Tim Richards – @Aerohaveno
Daniel I Russell – @danielirussell
M J Scott – @melscott
Yolanda Sfetsos – @yolandasfetsos
Benjamin Solah – @benjaminsolah
Cat Sparks – @catsparx
Kirsten Tranter – @ktranter
Kaaron Warren – @KaaronWarren
Tehani Wessley – @editormum75
Charlotte Wood – @charlotteshucks

See what I mean? This list all happened in one evening – I had to stop it before it consumed me. So those are the lucky ones that make the main list. Please add yourself or any other Aussie authors you know in the comments.

Guest post for The Heir Of Night Launch

By alan

October 7, 2010

At Worldcon I was lucky enough to be asked to do a reading of my work. I was also lucky in that I was able to share that reading session with Helen Lowe. Helen is an awesome author from New Zealand and she read from her forthcoming book The Heir Of Night. Well, that book launches in Australia and New Zealand today. I’m looking forward to reading it – the excerpt she read at Worldcon really caught my interest.

As part of her launch party she’s arranged for a series of guest posts at her blog, with F&SF authors from all over Australia and New Zealand posting about why writing F&SF rocks their world. I get to be first cab off the rank and my post about why I love F&SF goes up tomorrow. In the meantime, check Helen’s site to see the great list of awesome people she’s got visiting over the next few weeks. Also today there are book giveaways and all sorts of cool things happening.

I’ll post a reminder tomorrow about my guest spot, but check out the site today, as it’s launch day and there’s loot to be won!

heir of night release flyer 2a 1 Guest post for The Heir Of Night Launch

Australian Spec Fic blog carnival, March 2010

By alan

March 14, 2010

It’s my turn to host the Australian Spec Fic blog carnival for this month, so following is a round up of all kinds of interesting spec fic related interwebby goodness. If I’ve missed anything, add a link in the comments or email me and I’ll update the post.

First off, Eneit Press interviews Gillian Polack as part of Women In Horror Month.

That segues nicely to Gillian Polak’s own LiveJournal entries which include some thoughts on characters and Good books and equal opportunity neglect. A cryptic title, but a very interesting post.

Here, Graham Storr annouces the release of TimeSplash. A novel with a single word title containing two capital letters? The man is clearly a genius.

Throughout the last few weeks a bunch of very savvy folk have been putting together snapshot interviews of Australian spec fic writers. Links to all 90 or so 2010 Snapshots have now been collated into one place for your perusing pleasure.

Horrorscope, the Australian Dark Fiction Weblog has been busy. Here’s a review of the Horror Stories of Robert E Howard. Here’s a review of The World Is Dead, a review of Zombie: An Anthology Of The Undead and Horns, by Joe Hill.

Also from Horrorscope, a rundown of the 2009 Bram Stoker Award nominees and the 2009 Australian Shadows Awards finalists. Not only that, there’s the Table of Contents for Midnight Echo #4. Midnight Echo # 5 is now open to submissions.

At Delimiter Kim Falconer talks about ebooks.

Here’s a review of the new “superhero” movie, Kick Ass, over at The Furnace.

The fabtastic convention that is Continuum happened at the end of February. This time it was Continuum 6: Future Tense. You can read my report of the con here. One of the guests of honour was the truly inspiring Mark Pesce. Mark wrote a short story for Continuum, called Both Your Houses. You can find that story here.

Brisvegas resident Joanna Penn posts here about lessons learnt from Doctor Who. And who couldn’t learn a thing or two from the good Doctor?

Talking of Doctor Who, here’s a photo by Cat Sparks of Trudi Canavan’s pantry. Why would I post that here? Look at the photo and try to contain the awesome.

And talking of Joanna Penn (my segue skills are unrivalled!) she was kind enough to interview me for a podcast on March 4th. We cover a lot in the half-hour podcast, including writing about supernatural themes, playing with religious mythology, writing fight scenes and more. And it even comes with a warning!

And talking of podcasts (yeah, I know, you’re blown away by my skills) those legendary ladies of the genre Alisa, Tansy and Alex have started a new spec fic podcast via Twelfth Planet Press called Galactic Suburbia. The first episode has just been posted with hopefully many more to follow.

On the publishing front, Tehani Wesley has announced her new project, FableCroft Publishing, and has put a call out for strongly Australian spec fic for a reprint anthology and Liz Grzyb has released the ToC for Scary Kisses, which is now available for pre-order via Ticonderoga Publications.

This one isn’t Australian, but it’s a bit of positive reinforcement for fantasy writers everywhere. On March 5th, Publishers Weekly announced that Harper Teen paid seven figures for a debut YA trilogy based around a retelling of the Greek tragedies.

The Outlandish Voices podcast (where new and established writers read their stories for the masses) has moved to a better hosting arrangement at Podbean, so you can rate and comment on the stories now.

And what’s a blog carnival without a bit of self-pimpage? I wrote a review of The Road by Cormac McCarthy here and the Bitten By Books website wrote glowing reviews of both my books, which is always nice. Here’s their review of RealmShift and here’s their review of MageSign.

Lastly, I updated a couple of new links on my Markets For Writers page. Let me know if you’d like to see other links on there.

And don’t forget to leave a comment with anything else relevant (or completely irrelevant, I don’t mind) that I might have missed.

EDIT: Very important post I missed from Cat Sparks’ LiveJournal regarding Dudcon III and the Ditmars.

Call out for Aust Spec Fic blog carnival

By alan

March 1, 2010

I’ll be hosting the Australian Spec Fic blog carnival in March, posting up a loads of stuff on March 15th. If you have any posts you think are relevant, please let me have the links. It can be anything spec fic related, about writing, books, movies, TV or anything you can find even a vague relevance for.

You can leave links in the comments section here or you can use this fancy Google document form thing that collates everything into a neat spreadsheet for us. Spread the word and hit me up with links to include.

The Top 50 Australian Blogs for Writers by Copywrite updated again

By alan

October 7, 2009

I seem to be on elastic between 11 and 9. What am I on about? The Copywrite Top 50 Australian Blogs for Writers list has been updated again. The first time it came out I was in at number 9, the next one I’d dropped to 11, third time around I was back up to 9. Now it’s been updated once more and I’ve returned to position 11 on the list. The weird thing is that the blogs in all the places around me change all over the place. Maybe I’ll just try to claim positions 9, 10 and 11 as permanent territory and declare it a nation state.

Anyway, it’s an honour and very satisfying to see that my blog is still up there. It’s also very exciting to see my friend Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn climbing ever higher. She’s at number 4 this time. And also, fellow AHWA member Benjamin Solah has climbed an impressive 12 places up to number 13.

Other cool people in the list (either top 50 or runners up) include Merrilee Faber, Brenton Tomlinson, Gillian Polack, Trudi Canavan, Margo Lanagan, Lee Battersby and many more. It’s great to see so many genre fiction writers having an impact on the net this way.

Congratulations to all!

Call Yourself a Writer Meme

By alan

August 24, 2009

The lovely Joanna Penn over at The Creative Penn website tagged me with this meme. You can find Jo’s answers here. You can find the original meme (with rules, no less!) here.

So, on to the questions then.

Which words do you use too much in your writing?

An editor once told me, ‘Try not to have all your characters say “Indeed” all the time.’ It’s a bit harsh, but I think there’s some validity in that. It does seem that any character over 40 in my work does have a propensity to say ‘Indeed’. I’ve been working on avoiding that. Apparently I also overuse the word ‘chuckle’. I did chuckle when a reader told me that. Oh, wait…

What’s your favourite piece of writing by you?

I’m really not sure about that. I’m so proud of everything I’ve written that it’s hard to pick something specific. RealmShift is always going to be very close to my heart as it was my first full length (completed) novel. I’m also very proud of a lot of my short fiction. I’m so pleased that I managed a second novel that most people have declared better than the first. Basically, I don’t have a favourite. Isn’t it wrong for parents to have favourite children?

What blog post do you wish you’d written?

This is really weird. I have no idea. In fact, I’d like to have written the blog post that caught the attention of major publishers and film makers that subsequently resulted in a multi-book, multi-million dollar publishing contract with associated film options and full merchandising. Or would that just be selling out? Screw it, though – if we’re dreaming about the ultimate blog post, let’s aim high.

Regrets, do you have a few? Is there anything you wish you hadn’t written?

I wish I hadn’t written “Mr Linnel is a beardy cunt” on the toilet wall in high school. But I only regret that because I was caught and fairly severely punished. He did have a mighty beard, though. Otherwise I’ve yet to write anything that I really regret and I hope I can keep it that way.

How has your writing made a difference? What do you consider your most important piece of writing?

I hope that some of my writing has made people stop and think. I don’t necessarily want to change anyone’s mind, just challenge them to question why they have the mind they do. Make them pause to decide if they really feel that way or if they’re just blundering blindly on. As it says on the About page here at The Word, “Above all, I try to tell a good yarn with my fiction but I would also like to make people think. Not enough people actually stop to think these days, to make informed decisions for themselves about everything from the brand of soap they buy to the version of deity they choose to believe in.”

Name three favourite words:

Love, adrenaline, art.

…And three words you’re not so keen on:

Arrogance, selfishness, vaginoplasty.

Do you have a writing mentor, role model or inspiration?

I have been extremely lucky to have had the advice and assistance of the wonderful Dr Van Ikin over the years, to whom I’m incredibly grateful. Otherwise my inspiration is through those other writers out there whose stories move me and make me think, ‘I want to write stories this good!’

What’s your writing ambition?

To keep writing and to gain more and more readers as the years roll by. Not much to ask, is it?

Plug alert! List any work you would like to tell your readers about:

I’m sure you’re all more than well aware of this already, but you can find all about my work right here. The novels are here, the short stories are here.

In the spirit of the meme, I tag:

(Seriously, I know Chuck Norris isn’t a writer, but imagine if he responded. He’d probably just give my blog a roundhouse kick to the face. Besides, I just wanted an excuse to link to the excellent Chuck Norris Facts website. Click it, you know you want to.)

Continuum 5 Galaxies By Gaslight – the report

By alan

August 16, 2009

I’m very tired today. It’s been an excellent weekend, but tiring. This is because I flew down to Melbourne (boy, are my arms tired… boom-tish) for the Continuum convention, Galaxies By Gaslight. There was a general steampunk theme to this fifth Continuum and it was a lot of fun to be involved in. I’ll write a bit about it below and be sure to click on any linked names you see and you’ll learn about some great SF writers.

The general mood of the con was quite quiet and calm. It wasn’t ever really packed and many of the panel audiences were small, but everyone was in good spirits, there was a great sense of friendliness in the air and lots of socialising going on.

I was on a panel with fellow AHWA members Robert Hood, Talie Helene, Rocky Wood and Garry Fay (sorry Garry, couldn’t find a website for you!) We had a small audience but a very interesting discussion on what really scares us in this modern age. There was much talk of the rise of “torture porn” movies (a term I had never heard before, but now love) such as the Hostel and Saw films. We talked about how the visceral nature of schlock horror and torture porn was becoming popular in our sanitised society while the real horror, the implied terror, the monster under the bed or the ghost right behind you, is still the really scary thing. There was even a suggestion that there’s no such genre as horror and, controversial though that may be, I’m glad that I’m not the only one that thinks that way.

A lot of bookshops will stock “horror” titles in the Crime & Thriller section now. I always refer to my own stuff as dark fantasy or dark fiction, because horror is too narrow and oft-misinterpreted a term anyway. Any genre can contain elements of horror. I was glad that the general consensus of the panel and audience this weekend was that the torture porn is popular but a largely irrelevant glitch in the zeitgeist and that real horror and terror, the stuff contained in good dark fiction, is alive and well and will continue on, much like a determined zombie.

I sat in the audience this weekend on a few other very interesting panels. One on time travel in fiction was good fun, with the general consensus being that any time travel tends to really fuck up a good story 99% of the time, with a very few outstanding exceptions. Of course, it’s worth it for those exceptions, but anyone writing yarns with time travel in them needs to be very careful. That panel also pointed out to me that I’m about the last human left on earth still watching Lost. Apparently everyone else has given up on it.

I also caught up with and attended a few readings from great writers like Rachel Holkner, Gillian Polack, Lucy Sussex, Sean Williams, Deb Biancotti, Cat Sparks and Sean McMullen.

Good fun was had by all as far as I can tell. One of the strangest things that happened to me was in the dealer’s room on the Saturday afternoon. I stopped by one table to look at some comic collections by a guy called Jenner. They’re medical based comics, with animals as the stars. Jenner is also a doctor and writes and draws these comics from his experiences with patients and staff. It started as a small habit for medical publications, grew into a web comic and now he sells them in books too. Why was this strange for me? Well, while I was browsing he kindly offered to draw a caricature of me for free while I checked out his books. Who can turn down an offer like that?

So here it is:

al by jenner small Continuum 5 Galaxies By Gaslight the report

I think it’s very good. And not entirely unlike the author photo I usually use (the one in the banner at the top of this site). You can find Jenner’s cartoons here.

The next con on the agenda is Conflux 6 in October. See you there.