Champagne and Socks

We’re having a competition to find the best trifle recipe for inclusion in our forthcoming crime novel A Trifle Dead.

In anticipation of A Trifle Dead, the debut novel from new crime imprint Deadlines, we seek delicious, inspiring trifle recipes to publish in the book.

We are looking for recipes that match any or all of the following themes: Shot Glass Trifle, Death by Trifle, and Tasmanian Trifle.

Up to 3 winning recipe/s will appear in the novel, with all credit and attribution to the creator/s.

The winner(s) will receive an early contributor copy of A Trifle Dead, a stack of postcards featuring your winning recipe, and your choice of 2 Twelfth Planet Press books (either backlist or forthcoming titles).

Submit your recipe to contact@twelfthplanetpress.com with subject line A TRIFLE DEAD RECIPE and including a photo of your finished masterpiece by August 8, 2012.

Please provide contact details, preferred attribution, and a mailing address.

A Trifle Dead

About Livia Day:

Livia Day fell in love with crime fiction at an early age.  Her first heroes were Miss Jane Marple and Mrs Emma Peel, and not a lot has changed since then!

She has lived in Hobart, Tasmania for most of her life, and now spends far too much time planning which picturesque tourist spot will get the next fictional corpse.  You can find her online at tabithadarlingsbedroomfloor.tumblr.com

I’ve been remembering some important things that I already learned the hard way a while ago.

1. Reading. For Fun. It’s a thing. I forgot.

The other night I decided to pull something non sf from my to read bookshelf for light reading. I have one or two books sprinkled in there that are related to other interests. That I have. I climbed into bed with said book, read a bit of it and went to sleep. And then I was actually excited to make a little bit of time before bed by going to bed the next night a bit early to read a bit more. And again the night after that. And oh yeah, reading for fun, is fun. I totally forgot. Maybe, and I know this is going out there a bit, but stick with me, maybe I could buy more books that are not “work” related and maybe I’d rediscover my joy of reading. Just a thought.

2. My mantra, that I worked on some time ago – is not “oh no I got nothing done tonight” but rather to ask myself “did I make progress today” and as long as the answer is “yes”, then I’m good. I don’t know where along the way I accidentally dropped that one but I did. And now that I found it and picked it up again, the daily emails from I Done This make so much more sense – oh that’s what they were for again!

3. In this world, there will always be people who don’t like you. Just like there are people in this world who you do not like.  That’s ok. That’s life. That’s actually an important part of life. It’s far more important to “Know before whom you stand”.

4. I need to work on taking down time. And the way I used to do this was with craft. I’ve left a lot of my craft work languish and whilst there is much work to be done, it’s also important to take time out to meditate and let creativity sneak in. I’m going to work harder on making time to work on craft projects as this forces me to put down the work sometimes and just take a break.

5. I feel better when I progress a little bit of a lot of things rather than focussing on taking one thing through to the end of the task. I prefer to step back and see lots of things getting done, even if its more slowly, than if I finish just one thing – I will say “I only got one thing done” even if it was a really really big thing.

6. I also have a tendency to work hard on a project, take it past the 85% completed point and walk away. I have a fear of failure or a fear of success, I haven’t quite worked that one out. But it seems it’s much easier to say something didn’t work out because I chose not to finish it or I ran out of time or  I just didn’t do X, Y or Z. I do this with all kinds of things, big and small. And it’s kinda bullshit. I’m working on picking things back up to finish them all the way to the end and on finding ways to not walk away when I’m almost at the finishing line.

7. Just F’ing Do It and/or Just Ask for Help. OMG I am the worst for emailing or phoning up to ask a question or ask for help on something. Or progressing anything that involves telling or talking to someone else about it. It turns out, it does not hurt to ask and in fact people are waiting to be asked for their help. It’s *faster* and it gets shit done.

8. I have a fear of the end of things (see point 6) – like I have a genuine fear that if I used up all my yarn stash … what? What would happen if there was no more stash? Or if I completed everything on the to do list(s). What then? I need to actively remind myself that I can BUY MORE YARN if I use up the stash and GUILT FREE and also that there will always be more to add to the to do list. But honestly, sometimes I deliberately do not do things yet cause then I’d cross them off and … um … yeah. Point me to point 7.

9. I have finally realised there is no finite list of wedding tasks. I’ve come to a zen point with this and am now able to just do things. Today I booked our wedding night accommodation and I actually started the spreadsheet for scheduling of the day. This week we meet with the flowers lady and we’ve sort of finalised our wedding band designs.

10. There is no 10.

Well hello there Friday night, you sexy thing!

I have dragged myself through this week. I was going to post at the end of last week to mark the first week that C had gone back to sea. Things went great and I was feeling quite positive about it. We prepped the food that I needed for the week on the Sunday before and by and large that worked out pretty well. And I had a lot of work on during the week and things were ok. Before I knew it, it was the weekend again. And C was back. And we hung out a bit and prepped all my food for this week just gone and then he was off again.

This week, things were not so awesome. I never really had caught up on my sleep last week and this week it just kind of compounded and every day I felt like I was dragging myself more and harder out of bed to stand in the cold at 7am to catch the bus. This morning I only made it out at 7.20. I was sick off work Monday – managed to get to the bus stop and then realised I felt revolting. Caught the bus to the train station and felt worse and then had to catch the school bus back home. I spent the day catching up on Last Short Story reading and cable and stuff but was back into the work by Monday night. And I worked pretty solidly the evenings after work so that by Thursday I was going through the life motions.

But Wednesday I caught up with some friends for lunch and we discussed all sorts of things one of which resulted in the suggestion that I might be low in iron. I can’t believe that was not something that was on the top of my list to check out – vegetarian, Crohn’s, on a diet, feeling really really exhausted. Yeah, probably not just the burn out then. I had a really good long chat with a pharmacist in the city and got some strong supplements and also booked myself in to see the doctor. I’ve been taking the supplements which have meant I’m more sleepy at night but as though my body is giving in and letting go to sleep so now I need to sleep like 100 hours to catch up. Meaning I feel worse.

And so now I’m soooooo behind on work. I’m facing a weekend of serious workathon catchup. Hopefully I can climb partway out of the hole.

We recorded a new episode of Galactic Suburbia last night. And I had a really great time on an old crafting project I’ve let lie fallow for some time. Suddenly a friend was telling me about her hexagon quilt project and I got inspired to work on the ton of black hexagons I need to do before I can proceed with finishing it off. Photos maybe later.

Hope thing are going well with you.

After a somewhat longer than intended break, Live and Sassy is back! In the first episode of Season 2, we talk all things Kickstarter.

Links to some of the projects we discussed:

• Amanda Palmer’s kickstarter for her new album, Theatre is Evil, art book and tour.
• M K Hobson’s Kickstarter for The Warlocks Curse 3.
• Cecila Tan explains the logistics/business of her kickstarter to produce a paperback version of her online serial, Daron’s Guitar Chronicles, in this wrap up.
• The Feminist Speculative Fiction anthology (edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer) project Kickstarter.
• Tobias Buckell: Mitigated Futures Kickstarter.
• Tim Pratt: Grim Tides, A Marla Mason Novel Kickstarter.

We hope you enjoy the podcast, and hope to take much less time to get the next episode out to you all.

You can listen to the episode here or subscribe via iTunes!

So, I solved that eye twitch problem I had the whole of last week. I decided that if sleep wasn’t helping, and vitamin boosts weren’t helping, I’d take the weekend off and see how that went. And then, when I thought about it, I realised I hadn’t taken any time off since Natcon – the day off day job that I took on the Tuesday after, I spent sorting out Through Splintered Walls and processing Natcon related TPP things. And then when I thought further, I’d worked steadily in the lead up to Natcon and then … couldn’t really remember when I had had a day off at all. Like maybe for the Aurealis Weekend? Or … um? Dunno.

And then I thought, hang on, how much downtime do I actually have? How much time do I NOT work? Lately I’ve gotten up at 6/6.30 am, got out the door by 7 or just after, worked on the hour train ride to day job work, done my full day job day, including working for TPP in my lunchbreak or running errands at lunch since I now work in the city, and then worked on the hour train ride home and then either done exercise or skipped it before plunging back into TPP until bed. Maybe I watch an episode of something before sleep. And in that 42 mins, I am not also doing something else.

That was kind of confronting. To never take significant time to Stop. And just Not. That’s not good for a person. That gives them eye twitches. And drug addictions. And stuff.

And I don’t work that hard for a prize, or to say I did. I have a very specific set of goals and a very specific timeline for achieving them. I’m trying to set myself up here so I can jump off the rat race, day job, work set hours in the day, report to set people and fulfill their set expectations wagon. I’m usually not keen to say out loud why and what I am working towards and what my goals and vision are. Mostly because, if I don’t achieve them, I’d rather not have my detractors throw it back in my face. But the more I work on other stuff, the more I realise that those people don’t need ammunition, they create what they lack. And so fucking what? I would rather have set out to achieve something and fail than not. I would rather have tried, honestly given it everything that I have within me, than decided it wasn’t possible and gone out for tea instead. And if I’m a woman who appears ambitious? Then fine. Good. Whatever.

So that’s why I work so hard. It’s why I drive and push forward no matter what. But yeah, sometimes, you gotta just not. For a bit.

And this weekend, I didn’t. And it was an unbelievable feeling walking out my day job door at 4pm on Friday and walking to meet C who came to pick me up. Knowing I had the weekend off, that I’d given myself permission to just have a weekend, was an amazing weight lifted from my shoulders. I didn’t even know it was there til it was gone. I actually walked out the door smiling. I was overly courteous to people getting in and out of lifts and holding doors open for people. I was like, benevolent, and not in a hurry. I got *looks*. And then um, did my post office run because I can only empty the TPP post box once a week as it is an hour away. And also I’d ordered a lot of postage and needed to pay for that. But then we visited C’s parents and sat down and watched rugby (one of the teams was playing in Hot Pink, I swear!!). And we popped into Herdies on the way home and bought gorgeous little things for dinner.

And I slept in both days of the weekend and just mooched around. It wasn’t until about midday on Saturday that I realised the eye twitch had gone. I watched Fringe. I knitted a sock. I answered only a few of the most pressing emails – you can’t not work completely when you have an online business. *I* expect 24/7 service online so it’s only fair I give it. But I caught up on reality TV. And I not only had time to work out, I had the inclination to do so. And I did! We went out for MExican for C’s birthday. And I read a lot. I sorted laundry and cleaned out the spare room whilst listening to Countdown by Mira Grant on Audible and I cleaned up the kitchen – downtime apparently means you do lots of all those household chores you never get round to? And on Sunday, the groceries were delivered and cooked all kinds of things in preparation for the coming week as C has gone to sea and I will need to cover much more of the domestic work than I usually do. I also filled the subscribers copies of Through Splintered Walls and managed to get them in the post. And Jonathan and I managed to sit down and record a new episode of Live and Sassy.

And I felt a little bit like I got on top of my life. And feeling prepped actually has helped me feel more positive and good about the week. I wonder how much of my weight on my shoulders was due to feeling like I am constantly fighting backlog and things I shoulda done by now? I will need to address this issue of downtime. There is never enough time for it all, is there?

It’s a tradition now that stems back to the days of the early 2000s when the Yarn Harlot came up with the idea of starting an ambitious or challenging knitting project at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games and then pushing yourself to complete said project by the Closing Ceremony. Many many many of these projects required great tenacity and commitment to the task and very long days into the nights of knitting whilst watching the Games. And it became a thing – where knitters bonded with each other and their love of the Olympics – faster, stronger and higher and all that. There were badges of honour to win for those who completed their challenges and there was much bloggage.

This year, the fabulous (I mean seriously fabulous, other hobbies WANT a site like this) website Ravelry where knitters hang out, manage their projects and their stash, trade and sell and buy patterns and advice and hang out in the forums, was gearing up for this round of the Knitting Olympics with groups and teams being formed on the site for a group Ravelympics. I’d been getting together with my friend Sim to set up a Twefth Planet Press team

This morning, I discovered that the US Olympics Committee served Ravelry with this lawyer’s letter (taken from the Ravelry Forums and posted in full below, my emphasis in bold):

Dear Mr. Forbes,

In March 14, 2011, my colleague, Carol Gross, corresponded with your attorney, Craig Selmach [sic], in regard to a pin listed as the “2010 Ravelympic Badge of Glory.”  At that time, she explained that the use of RAVELYMPIC infringed upon the USOC’s intellectual property rights, and you kindly removed the pin from the website.  I was hoping to close our file on this matter, but upon further review of your website, I found more infringing content.

By way of review, the USOC is a non-profit corporation chartered by Congress to coordinate, promote and govern all international amateur athletic activities in the United States.  The USOC therefore is responsible for training, entering and underwriting U.S. Teams in the Olympic Games.  Unlike the National Olympic Committees of many other countries, the USOC does not rely on federal funding to support all of its efforts.  Therefore, in order to fulfill our responsibilities without the need for federal funding, Congress granted the USOC the exclusive right to use and control the commercial use of the word OLYMPIC a and any simulation or combination thereof in the United States, as well as the OLYMPIC SYMBOL.  See the Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, 36 U.S.C. §220501 et seq. (the “Act”).  (A copy of the relevant portion of the Act is enclosed for your convenience.)  The Act prohibits the unauthorized use of the Olympic Symbol or the mark OLYMPIC and derivations thereof for any commercial purpose or for any competition, such as the one organized through your website.  See 36 U.S.C. §220506(c).  The USOC primarily relies on legitimate sponsorship fees and licensing revenues to support U.S. Olympic athletes and finance this country’s participation in the Olympic Games.  Other companies, like Nike and Ralph Lauren, have paid substantial sums for the right to use Olympic-related marks, and through their sponsorships support the U.S. Olympic Team.  Therefore, it is important that we restrict the use of Olympic marks and protect the rights of companies who financially support Team USA.

In addition to the protections of the Act discussed above, the USOC also owns numerous trademark registration that include the mark OLYMPIC. These marks therefore are protected under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1051 et seq. Thus, Ravelry.com’s unauthorized use of the mark OLYMPIC or derivations thereof, such as RAVELYMPICS, may constitute trademark infringement, unfair competition and dilution of our famous trademarks.

The USOC would like to settle this matter on an amicable basis. However, we must request the following actions be taken.

1.  Changing the name of the event, the “Ravelympics.”;  The athletes of Team USA have usually spent the better part of their entire lives training for the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them.  For many, the Olympics represent the pinnacle of their sporting career.  Over more than a century, the Olympic Games have brought athletes around the world together to compete in an event that has come to mean much more than just a competition between the world’s best athletes.  The Olympic Games represent ideals that go beyond sport to encompass culture and education, tolerance and respect, world peace and harmony.

The USOC is responsible for preserving the Olympic Movement and its ideals within the United States.  Part of that responsibility is to ensure that Olympic trademarks, imagery and terminology are protected and given the appropriate respect.  We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.

It looks as if this is the third time that the Ravelympics have been organized, each coinciding with an Olympic year (2008, 2010, and 2012).  The name Ravelympics is clearly derived from the terms “Ravelry” (the name of your website) and OLYMPICS, making RAVELYMPICS a simulation of the mark OLYMPIC tending to falsely suggest a connection to the Olympic Movement.  Thus, the use of RAVELYMPICS is prohibited by the Act.  Knowing this, we are sure that you can appreciate the need for you to re-name the event, to something like the Ravelry Games.

1.  Removal of Olympic Symbols in patterns, projects, etc.   As stated before, the USOC receives no funding from the government to support this country’s Olympic athletes.  The USOC relies upon official licensing and sponsorship fees to raise the funds necessary to fulfill its mission. Therefore, the USOC reserves use of Olympic terminology and trademarks to our official sponsors, suppliers and licensees.  The patterns and projects featuring the Olympic Symbol on Ravelry.com’s website are not licensed and therefore unauthorized.  The USOC respectfully asks that all such patterns and projects be removed from your site.

For your convenience, we have listed some of the patterns featuring Olympic trademarks.  However, this list should be viewed as illustrative rather than exhaustive.  The USOC requests that all patterns involving Olympic trademarks be removed from the website.  We further request that  you rename various patterns that may not feature Olympic trademarks in the design but improperly use Olympic in the pattern name.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/olympics-rings-af…\

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vancouver-2010-ol…

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2010-olympics-inu…

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/olympic-swimmer-d…

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2008-olympic-ring…

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/olympic-rings-nec…

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bode-miller-hat-2…

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/usa-olympic-hat

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/belgianwaffleknit/usa-oly…

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.  We would appreciate a written reply to this letter by no later than June 19, 2012.  If you would like to discuss this matter directly, please feel free to contact me at the number above, or you may reach my colleague, Carol Gross.

Kindest Regards,

Brett Hirsch

Law Clerk

Office of the General Counsel

United States Olympic Committee

1 Olympic Plaza

Colorado Springs, CO 80909

 

Now, knitters are a mobilised and technosavvy bunch of people – there are 2 million users on the Ravelry website for example. So I have no doubt they will act in an interesting and powerful way. What I do find quite fascinating is the bits I have embolded. In one written letter response I read this morning, a knitter commented that the USOC could have just issued a trademark infringement. Nothing about this letter or their request would have been altered.

But instead of that, they felt the need to go that step further and belittle the activity and I think knitters everywhere. And I wonder whether they would have seen that as quite as necessary had the activity not been a stereotypically female one. If it were a drinking and dart board competition, for example, I wonder whether the word “denigrate” would really have come up.

And looking at the “true nature of the Olympic Games” of “ideals that go beyond sport to encompassa culture and education, tolerance and respect, world peace and harmony” that, by the way, are not owned by the USOC, let’s see. The Knitting Olympics is a shared focus where knitters from all over the world come together in one place (online), at one time of the year to participate in or to support from the sidelines as others challenge themselves. Knitters exchange patterns and techniques, skills and advice. It crosses language and culture – just take a look at Fair Isle or Japanese patterns that English speakers follow the graphs instead of the written directions. It becomes a means to meet new people and build new friendships. And um, sorry but I can’t remember ever seeing knitters behave in ways that were not tolerant or respectful. Knitting provides comfort and warmth. And many many knitters will gift or donate the product of their efforts.

I’m sorry,  but just what about that *is not* in the Olympics Spirit? Cause if it’s not this, then I’ll cancel my Foxtel Olympics special subscription and go do something else next month.

I’ve never actually successfully finished my Knitting Olympics project before. It turns out, if you’re still working full time over the Games, two weeks is not enough time to reasonably finish a sweater. But, you know, now I’m fired up, I think I might just knit myself something. And maybe with those trademark rings.

Knitters might mostly be women, USOC, but I wouldn’t want to piss off people who know how to wield sharp pointy sticks.

Wow. Been a really weird week this week for me. I am tired. Like bone weary, could fall asleep at any moment, struggling to keep my eyes open all day kinda tired. I never really get this kind of tired. Sure if I have a night of 5 hours or less of sleep, I might have that zombie haze thing where you’re dragging your mind through mud to get through the day, but mostly I’m pretty good on less sleep than most. Not this week though. This week, I am so tired I could sleep if I get too still. And I have an eye twitch. I’ve had it since Sunday and it’s driving me up the wall.

So I’ve been trying to limit the amount of work I do in the evenings after work. And I’ve been sending myself to bed by 9.30 and lights out by 10. And I’ve been upping my vitamins and protein. It’s not helping yet but I’m hoping it will soon. So I’ve been quiet and slow on getting things done. I hate that but in the event that this is burnout, I want to limit the fallout.

So if I owe you something, I’m hoping to get it to you real soon!

The Norma Hemming was awarded on Sunday night to Anita Bell and Sara Douglass. I was really thrilled to hear that Sue Isle’s Nightsiders was awarded an honourable mention. The press release mentions Nightsiders:

The judges awarded Honourable Mentions to Sue Isle for Nightsiders, Meg Mundell for Black Glass and Tansy Rayner Roberts for The Shattered City. Selected comments from the judges are:

Nightsiders by Sue Isle, published by Twelfth Planet Press:
Just as the Western Australian landscape is the site of discord, of discovery, of dissociation, so too is the body, in Sue Isle’s journeys into and out of self.

Saturday was jampacked! After breakfast in the hotel with Terri, Tansy and Finchy and Jonathan and guest appearance Kelly Link and where we invented the drink The Hypocrite, we hightailed it to the panel Masters of Podcasting. It was the only panel I did all weekend and it was such a pleasure – Terry Frost for PaleoCinema, myself for Galactic Suburbia, Jonathan Strahan for Coode St and Kirstyn McDermott for Writer and the Critic who moderated. We had a smallish room and almost all the audience were podcasters too, though I think we had some more nonpodcasters fill the audience after we took the poll. The panel turned into a really relaxed podcasting community discussion where we just kinda shot the breeze and bonded as podcasters and podcast listeners. It was really cool.

I then scooted on to the TPP A Stitch in Time pattern beta testing workshop in the bar. I was sure that noone would turn up. Tansy said she’d come and sew with me as company and then someone wielding a crochet hook accosted me in the hall so we headed over to the bar. I pulled out the pattern we had to test – a little stuffed Roswell grey – and crochet hooks and yarn and everyone dived in. We had I guess 4 or 5 of us trying the pattern and a couple of others who sat with us and did other crafts. And I have to tell you, I had the best time. I was so happy to be crafting in a group with some fellow geeks. There were others who did an awesome job interpreting some of the instructions, working through the pattern and then helping and explaining to others. It was such a fun hour. And I spent it thinking how awesome fandom is. (Photo from Cat Sparks)

There should be more crafting circles at cons. Actually something I really loved was the scattered boxes of craft throughout the con – you were encouraged to pick up works in progress and work on them and if I’d had time I would have. I wonder if that could be something we could carry on through – even something like working on blankets or scarves over the course of a con and then donate the finished ones to a hospital or somewhere?

A photo of how far we managed to get in the hour (photo of our crochet thanks to Tansy and Finchy). But I saw Jo’s later on in the con and she’d managed to make it past the head and body and onto the legs!

I headed off to lunch, which is where I was when Tansy rang me to tell me about the catastrophe that was the printing of Through Splintered Walls. It was at this point that we discovered that there had been a terrible printing error in the book and would need to stop selling it and try and recall all those sold. (If you’re reading this and didn’t know, please contact me to organise an exchange or replacement. The printer is currently reprinting the entire print run and I expect to have those by early next week.)

I then returned just in time for the Galactic Suburbia live recording panel. It’s still weird recording in front of an audience and also where we can actually look at each other whilst we talk. I figured that it wouldn’t be rude to craft on the Galactic Suburbia panel since I do normally do so when recording. Apparently, I’m told, you can tell? Anyway, I was balling up a skein of sock yarn from Blue Moon Fibre Arts during the podcast. This is a photo of the sock I started during the con after balling the yarn and where it got to by the time we landed back in Perth yesterday. I’m just turning the heel.

After the podcast, we headed back to the dealers room and prepped for the Embiggen Books Event. I was very excited about this and not just because I might have been really wanting to find a way to visit this store this time in Melbourne and bring everyone I knew who loved bookstores with me. It’s a truly gorgeous specialist store that’s really really supportive of small press and generally funky and interesting books. We all traipsed down Swanston Street to set up at 4pmish for a 5pm start. The Writer and the Critic were so generous to host, record and produce the podcast. Yes I’ve been dying to be on their podcast for ages! And it was so awesome to watch Kirstyn do her audio technical stuff. Very cool.

First some shots of the bookstore:

Mondy graciously hosted the podcast and interviewed 9 of the Twelve Planets authors and myself. Ian did what he really has a great skill in doing – he asked the exact right questions in the right way, with lots of humour, such that everyone opened up and really said such interesting things. I sat that there listening to everyone talk about their individual collections, their approach to the project and their own style and approach to writing and I realised just how great the sum of these parts this project will be. And what a vibrant, creative and thoughtful group of writers I have been lucky enough to collect. I’m so looking forward to hearing the podcast. And discussing it with others.

Here’s a few action shots from Finchy and Jason Nahrung.

And Jason has a few more shots of the event over on his Flickr stream.  A big thank you to Warren at Embiggen Books for letting us take over his store at 5pm on a Saturday evening. And also thank you to those who helped carry books and food and wine down and to those who came down to watch. Especially those who came down just for the event outside of the con. And also thank you to the TPP authors who came in great spirits and enthusiasm.

After the event we all headed over to a cool little place near the Wheeler Centre for drinks. Check out the beer in beakers!

With three new books to launch at Natcon, and with a new and exciting announcement for our 20th title, we wanted to make a bit of a splash. We were able to secure a really great timeslot at the beginning of the con and we wanted to throw a party to celebrate Twelfth Planet Press.

Terri came up with the awesome idea of making cupcakes, decorated for each of the TPP books, especially the Twelve Planets. She spent a week baking and freezing cupcakes beforehand and lugged 10kg of cakes in her suitcase to the con. Not only did she decorate the cupcake to suit the book, but she matched the the cake flavour to the book as well! They all sounded delicious and she’s going to do more on that at a later date, stay tuned. 

Meanwhile, we arrived on Thursday night and unpacked. Terri was up first thing on Friday morning to go out for supplies and after I had breakfast, I did a second run for her for all the other bits and pieces. Terri spent the entire day in our room icing cupcakes. She turned our room into what I thought looked like an edible art studio and the air was thick with sugar. The sugary smell hung around all weekend too.

I like this photo here with all Terri’s cake decorating paraphernalia – it looks so much like art paints and scrapers and things.

Terri baked something like 400 cupcakes. And whilst they didn’t all quite make it over, that was really quite an achievement in itself. Having done it myself for previous book launches I know how long it takes and how sore your feet get. I’m very sorry too that I didn’t get to taste the salted caramel cupcakes for Margo’s Cracklescape inspired ones. Or the blue ones for Deb’s Bad Power – the cake and the icing were blue!

And there was the decorating. Terri sat down and planned the topping for each of the books inspired by Amanda’s covers. In some cases she bought new moulds to make chocolates to place on top, for others she made things out of icing and chocolate. We didn’t get the time in the end to photograph each of the finished works nor place them next to the matching book as we had wanted.

These are the lemon meringues for Sue’s Nightsiders. Terri made the meringue on the day AND yes that’s a kitchen blowtorch she’s got there thanks to Alex, who Jason and I went and picked up via taxi in the early afternoon.

And for Margo’s Cracklescape, Terri made mirrors – hard boiled lollies melted into hand held mirrors she’s crafted out of icing.

Her creativity is just astounding.

It was not long into the morning that I realised Terri’s efforts were a very real and very beautiful edible art project. There will be more on this project to come, she plans to reenact and take close up photos for her blog. And at TPP, we’re already planning something to celebrate the Twelve Planets project as a whole so we’ll have more to say on that in due course.

More on the party itself next (this photo to the left is courtesy of Cat Sparks) But I was thrown into what felt like the most overwhelming couple of hours of generosity and support that I think I have ever experienced. I was already blown away by the work and care Terri had taken with the cupcakes. But then we needed people and hands on deck to run what became a much bigger than we had expected event.

Tansy and Jason snuck into the back of the panel before ours on the programme to set up the drinks and book display. They even snuck in a table! TPP peeps and friends came up to help bring down all the platters of cupcakes – there were a lot – and as we entered the room to arrange it all in an artistic way, we were bowled over by a party that had already gotten started. And not just a few earlybirds, the room was already packed, cupcakes were whisked off plates before they even made the table and champagne corks had already been popped. We were absorbed by the pulsing crowd and that was it – Twelfth Planet Press Hour was on for young and old! There was already a queue to buy books, there were so many familiar faces to say hi to and catch up with. It was the perfect way to start the con – everyone was catching up with each other and just getting into the groove. (Photo to the right and those below thanks to Tansy and Finchy) And because it was gold coin donation day, people who weren’t going to come to the con were able to come in and say hi and grab a cupcake. (Thanks to all of you who did!)

We’d vaguely planned a schedule for the hour but that just got thrown to the side – this party didn’t need to get warmed up, it arrived raring to go! And it was just what I hoped it would be! We had a roaming juggler from the Women’s Circus wandering around to add a bit of a carnival feel to the event. And friends helped out serving drinks, offering cakes around and selling books. I’m so grateful to everyone who helped make this party a success. Thank you to everyone who did.

I got up on a chair at some point in the evening to offer some “remarks”. When I got up there and the crowd quietened down, I looked around at the many people in the room looking back at me and was overwhelmed. I was really touched by the show of support for my press and authors and for me. It’s not often that you have a chance to just take a moment and see it. It’s so easy to get caught up in all the things that you do but as I stood there and looked around, I saw friends helping me make the party happen, and my press successful. I saw authors (old and new) proud to be a part of this thing, and I saw the community supporting and encouraging me and the press along the way to just go and see what we can be. I took the moment to readjust my personal perspective on things.

I then got to say basically everything I’d talked over with Jonathan that morning that I wanted to say. I thanked Terri for her ideas and her efforts helping me with the party. I launched the three new books – two are out now Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren, book 6 of The Twelve Planets and Salvage by Jason Nahrung, an Australian gothic novella and Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan, book 7 of The Twelve Planets will be available in August. And then I made a very exciting announcement – the launch of our new crime imprint Deadlines, the first title of which to be our first novel A Trifle Dead by Hobart author Livia Day (out later this year).

And then I got to grab a glass of champagne myself, pose in photos and see a few people. My cousins popped in briefly which meant a lot to me and as  I looked around, I saw so many friends and familiar faces. It was such a great event!

Some more of the cupcakes:

From top left to right:

Thief of Lives inspired perfume bottles; A Stitch in Time Travel inspired knitting related balls of yarn, knitting needles and loops of yarn; cameos for Love and Romanpunk; the hand mirrors for Cracklescape; Lucy Sussex showing she matches the Glitter Rose cupcakes which were a little bit glittery; the table of cupcakes including the TPP logo, police tape on blue for Bad Power and ghosts for Showtime. Other cupcakes had sugared almonds for Through Splintered Walls, trifle for A Trifle Dead and bloody droplets for Deadlines imprint.

And Cat got all the Twelve Planets present ( we had 10!!) and me to pose for photos. These really feel like they’d be appropriate at the end of our movie of the week where we can all reflect back on how keen we looked at the beginning!

This photo is courtesy of Cat Sparks’ Flickr stream. From top left to right: Deborah Biancotti, Kirstyn McDermott, me, Rosaleen Love, Margo Lanagan, Narrelle M Harris. And bottom left to right: Cat Sparks, Lucy Sussex, Kaaron Warren, Deb Kalin and Tansy Rayner Roberts. These (and Sue Isle and Thoraiya Dyer) amazing and talented women took me seriously when I pitched the Twelve Planets at them. What an honour.

I keep feeling like I should apologise for saying that I had a really great time at Continuum 8. I think it’s because I’m so used to hearing complaints about cons. But I don’t really have any so herein, and to follow, are a bunch of upbeat happy reporting ins of the weekend.

First up, my haul.

The rule when you’re a trader is, if you brought books in your suitcase, you can only buy books if you sell books. It’s a completely different rule to the To Be Read ones as it relates to baggage weight. Luckily. I had sent 4 boxes of Twelfth Planet Press books and table bits and pieces in advance via TNT to Alex’s but they let me down and I realised on Thursday at lunchtime that my books would not be there in time for the con. A quick call to Terri and we worked out we could pack an extra suitcase of books and bring that. Which we did. And discovered that this is probably a better option in future, both for the cost and the reduction in stress. This meant I had an extra suitcase for fitting in any purchases from the con!

So my haul! And I get To Be Read pile points because they were all books I had been intending to get so were technically on my reading list. That’s ok, right?

I had a very busy weekend. For me, most of the con was experienced in terms of the events or commitments I and the press had on. I got to kind of slow down and take in more of the con on Sunday when all that was behind me. I had a really awesome time. I didn’t get to speak to as many people as I wanted and of course I had all those half conversations you have at things like this where you’re constantly in the middle of conversations the whole weekend long – it’s both fantastic and frustrating. But I got to hang out with my friends, get lots of real life hugs and I got to get my groove back. I love fandom and I love the scene and I had a really great time. I’m so overwhelmed and humbled and thankful to everyone who helped me out this weekend and who support the press – both over the weekend and in general. I’ve come home happy and inspired and with oh so much more work to do. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I can’t wait for Conflux 2013!

Tags: continuum 8, natcon 2012, Twelfth Planet Press

Anna Tambour’s recently published stories include “The Dog Who Wished He’d Never Heard of Lovecraft” in Lovecraft eZine, “Cardoons” in Phantasmagorium magazine, and “The Oyster and Alice O.” in Flurb. Some upcoming stories are in: Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear edited by Edwina Harvey and Simon Petrie (Peggie Bright Books); A Season in Carcosa edited by Joseph S. Pulver (Miskatonic Books); Bloody Fabulous edited by Ekaterina Sedia (Prime); and Memoryville Blues edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers (PS Publishing).

Your novel, Crandolin, is going to be released from Chomu Press in November. Can you tell us a bit about the novel and what inspired you to write it?

If that bit were one word: irresistibilities.

What inspired? The opportunity. Fortunately, though it didn’t seem so then, the editor who asked, was soon passed by the corporate digestion.

You have such a unique voice, how does where you live imbue your writing?

Thanks for the kind compliment which doesn’t deserve a rant in return, so maybe have a coffee elsewhere while this runs:

The tragedy is what happens to the many unique voices floating around. They mostly fall into silence while the air reverberates with endless imitations of popular hits. I’ve been fortunate – sometimes by having received constructive rejections; and sometimes by being lucky enough to work with great editors, the latest being the stupendously stimulating Quentin S. Crisp at Chomu, a publisher whose every book could be considered ‘unique’. And by the way, a rejection can be a tonic; it’s the submissions that receive less response than SETI, especially those submissions that have been solicited, that can ruin a writer; they can be as eloquently misleading as a turned-around signpost.

I’ve lived in lots of places (including two doors away from a bikie gang that in their geriatric insomnia, played from 12:30 to 5am nightly [at 5000 decibels], a rolling tape of the theme from Easy Rider). But yes, living in a place uncluttered by humans constantly slaps me with how little I know, and pricks me, often literally – about this roiling mass of curiosities and contrarinesses that is the world. But it doesn’t matter where one physically lives these days. Almost everyone has the ability to shut off observation and contemplation, the more we are Connected; and the more we accept that to write, one must firstly, be taught, and secondly, write every day. The greatest unwritten modern horror story is that of the auditorium in which the victims of creative writing are laid out without their consent, probed and dissected (in front of underage children, no less!). To then think that any student would want, afterwards, to love these defiled creatures is a fiction that is oddly, not a subject in any story I’ve read, but deserves Poe.

And then we come to the oft-quoted Chekhov Imperative: “You must acquire words and turns of speech, and for this you must write every day.” The more one has to follow the dictate to write every day to, in our pumping age, “exercise the muscle”, the less one has a chance to have something to write about because who has the time to live, to observe, to feel, to leap outside of the self when one is tied to the self-centred goal of looking at one’s muscle work? Writing becomes being a writer, a narcissism of our age. What isn’t admitted by those who quote Chekhov, was how much dross he wrote. What makes a great writer is not writing but not writing. A story should in my opinion, be a distillation, a sometimes messy explosion – something that has come out as a result of brewing. And better than any writing course are life experiences, especially two things: failure and cross dressing (and if the shoes rub, all the better). Writers who haven’t failed (and I don’t mean just getting rejection slips for writing!) tend to be shallow; and writers to whom characters are components, are only themselves, mere machines producing at best, unpreservable junk food. The writers we love, lived everywhere from Mannaville to hell itself; but for the most part, followed their own unprescriptions.

What are you currently working on and what would you love to write in the future?

I’m working on another story for Mike Davis, for whom I had great fun writing “The Dog Who Wished He’d Never Heard of Lovecraft”. His magazine is something I admire in every way. It’s not only fun, but presented with style and an eye to detail. And every story gets the royal treatment – a superb audio version too. The fact that I think this magazine is tops despite Lovecraft makes me doubly glad that Mike’s taste has run away with itself, craving other authors.

And in the future? something for noses.

What Australian works are have you loved recently?

I’m a great fan of Adam Browne, having first come across a story by him (with John Dixon) in Andromeda Spaceways. His first novel Pyrotechnicon: Being a True Account of the Further Adventures of Cyrano de Bergerac, by Himself (dec’d), will be released by Coeur de Leon in September, so I hope that people will snap it up at its launch at Conflux. Adam has an unerring eye for time and place, and we both share a great interest in the history of science and natural history. He is also a subtle satirist, usually when one least expects it. And he’s a damnably fine visual artist.

Kathleen Jennings is another writer who is blossoming. She is such a disgustingly talented visual artist that her charm as a writer might be overlooked. Look for stories by her, and buy Steampunk!, published by Small Beer Press, for her comic.

Jennings has just finished the first and maybe second or third draft of her first novel, and I look forward to its release by some lucky publisher. She has an emotional depth combined with a deceptive lightness that is unique, and that would be as fascinating in 200 years.

I’m also not only very much looking forward to reading the novel that Ben Peek is working on, but hoping that it gets an international readership that Peek deserves. Although he could bore anyone with details of structure, his fiction shows nothing of that pedantry. Instead, he is what the bloated Thing maybe was, before Mieville’s hungry Ego hadn’t, when he was very young, mistaken him for a vanilla shake. What I admire about Peek is that his passion about society and the people that are its components are real, yet this fierce interest doesn’t hinder him from writing lucid, visceral fiction of great power and thought-provoking resonance – minus melodrama, manifesto, and Peek.

Thoraiya Dyer epitomises the ideal writer, in my eyes. She has so many interests, talents (that she hones), and could be called to be an expert witness in several fields. I especially love her fiction when it relates to science and the natural world. Yet she is always invisible in her fiction, and is like many people of true worth – so modest that to open her up, you need an oyster knife.  Two recent Dyer stories are: “Complaints Department” in Nature and “The War of the Gnome and the Mountain Devil”. She is also one writer I’d love to spend some time with. I think that we might also share other interests. Psst, Thoraiya, just between us, do you also love a great feeling, perfectly weighted, sharp as bile – knife?

Marc McBride won an Aurealis a few years ago for his (written and illustrated) World of Monsters, a picture-lover’s delight and a mischievously informative mix of fantasy and science that should be in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, and Lunar editions, at least (I’ve nabbed the rights to Asteroid*). The book he’s working on now is one of the most captivating stories I’ve ever read, gorgeously illustrated. It is only one of a whole series, if my boot has any power. I can’t tell you what it’s about, but I will say that it’s bad for morality, being one of those books that adults buy for kids, and steal.

And in case anyone has missed the fact, I should say here that Kaaron Warren is a great classic writer. Her “All You Can Do is Breathe” in Blood and Other Cravings edited by Ellen Datlow is one of the most unforgettable stories Ive ever read – and should, at the least, have jumped the wall to land in The Best Australian Short Stories. Waaren has a cornucopia-worth of books out from publishers around the world, but one of her best is her collection Dead Sea Fruit, by an Australian publisher that has become one of the world’s best independents: Ticonderoga.

Two years on from Aussiecon 4,  what do you think are some of the biggest changes to the Australian Spec Fic scene?

People around the world are enjoying Australian-made creations without knowing or caring that they were made here. And Australians are confident enough now to create works about living here, such as your own anthology, Sprawl.

One change that I wish I could say has occurred, is distribution of our fine independents beyond our shores. Winning a publishing prize in the US is a cruel honour if Australian books might as well swim to reach readers. And e-books are not the answer any more than a picture of a kiss is consummation.

Kitty is a reader and podcaster living in Perth, Western Australia. She was the convenor of this year’s Swancon 2012 – Doomcon and cohosts the comics podcast Panel2Panel. She spends her days working with Autistic children and her nights getting into fights on the internet. Kitty is a feminist, activist, child welfare advocate and disabilities advocate with the love of two very important people: her partner Brendan and fiance Kat.

1. Having just come out the other side of Doomcon (Swancon 2012), was the con everything you hoped it would be? What were your highlights? 

The con was everything I had hoped, and much better than I expected. I had a fantastic crew working with me to make sure everything got off the ground. I set out to make it as woman-friendly as possible, which was not an easy task. As progressive as the SF community likes to think, it can still be just as sexist as the rest of the world. I benefited a lot from having people in the committee who shared my vision, so when I said I wanted to promote female work and female achievement no one questioned it. More than just supportive, the committee was actively trying to think of ways to make this happen.

There were a few moments that made me quite proud. Most of these moments weren’t inside the con itself, but part of the organisation of it. When the programme books came back from the printers complete with an Anti-Harassment Policy I was over the moon. Every time I had a woman tell me they were excited to be on a panel item I felt glee.

At the end of the day, the thing that mattered the most to me was seeing the end project come together. You get to a point where everything is going to happen regardless of what you do, so you can sit back and ride it out. That was probably the most thrilling experience of the con.

As with all good things, Panel2Panel started with a rant on the internet. Both Grant and I listened to comics podcasts, and we were both fed up with them. A lot were overly sexist, claiming that sexism in comics didn’t matter and that men were “just as objectified” as women, which we know is blatantly bullshit.

I had also wanted to be a part of a podcast for a while. I listened to some great ones, like Galactic Suburbia and Coode Street Podcast, and it looked like so much fun! After talking with Grant on Twitter I realised that there was an opportunity. We both felt passionately about sexism and racism, and we both loved comics. It was a match made in heaven!

Panel2Panel is about talking about something we love – comic books – but also where comics fall short. We discuss some of the problems within the comic book industry, the same problems inherent in any media. Sexism, racism, homophobia, and that’s just scratching the surface! More than that, though, we try to promote female creators, female characters (when they’re done well) and positive changes within the industry. Looking only at the bad is depressing, so we shine a light on the good when it happens.

This is easily the hardest question to answer. I am a consumer of media, not a producer. Add to that a lovely does of Impostor Syndrome and I feel like I can’t actively make a difference, as much as I try.

But I do try.

Most recently I ran Swancon 2012: Doom-Con. I worked really hard to get women onto panels and make women part of the conversation. I’ve volunteered to help out with the running of Swancon 2014: Conjuration, and I can guarantee that gender parity is going to be fought for.

We’ve already mentioned the podcast. There is a personal project of mine that came about because of it. I sometimes buy issues of comic books with female creators and characters and slip them into other people’s boxes. The idea is to get new people interested in women and women’s stories, so that in the future they might choose them.

Finally, I’ve decided to participate in the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge. In 2012 I will read at least 50 books written by Australian women and review them on my blog. So many people are involved, and so many great female authors are being discussed. It awesome to be a part of it all.

That’s a much easier question to answer. Recently my To Read shelf seems to be taken entirely by stuff recommended by Galactic Suburbia. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Twelve Planets series of anthologies coming out of Twelfth Planet Press. The books are all so beautiful and so well crafted that it’s hard to pick a favourite.

I’ve also recently finished the Creature Court trilogy by Tansy Rayner Roberts. I’m always worried when I read books written by a friend that I won’t like them, but in this instance my worries were completely unfounded. I’d recommend them even to people who don’t usually read fantasy.

At the moment I’m in the middle of two books by Australian women; The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood and Burn Bright by Marianne de Pierres. I don’t know how much I’ll enjoy them yet, but I’ve never been disappointed by a Galactic Suburbia rec.

This is another hard question for me to answer. I feel a lot like I’m new to the scene, and thus unqualified to make these sorts of statements.

The changes I have seen have all been positive ones. This year especially we’re seeing shortlists and awards overwhelmed with deserving women. When I saw that the Ditmar nominees were a majority female I think my heart skipped a beat! Given how hostile the world is to change, this is certainly a wondrous achievement.

I think the Australian specfic community is becoming more aware of the issues that have plagued it, and I can only see good things coming of this in the future.

I’m back for round 2 of the 12 Week Body Transformation program. In fact I’m on day 3 because we started a day early to factor in Natcon (C bought the full week’s menus worth of grocery shopping and this way he gets a day off to eat what he likes and I have a day up my sleeve over the weekend in case …). As part of getting ready for the program, you have to complete some preseason tasks which make you sit down and mentally and physically prepare yourself to commit to the 12 weeks ahead. If you don’t have the equipment or a plan for how you will do the exercise, you won’t. And if you don’t really commit to the program, you’re not going to stick with it. I’d completed these tasks at the beginning of round 1 and thought that it would be interesting to return to those as I sat down to do these ones – see what had changed for/in me and what hadn’t. I still have the same excuses but I’m much less likely to let myself get away with them and I’m also much better equipped to think around them. I’ve definitely seen changes in the way I think about this stuff and in my attitude – not just towards this aspect of my life either. And the really interesting thing was, I was successful in round 1 – I lost 4 more kilos than the goal I set myself. So the audit was actually one of deconstructing a success not a failure. And that was a really fascinating thing to do.

In sitting down and working through what worked for me and why and then looking at what didn’t and how I could improve on that, and in working through a lot of the mindset material, I realised something really important. I was genuinely shocked to find I had succeeded at something – I had followed the program and the results happened – until I realised that I do this all the time with TPP. And that was my lightbulb moment – both that TPP works because I follow a similar methodology AND that I do not ever sit and deconstruct a win. And perhaps if I let myself feel worthy of the achievements I have made with TPP, then I would be able to acknowledge the steps that have brought them about. And that I already have a way of successfully achieving things that I could use in other parts of my life. Or … the program works if you work it.

So this weight loss and healthier living thing kinda is a sort of “magic” to me. I’m genuinely shocked when I get on the scales and see weight loss. It’s something new for me – to both consistently stick to a lifestyle and also to see a consistent decrease in my body mass (apart from that dark time in my past that I don’t really talk about). Michelle Bridges tells you to “not overthink it” and “to just fricking do it” and “go into robot mode” and so I really did just trust that if I committed to follow her program and did what she said it would work. And somehow I disconnected the fact that *I* was consistently making healthy food choices and that *I* started to deconstruct my various relationships with food and learned different self talk to move beyond them and that *I* showed up and did the exercise (for the first 6 weeks anyway). I disconnect from the effort I put into things and then I don’t value the outcome the way I would if I felt like I’d worked for it.

Parallels elsewhere in my life …

And so as I sat down to make my goals for round 2 of the program, it clicked as to why I had not only not put on weight in the 1 month break between rounds (as would have been my normal status quo) but lost a further 1.5 kg even though I let my calorie intake up just a smidge. Because I have very clear 12 and 24 month goals set. And that set of goals hadn’t really changed from when I sat down and embarked on this program in the first place. These goals are clear to me, they make sense, and they are with me all the time. They were easy to write down because they are … my goals. Big surprise. And they are big goals. They aren’t just “I want to lose weight” or “I want to look good in my wedding pictures”. In fact, I already look fab in my wedding dress and if I lose not 100 more grams I would be good to go. But the goals are more than how I look, they relate to how I feel (both my self image but also how I feel physically) and what I want to physically achieve in the near to short term. They don’t end at the end of the round or the end of the year. They truly are life goals so they mean that lifestyle and mindset changes are what I am actively working on. And that’s the difference. That’s why I was successful – my goals are big, long term and ongoing. And I’m committed to them. And so breaking the big goal down into 1 year, 6 month, 3 month, 1 month and 1 week smaller goals is easy and makes the big goal achievable. I know that as long as I continue to work at the program and see myself hitting the milestones, I will get there. The program works if you work it.

Dream big, break the dream down into small, achievable bites, and mark the small bites with milestones you can tick off along the way to mark PROGRESS.

The lightbulb? This is my approach to TPP. This has *always* been  my approach to TPP. At the very beginning, I sat down and dreamed big for this press. I wrote 5 year goals and broke those down to year goals and half year goals and project goals. And then I worked on them. And I mark my progress by ticking off milestones along the way. I have a very clear set of milestones I want to achieve, that I think mean I am achieving things along this journey. And I revisit the 5 year and 3 year and 1 year goals about yearly. And the long term goal has never changed, it has always been big and I’ve always dealt with that by marking out a path towards it and checking road signs as I pass them to make sure I am still on track. The big goal might still be on the horizon but I know I am further towards it than when I started because my milestones tell me so. The program works if you work it.

Everything I do is in pursuit of the big dream. It might feel insurmountable but that can only be so if you don’t know the path you’re going to take to climb it, if you haven’t broken it down into the step by step across the roadmap. If you consistently take one step every day forwards then you have to make progress in the long run. And if you never lose sight of the goal, you don’t get discouraged that you only walked one step today. I’ve seen that with the 12 wbt – that consistency is more important than anything else. For me, consistently turning down the random “treats” and fleeting food cravings has probably made more difference than anything – if you consistently say yes to chocolate where else can you expect to take yourself? And I know this about consistency – the one thing I always do, no matter what else is happening in my life that day – is I make sure I do 1 task/act to promote or raise the profile of my press. That might be sending out a review or a judging copy, it might be sending out a press release, it might be filling a sale order promptly or following up on an email straight away. I do something every day to push the reach of my press out further than it was yesterday. That means at the bare minimum, every year I have done 365 things to promote my press. And usually it’s never just 1. The “1” gets me through on days where I’ve had emergencies or was ill or had family commitments. Consistency every day of the year does more than a 2 week push around a new book release can ever do. And it works. It’s not magic. It’s business: it’s marketing, promotion, distribution and networking. It’s how you run a successful business. It’s how I am going to get my dream.

So. Huge lightbulb moment. Both for the body transformation and for my press. Lots of feedback and one informing the other. TPP has flourished because I had a plan and I consistently follow it. I can take that and apply it to other parts of my life. And I can see that the body transformation is not magic, it’s consistency, goal setting and good planning. And I don’t have to be scared about what happens after because – plan, goals, consistency. I know how to do that.

And for my press? Well. Just like there are saboteurs when you start to successfully make changes in your lifestyle, so you will have detractors. It’s like when I became a vegetarian and I started to notice people would be really hostile about it when I went out for dinner in groups of people. As though my personal choice not to eat meat was an act of judgment of them. I’m a greenie and I am happy that I don’t eat meat for environmental, political and moral reasons. But I tried for a long time to become vegetarian for those reasons alone and I was unsuccessful. The reason I am a vegetarian, and have been so without falling off the bandwagon ever for nearly 10 years now, is medical. And it’s noone’s business but my own. But it’s interesting to see people react as though it’s an overt judgment of them, as though what I do in my own life is somehow in response or related to them – and often people who I have nothing to do with in my general life. What? I’m going to become a vegetarian in case I randomly bump into you at a party and can pronounce how awful a person you, person-I-have-never-met-before, are in life. They react to my non existent pronouncement of their character because that resonates with a feeling they already have deep down inside. They think I am judging them because they judge themselves and find themselves coming up short. They feel bad because they already think they are doing something wrong. It’s the same as people who actively try to get you to break your diet or skip an exercise session. They don’t want you to be successful because it means that they are the reason they are not, or they don’t want you to look better than how they see themselves.

Parallels elsewhere in my life …

My successes are a result of my own hard work. And to think otherwise is to believe in magic (or conspiracy).

The transformation isn’t complete. I knew I would be doing round 2 and 3 of the program because it took me a lifetime of bad habits, both mental and physical, to get here and it’s going to take a lot longer to break through and change them and then to keep hold of the changes til they are my good habits. And I’m still working on *believing* and knowing things. But it’s a good start. And I’m really proud I got my own light bulb moment. Now I have to work on the embracing of it.

Publisher and author, Lindy Cameron is a crime and specfic writer. She is author of the action thriller, Redback; the Kit O’Malley PI trilogy; and the mystery Golden Relic; and co-author of the true crime collections – Killer in the Family & Women Who Kill. Lindy is a founding member and National Co-Convenor of Sisters in Crime Australia, and publisher of Clan Destine Press. www.clandestinepress.com.au

First I want to ask you about Lindy Cameron the writer. What got you into writing, what do you love to write about and where should someone start with reading your work?

I’ve always been a writer (for pleasure and as a journalist) but didn’t decide to write fiction professionally until I turned 30-something.

I began with crime fiction because, along with sf, it’s a lifelong passion. I also wanted to add myself to the then-small body of Australian crime writers. And, as a founding member of Sisters in Crime Australia, I particularly wanted to create some interesting, modern and believable female protagonists.

My first series of books – Blood Guilt, Bleeding Hearts & Thicker Than Water – feature Melbourne lesbian PI Kit O’Malley; Golden Relic is an archaeological adventure; and my latest, Redback, is an action-adventure thriller featuring the kickarse heroine Bryn Gideon, and her crack team of retrieval agents.

I’d say Redback is a good place to start – but they all have something different to offer.

What drew you to start a publishing house and what is the house’s focus and direction? Can you briefly tell us about some of your forthcoming titles?

Many things prompted me to start my own publishing house, but the first was the realisation that, with over 25 years experience in the publishing industry, I actually had all the skills necessary to attempt something so crazy-brave.

The other reason was a growing disillusion with the big-time publishers and they way they have always, or were beginning to treat their authors. This was particularly true of some of the large publishers here in Australia, who’d not only stopped taking many chances on new writer, but were also dropping their mid-list authors in favour of publishing imports from, mostly, the US. They were playing it safe and blaming it on the world financial crisis.

My dream therefore was to create a publishing house for authors; and, one that specialised in genre fiction.

Our prime objective is to uncover, foster and promote new Australian genre writers; and to provide a home where already-published authors can play in new worlds.

Another aim has been to re-publish Aussie genre fiction that shouldn’t be ‘out of print’; and help authors save their backlists from oblivion by inviting them to join the CDP eBookery.

While Clan Destine Press specialises in genre fiction it also dabbles in non-fiction, of the true crime and heroic real-life story variety.

We launched Clan Destine Press in late 2010, and have already published 12 paperbacks and 19 eBooks. We have another seven paperbacks, and their eBooks, for the 2012 list; plus a new series of True Crime eBooks.

Forthcoming titles include: Walking Shadows by Narrelle M Harris (sequel to her vampire crime novel, The Opposite of Life, and launching at Continuum on June 8); The Price of Fame – a paranormal crime novel by RC Daniells (Rowena is already well known for her King Rolen’s Kin series & The Outcast Chronicles); A New Kind of Death, sf crime by Alison Goodman; Legends of the Three Moons, a kids’ fantasy adventure by Patricia Bernard; and Arrabella Candellarbra & The Questy Thing To End All Questy Things 2, the sequel to the hilarious adult fairytale by A.K. Wrox.

You’re also a founding member of Sisters in Crime Australia. Can you tell us what the impetus was behind starting this organisation, a little bit about the work it does and some of its achievements in its 20 year history?

The Australian group of Sisters in Crime followed the formation of the American group back in the 1990s. The US organisation was founded by authors for authors in an attempt to get better representation (in terms of reviews and other publicity) for women crime writers.

SinC-Oz was formed by readers; by fans of women’s crime fiction for the same reason – to raise the profile of all women crime writers but particularly Australian ones.

When we started, back in 1991, we really only needed one hand to count the number of working Aussie women crime writers. Ten years later we held the first SheKilda Women’s Crime Fiction convention and could invite 20 Australian authors to take part. Last year – when we celebrated out 20^th anniversary 60 Australian crime writers – all women – filled a weekend of panels and workshops.

SinC-Oz HQ is in Melbourne where for two decades we’ve held regular public events with crime writers from around the country, with visiting international authors and with professionals from the real world of crime fighting. These events have included panels, debates, ‘in-conversations’ and book launches. Our members now include readers, fans, views, writers and published author; as well as lawyers, judges, cops, forensic professionals.

What Australian works are have you loved recently?

Well, apart from my own authors – who are naturally totally awesome – I love Marianne de Pierres’ Burn Bright; and Adrian Bedford’s Orbital Burn.

Two years on from Aussiecon 4, what do you think are some of the biggest changes to the Australian Spec Fic scene?

In terms of books getting published, by me and other (mostly) Indie publishing houses, I’ve noticed a great surge in cross-genre writing. Paranormal crime, sf crime, sf horror – you name the blend, it seems to be out there; and this pleases this particular Publisher of genre fiction very very much.

Juliet Marillier was born and brought up in Dunedin, New Zealand, and now lives in Western Australia. Her historical fantasy novels for adults and young adults have been translated into many languages and have won a number of awards including the Aurealis, the American Library Association’s Alex Award, the Sir Julius Vogel Award and the Prix Imaginales. Her lifelong love of folklore, fairy tales and mythology is a major influence on her writing. Juliet has two novels due out this year: Shadowfell, first book in a new young adult series, and Flame of Sevenwaters, an adult historical fantasy. She’s currently working on the third instalment of the Shadowfell series. When  not busy writing, Juliet tends to a small but expanding pack of waifs and strays. She blogs monthly on http://www.writerunboxed.com and her website is at http://www.julietmarillier.com

1. The first book in your new series is soon due out. Can you tell us a little bit about the series and in particular the first book, Shadowfell?

The Shadowfell series is being marketed for young adults but I’m hoping it will be a successful crossover series, with equal appeal to adult fantasy readers. It’s a story of tyranny and rebellion, set in an imagined version of ancient Scotland. Shadowfell is much darker and grittier than my previous young adult novels and I’ve loved that challenge. The first book comes out in July (September in the US), though we’ll have copies available at the Perth Supanova on June 23-24, when Shadowfell will be launched. The series is a departure for me in that it’s not based on real history, though the kingdom of Alban is recognisable as the north of Scotland. There’s a cast of uncanny characters, many of whom speak in broad Scots (did I mention I was born in Dunedin?) The book doesn’t fit into any specific period in real Scottish history, so this might be considered my first pure fantasy novel. It’s quite an epic story.

2. As a full time writer what sort of pressure are you under to develop future projects as well as write the currently contracted ones? Does it leave much room for other forms of writing, such as short stories, that don’t pay comparably?

As a mid-list writer of commercial fiction I’m expected to turn in an adult novel a year – less than that and there’s a danger of becoming invisible in the crowded US market. I know many writers who are far more productive than that, with several series on the go at once. I’ve found that a book a year is as fast as I can write while still producing work I can be proud of (and staying reasonably sane.) It can be extremely difficult to balance the need to earn a living from writing with the wish to exercise creative choice and to pursue the projects one feels passionate about. This is a dilemma I’ve been considering a great deal recently as I draw near to the end of my current contracts. I’ve been juggling adult and young adult projects for two different publishers in the US, and of course they don’t synchronise their dates to suit me, so the last couple of years have been stupidly busy. Part of it’s down to my reluctance to say no when writing opportunities come up!

Where short fiction is concerned, my choice to write very little of it is not related to the payment; I find short stories far more difficult to write than novels, so I am very slow at them. But when I do write a short story or novella that I’m proud of, it gives me immense satisfaction.

3. You have a short story collection coming out from Ticonderoga Publications next year. Can you tell us a bit about how the sale came about, the process of developing the book and what we can expect from the book?

I keep a relatively low profile on the WA speculative fiction scene, largely self-inflicted – I am in my comfort zone when at home working, with my dogs for company. So I’ve been slow to learn about what’s happening with local small press. One of the first Ticonderoga publications I read was Angela Slatter’s collection, The Girl with No Hands. I loved the stories and was impressed by the quality of the publication. And I’d contributed a cover quote to Ticonderoga’s Sara Douglass collection, The Hall of Lost Footsteps. (A few weeks before she died, Sara contacted me to thank me for this which was deeply touching as she had given me a fabulous cover quote back when I was a newbie novelist. She and I had been friends since we did a US tour together in 2001.) When Russell Farr put the suggestion to me that Ticonderoga might publish a collection of my short fiction I was really delighted (and challenged – see earlier comment.) What can you expect? The book will contain the best of my previously published short fiction, mostly fantasy with possibly a couple of romance or women’s fiction stories. There will also be some new stories and, I hope, a new novella. The title story will be folkloric fantasy. You can also expect a wonderful cover by a young Western Australian artist. Cover and title will be revealed later in the year.

4. What Australian works are have you loved recently?

I’m really picky about what I read; I think my critic’s hat is rusted on. But it’s been a great year or two for Australian fantasy. I wholeheartedly loved The Girl with No Hands by Angela Slatter – such an accomplished writer, with a real respect for her fairy tale material and a wonderful warmth of approach.

I was impressed by Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (I have this in the UK edition, entitled The Brides of Rollrock Island.) Margo is our foremost Australian fantasy writer, a great stylist and a highly original storyteller. I tend to use her work a lot for ‘how to do it’ examples in writing workshops.

Then there was Kate Forsyth’s magnificent novel Bitter Greens, historical fiction with a Rapunzel thread woven through the three-strand story. I predict this will be an award-winner for Kate. It’s a brilliant piece of writing.

Am I allowed to include a Kiwi-born, Aussie resident writer? Karen Healy’s Guardian of the Dead was a stunning debut with an unforgettable young female protagonist and Maori folklore forming the uncanny element of the story. I just read her new novel, The Shattering, a YA fantasy thriller, and really enjoyed it.

5. Two years on from Aussiecon 4,  what do you think are some of the biggest changes to the  Australian Spec Fic scene?

I believe specialist small press is playing a bigger role now in publishing quality short fiction within the genre. It certainly seems far more visible. Aurealis Magazine has gone fully digital, and I imagine other publications have done the same or are headed in that direction.

Our writers continue to achieve international recognition – it seems to me Australians are represented more all the time in the big genre awards. At the pinnacle of this is Shaun Tan with both an Academy Award and the Astrid Lindgren Award in the same year. But our writers are making it onto World Fantasy Award ballots and being shortlisted for awards like the David Gemmell Legend Award (congratulations to Helen Lowe … oops, she’s another Kiwi.)

It’s encouraging to see the new talent coming up – writers like Thoraiya Dyer and Lezli Robyn. I predict a stunningly successful debut (as a novelist) for WA writer Lee Battersby, whose dark fantasy The Corpse-Rat King comes out from Angry Robot in the UK later this year.

We’ve had some notable losses within our ranks – the one-of-a-kind Sara Douglass, who raised the profile of Australian fantasy so much on the international scene,, and the incredibly brave Paul Haines. I salute them both.

Karen Miller was born in Vancouver, Canada, and now lives in Sydney, Australia. She’s been writing spec fic professionally since 2005, and since then has published 17 novels. Her first fantasy novel, The Innocent Mage, was the #1 UK bestselling fantasy debut novel in 2007. Empress of Mijak and The Riven Kingdom, the first two books of the Godspeaker Trilogy, were honor listed for the James Tiptree Jr award. She has also been shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards twice.  As K E Mills, she writes the Rogue Agent series. When she’s not in lockdown in front of her computer, Karen enjoys directing at her local theatre. Her recent productions include The Crucible and Last of the Red Hot Lovers.

Wizard Undercover, your latest Rogue Agent novel just came out. Can you tell us a bit about this book and what is next for the series?

Well, first of all I’ll throw in a quick Guide To for those who aren’t familiar with the books. The Rogue Agent series is about a young man, Gerald Dunwoody, who is failing in his chosen career of wizard. As a last ditch hope, after yet another on-the-job disaster, he takes a position as Royal Court Wizard to the king of another country – and immediately finds himself up to his elbows in alligators, so to speak. As a result of this adventure, he learns some fairly startling things about himself, and by the end is walking a whole new career path.

The Rogue Agent series uses as its historical influences late Victorian/Early Edwardian Britain, so it’s a little more modern than the epic historical books I write as Karen Miller.  There’s a core of ensemble characters who share the spotlight with Gerald: Reg, the ensorcelled witch queen, Monk Markham, his genius best friend, Monk’s sister Bibbie, who’s a bit of  a wild child, and Melissande, a princess masquerading as a private citizen. Together they stumble from adventure to adventure, and while each crisis they’re faced with is self-contained, there are ongoing plot points and story arcs that thread their way through the series.

Wizard Undercover, the 4th book in the Rogue Agent series, picks up where book three, Wizard Squared, left off. After the cataclysmic events of Wizard Squared (no spoilers, I promise!), Gerald and co. are still trying to find their feet again. But even as the ripples are settling, a new international crisis is brewing and Gerald’s sent off to prevent the disaster. This time he’s working undercover, as Melissande’s private secretary, and Bibbie’s along for the ride as her personal maid.  Suffice it to say they soon find trouble. *g* Meanwhile, back at home, Monk and Reg team up to provide support … which makes Monk’s  life much, much more interesting than he was bargaining for.

Over the past forty odd years, Rosaleen Love has published on Australian science and society, both in non-fiction, and in fiction. Her most recent books are Reefscape. Reflections on the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney and Washington, and The Traveling Tide, short fiction, with Aqueduct Press, Seattle. Her two first collections of short stories The Total Devotion Machine and Evolution Annie, were with the Women’s Press, London. The Women’s Press was a pioneering feminist press that took genre fiction seriously, like TPP and Aqueduct Press today.

I haven’t written much short fiction in the past five years. For a while it felt as if events in my life were broadcast to the world as episodes of an Argentinian TV soap opera. Coping with that took away the creative urge. However, Alisa’s inclusion of my work in her TPP series has got me writing again, with my former enthusiasm.

1. You have a short story collection coming out next year as one of the Twelve Planets from Twelfth Planet Press. Can you tell us a little bit about your collection and what inspirations you drew on to write it?

I write science fiction because I get intrigued by an idea, and often the idea springs from science. The scientific explanation may not satisfy. Hence the fiction.

One of the stories in the TPP collection is titled ‘The music of what matters.’ I want to write about the experience of music. I’ve read how researchers explore the neurological effects of music, doing brain scans etc, and it all seems to me to add up to something, but it’s not what I really want to know. In the fiction, I explore the feeling of what happens at moments of music-induced euphoria. It’s a challenge, to write about what can’t be expressed in words, in words.

There’s one story I haven’t finished yet, I suspect because I have bitten off more than I can chew, a fable titled ‘The slut and the universe.’ In this story I may (or may not) account for how feminism may be both the root of all evils, and the means of salvation from them.

Two other stories are ‘The inner zebra’ and ‘The secret lives of books’. Those books are causing endless trouble, with their secret lives.

2.You are both a writer of science and of science fiction. How does one inform the other in your work? What draws you to each?

My science writing has ground to a halt, though I still do some. There’s an explosion of brilliant science writing on the web, up to date, illustrated, often communicated by frontline researchers themselves. So the old print media stuff I used to do has been largely superseded. Back in the 80s, I used to write quite a lot about what was happening with climate change, which at that time was referred to as the enhanced Greenhouse effect. That was in the days before the climate change denialists. (Indeed, I’ve been around long enough to remember being told at primary school that the next Ice Age would be a worry). In the 80s, it was possible to work out the important issues, and communicate them. Now keeping up with the climate change literature and politics is more than a fulltime job for the interested amateur.

I find the denialist stuff both fascinating and depressing. It is interesting now to find climate change entering as a topic in mainstream fiction, by writers who would never see what they are doing as science fiction.

3. What do you see as the main themes of your fiction and have they changed, matured, gotten more jaded over time?

It’s interesting to reflect on what might be the main themes of my fiction. Because I worked for a long time in teaching topics on science and society, I’ve always had that interest in the social aspects of science, and I love the idea of the feminist fable. I like turning an idea on its head. I like ideas of transmutation and metamorphosis. I am fascinated by religions, and ways in which devout people live their lives according to abstract principles that can’t all be true (whatever truth is). I think of life as a moral journey and some of that comes out in the fiction, possibly.

I like writing very short stories. The novel will always be beyond me.

I’m not sure I’ve got more jaded over time with what interests me. If I’ve got more jaded, it’s that I can’t be bothered with some recent trends, e.g. zombies and vampires. Can’t wait till the vampires die yet one more unnatural death.

4. What Australian works have you loved recently?

I might skip answering that question as I haven’t read any Australian SF/ Fantasy novels lately. I’ve been reading the TPP series to see what others are writing, and one thing that does strikes me is the general skill in the short story writing. In pace, language, story construction, I think so many are excellent – a lack of Ho Hum boring bits. Perhaps these are skills honed in writing workshops and put into practice. However, there are those vampires everywhere, though I do admit, there’s often an amusing twist in the tale.

This interview was conducted as part of the 2012 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction. We’ll be blogging interviews from 1st June to 8th June and archiving them at ASif!: Australian SpecFic in Focus. You can read interviews at:

http://thebooknut.wordpress.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://helenm.posterous.com/tag/2012snapshot
http://bookonaut.blogspot.com.au/search/label/2012Snapshot
http://www.davidmcdonaldspage.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/tag/2012snapshot/
http://www.champagneandsocks.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://randomalex.net/tag/2012snapshot/
http://jasonnahrung.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://mondyboy.com/?tag=2012snapshot

Guy Salvidge was born in England in 1981 and moved to Western Australia in 1990. He studied English at Curtin University, majoring in Literature and Creative Writing, and graduated in 2002 with Honours. Completing a Graduate Diploma in Education in 2005, Guy embarked on a career as a high-school English teacher. His first novel, The Kingdom of Four Rivers, was published by Equilibrium Books in 2009. His second novel, Yellowcake Springs, won the 2011 IP Picks Award for Best Fiction and was published by Glass House Books in the same year. Yellowcake Springs was recently shortlisted for the 2012 Norma K Hemming Award.

1. Your second novel Yellowcake Springs has been shortlisted for the Norma K Hemming Award. Tell us a bit about the book and themes that have caught the judges eye.

Yellowcake Springs is a dystopian novel in the tradition of 1984, but my work has also been heavily influenced by SF writers like Philip K Dick and J G Ballard. Set around 50 years from now in Western Australia, the novel depicts a nightmarish scenario in which a Chinese company has set up a nuclear reactor complex north of Perth in the fictional town of Yellowcake Springs. The plot concerns an attempt by the environmentalist (or ‘mental’) group Misanthropos to destroy the reactor. The narrative follows the lives of three people: Sylvia Baron, an advertising rep in Yellowcake Springs whose husband is involved in the sabotage attempt; Orion Saunders, a down-at-heel vagabond from the depopulated inland ‘Belt; and Jiang Wei, a Chinese man sent to Australia to work in the reactor complex.

My primary aim in the writing of Yellowcake Springs is to lay bare the utter folly of using nuclear power, something that is not as
far-fetched in Western Australia today as one might think. A 2005 report to then PM John Howard recommended precisely this strategy. Another concern is the increasing role that Chinese companies are playing in mining operations in Western Australia. Instead of demonising the Chinese people themselves as an alien other, I chose to write this section of the novel from the perspective of a young Chinese man, Jiang Wei. The novel explicitly depicts a vast gulf in social class between the elite coastal dwellers and the impoverished inlanders. The future of sexuality is also explored in the world of Controlled Dreaming State, an immersive, online world where one can enact every fantasy or situation they choose, something that would not only be extremely addictive, but also potentially causing people to disengage from ‘real’ life.

2. How long have you been writing and how did you get into the sf scene? What have you found the most beneficial or worthwhile?

I’ve been writing fairly seriously since I was around 14 or 15, and I’m nearly 31 now so I’ve been at it for a long time. For many years I was a SF reader without having any engagement with the scene here in WA, despite the fact that I worked in the now-defunct Supernova Books from 2001-03. I started up my wordpress blog around four years ago, and that enabled me to engage with the community a little more, and eventually some of these reviews made it onto ASiF. Through my interest in the works of Philip K Dick, I came into contact with Australia’s grandfather of fandom, Bruce Gillespie. A big thing for me was attending last year’s Natcon in Perth, where I met the late Paul Haines for the first time, and I attended Swancon again in 2012. I also joined the Katharine Susannah Prichard Speculative Fiction group in 2011. The most worthwhile about the scene for me is feeling that I’m not, in fact, operating in a vacuum, that there are other people around who share similar views and interests to myself.

3. What are you working on now and what do you have your eye on to write in the future?

I’ve been working on two projects recently: the sequel to Yellowcake Springs, currently entitled Yellowcake Summer. I started writing that in the summer holidays of ’11/’12 and I suspect it’ll take me another year to have the novel in reasonable shape. The other project was a short story, “The Dying Rain”, for an anthology called Tobacco Stained Sky, which is to be a collection of ‘post-apocalyptic noir’. The book is forthcoming from Another Sky Press in the US. I’m toying with the idea of trying to write a crime fiction novel without SF elements, but that’s a couple of years off as yet. I also want to get something published in one of the Australian small-press anthologies in the not-too-distant future, so I thought I might have a crack at Ticonderoga’s Dreaming of Djinn, if I manage to produce something in time.

4. You are a reviewer at ASif! – what are you reading interests and what do you look for in a good Australian book?

The same thing I look for in any book: a muscular narrative, lean writing, and a tinge of darkness. I tend to have two reading rules,
even though I get roundly criticised for them. Rule #1 is that I don’t read anything published before 1918, and Rule #2 is that I rarely read anything over 350 pages in length. I prefer novels over anthologies, but I’m partial to single author collections. I don’t read fat fantasy and I don’t read space opera either. What I’m after is intelligent, thought-provoking fiction, not escapism. I’m reading less speculative fiction than ever, which isn’t to say that I don’t want to read it. Books I’ve enjoyed so far in 2012 include the crime novels of Megan Abbott, Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead, and Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone.

5. Two years on from Aussiecon 4, what do you think are some of the biggest changes to the Australian Spec Fic scene?

I’m not sure I’m qualified to respond to this, seeing as I’m new to the scene myself, but it seems to me that while there is some excellent speculative fiction being published in Australia, distribution remains a serious problem. Excluding a handful of specialist bookstores scattered across the country, most of what passes for a Science Fiction and Fantasy section in the average bookstore these days is wall to wall epic fantasy and paranormal romance. Bookstores like Notions Unlimited are shining lights in this regard, and we need to ensure that the physical bookstore doesn’t disappear altogether over the next decade

This interview was conducted as part of the 2012 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction. We’ll be blogging interviews from 1st June to 8th June and archiving them at ASif!: Australian SpecFic in Focus. You can read interviews at:

http://thebooknut.wordpress.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://helenm.posterous.com/tag/2012snapshot
http://bookonaut.blogspot.com.au/search/label/2012Snapshot
http://www.davidmcdonaldspage.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/tag/2012snapshot/
http://www.champagneandsocks.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://randomalex.net/tag/2012snapshot/
http://jasonnahrung.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://mondyboy.com/?tag=2012snapshot.

Laura E. Goodin’s stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, The Lifted Brow, Wet Ink, Adbusters, Daily Science Fiction, and (forthcoming) Michael Moorcock’s New Worlds. Her plays have been produced in Australia and the UK, and her poetry has been performed internationally. She attended the 2007 Clarion South workshop, and is currently working toward a Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia. She lives on the South Coast of New South Wales with her composer husband and actor daughter, and she spends what little spare time she has trying to be as much like Xena, Warrior Princess, as possible. She lives online at http://www.lauragoodin.com and http://facebook.com/laura.e.goodin.writer.

1. You’ve recently been working on opera productions. How do you see performance and written work interacting and what do you love the most about the production/process? 

I think the biggest challenge for the performance writer is to leave space. Of course, every writer wants to make sure there is space in their story for the reader – to imagine, to ponder, to be surprised, to be sad or happy, to picture their least-favorite childhood friend in the role of the villain, whatever. That’s what makes the partnership between reader and writer so exciting. This is multiplied geometrically for the performance writer, who has to leave space not only for the audience, but for the actors and singers, the director, the composer, the set and costume designers, the lighting and sound designers, even the people out the front who hand out the programs. It’s all part of the entire creative work. Far more even than when publishing a story, the writer is a member of a team – and not necessarily the most important member!

This teamwork is, in fact, what I love the most about writing for performance. The exhilaration of making something amazing happen with your band of superhero comrades is something that, once you’ve felt it, you crave, and seek it out again and again.

Each form I work in stresses a different skill. Plays notably require a freakish sense of dialogue and rhythm. Novels require the ability to manage plot. Poems need a heightened intensity of language and, above all, the ability to suggest, to trigger a response without dictating what that response should be. Short stories need a brisk economy of style. Then there are the hybrid forms:  libretti need rhythm and highly intense, poetic language, as they need to support, and be supported by, music. Flash fiction and prose poems combine the strengths of poetry and short stories.

The interesting thing is that the skills I can develop while working in one form start to spill over into the other forms:  my plays acquire a stronger sense of plot because of my work on novels; my short stories acquire a more satisfying rhythm and subtlety because of my work on poetry. Moving from one to another can be a bit jarring, but the more I’m able to bring my skills along in all the different forms, the more the forms start to feed into each other, rather than compete with each other.

I hesitate to say much about process, because every time I read about some writer’s process that’s different from mine, I feel threatened and inadequate (we all have our writing demons; one of mine is insecurity about process). So I’d hesitate to put my process (or, more accurately, processes, because I don’t seem to have developed just one) out there lest someone think it means they’re not doing it right. Whatever gets the words out, really. If I want to do NaNoWriMo and just squat over the keyboard for a month, that’s fine if it works. If I agonize over getting one or two hundred words out in a day, but they shine like so many stars, that’s fine too. If I sit at my desk and play solitaire for three days, then write a three-thousand-word chapter in four hours (not that I’ve ever spent three days playing solitaire, no, not me), that’s also fine.

My big project at the moment is my Ph.D., which requires both a novel and a dissertation. The novel is somewhat vexing, because there are particular points I need to make and a particular plan I need to follow at least a little, and as a rule I’d rather just write and see where it goes. I guess it’s just another chance to develop more skills.

I’m also working on the development of my short story “The Dancing Mice and the Giants of Flanders” into an opera, in collaboration with my husband, composer Houston Dunleavy. And I’ve got two or three nascent dramatic works, including a series of somewhat surreal monologues that will form a full-length stage piece. And I’m working on the text for an oratorio based on the story of Adam and Eve. Although I love writing short stories, I haven’t been able to focus on writing any new ones for a while now.

In the future I’d like to keep multitasking! Short works, long works, prose, poetry, theatre, opera, choral works – I want to keep reaching out, honing my skills, gaining new ones, using my writing as a way to work with amazing, talented people of great artistic power.

I am consumed with shame that I have not been keeping up with the recent writing of my Australian colleagues. I even hesitate to name names of Australian authors whose work I enjoy, because I know for certain I’ve missed some amazing stories that would add new writers to my list.  *hangs head*

I think the main thing I’ve been noticing is that I’m not the only person who’s diversified massively since Aussiecon 4. Friends are doing graphic novels, scripts, podcasts, non-fiction, literary fiction – they’re increasingly refusing to pigeonhole either their work or themselves. Moreover, they’re e-publishing, indie publishing, producing their work themselves, and otherwise disempowering the traditional barriers between their work and their readers and audiences. I find all this very exciting, and I can’t wait to see where all this buzz and chaos ends up leading!

This interview was conducted as part of the 2012 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction. We’ll be blogging interviews from 1st June to 8th June and archiving them at ASif!: Australian SpecFic in Focus. You can read interviews at:

http://thebooknut.wordpress.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://helenm.posterous.com/tag/2012snapshot
http://bookonaut.blogspot.com.au/search/label/2012Snapshot
http://www.davidmcdonaldspage.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/tag/2012snapshot/
http://www.champagneandsocks.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://randomalex.net/tag/2012snapshot/
http://jasonnahrung.com/tag/2012snapshot/
http://mondyboy.com/?tag=2012snapshot