Happy New Year!

Well, it was nice that the year went out on a high (see below).

As I sit here eating assorted rice crackers and drinking sump oil port, it's hard to credit that at the beginning of 2008 I was finishing off my previous novel (Time and Tyde) and wondering if I could be bothered to waste my time sending it out to publishers. Then I heard about the Orbit/QWC manuscript development retreat and thought, What the hell? I'll give it a go.

Since then I've had four stories accepted for publication, been shortlisted in one short story competition and was the winner in another. I've also finished and polished up a whole new novel (TimeSplash! - many thanks to Terry Hornby, Rod Rivers and Wifie for help with the polishing) and have it out with three agents already.

It may not sound like much, but after a lifetime of failing to get anywhere with my fiction, I'm suddenly having some real success. I blame it to a large extent on Orbit and the Queensland Writers Centre. That retreat last May really opened my eyes and got me focused on what I needed to do. Specifically, Marianne de Pierres, Kate Eltham and Bernadette Foley, put together a package of concentrated enlightenment that changed my whole approach to getting published - with incredibly good results.

I should also mention the other writers who were at the retreat with me. We refer to ourselves collectively as the Orbiteers. These guys have been a constant source of support and encouragement. It is so good to be teamed with such a group of talented writers - who just happen to be terrific human beings too. The whole experience of that retreat and the subsequent months (which also included joining the Vision Writers Group - another amazing collection of talent and wit) has changed the equation for me. I am no longer the lonely, isolated outsider I used to be. I have made inroads, I'm networking, I actually have friends who are also writers. The publishing world doesn't seem so cold and hostile as it did at the beginning of the year. I have found islands of warmth and fuzziness in that great ocean. I even have hope again that I might succeed as a writer!

Of course that might just be the sump oil port talking (or the rice crackers - hard to tell). Being an anal, scientific type, I did my accounts for the year, to see just what my success amounted to. On the one hand, I got paid for a couple of things. On the other I forked out money for retreats, conferences, memberships, books, etc.. The balance was a loss of nearly $600 for the year. Not as bad as it could be but definitely a reminder (as if one were needed!) that I still have a very long way to go.

Well, come on 2009! I've got a lot to do and I'm counting on you for support.

Happy New Year everybody!

'Too Late' in Concept Sci-fi Magazine

Rush over to Concept Sci-fi magazine and download issue #3. Not only is this a great up-and-coming sci-fi magazine, but issue #3 carries my short story 'Too Late'.

Just thought I'd mention it...

:-)

Once More Unto The Breach

That Orbit/QWC retreat is going to resonate in my life for months - if not longer.

While I was there I was chatting to Marianne de Pierres who gave me many pieces of excellent advice about my book 'Time and Tyde' and about the writing life in general. When I mentioned that my 'bottom drawer' was stuffed with short stories that had never seen the light of an e-zine's sluch pile, she admonished me to within an inch of my life and told me to start sending them out.

Now, I've been very lackadaisical about getting published, I must admit. But I have to say, until Orbit came along, I hadn't had any interest from anyone in the business. At all. That hasn't stopped me writing, of course. What could? But it stopped me trying. In the past couple of decades, I have probably made a couple of submissions per year. In the last five years it has been far, far fewer. Yet, this week I have dug out, dusted off, polished up and sent out four of my old favourite SF&F stories along with one new one. And the strange thing is, I'm quietly optimistic for a change. The five stories are:

• Snowy - a tale about an experiment in brain-to-brain connection that doesn't turn out well.
• Magic - a love story: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets faith, boy goes nuts, boy gets girl back but the world may never be the same.
• The Last Dragon - shoot it down at your peril, Red Leader.
• The Liberation - men have been liberated at last from the culture of machismo toughness that has repressed us so long - but at what price?
• Too Late - the last thing you need when you're breaking up with your partner is for aliens to land in your back garden.

I hope to have news to report on these in coming weeks - good or bad.