My Mistake...It Was A Train

Not happy! Saturday and Sunday were merely false dawns of a new age. Monday saw me doing my best impression of a seal and attempting to cough up a lung. Today I feel almost as bad as I did last Wednesday as if the cycle is starting all over again.

If I don't have Swine Flu - I've got the next best thing. I've never been this sick before, and now Jodi has it as well. The kids are all a little snuffly or have just got over it. The worse bit is my eldest is due to have our first grandchild at anytime (she was due at the end of last week), and none of us will be able to enjoy it or be part of the event because we're all too sick!

To top things off, no writing has led to no blog posts on writing, so last weeks numbers have dropped significantly. Let this be a lesson to you all. If you intend to have a blog about writing, make sure you blog everyday and post worthwhile comments or people will stop coming :c( My numbers steadily increased to peak at just over 250 individual visitors a week. Last week saw that drop by around 80!

I haven't managed to read* or write anything in sometime. I tried doing some work on my partial story idea from my dream last week but it's coming out forced so I've dropped it. If it reoccurs so be it, if not...

* - Not quite true. I did read about half of ME2 yesterday in three sittings. My eyes get tired from focusing on the screen (and I cant focus on printed text at all), but I did learn two things:

1) We have some great writing talent in Australia

2) I should have sent Dreaming, Digging Up The Past (DUTP), or God's Piscatorial Church (GPC) to ME2 submissions instead of Wamphyri.

Of course, DUTP & GPC have been entered into the AHWA comps so if successful they'd end up in ME3 or 4 and Dreaming has ended up in the Apex anthology Blackness Within.

Today I'm going to try and get a couple of things done. I'll finish reading ME2 and I'll pull my story for The New Bedlam Project out of mothballs. I'll reread it, do any revisions I need and then send to the guru (Pharo). On return, it will go through another round of revision and then go to my beta readers for comment. Next week - the second week of July - as promised, I'll be submitting it to Jodi Lee.

I've also got two pieces I need to finish polishing in preparation for sending to NT this week. So much to do, and so much snot to wade through. If I can just keep my lungs within my chest, I should be able to get some of it done.

Time to get to work!

Sins

The latest meme doing the rounds and thanks to Jamie, I have something to blog about today - no really, thanks, Jamie .

"Sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they don’t tell you. Sometimes you can learn a lot from the things they just make up. If you are tagged with this Meme, lie to me. Then tag 7 other folks (one for each deadly sin) and hope they can lie."

Pride: What is your biggest contribution to the world?

Darren Lehmann. No, he's not a mutant love child or anything like that, but I was his captain in junior representative cricket and it was because I kept getting him out in the nets that he vowed to concentrate harder on becoming an excellent batsmen. I heard rumours he acknowledged me as the reason he was able to hit the winning runs in the 1999 world cup.

Envy: What do your coworkers wish they had which is yours?

Quite a lot. But specifically, my ability to act calmly in a crisis and to have the uncanny knack to know just the right thing at just the right time. My knowledge of everything has saved their bacon on numerous occasions.

Gluttony: What did you eat last night?

Pretty standard fare last night. We started with King Prawn cocktails followed by Pheasant Under Glass with a side Cesar salad. We enjoyed a simple Peking Duck flown in by the Royals just for the quick stop over visit by Harry. It was nicely complemented with a bottle of Grange Hermitage, before we had a simple pavlova for desert.

Lust: What really lights your fire?

This is becoming a difficult thing. I mean, I'm on the wrong side of 40 now and last weeks visit from the triplets only just managed to get me in the mood.

Anger: What is the last thing that really pissed you off?

Lying. I can put up with a great deal from the little people of this world but those who just can't tell the truth really make me see red.

Greed: Name something you keep from others.

This is almost as difficult an answer as Lust. I am so open with those I consider my friends. I am generous with my money, emotions and time. I put everybody first, before me and usually before my family. Still, I scoff at suggestions I should be canonised immediately upon my death. I mean seriously, if you could cure blindness and heal the sick, you'd just do it too - wouldn't you?

Sloth: What's the laziest thing you've ever done?

I once watched my son mow the lawn while my wife washed and dried the dishes, but then it was they who suggested I have a morning off.

Just in case you didn't catch onto any of this - I have lied my ass off!

Next on the tag line: Danielle Ferries, Felicity Dowker, Jason Fischer, & Jodi Lee.

Yeah, I know I'm supposed to tag seven, but I've got another dozen or so people who I'd like to link to and don't want anyone to feel left out, so if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged. Perhaps I should have put that under sloth...

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

As I rose from the depths of sleep late this morning, a story idea was playing out in my head, a powerful story idea.

But being ill, I wanted to stay in the warm confines of my bed and enjoy the tale rather than write it down and work on it. So I lay there, half awake, and started trying to remember bits and pieces and solidify cause and effects - and so the story slowly slipped from me.

I'm left with vague recollections, images, smells, sounds. I know the time period and the main specfic plot details behind it, but I don't have the central question. I've written down everything I can remember, but it has some pretty big holes in it.

But at least I'm thinking again which means the light at the end of the tunnel may not be a train rushing towards me.

For those of you after an excellent read, I present the second issue of Midnight Echo, the official magazine of the Australian Horror Writers Association.

Non-members can download the PDF for US$3.50 or purchase the print version for US$12.95 from this link at the AHWA Midnight Echo page.

Stealing directly from the write up on HorrorScope:

Contributors include David Conyers, Bob Franklin, Kurt Newton, Felicity Dowker, Andrew J McKiernan, and Joanne Anderton, among many more. Art Director David Schembri has assembled an array of darkly visual delights from artists such as George Cotronis, Will Jacques, Liza Phoenix, Khara Burgess, and more.

I've already downloaded my free copy (because I'm a member ;cP), and can verify that this issue continues, if not exceeds, the excellent levels of dark fiction and professionalism begun in issue one. Do yourself a favour - go buy it.

Lastly - on the agenda for today:

Reading ME2
Reading The Six
Watching Transformers 2
Watching The Second Coming
Watching the Adelaide Crows (my AFL team)

Still not writing, but I'm getting closer.

Hope things are still going well for you.

Ugg

Still very sick.

Crawled out of bed to find a new movie to watch and to post some stuff - sorry Aaron, the brain is just too fuzzy to come up with another word.

So far I've watched:

Sweeney Todd - cool
The Prestige - interesting but a bit of a let down with half the reveal. I'd figured one bit out, but the other bit I couldn't grasp had a simple solution which was shouted at me all the way through, but one which I didn't believe. Looking back, as a piece of story telling, it was well crafted, but as a watcher, it seemed a little bit lacking.
The Illusionist - Cool film with lots of plants and payoffs which led to a logical ending. This wasn't a case of the story teller trying to be overly subtle or by trying to hide things from the audience - everything was there and it still made for a good story.
Underbelly 2 - my wife and I are working through the TV series. We have a disc and bit left to go. Not as good as the first series, but not bad.

Add these to the movies I've already mentioned in recent posts, and you can see I've done very little other than watch the box.

Some interesting news in the little bit of cyber-surfing I have managed:

Jason Sizemore (Apex Editor) has announced the magazine is coming out of hiatus (which lasted all of a number of weeks). Go check it out. Submissions will be open as of July 1st!

Stuart Neville is releasing his book 'The Twelve' to the Northern Hemisphere this week (no, I'm not upset that once again we down here have to wait...), but he has also released a free ebook of short stories called The Six. Go check it out to read some of the most anticipated work for some time.

There's lots of other good stuff, but I'm going back to bed so you'll have to troll through my blog lists over there on the side-bar. Yeah, I know, very slack of me, but I'm sick so :cP

Good luck with your writing.

BT

Drowning

Getting sicker - not good.

Still managed to do a quick edit on Too Late the Rain and send it off to another market. The one it was at is currently very unstable due to personal issues with the editor, so I sent it off a new one. Fingers crossed.

I also received the contract for The Blackness Within anthology from Apex. Unfortunately it won't be seeing publication until July 2010 so you've got plenty of time to save the penny's.

I watched "Terminator: Salvation" and "The Last House on the Left" - both average films. Terminator pretty much continues the franchise but it lacks the polish of earlier versions, which sounds strange to say about old films, but this one is definitely grittier and edgier. I'm also not a big fan of Christian Bale but the Aussie lad, Sam Worthington, easily steals the limelight. He was very good in it. The Last House was slow to get going and we questioned its ability to sit in the thriller genre until nearly halfway through. It then takes off and becomes a good ride but the end is ridiculous.

I've got Sweeney Todd lined up to watch next and I have the Dexter Omnibus to read, but sitting up and reading is difficult at the moment. Focusing is hard and my nose is running like a tap.

Time to return to the bed covers. I hope life is better where you are.

BT

Review: Sheep and Wolves by Jeremy C. Shipp

I've posted another review on HorrorScope. And it's another Jeremy C. Shipp book I've reviewed.

I know one or two of you have expressed an interest in his work, and I'm open-minded enough to say I've found the reading an interesting and informative exercise, but Bizzaro fiction is not really something I'd seek out in the future.

Regardless of this fact, Sheep and Wolves Collected Stories by Jeremy C. Shipp and published by Raw Dog Screaming Press gets a 3.1 on My Review Scale.

Have you read it? What do you think?

Sick - again

I must be really run down this year. Every few weeks I'm struck down with some malady or another. I can't remember ever being sick this often in the past.

This week I'm back to just a common cold - dry cough, runny nose, sore throat - all the good stuff.

Time to crawl into bed with a good book, or at least try and catch up on my book review pile.

Quiet Weekend

I'm blaming the cold for any real lack of forward momentum in my writing - as opposed to my just feeling somewhat slack and seriously lacking in any real inspiration (only half this sentence is true - guess which half! Hint: Take out everything between 'blaming' and the second instance of 'my').

I did manage to wrap up a draft of my New Bedlam submission. I'm now going to let this sit until I've read the next issue (due out the beginning of next month) before I decide on the next move. Jodi Lee, you'll be pleased to know it looks to be coming in within the short fiction guidelines. Working title "The Grass is Always Greener..." - yep, I'm a tease.

A side note. I have a requirement to write the whole name of the editor of The New Bedlam Project as my wife has the same name, with the same spelling. I know they both read the blog, so to save confusion, my wife is Jodi, and my friend is Jodi Lee.

Now, moving on...

I read and reviewed Jeremy C. Shipp's debut novel and now have his collection of short stories in my bag to do next. After reading Vacation, I had one major thought in mind - Ben should read this, so Benjamin Solah - go and buy this book. It's right up your alley.

And next...

Alan Baxter (author of RealmShift and MageSign), has posted an excellent bit of webtrickery (TM) about importing blog posts to other areas. I've managed to follow the first bit and reproduce this blog onto FaceBook so that space is no longer just sitting there doing nothing. Hopefully I'll be able to the same to other spaces currently acting as place holders for the Brenton Tomlinson or MusingsOfAnAussieWriter brands.

Lastly...

I received my final assignment back for Module 1: Write for TV and Film. In way of background for all of you coming late to this topic, and for my copious amount of new readers on FaceBook, I have just completed semester 1 for my second year in an Advanced Diploma of Art in Professional Writing. Each semester I am required to submit 8 assignments. So far this semester I have received the following grades: B, B, B, B, B, C, C - and the final grade - insert drum roll here - was another B! All together, this gives me a Credit for this module - which I think is pretty much the standard mark. It should be a pretty good mark (the levels being pass, Credit, Distinction), but it doesn't seem so, which is part of the reason I'm leaving. I won't open up that whole thing again - this post is probably long enough already.

So that was my weekend. I hope yours was filled with all sorts of awesomeness and sparkles (you have a lot to answer for Carrie).

Review: Vacation by Jeremy C. Shipp

Head on over to HorrorScope for my review of Jeremy C. Shipp's debut novel 'Vacation'.

On My Review Scale I'm giving it a 3.4.