Where are my words...?!

Dear All,

My words are gone and I don't know where to find them... As an example, I needed my thesaurus for this post, but could not immediately find it. That has never happened before - I always know where my thesaurus is at. Exhibit b/- I have hardly touched my notebook: last year I filled two, yet as this year as it ticks on to it's end, I have barely made it a 5th of the way into one.

What is going on...?

And here was me thinking I had "made it", that I would be immune to such "humanness". Ack!

How does a writer get his words back?

Tell what does make me happy though, knowing that Factotum is already beginning to make its way to you all. Now we get to find out if I can really pull off an entire story or not, which was, during the process of the last 6 years, of real concern to me...

Still is :/

Is it just me or do seconds take forever to pass; weeks can flash by, but seconds seem to plod along with nigh tauntingly ponderous - even reluctant - leadenness.

The Agonies of Editing

Ahh noelle, it's not just fledgling authors who feel the dents of editorial comment. I am about to receive edits from my publishers and am getting myself prepared for the sting (as much as you can). "Don't they get it! How dare they say that! But I love that part!" might be among the thoughts you're having. I rant and rave and get all bothered and offended.

I find two things help with the post edit sting (actually three) a/ putting the edits down for a bit and mulling (or brooding -if you like) them over; b/ choosing the best "hills to die on" if you get my meaning - the happy medium between those things you are willing to change and those that must remain as they are, besides which, it is still your story, you do not have to make any of the changes an editor asks of you (though I would not recommend such action, a good editor will me you a better writer - I know that is true for me, God bless you Celia and Tim) c/ the healing balm of time.

Also, remind yourself that the editing stage is a team effort, AND the crucial first sharing with the beginnings of an ever widening audience. Though criticism is hard to bare, the excitement of the improved text gained through it is well worth all the struggle... well I think so, anyway.

My first drafts are L-U-M-P-Y, uneven, turgid and at times self-indulgent - folks don't have to be sad that they get edited down and words cut out; the words that are left are far better than those removed. Just for perspective I excised 25,000 words from the 1st draft of Lamplighter and oh how it improved. If anyone thought say that the journey from Winstermill to Wormstool dragged a bit in the final version of Lamplighter, just know that it went for a whole chapter longer in the 1st draft... even I thought is S-L-O-W when I came to read it over properly for myself. And now here in Book 3, Factotum, I have managed I think to prise 9,000 words (so far) out of the first 10 chapters and it is already a far better book.

So bring on the editing, I say, pain and all, a better book awaits (though ask me again in a week or so's time how I am feeling about it all...)

Alyosha, I really enjoyed your comment and though I have given cursory thought to engineers and masons and the like, I shall now think a little more particularly about such folks who tread the middle path between out and out adventure and staying safe behind walls. Concometrists come to mind a bit here, the measurers and the surveyors - but what of engineers? What should I call them...?

And the Winner is...

Just back from Brisneyland (being Brisbane for the uninitiated) having attended the Aurealis Awards night where, if you'll recall, Lamplighter was shortlisted in the Best Young Adult Novel category. Alas alak, I have to content myself with the shortlisting for I can reveal to you all now that Melina Marchetta's (of On the Jellicoe Road and Looking for Alibrandi fame) first foray into the spec fic world, Finnikin of the Rock (Penguin/Viking) took the honours.

Congrats to her - I'd be lying if I did not admit I was a tad bummed, but I got over myself and and very happy to have Lamplighter on a shortlist.

The other winners of the 2008 Aurealis Awards by category were:

best science fiction novel
K A Bedford, Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait
(Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)

best science fiction short story
Simon Brown, ‘The Empire’, Dreaming Again
(Harper/Voyager)

best fantasy novel
Alison Goodman, The Two Pearls of Wisdom
(Harper Collins)

best fantasy short story
Cat Sparks, ‘Sammarynda Deep’, Paper Cities
(Senses 5 Press)

best horror novel
John Harwood, The Seance, Jonathan Cape
(Random House Australia)

best horror short story
Kirstyn McDermott, ‘Painlessness’, Greatest Uncommon Denominator (GUD), #2

best anthology
Jonathan Strahan (editor), The Starry Rift
(Viking Children's Books)

best collection
Sean Williams & Russell B Farr (editor), Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams
(Ticonderoga Publications)

best illustrated book/graphic novel
Shaun Tan, Tales From Outer Suburbia
(Allen & Unwin)

best young adult short story
Trent Jamieson, ‘Cracks’, Shiny, #2

best children’s novel
Emily Rodda, The Wizard of Rondo
(Omnibus Books)

best children’s illustrated work/picture book
Richard Harland & Laura Peterson (illustrator), Escape!, Under Siege, Race to the Ruins, The Heavy Crown, of The Wolf Kingdom series
(Omnibus Books)

Peter McNamara Convener's Award for Excellence
Jack Dann

Well done to everyone (with an especial cheerio to Sean Williams, Richard Harland, Laura Peterson, Shaun Tan and Omnibus!) and thank you to the organisers for a great event.

And just to turn all the attention back to MBT for a moment, the paperback of the English language editions of Lamplighter will be released this year in May, which is something to loo forward to.

Answer time!

Probing questions from Differlot:
"[Do you] know what planet is the half continent?"

The world of the Half-Continent is called the Harthe Alle (at least by some) or the Alt Gird (though not so often). Tungolitrists (what we would call astronomers) name it Deuter Diana or just Deuter. Of course other races have other names, but these three will do for now.

"I wonder what Europe does in her free time, hmmm?"

Europe would not admit to having such a thing as we would call "free time" - her oppinion on the matter would be to use time as usefully as possible; "sitting about only makes for darkened and uselessly bedizzened thoughts," is how she would put it, I reckon.

"What happens if a wit or fulgar gets turned into a monster do the monsters learn how to use the artificial organs, or since they have been put in maybe they are dead and the monster only posses natural parts since it probably wont be able to take treacle till found by somebody. They might just die from not having any."

Now here's a question I'd not considered! Monsters would not ever become lahzars, and since the whole system of treacles and surgeons is a totally human system, so you are right, even if a monster could become lahzarine, they would die from lack of treacle and such things.

Also, for those of a praying persuasion, I would very much appreciate your prayers as I struggle to get the final two chapters of Book 3. Typically I tend to have a vision of what a scene will look and feel like, a sketch - if you like - in my head, from which I spring forward to actually explore and fill out with words. Right now, however, my soul is being very reluctant to cough up a clear view of the end.

Who'd be a writer, hey?

Vade Mecum

I have begun Latin lessons today!

Yes, just when I had successfully presented the illusion of being a Latin expert (thanks to my trusty Collins Compact Latin Dictionary and some advice and assistance from femina) here I am bursting it with admissions of banal humanity.

It was a mere introduction - a potted version of Roman history with Latin phrases thrown in for relevance. For example the title of this post actually means (or so I am told) "come with me" and was used when referring to a diary or information guide or even a notebook! Feeling suddenly very smart, I wrote "VADE MECUM" proudly in the front of my newest notebook.

Very odd to be back in a classroom (of sorts) again. I wonder if I will be one of the cool kids or with the uber-nerds as usual.

I am feeling greatly improved in spirits, thank you in no small part of the encouragements left last post. To those of you who reached out and gave a little, I am so very grateful.

Book 3 proves to be a different road again to the last two books, but a common problem haunts me - I think I am getting bogged in minute details at the expense of character and - more importantly - relationships.
(Don't tell anyone I admitted this or some might think I am human after all and not some word-smithing demi-god whose every turn of phrase is pure uneditable poetry...)

The Last Post... well for the year at least.

Here we are folks the year almost at an end, big projects up ahead: Lamplighter's release imminent, Book 3 to finish, further books to ponder and plan (see how Book 2 is received first, shall we...), get that Half-Continent map up and running at last - a bit of a theme with a couple of posts ago, things to do, planning ahead, getting my scattered brain in some appearance of order.

Might try rambling about something else.

Something I find is when I am not working on MBT and Half-Continent things I can get very excited about the prospect of my next session of labours, yet when it comes time to make good on all that enthusiasm I become suddenly all reluctant and gloomy and "won't-worky" - as my mother used to call it. Here I have been all enthusiastic and making short notes and getting ready to dive in deeper then when that time comes mope mope, is it all worth it? What am I doing, blah blah blah...

Anyone else go through this?

Anyways, may I just say HAPPY NEW YEAR; may this new one be most excellent for us all.