Giant Squid Creations

It’s been a few weeks since I blogged, shame be upon me, but my how time flies. There has been some progress on some projects, a bit of a personal insight and a minor bit of excitement. The last one first, I wrote a review for one of the albums I’ve bought through Classicsonline and it was selected as one of the best customer reviews in April; bit of a thrill I must confess. You can read it here . As for progress, the most exciting for me has been coming up with a plan and a plot outline for the first book of a trilogy I’m writing – The Scarlet Ring. None too surprisingly it’s a fantasy story set in a world I’ve been devising for over a decade, off and on. Mostly off for a long time, which is fine as it’s given me the chance to do a revision of everything and focus the world from the sprawling chaos I had to a more distinct and workable form. And the story I started in that world almost a decade ago is finally taking shape! The pieces started falling into place only in the last cou...

So, I have been on a plane – twice. It’s actually quite exciting in its way, seeing the world below; Sydney at night became colonies of fireflies and the clouds in the daylight were mountains of ethereal wisps floating on shadows above the ground. Take off isn’t great on the neck however. Not much to say about airline food, they were only short trips. The tea is pretty average, but QANTAS did give us a very nice biscuit. My holiday was a relaxing and fun week during which we covered a lot of ground exploring the beaches of the Northern Rivers, driving through some villages and dropping by Nimbin for some shopping. There’s also a very good local art gallery there I recommend to anyone passing through. Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is also well worth the time to explore, say hi to the tree kangaroos for me and watch out for the dragons. Seriously, during the week we saw so many water dragons – at my aunt’s house there were little ones we’d watch over breakfast, running about a stone w...

Perhaps it’s genetic; the evenings begin to cool, life begins to slow and we crowd round the fire to hear the storyteller conjure up new worlds from the flames, exciting our imaginations and reminding us of who we are. Perhaps I’m just odd; but whatever it is, autumn is here and as the cool evening breezes blow round me in the dying golden light I feel a stirring in my mind. Dreams awaken and I’m suddenly impelled to do the things I should’ve been doing all summer – writing, rewriting and actually submitting works to potential publications! It’s early yet and my first attempt met with an unexpected setback. I thought I’d typed a story up but it turns out I hadn’t; so task one is to do so. That’s The Truth of Dragons , the first piece I completed as a married man and there are a few places I’m thinking of sending it to; watch this space. The second, ongoing, attempt met with a bit more luck. The Tale of Five-Fingered Jack (working title) which I started on New Year’s Day finally has ...

I just read Craters , a short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and it's left me feeling very thoughtful. It's a near-future SF piece about a journalist going into a refugee camp in an age where everyone has microchips inside them for identification and the war on terror is in disturbing place. I'll try not to give any spoilers - to read it yourself go here http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/craters/ While I'm not sure Rusch was deliberately writing a dystopia it certainly is one. I should probably explain what I mean by dystopia, it's not that common a term ironically enough. The best explanation is an example, the archetypal dystopia is George Orwell's 1984 . Essentially they're opposite of utopias; where society has turned to some other thing, a controlled status quo. The core dystopias include Huxley's Brave New World , Vonnegut's Player Piano and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 . These all show an imperfect world where free thought and act...

As we bid farewell to Janus for another year I figure it's time to consider the first month. The biggest highlight for me would have to be the Dresden Dolls' concert; it started with a far too short set by The Jane Austen Argument, those two are such beautiful souls and talented musicians. Then came the Bedroom Philosopher with his line of musical comedy and self-deprecating humour that tickled my fancy; but of course the Dolls themselves rocked out the house for a long time. Seeing them work together on stage, the level of communication and trust between them was as amazing as the music itself. And seeing Brian Viglione play drums is entertainment in itself. In terms of my writing the year is off to a shaky start but it's still a start. The tale of Five-fingered Jack is developing in bursts and is the first completely new creation of 2012. Working on it has also confirmed my process involves some planning ahead and some improvising. More improvising around a set plan so ...

On the second day of the year I went with Samara to collect our Christmas presents to each other, our Merlin passes. These are yearly passes to several attractions including Sydney Aquarium, Oceanworld, Sydney Wildlife Park and Centrepoint (sorry, Sydney Tower Eye ... cause that's such a catchy name). We got our photo pass at the last of these then went up the elevator, popped our ears a few times, and had a look about. I'd never been up there before and it really is a gorgeous view and it was such a clear day too. I suddenly thought how cool it would've been to have been up there while they were filming the helicopter scene in The Matrix so we had a look to spot the roof Neo landed on. It looks a little different but we found it all right. Afterwards we quite naturally went to Kinokuniya for a bit of a browse. On the $10 sale table a book caught my attention and I had to buy it. Terry Brooks' Sometimes the Magic Works is a look at his writing life ...

So, one year ends and another begins. A pragmatist might say it's just the changing of a digit on the calendar, or time to buy a new one I guess, but for the rest of us it is a good time to reflect and to plan - and in planning to hope. This has been a good year for me, bought a townhouse with my wife - first calendar year of marriage too - started this website; met Neil Gaiman , Kevin Anderson and Marianne de Pierres ; saw Muse, Amanda Palmer and Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen; discovered some great music and read some good books. Work was fine too, got to do some more writing there too which may not be my type of thing but it's experience and money. There were downsides too of course but I won't go into them here. What this blog is really about is the position I'm in for the New Year. Managed to finish a rough draft of Prometheus Rebooted with hours to spare before 2011 bid farewell, which was a goal and gives me something ...