Giant Squid Creations

This is my initial thoughts on the story, nothing too in depth. Warning, big spoiler, if you want to read the story do that first. It's here . The beginning of this story reminded me somewhat of Gormenghast but with a more literal take on the idea of Titus Alone . Its mouldy, decaying castle is viscerally described and the infinite loneliness of the narrator is palpable. The nature of this castle with its immense forest is kept a mystery, but there is a hint that not all is as described when we're told the narrator believed himself young because he remembered so little. A failed memory and a life in a place that seems to exist outside the real world. Only when the escape is made – and leads not to a high tower above the forest, but ground level in an aged churchyard does the mystery of the castle, a veritable crypt, become clear. From there it’s clear what must happen, the narrator must learn it is a dead thing crawled up from its grave, but Lovecraft spins the discovery ou...

So I have a couple of plans in mind and I'm going to commit them to this blog to make sure I stick with them. There's one about my playwrighting and one about The Scarlet Ring. The thing with the playwrighting is I did actually finish two one-act pieces this year and since then both have sat on my computer not bothering anyone or finding out if they're any good - let alone trying to come to life on the stage. So the plan is a play reading picnic in the park. People will gather, some volunteering to read, others just coming to enjoy the event and join the discussion, then while a picnic lunch is eaten the two plays will be read out. Then as we digest the food everyone who wants to can give some feedback on the plays. That should at least give me the basis for a second draft. That's the plan. A date will be set soon and people will be invited via Facebook, so if you're interested watch that space. It'll be in Sydney in case you're not. Plan two. I've...

So this is just an excerpt of a rough scene early in the novel. I'm sharing it because it has the first appearance of a lute player Tomorillo, who was inspired by Tom Dickins and his music. The three acolytes sat at a table across from the hearth, warming themselves from the twilight chill and waiting for more people to come in. Hanissa sighed; it didn’t feel right to be here, doing nothing. Darian had made the plan, go to the inn where Calestra had been last seen, ask people who had seen her if they knew where she’d gone; simple enough. She knew it was logical, and Alisan certainly liked the idea, but ... it meant being here, in the village, surrounded by people. “Cheer up lil’ sis,” Alisan gave her a nudge with a tankard of ale, “it’s just one night. We’ll find where she’s gone and be on our way.” “On our way where?” Darian said. “Chances are we’re going to be in villages for a while, maybe even Esst, if not some other city. You’re going to have to come to grips with it Han...

I thought it might be worthwhile to cast a reflective eye over some of the things I read during the first half of the year. A number of things really don’t require much discussion; I was just catching up with what many people already know. I finally caught up with the first two Discworld novels for instance, although I’m loathe to admit I actually expected a bit more from them – possibly the vice of too much success. I also read Game of Thrones , in some ways bowing to peer pressure but seriously, it’s right up my alley anyway. It truly is epic in scope, while remaining character-orientated and is just generally beautiful fantasy. I was less impressed with the TV series I hate to say, I enjoy it but it just skips too quickly over things and doesn’t give the depth that makes the book so good. Very recently I read Marianne de Pierre ’s YA novel Burn Bright , and I didn’t waste much time finding, buying and starting its sequel Angel Arias . This is undeniably YA but that really doesn’t ...

Time to catch up with a few events of recent times. First off, Supanova . I went to this with Sam last Saturday at Olympic Park. There weren’t too many celebs we were that interested in so it was a good chance to enjoy the rest of the event properly. We started off with a publishing seminar where we heard some useful things from Garth Nix as a successful author with experience in the industry and from a couple of publishers. The bookseller representative I have to admit thought she had more useful info than she did and showed her distinct dislike of e-books a little too clearly. Anyway it was useful and we later had a chat with Caroline Lowry of D-Publishing who is likely to hear from me again when I finish something worth publishing. From there we met up with our good friend Erin, moseyed about the stores, listened to Christopher Lloyd answer some fairly inane questions (for the most part) and met a few more people. Artists’ Alley was of course home to some interesting and inspirin...

I wrote this a couple of days ago but I’m finally putting it up. I wasn’t sure whether to write a blog about the passing of Ray Bradbury but the Sydney Morning Herald online tipped my hand. Bradbury was without a doubt a master storyteller and a prolific one. He created worlds and ideas with clarity and precision. It’s not stretching anything to say he was one of the greats of SF – by which I mean Speculative Fiction, not just science fiction. What drives me to write this however is not simple memoriam but an element of disgust with SMH for its reporting of Bradbury’s death; a brief paragraph followed by a reprint of an opinion piece arguing that Bradbury was not a ‘literary’ SF author but the king of ‘pulp’. A simple short obituary would’ve sufficed but to spare the effort they rerun something that ends by saying “The king of pulp [Bradbury] lives.” I ask you, is that appropriate? Now, the piece was not disparaging of Bradbury overall but it did seem to argue against his skills ...

So there's this development in the creative scene called crowd funding. Many of you may well have heard about it; it's been around for a while now, someone I went to uni with has even used it. But it's come more strongly to my attention through projects by Amanda Palmer and Tom Dickins - names that have popped up once or twice in this blog before. Amanda's in particular is turning heads as it has raised well over half a million and is still going. For those who don't know what crowd funding is, here's the basics. There are websites, two that I know of, Kickstarter in the US and Pozible in Australia, I'm sure other countries have them too, where artists from any creative medium can propose projects they are trying to get up. Using Tom as an example, he wants to make an album but has zero money and no backing from a label or anything. So, he's put up a project on Pozible and told his fans about it who have spread the word too. When they go there they can...