Last weekend I attended this year's RWNZ conference - the best conference yet, but also the most fraught. Sadly, M&B writer Sandra Hyatt passed away suddenly over the weekend. I didn't know her personally but have met her and heard her speak at Auckland chapter meetings. A warm, friendly and very astute and helpful writer. My thoughts are with her family and her close friends in RWNZ. She will be sadly missed.
Sandra was a good friend to most of the organisers of the conference, and despite it all and with the deepest of respect to their friend, they managed to ensure that the remainder of the conference ran smoothly and as successfully as the first two days. Extraordinary people.
The highlight of the conference for me was the workshop and talks from US thriller/SF writer, ex - green beret and writing tutor Bob Mayer. He put things in simple to understand terms and I learnt heaps. Tess Gerritsen was funny, very clever, and it's so hard to believe that such a nice lady writes truly scarifying thrillers. Haven't read any, but I'm certainly going to.
I had two pitches - with Kate Haworth of Penguin NZ and with Angela James of Carina Press, who had the bad luck to have caught a rotten cold. Both asked me to submit my manuscripts - so that's great.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Flitting
Flitting - that's the best way I can describe the state of my writing at the moment. I'm flitting between different projects - and getting nowhere fast with any of them. Not a very productive work method.
I'm about 80% done on the final assignment of my screenwriting paper - a SF short film script. A lot of fun, and it's making me look at story writing in a new way. But it's not due till the end of October, so think I should put it aside and get on with editing my historical romance, working title "Gorge Creek". Then there is always the two SF books in their early stages, which are actually where my real interests lie.
I've done about 12,000 words of one, and am toying with whether to keep it as a longish short story/novella or turn it into a full book. And at Catherine Asaro's marvellous workshop before this year's con, I came away with the bare bones of another SF novel. This one really does have enough in it for a full novel, though will need a lot of research beforehand into such things as climate change, meteorology and general world building.
One thing Ms Asaro's workshop did achieve for me was to help me realise what it is I want to write. Or rather what it is I enjoy writing the most. It's SF, with or without a romantic element. Though I may still write in other genre's. I'm in the middle of reading "Doc" by Mary Doria Russell of "The Sparrow" fame. Here is a writer who writes what she wants to write, rather than what the business expects her to write. She could have stayed as a successful author of a stream of literary SF novels. But "Doc" is historical, the story of Doc Holliday, and a great read.
Or maybe all this flitting is just another name for procrastination. I am getting writing done, but it's bits here and there. Well past time to knuckle down and follow the maxims of Somerset Maugham. The only secret to writing is applying one's seat to one's chair and get on with it.
I'm about 80% done on the final assignment of my screenwriting paper - a SF short film script. A lot of fun, and it's making me look at story writing in a new way. But it's not due till the end of October, so think I should put it aside and get on with editing my historical romance, working title "Gorge Creek". Then there is always the two SF books in their early stages, which are actually where my real interests lie.
I've done about 12,000 words of one, and am toying with whether to keep it as a longish short story/novella or turn it into a full book. And at Catherine Asaro's marvellous workshop before this year's con, I came away with the bare bones of another SF novel. This one really does have enough in it for a full novel, though will need a lot of research beforehand into such things as climate change, meteorology and general world building.
One thing Ms Asaro's workshop did achieve for me was to help me realise what it is I want to write. Or rather what it is I enjoy writing the most. It's SF, with or without a romantic element. Though I may still write in other genre's. I'm in the middle of reading "Doc" by Mary Doria Russell of "The Sparrow" fame. Here is a writer who writes what she wants to write, rather than what the business expects her to write. She could have stayed as a successful author of a stream of literary SF novels. But "Doc" is historical, the story of Doc Holliday, and a great read.
Or maybe all this flitting is just another name for procrastination. I am getting writing done, but it's bits here and there. Well past time to knuckle down and follow the maxims of Somerset Maugham. The only secret to writing is applying one's seat to one's chair and get on with it.
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