Evandale

That's it! I'm just not going to open my mouth other than for monosyllabic replies for the rest of the day. Every time I've opened my mouth today I've got grump in return, and it doesn't seem to have mattered what topic. A fine way to spend a ninth anniversary I must say! Paula's second cup of coffee seems to have settled the grump monster. I should know by now just to keep my trap shut till she's done with her morning brain boot up routine.

I revisited Dream Stealers this morning after reading through Jeff Carvers section on rewriting and self evaluation. He used an example of a book of his own that had already been published for just how sharp a self editors knife can be. I found a couple of little things to clean up. I've added the first line of a song to the end and changed the title to “Dream a Little Dream” my own feeling is just that little change makes it a whole lot creepier than it already was. His section on ruthless cutting doesn't really apply to Dream, as the story relies on all the “extra” adjectives to convey the feelings I want to evoke in a reader. I've tried it, it still makes sense, but it's lost it's flavour. Using the technique on my other works in progress however has yielded remarkable improvements.

Moving on to Jeff's section entitled “Using the Criticism” I find once again that I've instinctively done what he's recommending. Having a few select individuals read my work with an editors eye in between drafts. It's been a richly rewarding experience gathering and distilling said critique. I'd expected it to be allot harder, as I've always had a fairly fragile ego, but by looking at the criticisms in the spirit in which they'd been delivered and by utilising them to improve the story has resulted, I think, in a far more deeply immersive tale than I'd started out with. There's a line in his rewriting section that's vital, I think, to take on board. I'm going to call it the Prime Directive of the self editing process. “Be tough on your story, but don't be hard on yourself!” Wow. It seems so simple, so obvious now I've read it, that it should almost be a cliché.

We're off to Evandale today as an Anniversary celebratory outing. Going for a tasting at the Tasmanian Gourmet Sauce Co and wandering around the town. From what we saw the other night, it should be fun. Most of the main street seems almost like an antique.

Evandale was a lovely outing. The sauces, jams, relishes and mustards at TGS co where out of this world. We bought a jar of Summerberry Jam and a small bottle of a Thai Chilli sauce that absolutely wowed us. The Thai Chilli sauce has sultanas and ginger in it as well as the usual chilli, garlic, vinegar and salt. Makes for a fascinating flavour. We had lunch at a bakery/café called Ingeside Bakery. All the ingredients and other items they sell are made in Tassie. Tasmanian foods are just so good, it's hard to see why anyone in this island state would eat imported foods. With the exception of mustard seeds. While chatting with the lady at the TGS co earlier in the day, she mentioned the only imported item they used was Canadian mustard seeds because the Aussie ones just don't absorb the flavours in the sauces and mustards quite as well for some reason.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick one of my other stories and focus on it till it's ready for submission. I want to be able to have a quick turn around for when I hear if Stealers has been accepted or rejected. I've looked into other Sci Fi mags from around the world. Aurealis is the only one I've found that accepts email submissions. (In fact they now insist on it.) It seems awfully anachronistic for SCIENCE Fiction magazines to insist on hard copy in this day and age, but I guess I'll have to go along with it. After all, it would be silly of me to only submit my work to Aurealis, fine magazine that they are, it would be an extremely limiting behaviour on my part.

Three things I've learned today:
1} Don't be afraid to be brutal when in the rewriting process.
2} Canadian mustard seeds are more absorbent than Australian ones.
3} Café staff are almost always happy to substitute ingredients if you ask them to. (For lunch I wanted the Tasmanian Smoked Salmon & Asparagus Bree melt... but with chicken instead of the salmon. I wasn't going to ask, but then thought “what the hey” and presto... I love chicken cheese and asparagus, just add mushrooms and you're very close to perfection.)