Basil is getting too big for me to think of his as a puppy, but he still only just over one year old. As such, he feels in need of constant attention. He'll demand to be let out only to insist on coming back in again less than five minutes later, then want to go out again in under a minute. When not on the in again out again merry go round, he'll sit under our feet and whine if he's not the focus of all human attention. Basil is not a dog who has a hard life. Anyone who knows us will see that last sentence for the monumental understatement that it is. Today, Paula has decided it's time our pets moved away from the mass produced store bought food and on to home made. To that end, she's found a lengthy list of recipes from various locations and is currently gearing up to make a few batches today.
I've taken one of my Belt Wars based stories out and dusted it off today. I've decided it's going to be based in the run up to the second belt war. My main hero will discover pieces of a puzzle to help her uncover a plot that'll be part of the trigger for war. The story had previously been intended to be a discovery of an ancient, highly advanced, artefact, but that plot line has been done to death since the time of Plato and his tales of Atlantis. Sci-Fi writers over the years have given that particular plot a good hard go too, Niven and the Protectors, Ring World etc. from his “Known Space” universe for one. Larry Niven's one of my writing heroes so by all means I wish to emulate him, I just don't want to copy him.
I looked up writing groups in Tasmania today. Have to say, they don't seem terribly impressive from their websites. One of them, The Tasmanian Writers Centre in Hobart looks to be a handy resource for the hobbyist writer who has little faith in themselves and either not much in the way of research skills, or no real ambition to actually make a living from writing as they charge more to proof read stories than they could be sold for. The other, the Tasmanian arm of the Fellowship of Australian Writers looks to be (by reading between the lines) an arty sort of organisation who consider Sci-Fi not to belong to the category of literature. I've had dealings with this type of group before, I recognise the nose in the air kind of approach hinted at by the type of competitions they're running. Looks as though I'll have to look for support elsewhere. Jeff Carver's been helpful, by providing his course, and his quick response to my question before, and seemed friendly enough in his response to a comment I left on his blog about ebook piracy. The editor of Aurealis seemed friendly and supportive too. Still no word, but it's early days yet, so I won't let myself get discouraged by that.
Three things I learned today:
1} Tasmania may be host to many writers, but not much in the way of Sci-Fi support. To the best of my knowledge, the only Sci-Fi writer of note who lives here is published under the name of Sara Douglas. She's nice, an online friend of my wife's in fact, but very protective of her privacy, so I won't be bothering her with questions, or seeking publication advice there.
2} I discovered today much to my surprise that the Hero of my next story is in fact a Heroine. No one could have been more surprised than I was, but there she was as I wrote in black and white.
3} Apparently soft drinks give you cancer. Well, what's the big surprise there? Everything gives you cancer nowadays. There's even a song about it I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment