Not About Earthquakes Or Their Aftermaths
I don’t know about you, but I definitely feel ready for a change of pace, at least for one day …
So on that note, what’s some of the good writing stuff that’s going down?
Firstly, I revised 27 pages of The Gathering of the Lost (The Wall of Night, Book Two) today—which may not sound like much, but it’s a considerable advance on the 8 or so pages I managed on Monday, day-the-first of “getting back into it.” So now my goal for tomorrow is to equal or better that target … (watch this space.)
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Secondly, I am very pleased to have had two poems, Starman and Penelope Dreaming, from my Ithaca Conversations sequence, accepted by editor Mark Pirie for Broadsheet 7. I understand Broadsheet 7 will be coming out sometime in May. Mark is also the Managing Editor of Headworx Publishers and co-edited Voyagers Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand (Interactive Press 2009) with Tim Jones.
Bookman Beattie ran a nice feature on Broadsheet on his Beatties Bookblog on Monday 21—you can check it out here.
You may recall that I also had another poem from the Ithaca Conversations sequence, titled One Day, published in Interlitq 14 recently, together with Australia Post.
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OK, what’s next? That’s fairly easy because finally it’s NZ Book Month (they skipped last year to shift the annual date from September/October to March.) As part of the nationwide celebrations I’ll be in Otago/Southland from March 21-26, as a guest of the Dan Davin Literary Foundation, giving a series of workshops for high school kids as well as a public lecture in Invercargill. I’m really looking forward to it and have already done a bit of work on the workshop content—all those good ideas percolating away …
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Last but not least, I’ve received—and accepted!—an invitation to attend Context, this year’s NZ National Science Fiction Fantasy Convention, to be held in Auckland over Queen’s Birthday. I was very disappointed not to be able to attend Au Contraire last year due to a longstanding family event, so I am definitely pleased to be going to Context, especially with Catherine Asaro as the International Guest of Honour. Now I just have to put my thinking cap on and come up with some panel/discussion options.
Nice, too, just to have some positives to talk about after all the earthquake reports.:)
congrats on the convention invite! Going to a book convention is at the top of my list of things to do in my lifetime . World Building is always a favorite topic for me. I love to hear how an author came up with an alternate universe. Maybe you could expand on the topic of how sexes are created equal/unequal in Sci/fantasy stories
Yes, I’m looking forward to the convention and understand that Peter Fitzpatrick, who did The Wall of Night series map may be there, so together with Frank Victoria and Russell Kirkpatrick there may be a strong mapmaker’s/artist’s stream as well, which will be very cool. World building is always good, but I think there may be a move to have a ‘Writing Strong Women’ panel, based on the series on Mary Victoria’s blog recently. A good start—so will have to see what more I can add on / into the mix. 🙂
Congrats on the poems, Helen! And ah… I wish I could be at the convention. Alas it coincides precisely with my travel times back from the mammoth Europe family adventure.
I would have liked to hear you expand on the themes in your Writing Strong Women post… Please do give everyone a big haloooooo from me.
Thinking about it, Frank will already be in the country (he’s coming home 3 weeks before me to save money) and might be prevailed upon to go to the convention if there was some help with tickets/fees. I’ll sound Jan B out about it, might be worth looking into…
Mary, I don’t think we could do “Writing Strong Women” without you, since it was your on-blog series that kicked the whole topic off recently. I am really disappointed that you won’t be able to be there, but understand given your oversas commitments.
It will do you wonders to get out of chch to the conventions/workshops especially after all the hard slog you have put in to clean up and try to get back to normality. And congratulations on having your poems accepted for broadsheet.
Thank you, ticklebear.
Congratulations Helen on your poem acceptances, and Convention invite.
My hat goes off to you for the strength you have to continue with your pre- Feb Earthquake goals.
What if some things on your list take longer to achieve – a good balance of work/’what needs to be done’ and ‘play’, help replenish those batteries which must be quite ‘frazzled’, especially when one can visualise what you are all living with after your description of an aftershock on your posting of the 8/9 March!!!!!
Enjoy your trips out of Christchurch, though I do pity you with that ‘cold’ weather while we in Queensland are still in short sleeves and shorts! (Not to mention a fair bit more rain than we have been used to.)
Take care. Be safe.
Sometimes I don’t feel strong, Joanne, more like a very ordinary gal just trying to do her best, which may not be that great when all’s said and done—but thank you! I hope you Queensland folk get through your extreme weather event season ok, as well. Take care.