Just so you know what time to come talk to me:
Midnight in Sydney is…
10 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur
3 p.m. in London
10 a.m. in New York
7 a.m. in Los Angeles
4 p.m. in Berlin and Capetown
11 p.m. in Tokyo
SATURDAY 4th AUGUST
And the link again: Conflux!
The organisers of a science fiction and fantasy convention called Conflux, a yearly event held in Canberra – which I would give a lot to go to on a regular basis because it is one of the best cons around – had a neat idea this year.
They are having a mini virtual con before the real thing.
This weekend in fact.
You can come along and hang out with other minicon goers in a chatroom, or you can enter a forum with a published writer or an editor or a publisher and talk to them – well, type anyway …how about that? Different people at different times.
And it’s my turn in the forum on Saturday at midnight Eastern Australian Time for an hour (which is thankfully only 10 p.m. here in K.L., so I shouldn’t be totally spaced out). You can come and chat to me, ask me whatever you like, whine about the state of the fantasy world, whinge about my books…or whatever.
Take a look here for how to be there. Won’t cost you a cent. And I don’t want to sit in the forum all by myself, ok?
This is going to be such fun, and it’s the next best thing to actually going to Conflux…
Subtitle: Why Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews would never make a novelist
What am I doing at the moment?
1] Waiting for some feedback from UK or S.Africa. An email from a reader. An Amazon review. Any review. Something. I am – as I have remarked before – a typically pathetic author in need of sustenance in the form of connection to readers… My progeny is out there and I want to know how it’s doing.
2] Making graphs and tables and analyses of interesting stuff like how much the average birder spends on his hobby, or whether birding tourists care about things like air con in their rooms and bars with beer (I kid you not).
3) Shaking my head over an inane statement by the Australian Immigration Minister.
When I was last in UK, attending the Worldcon in Glasgow, I took along my phone and bought a pre-paid SIM card for it so I could keep in contact with my friends in among the 5000 or 6000 people attending the con. When I left UK, I hadn’t used up all the credit on the card so I left it behind for a friend.
That simple action could have landed me in jail.
After all, that’s all it took to put an Indian doctor in custody in Australia for 3 weeks. When he left the UK, he made the mistake of giving his SIM card to his second cousin, who apparently had some connection to the Glasgow airport bombing. It seems one is now responsible for the actions of your old SIM card?
Then I read something about how they were looking at photos the doctor took of highrise buildings on Australia’s Gold Coast. Wow. Real criminal activity, that. Of course, it’s actually a bit hard to take photos there without getting the buildings, but still…
They were having a hard job making a case against the doctor, so they cancelled his visa. That way you can hold him on the grounds that he is in the country illegally.
Anyway eventually they had to admit here was no evidence the doctor had done anything at all illegal and they had to release him.
So let me ask you – what would you have done then, if you had been in a foreign country under those circumstances? Think about that for a moment. Seriously.
I know what I would have done. I would have hightailed it out of the country as fast as I could buy a one way ticket back home.
The doctor even had an added incentive – his wife just had a baby he hadn’t yet seen.
So what does the Minister for Immigration say as the doctor leaves? He remarks that his behaviour is suspicious. “If anything, that actually heightens rather than lessens my suspicions,” says the Minister.
Good God.
The minister could never write a novel. A writer has to get the connection between motives and action.
And Australia should stop traipsing down the same path American is trampling along. If you take away basic freedoms, then what the hell are you trying to protect? Throw away what you’ve always believed in, then at the end of the day, you may have a hard time trying to see the difference between yourself and the people attacking you.
Heart of the Mirage will be available at a bookstore near you in a few short days, if not right now. It is already available on amazon.co.uk here
For those of you in Capetown, there’s a bookstore called READER’S PARADISE which is having a two-month long “Fantasy Feast” for you over at 71A Kloof St. (My mouth is watering – I wish a bookseller here would do that…) You can buy Heart of the Mirage complete with a signed bookplate.
And if you do read it, please feel free to let me know what you thought (and remember, I shan’t blast you if you didn’t like the book!!). Or write review on Amazon…
Yesterday I went to a reading by some Malaysian authors and was impressed by the level of talent. Damn, but there are some good writers out there. And courageous ones too, who aren’t afraid to stand up and say: this is what I am and you can’t change it with your threats or your self-righteous religiosity…
How easy it is sometimes to control people with fear. You don’t actually have to do anything; a threat is enough.
I am reading “The Lizard Cage” by Karen Connelly, set in Myanmar. What a tour de force this book is, a portrait of the soaring of a human spirit within in prison in a nation built on fear, where they don’t just threaten, but construct an edifice of inhumanity to try to contain what can never be truly caged. Read it. A writer who can tell a tale of such horror and yet leave you feeling hopeful about mankind is a true artist.
The civets fight and squeal in my ceiling. [I’m told they make very good coffee, as my Orbit editor, Darren Nash, took care to point out to me. He has since decided never to accept a cup of coffee from me.]
The house geckoes and the spotted geckoes fight over the choice places next to the lights, and I have to fight the tree frog for the right to use my shower.
And today, a treeshrew (which does not live in trees and is not a shrew, or a squirrel, or in fact any kind of rodent), set off the burglar alarm by scampering down the passageway after entering through the back window.
Oh, and if you want to know about the coffee, check it our here.
The pix of the treeshrew is from Mamalia Semenanjung Malaysia by a special friend of ours, Mohd Momin Khan, the best book for Peninsular Malaysia mammals, and was drawn by another pal of mine Teh Yew Kiang.
Dig those crazy toenails.
The pix of the frog is from my bathroom.
Today I was in the MPH bookshop in Midvalley. I wanted to buy the book “The Gift of Rain” by Malaysian Author Tan Twan Eng, a novel set in war-torn Penang. It is published in UK, and has been reviewed, reasonably favourably, by the Times Literary Supplement. Seems like an author that Malaysia can be proud of, right?
And the bookstore was hung with posters saying: “Proud to be Malaysian”. It was a “Buy Malaysian and get a discount” promo…
Now I know I am clueless. All I could remember was that it was by someone surnamed Tan, and I thought Eng was in his personal name. And I couldn’t remember the name of the book, but I knew what the story was about and that it was published in UK recently. Should have been enough for them to recognise what book – surely Malaysian bookshops would want to promote that rare commodity, a Malaysian getting overseas attentions and kudos. How many have we had over the past 10 years? Enough to use all the fingers on one hand? And this was a 2007 publication. All told, I asked 4 assistants and they consulted 2 computers – nope, never heard of him or his book.
I eventually found it myself. And I scolded the shop assistants for not living up to their own promo. Tan, I hope they listened.
And we all know the iconic Malaysian hornbill, don’t we? Sarawak calls itself “The Land of the Hornbills”. The top photo shows a stylised one in front of Mulu National Park with its huge and distinctive curling casque.
The next two photos show the birds at the Mulu Rainforest Lodge, which is the upmarket hotel just outside the park gates. Two more hornbills, right? To show that we are proud of our birdlife. Yeah. Only trouble is, they are toucans. Found in South America.
I wrote the last post late last night, and first thing this morning a whole lot of emails dropped into my box telling me I had been reviewed by aurealisXpress (the monthly ebulletin for subscribers of Aurealis magazine). Thanks, guys.
And the review is lovely.
Says Stuart Mayne, co-editor of Aurealis:
The final book in Glenda Larke’s second fantasy series is a fitting end to a superb creator of new worlds. Once again Glenda Larke has shown the fantasy fan that she is a writer of subtlety and depth.
And he ends the review thus:
The Mirage Makers has been a captivating read. Glenda Larke’s plotting is tight and complex; she loves to keep her readers guessing. Perfectly constructed to keep the reader turning the pages. I loved this series.
Hmm. Maybe “creator” in that first quote should read “creation”? 🙂
I continue to be over the moon about the reaction to Song of the Shiver Barrens. All my agonising and re-writing evidently paid off, and in the end I must have managed to produce a good book.
I think my favourite comment has to be this one from Fi the Webgoddess:
…she has a wondrous way of zigging when other authors might zag which makes for really refreshing reading. I inhaled this book — couldn’t put it down. I wish there were more…
But then there was Barb, who said: How did you manage to reduce me to tears not once, not twice but THREE times from page 328 onwards…?
And Tsana who wrote: so many moments where I thought “No! That can’t happen!” How do you do it, Glenda? It was heart-wrenchingly brilliant.
So now that I am content with one launch, what do I do? Start worrying about the next one, of course! Heart of the Mirage in the UK … two weeks … bite nails … will anyone buy it? … they’ve put the cover up on Amazon … I’ve sent off book plates to South Africa … will anyone over there buy it? … aaargh ….and if they buy it, will they like it?
I hate waiting.
There were two related articles in this morning’s paper that made me wonder about values.
It seems that, to some of us, all that matters is only skin deep. In fact, these people would condemn others – perhaps even condemn them to hell if they got the chance – on the basis of superficial appearance and the clothes they wear.
I can’t even describe my distaste for such prejudice and bigotry; there are no words polite enough for this blog. We are supposedly a modern nation, but some of us have the attitudes of a medieval witch hunter. We are supposed to be educated, but some of us are appalling ignorant. Unfortunately, often they are the ones who think they are clever enough to lead the rest of us, even when they lack compassion, as well as learning and understanding.
What has got me so riled?
Article One (from The Star), written by someone who is both wise and compassionate, Chong Sheau Ching:
She writes about tolerance of transsexuals in Thailand and goes on to say this about an incident in Malaysia some time back at an international seminar. “I was enlightened by the doctors’ medical explanation about transsexuals. A few local transsexuals gave their personal accounts about the discrimination they faced – being rejected by medical personnel, unable to get employment, and fearing arrest.
“To the transsexuals dismay, a Malaysian woman who holds an important position, openly condemned them and told them to be more religious…”
Hmm. I wish someone had suggested to that bi–, er lady, that she be a little more pious herself, and practise tolerance and understanding and compassion.
A little further on Chong writes how a transsexual and her friends, having tea at home last year were arrested in a raid and some thrown into jail for cross-dressing. Geez – people can’t even dress the way they want in their own homes now?
Second was a news item.
The Higher Education Minister was quoted as saying that “soft” men (his words) would not be recruited as teachers, and their application to pursue a degree in education may also be rejected. Later on he made it clear that he meant hetero men who behaved like, wait for it, women (horrors!!). He hastened to say that the move was not meant to discriminate against “soft” men (no? You could have fooled me!) but “was an approach to help them realise that they have deviated from the original path in life.”
Huh? What the hell is one’s original path in life? And how is discriminating against them – and yes, Mr Minister, it is discrimination – supposed to help them change anything? And why should they change, even if they could? What about the really important things, like integrity and honesty and kindness and intelligence and ability to impart knowledge – aren’t they the things we should look for in a teacher? What the hell does it matter if they dress differently or move differently?
I guess he believes being “soft” is contagious. And deviant, of course. Sigh.
[And here’s me sitting here in a pair of trousers, wearing one of my husband’s T-shirts. You know what, it must be about the only arena in life where women (sometimes) have it better than men. We can cross-dress and still be regarded as normal.
My father – born back in the 19th century, mind you – would have looked at the sarong or sampin worn by the Minister on occasion and asked what on earth the silly fellow wanted to wear a woman’s skirt for? How’s that for irony?]
I have just read the second in this Godspeaker series. It is called The Riven Kingdom, and I am still thinking about it – the sign of a great read. It’s not out yet, but you can buy Book 1 (above) in Australia. I think Karen Miller is one the most amazingly versatile writers I know – sf media tie-ins, classic fantasy, classic swords & sorcery, comic fantasy – she can and does do it all, and very well indeed. Remember her name.
Drop in here for another Fantastic Women interview by Karen, this time of Rachel Caine.
And now I guess the world is beginning to recover from the Potter hysteria epidemic. Somehow I have been left with a nasty taste in my mouth and I have been trying to analyse why. Instead of celebrating the launch of a long awaited book, we seem to have been deluged by tales of venality, gleeful spoilers, and cynical greed. And depressing accounts of how the whole Potter mania has not added up to a growing readership for books. It seems that for most, it’s just a cool thing to do because you can talk/SMS/blog/argue about it afterwards, not because reading a gripping story is satisfying of itself, and something you will want to do again and again with other authors. That is so sad.
Here in Malaysia, the big book chains, who have delighted in undercutting the independent book sellers for quite some time, found themselves the target of similar price cutting. The hypermarkets – so unsporting of them – suddenly announced the day before that they were giving huge price cuts of book 7 . And here they don’t usually sell books at all!
So the book chains got together and refused to sell Potter to anyone who hadn’t pre-ordered. Nice. I am not sure who I am miffed at here, but somehow I think the consumer will suffer, along with authors, in the end.
And was I out there buying the book? No. Fraid not. They are exactly the kind of book I would have loved to read when I was a kid, but I am not a kid any longer, and there is just so much more out there that I prefer and time is so precious…so I did read the first two, to see what all the fuss was about, and stopped. I am finally grown up…
