Copy edit dispatched today…
And I am off hunting for the Bornean Peacock Pheasant in the only place in North Borneo where it has been seen (one bird) in the 100 past years. Well, actually it was shot by the Museum there in 1996. (Museums always prefer dead birds, I guess, to living ones?)
I’ll be back next Wednesday…
Wish me luck.
Firstly, there are some interesting comments on the previous post about writing in the first person. Check them out – some wise words there.
Secondly, apparently I live in Fantasyland…
…at least so Alma Alexander tells me. She took her latest book to the US Post Office to post to me here in Kota Kinabalu. My address has a lot of interesting words in it like Likas, Tuaran, Tenejal, Lucky…
…and the folk behind the counter wanted to know if this was a real place? Lol!
Actually I think my Tunisian address was more interesting. We lived on the
Rue Manoubi Jarjar. Now what does that remind you of…?
My site meter has some snazzy features, one of which is this: if you googled to get here, it tells me what you typed in. Now most people who arrived here that way have typed in my name or the name of one of my books, or the blog name. Obviously enough.
But sometimes … these are some of the things that brought you here over the past couple of days:
“You live in the tropics”
Yep, I do. Not sure how that is going to help you, though.
“Skiving Isles”
Now that sounds like a lovely place to be. Especially when I am in the middle of a copy edit with a massively important deadline. Haven’t a clue where they are, though – if you find out, tell me. I need them.
“Nashii”
Fair enough, that’s my daughter.
“Luck in being signed by a literary agent”
Takes more than luck, my friend…
“Koompassia excelsa”
For all of you looking blank, that’s a rainforest tree.
“Animal Farm, Chapter One”
Yet another student who wants the internet to write a term paper for them…Not sure how this site will help, though. Why don’t you go buy one of my books instead?
“What do you mix with temper paint for windows?”
I haven’t the faintest clue. Although I admit I rather like the juxtaposition of the words “temper” and “windows”. Especially when I am copy editing an MS that had its formatting thoroughly mucked up during the process of being emailed and opened by the publisher’s computer system…
“Tiderider 45′ yacht”
Nice. Wish someone would buy me a yacht.
But I do know where that comes from. “The Tainted” is partly about a tiderider who rides the tidal bores as a messenger…
“Wife 50”
Uh-oh. Mate, put up with it. She has to. And suggest she try HRT.
“Comments on book ending in trilogies”
Hey, the ending is the easy part to write…it’s the 1,500 previous pages that are a real pain.
“How to write in the first person”
Don’t.
“Traits of a good wife”
Boy, have you come to the wrong site. I can tell you something though: stop ironing your husband’s shirts, and he goes out and buys ones that don’t need ironing.
“Husband wearing wife’s stockings”
WTF?? I kid you not, that was what was googled, and it brought them here.
Can give you some advice, though, lady. If that’s the worst thing about your marriage, then you don’t have a problem. Tell him to go buy his own, or to pay for yours.
Or move to the tropics. We don’t wear stockings here.
And one last word: after the most recent entries, the most popular entry page for visitors is the post entitled “How to Beat Your Pregnant Wife”.
Dear readers, you are one helluva strange lot …
This is my week apparently for feedback from authors … people who don’t know me but have come across my work.
And it’s a strange feeling. You see, I have spent the better part of life feeling rather ordinary, like most of us do, I guess. And along the way, I have admired certain people who are in the public eye, to one degree or another. Not too many politicians among them, I will admit, but there have been many, many writers.
I’ve admired their work, their creations, their ideas, their values, their talent. And as far as I have been concerned, they were out there in the stratosphere somewhere, about as far away as you could get from me. I admired from afar and read their books, but funnily enough it never occurred to me that they would read mine.
So when Kate Elliott , author of many wonderful fantasies that I’ve avidly read and admired for so many different reasons, says on a team blog named Deep Genre :
Glenda, I meant to mention some weeks ago that I am a total fangirl after reading your Aware trilogy… It’s fabulous. I loved it.
…well, I was just bowled over. This was Kate Elliott, talking about MY books. In public. Oh, wow. All I’d done was leave a comment on a blogpost re manuscript submission, and that was the last thing I expected.
Kate Elliott, I think you are wonderful.
I have to go and sit down now.
Pix (taken a while back):
A writer’s life. The temptation is that pair of flippers and the coral reef in the bay – and the reality is the deadline.
Back to my copy edit.
The Isles of Glory: “Sharp intelligent fantasy for those who like ideas mixed in with their action.”
Kate Forsyth is an Australian YA and children’s author of considerable experience and talent, so I am delighted to see that she enjoyed The Isles of Glory Trilogy.
You see, writers are really, really picky readers. We see through everything. The plot devices, the flaws, the weaknesses, we tend to see them all. We think uncharitably, “Hmph, I wouldn’t have done it that way!” As we read, we note the structure and do an inward criticism of how the book was put together. In fact, my criteria for knowing whether a book is really good is this: I am so drawn into the tale that I read without giving a thought to how it was written.
So when a writer likes my work, especially one I’ve never met, I heave a huge sigh of relief.
Here are some of the things Kate has to say:
“Larke obviously relishes world building, and the cultures she creates are so original, in comparison to many fantasy worlds, that the whole series has a very fresh feel to it …”
“…It is very interesting to see a little more of the different cultures as our heroes move from island to island. I really enjoyed these aspects of The Isles of Glory.”
“The second book, Gilfeather has one of the best opening lines in recent fantasy fiction. I first met Blaze and Flame the day before I murdered my wife….”
“I was genuinely surprised by the ending of Book Two as well, another experience I always enjoy…”
“The Tainted...brings to the fore a narrative thread which has been a clever and sometimes amusing framing device in the earlier books…”
The writing style is “always very smooth and readable, and punctuated with a dry wit that helps lighten much of the darkness of the story. This is sharp intelligent fantasy for those who like ideas mixed in with their action.”
Wow, thank you, Kate Forsyth. I hope I get to meet you at the coming Natcon in Melbourne so I can say thanks in person…
Kate’s review is in the latest Aurealis Magazine which can be bought through this site.
Now back to my copy edit.
There’s a great discussion on this topic going on over at Karen Miller’s blog.
Here is part of what I wrote in the comments section:
I must admit I have never read fanfic and have no desire to do so. Nor do I have a desire to write it. In fact, I don’t “get” it. One of the great joys in writing for me has always been world building. To use someone else’s world – or even worse their characters – would take away 90% of the joy!
Sure, I wanted to be published, but that was never the obsession. And if I’d reached the end of my life unpublished, I would never have thought my life wasted. I wrote because I had to – that was the obsession – writing was and is an inseparable part of life. It has been since I was eight years old, or even younger. Does someone who reads a book, or goes sailing every weekend, or horse-riding, or swimming at the beach, or to the opera, waste their life? Of course not!
And that perhaps is the best advice I can give to a “wannabe” who is not sure whether they have what it takes to be a “got-there”! If you aren’t loving the journey, if you ARE going to give up on the creative process after constant rejection, then you are probably in the wrong business and, yes, wasting your life. If the creation is what counts, then publication is just the icing on a cake that is already tasty. If creation is what counts and brings you joy, then you have a fufilled life no matter what happens.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that publication is what writing is ALL about. It’s not.
Nice writerly things happening at the moment. Just had a long chat with my HarperCollins Voyager editor, which is always great. [I get literarily-deprived over here in Sabah sometimes, if you’ll forgive the pun, so talking to someone in the business is always wonderful.] She has re-read Song of the Shiver Barrens, and is happy with all the last minute changes I made.
The copy edit for that same book has just been delivered to my door, and I am neck deep in that. [Have you any idea how humungous a 160,000 word book is when it is in A4 sheets, double-spaced courier font?? I had to move my workspace from the writing desk to the dining room table…]
And my agent has sent me a email saying how much she LOVES the synopsis/book proposal for The Random Rain Quartet. Yay!
Pix: Roots on a forest path, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah.
Or, if you are a fantasy author/reader, something quite different…long live the imagination!
Two great links sent me by a friend pertaining to the previous thread on fantasy readers and mainstream critics…
And the photo is from the Tawau Hills Expedition – me and a tree. I like pix that make me appear petite.
(Expedition was a joint project between Universiti Malaysia Sabah and the Sabah Parks, who kindly allowed me along.)
If you don’t read fantasy, you need to read the comments section of the previous post.
If you do read sff, read them to cheer yourself up.
Pix: another from Sebatik Island, Sabah. This one is a picture of the mangroves. Any wonder that I love swamps?
Taken during the Universiti Malaysia Sabah / Sebatik Island MoU visit.
