I’m in London

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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London, England, that is. To see my daughter.

And I just posted a blog over at Borders here on the subject of writing characters.
Today is the Grand National in UK, so of course, when there was a horse starting with the name “Character Building”, who could resist a flutter?

Sigh.
The best thing I can say is the horse finished the race, which is far from a guarantee in a jump event.

Most of the day we spent just walking the streets in glorious Spring weather. I’m staying in Soho, just off Oxford St, so close to everything.

Covent Garden market

Reviews and commentaries

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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One of the best and worst things about having a new book out is waiting for, and then reading, reviews. No matter how phlegmatic a writer is, I suspect they end up bouncing between despair and elation, not to mention all the prior nail-biting anticipation … and mind-numbing terror that nobody will say anything.

It is interesting therefore to see things from the reviewer’s point of view, such as this post at NextRead or here at Speculative Horizons. The comments are also worth looking at if the topic interests you.

From a reader’s point of view, I like a review that tells me only very briefly what the book is about (quite different from telling me what the story is); I like it to tell me why it worked for the reviewer – or why it didn’t. Remarks like “The beginning was a slog” mean nothing until they are followed by “because…”

As a writer I try to learn from well-conceived not-so-good reviews, as well as the good reviews. The reviews I really, really hate are the ones that dislike a book for what it sets out to be. There can be no more pointless review than that!

What do I mean?

A SF writer friend once received a snide, sarcastic review from a book reviewer in a national newspaper. The whole review was just a let’s-poke-fun-at-fantasy- to-make-us-literary-types-feel-better review (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) . That’s probably the most extreme version of what I mean. But there are lesser kinds of irritating that have the same fundamental silliness.

Don’t criticize a paranormal romance for containing romance because all you’re interested in is vampires. Don’t attack volume 1 of an epic fantasy of 800 pages for being long, having too many characters and an unresolved ending. Don’t attack a SF novel for containing some scientific explanation. Don’t attack a writer with a reputation for writing blood and gore when he does exactly that in his next book.

What did you expect, for crying out loud?

If the romance is badly managed, if the epic storyline is dull, if the science is ridiculously wrong or poorly explained or dealt with in massive info-dumps, if the blood and gore is tediously repetitive – and you discuss that, or give examples, then you are writing a proper review.

As a writer, one of the nicest comments are the unexpected ones out of the blue from fellow writers – especially when it’s a writer like Alma Alexander whose writing I admire and whose books I love.

So, readers and writers out there: what kind of reviews and reviewers do you like or hate? And for those of you who don’t read reviews, why not?
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flying visit…

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Yesterday I spent the day with my sister, which was great. She was just passing through on her way to India and Bhutan. It had been almost two years since I saw her last, one of the horrible penalties of living far from home. However, we are meeting again this year, after Worldcon in Melbourne. I am really looking forward to that – I shall be off to Tasmania with her and other friends. Never been there!

About the only other thing I did yesterday was to write a blog post over at Babel Clash. Please feel free to comment over there! It was veeeeery quiet over Easter. Were you all on holiday from the internet?
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When religious leadership says outrageous things

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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  • The personal preacher to the Pope has “likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to ‘collective violence’ suffered by the Jews…” WHAT? Criticism of an organisation that covers up horrendous child abuse by some of its membership and makes it possible for the abusers to go on abusing for decades – is said to be akin to the ‘collective violence’ suffered by people of a particular religious persuasion?? (Verbal, justifiable criticism = the Holocaust?)

Wow, that’s a jump.

  • In Australia, over Easter, the Catholic Church was busy blaming atheists for everything. It seems, according to the bishop of NSW, that atheists are responsible for “Nazism, Stalinism, Pol-pottery, mass murder, abortion and broken relationships…” Wow again. But not child abuse, I see. Atheists – you are in the clear on that one.

To me, that kind of thinking has the same twisted logic as Muslim = Terrorist. Or in fact, all Catholic priests = child abusers. If you don’t like people saying it about you, they maybe you shouldn’t say it about others.

  • And here in Malaysia, a married, working mother of two young physically-disadvantaged children has a beer and as a direct or indirect result, loses her job, is divorced by her husband, is unable to look for another job because the religious authorities have kept her hanging for eight months waiting for the sentencing (of caning) to be carried out. At one stage she remarked that she wanted to be caned just to get it over and done with. Now the caning has been commuted to 3 weeks community service at a children’s home.

You know what? I doubt that this was a case where the ultimate result – eight months of loss of income; eight months of stress, publicity and humiliation; strains on a marriage resulting in divorce and single parenthood of two children needing special care – was punishment appropriate to the crime.
All that for a beer??
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On idiocy…

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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When a hate-fueled mob of religious idiots start to demonstrate, what do you do to counter their vicious idiocy?

Here’s a young guy who found the perfect answer. You work it so that the bigots unwittingly are instrumental in donating money to the causes they hate. Love it.

Now I just wish I could work out how to do something similar to people who ban books and seize whatever takes their fancy here in Malaysia: a book on ovarian cysts, a young adult fantasy novel, a book on feminist theory…anything their tiny little minds can’t appreciate. Or are they just collecting reading matter for their families? We don’t know because they never tell us what their criteria is. Or in fact explain anything…

My theory is that they can’t speak English and therefore judge a book by its cover.
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Birds in the garden

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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It’s that time of the year when the birds in the garden become very obvious. We may not have a spring, but we do have a time of the year when birds breed. I have a species list of about 70 for my suburban yard – that’s since we moved here about 30 years ago. All the pix are taken in the garden to illustrate the fact that if you want local birds, plant local.
The first sign of a breeding season on its way are the two early birds: the Asian Koel and the Large-tailed Nightjar. They start about October and keep going to April or May. I can do without the former, as it has a loud, unattractive call and doesn’t mind starting at 5 a.m., or breaking into vocal territorial aggression in the middle of the night: KO-EL!!!!! At least it parasitises the introduced House Crow, so it’s not a total loss.

The nightjar is monotonous but I like it nonetheless: tonk-tonk-tonk – sometimes non-stop for minutes at a time. At the moment our second nightjar species – the Savannah Nightjar is also calling, usually at dusk in flight: Chwwit!….Chwwit!….

I have not heard either of our owl species this season though: the Buffy Fish Owl and the Collared Scops have been absent for some time.

I’ve had at least two species raising young around the house this year, and probably more. There has been a family of Ashy Tailorbirds and of course, the prolific Yellow-vented Bulbul, which usually chooses a pot-plant on the veranda. Both species only managed to raise one young this time, so there has been some infant mortality there.
The Pied Fantail and the Oriental Magpie are both about to nest somewhere in our yard: there’s a lot of aggressive courtship from the males. Nothing subtle about these guys. The ladies get chased off their feet.
The Black-Naped Oriole and the Common Iora have been exceptionally vocal as well this season, but I haven’t seen any females, so maybe the guys are lonely, or maybe the females are just clever at keeping out of sight.
The Brown-throated Sunbird has chased the Olive-backed Sunbird permanently out of the garden, but I don’t think the male has found a female this year. He always seems alone, which is unusual for this species. Sunbird males tend to get very clingy once they find a mate and keep close even out of breeding season.
I think the White-throated Kingfisher is now nesting in the bank just outside our yard, because he has stopped calling. A month ago you couldn’t shut him up.

I haven’t heard the Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker for ages, so I don’t know where he went, but the Peaceful Dove, the Spotted Dove and the two myna species (Common and White-vented) are all permanent residents in our trees.

A few birds give the garden the once over, to see if there are any partners around. This year we had a Rusty-naped Cuckoo drop in and then continue on when he wasn’t answered.
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Three things before the end of the month …

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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ONE
The Gemmell Awards first round of voting (which produces a short list) has to be completed by the end of the month. The present lists of books and artwork is a result of nominations by publishers and editors. The Last Stormlord is one of these nominations, and there are are some other excellent books on the list to vote for if you don’t think mine is appropriate.

TWO
Over at Good Reads, The Last Stormlord, which won the vote to get to the final, is losing the battle against A Bridge of Birds, A Novel of Ancient China That Never Was by Barry Hughes for the choice of the June Fantasy Book of the Month. So consider voting in that too!

THREE
Borders, where I will be blogging at Babel Clash from Tuesday next until the 12th of April with Celine (Moorehawke) Keirnan. I shall put up the link here every time I post.
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