A walk in Poring

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I am trying to catch up on all the things that need doing after being so long away- in the field, at the con, etc. I answered about 70 emails yesterday, and I am still not finished.

Anyway, here’s some more photos from my project-work trip: Poring Hot Springs area, which is part of Kinabalu Park.

One of the lovely things about the rainforest is the contrast – you go from being overwhelmed by the grandeur to being enraptured by the perfection of the tiny…

Pix:

  • Some of the accommodation
  • We set off up one of the trails: waterfalls and streams…
  • Distance view, framed by wild banana and wild ginger – far below we can see our starting point at the Poring Pk HQ
  • Poring means bamboo in the local language, and there are huge bamboo forests here, interspersed with strangler fig trees…
  • Resting on the buttress of a fig tree on our way up one of the hill trails
  • Mushroom
  • A piece of walking fungus…no, actually an insect, viewed from above
  • Same insect, side view

When people don’t know they love fantasy/sci fi

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I belong to a book group. We get together once every two weeks to talk about a book, which is usually “literary” in nature – you know, Man-Booker prize winners and so on.

The success of the group can be measured by the fact that it has been going more than 40 years. [No, I haven’t belonged to it that long; in fact only one of the members has been there from the very beginning. I have belonged 12 years.]

Perhaps one reason the group has been so successful is that the members – usually numbering about 10 altogether – sometimes come and go, changing the group dynamic, and that they encompass many different religious/cultural/ethnic groups from different countries. It is always a stimulating discussion group.

Alas, they rarely discuss sff (science fiction & fantasy) unless it is called something else, you know: magic realism, post-modern surrealism, realistic futurism or some other totally silly phrase that actually means, well, science fiction or fantasy. So Cloud Atlas is permissible (because it was short-listed for the Booker) but space opera is not, no matter how well written; The Lovely Bones would be fine, but a “fantasy” is not, no matter how much you might enjoy it, and so on.

Yesterday, the group discussed Heart of the Mirage, the first book of The Mirage Makers. Perhaps they were being extra polite because the author was sitting right there, grinning inanely (having one’s book discussed in front of you is an exercise in extreme embarrassment), but they seemed bowled over, rather taken aback by their own enjoyment of the story, intrigued by some of its sub-text.

These are people who would like fantasy, if only they would admit it.
And why is it so hard to admit?
Because magic is somehow linked to children’s literature and reading it smacks of immaturity?

One wonders just how popular fantasy could become, if only people would acknowledge that the genre offers everything that mainstream also does, depending on the book: pure entertainment, thought-provoking stories, lyrical tales, tragedy and ethical dilemmas, comic relief, adventure, fun, romance, chick-lit, crime, war, human-interest, etc etc. Serious or fluffy, it’s all there, just as it is in mainstream literature.

All you have to do is find the type of book you like to read. Give it a try sometime. You might be surprised.

What else happens at a con?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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There are book launches
(1. Kylie, Nicole and Richard Harland; 2. Emma, Donna Hanson and Trudi Canavan)

There’s just hanging about talking
(Marianne de Pierres, Sean Williams, Darren Nash, Tim Holman, Joel Shepherd and Rob Hood)
and chicken imitations…

And generally lots of stimulating panels and talk. Lots of talk. Late into the night. There was even the experience of being at a room party threatened with police action if we didn’t break it up… Heavens, I haven’t been at one of those for years!! I felt quite young again.

So what else happens at a con?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Well, at this one, I saw my latest book for the first time in its finished state…
Held it in my hand.
Drooled.
Felt relief.

It is finally birthed and about to take its first hesitant steps into the world. Make sure it is welcomed, ok?

SONG OF THE SHIVER BARRENS

should be available sometime next month in Australia, so now is the time to order it from your friendly local bookseller.


But that wasn’t the only lovely happening.
I had a surprise in my con bag, and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of it, back and front.

I must write to the Voyager publicists and say thanks.
A real rush to find myself spoken of in the same breath as Anne Bishop and Jenny, and with Trudi making nice comments.
But then, Trudi didn’t know me when she said that.

Now she’s more likely to say Glenda, rather than Glenda’s books, is the culprit that keeps her up late.

There’s now a little matter of room parties and chocolate and talk and gin, you see…


What does one do at a publisher’s lunch?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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You laugh. A lot. Especially when there are seven authors and a couple of publishers /editors. That’s an awful lot of very bright, witty people who know how to use the English language in one place.
Pix: Sean Williams, Marianne de Pierres, Tim, and (just) Karen Miller.

Throw in a surprisingly large number of waiters and waitresses who didn’t seem to speak much English at all, but who were quite determined to serve us food we hadn’t ordered, and well, the lunch was off to a great start, and just went, um, uphill? downhill? from there….
Pix: Darren, Ian Irvine, Trudi Canavan
One thing I love about the Australian author scene – at least as far as my experience goes – there is a spirit of comradeship rather than competition, of support rather than undermining, and respect rather than rivalry.

Add in a couple of great editors from Orbit – Tim Holman and Darren Nash – and you are guaranteed a great lunch.

Pix: Trudi & Paul, Sean Williams

Back in Kuala Lumpur

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Arrived back last night, late, after sitting in the middle seat of the middle row of a full flight for eight hours…

I will post more on the con later today, together with photos if they are any good.

Today, though, I have a project meeting at 9.30 am, and I also have to go to the immigration department once more, to beg them to allow me stay yet another year in the country I have called my own for more than 30 years …

Now I wonder why I sometimes get the feeling that this country really, really doesn’t like foreign wives who had the audacity to marry one of their own?

Thirty years is a long time to feel unwanted.

Convergence 2 cont’d

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I am having a ball.

In fact, my idea of writer’s heaven is to be surrounded by a heap of people who want to talk ideas, writing, books, sff, reading, getting published…

Lovely to get together with old friends, make new ones, change acquaintances into friends (hi, Emma…) Do I have to go home?

I must take some photos.

Had a room party last night which was a blast. Haven’t laughed to much in a long time. Bless you, guys…

Travelling to Melbourne at a Glance.

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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  • Eight hour overnight flights are the pits. And they will keep on waking you up for food and other unnecessary stuff.
  • Rydges, Exhibition St: what a great location for a con – right in the heart of Melbourne, just five minutes on foot from whatever you could possibly want.
  • Downtown Melbourne: What’s with all these women in black (mixed with white or shades of grey)? This is like Manhattan: black is de rigeur for locals. Wear colour, and you are instantly branded as a tourist.

Back a century and more ago, my great-gandmother told my great-grandfather to take their savings and buy some land in Collins St, which was opened for sale. Not sure of the year, but certainly somewhere between 1850 and 1900. He rode off to the big city, and returned without the deeds.
“Why?” she asked, exasperated. She was a canny Irish immigrant who could neither read nor write.
“Too expensive,” he replied, even though he had enough to cover the purchase.
And thus, dammit, went our family’s chance to be millionaires…

Wonder what he would say to the price of property in Collins St now?

Untitled Post

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Today, when I drove up to the pay-booth of the underground parking garage at the supermarket, the lass at the desk said, ‘Oo, Aunty so strong, lah. Old age, still drive everywhere!”

Ok, so that will teach me to leave the house without make up and with my hair desperately in need of a hairdresser…

Actually I started to laugh and drove into the carpark, giggling nonstop, wondering what she would have said if she could have seen me two weeks back, with a backpack containing everything I needed for three days, trekking my way through the Mulu National Park in a pair of worn out shoes with the uppers no longer attached to the soles.

I can actually tell you what she would have thought. She would have thought I was crazy. In traditional Asian eyes, old people are expected to stay home and look after the grandkids, and adjective “old” starts to get prefixed to any noun designating you at around 55.

Hmm, is that why elder daughter has asked me to come to Charlottesville and look after grandson during the summer closing of the daycare centre?