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Coming soon from Black House Comics:  [click for a larger image] "Bored out of your brains at school? Still - better than having your brains bored out, or at least that’s what Tamsyn and Ali think. The zombie apocalypse is here but life continues in the Kent town of Gravesend. Parents,school, politics - it’s your every day small town, albeit with an army of cannibals looking to get in. And when they do......."
My new novella, "After The World: Gravesend" will soon be available in newsagents right across Australia. "After The World" is a loosely connected series of pulp stories, and volume 1 "After the World: Killable Hours" by Clay Blakehills hits the shelves next week. Baden Kirgan of Black House Comics has been a real pleasure to work with, and I'm super excited about this story (and the series in general). Black House are the company responsible for "The Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes" which is a great new spin on this infamous crime-solver (issue #3 is out now). And in case you're wondering, the excellent cover-art for "Gravesend" is by none other than Jason Paulos, who I've enjoyed for a number of years without realising it. His satirical noir series "Hairbutt the Hippo Private Eye" has been in Mad Magazine for ages, and I believe it can be bought as separate volumes now. ( http://www.hairbuttthehippo.com/ for more details.)
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Jason Fischer #1 is a younger, somewhat misguided version of himself. He hails from the grand old days of June 2007.
Jason Fischer #2 is a bitter, twisted old cynic. More world-weary, somewhat disgusted with the shenanigans of his past selves. He is communicating backwards via Chrono-Phone from the amazing future of November, 2009.
JF#1: Hello?
JF#2: [heavy sigh] Hello, dumbarse.
JF#1: Hey, it's me! How cool is this? This is like, Asimov's telephone. Hey, I should totally write this as a flash fiction story, and put it up on my new blog.
JF#2: [shudders] Good god, don't do any of those things. I'm from the future, and need to deliver a warning.
JF#1: Warning? What's wrong?
JF#2: You know how you're entering that 3 day Novel Race on the coming long weekend?
JF#1: Yeah! YEAH! WOOOO! Psyched! I'm so gonna win that shit. Won't have to edit it or nothing.
JF#2: Just shut up and listen. Do NOT read "Riddley Walker".
JF#1: Whaddya mean? It just got here from Ebay. I've been dying to read it.
JF#2: You cannot read *that book* and immediately write a novel. You'd be stupid to try. Look, you're just stupid.
JF#1: It's genius. It's devolved English. Who are you to judge?
JF#2: I'm still trying to fix your efforts. IT'S TWO YEARS LATER AND THIS IS STILL SHIT. You're not Russell Hoban [hangs up]
JF#1: Sheesh. What a prick.
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Here tis! Many thanks to Gillian Pollack for helping with the collation of links. Part two shortly to follow. If for any reason I've omitted something of great consequence, please let me know in the comments. Ta! ---- On the reverse engineering of stories, hieroglyphs written by drunk chickens, and Angela Slatter being declared an outpost of Billy Connolly by the Scottish Parliament. http://angelaslatter.com/2009/10/27/on-reverse-engineering-for-writers/ Don’t bitch about that writing contest…it’s just not worth it. http://angelaslatter.com/2009/10/15/on-the-winning-of-awards-and-prizes/ Thoughts on small press viability, effective promotion, and separating the main-stream reader from their cash. http://twelfthplanet.livejournal.com/6994.html And e-copies of Twelfth Planet Press’s awesome novella series are now available. http://twelfthplanet.livejournal.com/6516.html A vigorous discussion on convention panels: what ones have been done to death, ones there should be more of, what level of programming should be aimed at newbies, workshops, the whole bag and dice. A must-read. http://girliejones.livejournal.com/1489090.html When award lists resemble a sausage-fest: http://girliejones.livejournal.com/1498248.html http://kjbishop.net/2009/11/08/distracted-by-the-penis.html and more on women in writing, perceptions of age, and the patronising of popular women’s fiction: http://amongamidwhile.blogspot.com/2009/11/about-womens-work-particularly-their.html Nicole R Murphy’s short story epiphany: http://tillianion.livejournal.com/96285.html Peter M Ball working on the sequel to the infamous unicorn snuff book: http://www.petermball.com/2009/10/26/project-update-cold-cases/ And the spokesbear speaketh: http://www.petermball.com/2009/10/28/a-message-from-the-spokesbear/ and the writing continueth… http://www.petermball.com/2009/11/06/words-words-words-with-bonus-angela-slatter-interview/ Tales from the slush front: http://pattyjansen.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/from-the-slush-minions-diary/ and finding the time to write: http://pattyjansen.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/how-to-find-time-for-writing/ Juvenilia Week, wherein people air their sordid writerly pasts: http://jasonfischer.livejournal.com/233256.html http://jasonfischer.livejournal.com/233695.html http://jasonfischer.livejournal.com/234492.html http://www.petermball.com/2009/10/14/juvenalia/ http://jtph-jo.livejournal.com/23784.html Ten ancient festivals far superior to Halloween: http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/ten-roman-festivals-that-are-weirder-than-halloween/ Because, if money isn’t falling into your lap from the sky, your only other option is to carve words onto your own emaciated thighs in a garret. http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/the-magical-writer-journey-or-why-stephenie-meyer-is-a-fictional-character/ And Clive Barker himself dropped by for a Halloween chat: http://holeinthepage.blogspot.com/2009/11/transcript-of-ahwas-halloween-chat-with.html
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So I caught the First Tuesday Book Club on ABC today - I try to catch this show in an effort to improve my knowledge of Such Things. It usually doesn't work, and doesn't do much more than deepen my baseless distrust of capital L-literature. But that's just the reformed bogan in me, and I do my best to overcome these pre-conceptions I carry around in my skull. ("Because a Good Book is a Good Book", breathe deep, repeat)
So again, I tried to watch this show. There are often some great points made when analysing the various works, but (and I hate to admit this, in case it's proof positive that I'm a philistine and I Just Don't Get Things) they seem to spend an awful lot of time TALKING SHIT.
But, this is not my biggest beef with this program. Hey, Literature exists in just as much of a ghetto as SF does, if not greater. We're just more honest about this, and it beats me why we SF folk are still suffering from cultural cringe when in self-comparison to the "serious" stuff. We do literature sooooo much better than Literature. In my opinion, of course :-)
No, today's beef is this: Jason Steger, panellist for the above show and literary editor for The Age, was BUSTED on national TV bending the spine of a new book right around so that cover was touching cover, which then revealed several sections of the book that had been dog-eared.
YOU BOOK DESTROYING MONSTER. If you come anywhere near my book-case, I'll be forced to shoot you in self-defence. That's just how strongly I feel about the issue. If you truly love books, you love bookmarks.
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