Better yet: I was able to get all of the dates that I asked for! I haven’t had to shuffle any of them around. How fantastic is that? So now the group is regularly on the second Friday of every month, like clockwork. (Coincidentally, I’m writing a steampunk thing at the moment that involves a lot of clockwork. Fun!)

Now those are set, I can work out the monthly write-in dates and we’re set for the year! Whoo!

I’ve added the dates for next year to the Creative Writing Group page. Check there for updates, or feel free to add yourself to the update list if you want reminders of when the meetings are!

Hope to see you there. :)

I now have my own Writer’s Corner, and a slot to do a talk (4-5:30, 10th Sept). The subject is ‘online publishing’. Now all I have to do is figure out what I’m talking about (it’s a very broad topic!) and try not to get too nervous. I’ve started getting some notes together, from a session I did with my writing group and some more recent material I’ve come across.

Fingers crossed, it should all come together nicely. Less than two weeks to go. Wish me luck (and that people turn up to join in)!

Wow. I do little talks for my writing groups fairly often these days, but this is (even more) public! And very intimidating. But very awesome.

What do I do the talk on? What do I wear? (Shut up, I’m a girl, y’know.) I should sort out business cards. Or bookmarks. Or something with my links/writing on to hand out. (Don’t want to miss an opportunity to pimp myself, after all.)

I’ll have to see if I can bribe my writing group folks to come along and keep me sane. And anyone else I can get to come! You! Are you in south-east Queensland? Then you have to come!

Can’t wait. I’m a little bit terrified. I think I should go lie down now.

I would like to change this. I’m not entirely sure how just yet, but I’m thinking about setting myself some time every week to write specifically for this blog.

I haven’t been creating the kind of chronicle for Starwalker that I did with the Apocalypse Blog. The journey of writing Starwalker is a rollercoaster – it’s crazy and fun and hard, and I’d like to capture some of that here. If only so I can look back and say ‘wow, I was nuts!’

I’ve also been giving talks about writing lately. I had a guest pull out of my writing group meeting this month, and put together some emergency notes so that we had something else to talk about! It was actually great fun (and I learned a lot!), but it would be nice if all this material I’m collecting didn’t just sit in a notebook somewhere.

I have plenty of stuff that I can write up. I have already started on the notes from my writing group (though assembling rambling notes into a coherent post is harder than it looks!), and will hopefully have something post-worthy in the next week. On top of that, there’s always the occasional vomit of information that has previously lived within the confines of my skull, like the recent posts on why and how to critique fiction.

Reviews. I would like to do more reviews, too. I often feel opinionated enough to write them, but finding time to do it is always the trick. Plus, I’ve promised at least one fellow writer that I would do one on their work! Sheesh. Get to it, slacker.

Perhaps I’ll try to post every other week, with a different type of post each week. That sounds terribly organised! Considering that I’m struggling to keep up with Starwalker most weeks, that is frequent enough to get me back into the habit of writing for this blog. Who knows, maybe I’ll throw in more posts as well!

So I have a plan. I have lots of things to write about. Now all I need is some time in my life, and I’m set! Watch this space, people – I will try to make it active and interesting!

Then I found out that the lovely Zoe E. Whitten had opted to review the first book of Starwalker. How cool is that?

What touched me even more were the comments on the review. Colour me a happy camper.

Her review is also available on Starwalker’s Web Fiction Guide listing. Go check it out!

My third Brisbane Writer’s Festival happened at the beginning of September (a few weeks ago now). I almost didn’t go this year (I was supposed to be down in Melbourne for WorldCon), but when work made it impossible to go, I wound up at the festival instead.

I’m glad I went. Lots of  interesting talks, and I wound up buying a handful of books – mostly non-fiction for research purposes. The people I went to see talk were all well worth seeing, and gave me plenty of food for thought. I even paid for tickets for some of the talks – which I’ve never bothered to do before – and I don’t regret it.

The festival was not as good this year as it has been before. This is mostly because of the aforementioned WorldCon, and also because of the Melbourne Writer’s Festival. All three events happened on the same weekend, and that means that a lot of potential guests went down to the events in Melbourne, especially those in the scifi/fantasy genres. Great for them, not so great for those genre-lovers stuck back in Brisbane.

We had a full complement of authors anyway, mostly crime, romance and non-fiction of various stripes. I saw Michael Robotham and Val McDermid in a couple of different talks, and they’re well worth seeing. Sensible, entertaining, and honest. I’d sit and have a drink with them any time (sadly, I didn’t have time at the festival, but next time!).

I picked up Robotham’s Shatter, and thoroughly enjoyed it. May do a more complete review if/when I get some time. I will say that the level of craft displayed in it was much higher than I was expecting, and I will happily pick up another of his books when I’m done with my current list (I’m waiting for a friend to finish The Suspect so she can lend it to me, before I go hunting for another one).

I also plan to pick up one of Val’s books and see what they’re like, too. She’s a great character and I don’t doubt that at least some of that has leeched into her work.

I bought a handful of books that I wouldn’t have otherwise picked up, some of them random non-fiction that just looked interesting (like one about particular mental disorders, and another about how the brain heals itself). The festival was also a great chance to hang out with friends and meet new writers.

The Brisbane Writer’s Festival is held at the Queensland State Library, where the Queensland Writer’s Centre has its new offices (they moved earlier this year). I finally managed to pop in and say hello, and because I’m a member of the QWC, I got a tour and a card, and free drinks in their Writer’s Lounge. My friend and I recuperated between talks there, and met a string of writers, all coming to do the same as us.

So, overall, a good weekend in good company. Hectic and exhausting, between trains and running to talks and all the rest, but well worth it. I am sorry I missed the craziness of WorldCon when it was visiting so close, but I had a great time anyway. Looking forward to next year’s offerings already!

A very good friend of mine living in the US is in an awful position. He has had to move and the cat he left behind needs a new home, or he faces being put down.

Here’s Dave’s story about his little fuzzy boy, Butterball:

Butterball is a fluffball, two-year-old grey tom, currently living in the Sherman-Denison area of Texas. I adopted him as a kitten, and he was a part of my family for a year and a half.

He grew up as an indoor cat with two others, and is well socialised with other felines. He’s naturally friendly and inquisitive, especially after he gets to know someone. He loves to play, often with great enthusiasm, but has never dealt with children before.

About seven months ago, he accidentally got out of the house. We searched for him, but he wasn’t seen for two days. We still don’t know what happened to him in that time.

When he came back, he had a mangled front paw and continuously mewled in pain.  It took over a month of care, during which time he suffered uncontrollable bowels and a fever, but he finally pulled through. 

Now, it’s almost impossible to see where his paw was hurt. Also, where he was wary of strangers before, now he’s friendlier and seeks company more than he used to.

When my fiancée and I moved, we had to leave him in her mother’s care, as we sadly couldn’t take him with us to our new home. My fiancée’s mother, Marsha, had cats of her own and could provide him with a good home. 

Now she is being forced to move and can only keep one cat.  Sadly, this will not be Butterball. If he doesn’t find a new home, he will be put in a pound or simply let go in the countryside.  In a pound, his chances of getting a home aren’t good. As an adult cat with a plain appearance, he will lose out to younger, cuter cats when it comes to an adoption. If he’s not homed, they will put him down. In the countryside, he doesn’t have a chance; he isn’t a mouser and never learned to hunt.

He needs a home, a good home, one that is understanding and loving.  That’s all I want for him; it breaks my heart that it can’t be with me. He’s a good cat.  He’s had a harsher life than any animal deserves, and now not only is he about to be taken from the last vestige of the home he’s had for his entire life, he may end up out in the cold. 

Any patient, understanding, and loving home would be enriched by him.  He deserves a shot at a good life, so if you can help him find a home, please get in touch. 

If you know anyone in the Sherman-Denison area of Texas who can help, either by giving him a home or helping him to find one, please please, let either me, Dave, or Marsha know. Marsha can be contacted on 903-647-5652 (between 4pm and 6pm Central time is best). Any and all help will be gratefully received!

Thanks for your time, everyone. I have my fingers crossed that we can find the little fella a new home.

The weekend was lovely. The Brisbane Writer’s Festival was on, and I went along on both days to meet up with friends and listen to the talks. On the whole, they were interesting, but less focussed on the writing than last year. For example, what I was hoping would be an interesting talk about writing erotica turned out to be three women talking about sex - hilarious, but not exactly what I had gone along for. One of the best parts of it was the fact that two of the panel clearly didn’t like each other.

We managed to get to the talk about copyright, which was handy. Lots of good information to be had there, though they didn’t really touch on e-publishing rights much. I’m relieved to know that copyright is automatic in Australia – none of this need to register that I’m told is present in the US. If you make it, it’s yours.

The other really interesting talk was by Jeff Lindsay (author of the Dexter books), a psychiatrist, a criminologist, and a philosopher. Psychopaths are fascinating people – broken and a little bit scary. Two parts of the talk saddened me. First, ‘pscyhopath’ and ‘sociopath’ are used interchangeably in the industry, lumping those who have a mental/emotional issue in with those who go out and actively hurt people. This bothers me. Second, they gave out some statistics for just how many people are believed to be sociopathic (I’m going to use the terms to mean different things, dammit). Scary. I could go on about this, but I might save that for another post sometime.

Lots of food for thought there – and lots of material to be wound into writing later.

On Sunday night, a group of friends came out to dinner with me, and insisted on singing ‘happy birthday’ in the middle of the street. Embarrassing, but touching. Bless ‘em. It was a good night.

On Tuesday, we had a big deadline at work. All of the ticket work had to be finished off so that we could start publishing our documents for our release at the end of the month. Needless to say, there was a lot of running around and tying up loose ends.

This morning, I took up the reins of Team Leader to run the publishing process (which takes about two weeks). The current TL is training me as we go.

So yesterday was the perfect time for me to have a cold come on. My head is stuffy and heavy, and my chest hurts even more than usual. I can feel it trying to settle in my chest and keep wondering if this is going to descend into pneumonia like it did in March. Awesome.

I can’t afford to take time off right now – we’re crazybusy at work, I don’t have the sick or leave time to take, I have to learn all of this, and it’s not stuff I can do from home. So I’m loading up with cold meds and hoping that this doesn’t develop into anything nastier. On the plus side, I don’t feel much worse today than I did yesterday.

I have warned the folks that I probably won’t be able to do my birthday dinner on Thursday, and the dinner I had lined up with friends for Friday isn’t looking great either. I’m supposed to be supporting my Triading buddies at Gen Con on Saturday, and right now I’m just glad that I didn’t make any promises to play. Argh.

So, yeah. This week’s going to suck. I’m pretty much working and then going home and collapsing. FE (my new project with some friends) is going to have to wait, and AB is probably not going to be as good as I’d like it to be. I will try to keep up with the beloved blogfic, though. Wish me luck!

Front of house

I’m all moved into my new house! It’s finally all furnished and filled with my crap stuff.

People have been asking me for pictures, so here they are! Before and after (the moving process) shots.

The thumbnails go through to big pictures, so be warned if you click through! Ignore the dates on them – Mum has yet to sort out the date feature on her camera and it decided it was February all on its own.

Office - before

Office - after

The first room is supposed to be the dining room, but I wanted/needed an office space for writing (and, okay, playing games on the PC).

It has my old desk in there at the moment, but there’s a new one turning up sometimes this week – I ordered it yesterday. Somehow, I managed to need more space than the old desk could provide!

On the plus side, I managed to get all my bookcases in there. They are now filled with varying levels of geekiness.

Lounge - before

Lounge - after

Lounge next – not much to say about that. Have couches and telly and lovely speakers. All hooked up for movies and music streaming.

Needs a rug, I think. I haven’t hung any pictures up yet, but will do soon. (That’s my mum in the first picture, in case you were wondering.)

Bedroom - before

Bedroom - after

The bedroom is a good size – I got lucky there. Managed to squeeze in a decent-sized bed and enough furniture to hide all my clothes.

There’s a huge built-in wardrobe, which helps. Now all I have to do is keep it tidy. Wonder how long that will last!

Kitchen

Bathroom

The kitchen is a comfy little place, with everything I need (including a coffee machine you can’t see in this pic.

And yes, okay, more geekery. Shush. They’re handy shelves and I had to put something there!

The bathroom is a bathroom. ‘Nuff said. Water’s hot, towels are fluffy, and it’s just a stumble from the bedroom. The loo is separate – oddly, attached to the back of the house, so I have to go out the kitchen door to get to it. A little weird, but the kind of weird I’m willing to put up with.

Back yard

There is a curious back yard to this place – lots of fronds and trees, with a gazebo and a washing line hidden in there. This pic is of the gazebo side. I have yet to furnish it; that’ll wait until the spring when it becomes interesting and useful (and warmer).

So there you go! A little tour around my new place. Still some work to do on it, but it’s comfortable enough to be going on with. I’m happy with it. :)

Out of the blue, I got called into my manager’s office to talk about the extra duties I do for the team (I’m the QAR for the documentation team, as well as a writer). I was a bit nervous – I had no idea if there was something wrong, if I had screwed something up, or what. When I went in, there was my manager and my team leader, waiting for me.

The first thing they told me is that my team leader is pregnant (this is why I haven’t been able to say anything about this before now – it hadn’t been announced to the team). I was still incredibly puzzled, and they moved on to why they had called me in to the meeting.

I’ve been working my way up towards the next grade of writer, and had been hoping to get bumped up to the next level (senior) at the next performance review. They told me that I was definitely being given the promotion (the reviews are due at the end of July).

But on top of that, they want me to take on the team leader role too. When the current one goes off for maternity leave in mid-November, I’ll take over her position and be in charge of a team of eight writers.

Holy shit. I’ve never had two promotions in one meeting before. And they said, “Go away and think about it, and let us know if you want it.” It was all I could do not to say, “OKAY YES PLS K THX BBAI,” right there. I went away and came back to my manager the next day to say, “Yes, I would love to take on the team leader position, thank you.”

So there you go. I’m excited and intimidated, and have a lot to learn. Can’t wait to get my teeth into it. Also looking forward to a very tasty pay-bump too, thankyouverymuch. Of course, I’ll be taking over the role officially in the middle of NaNoWriMo, but hopefully that won’t be too traumatic.

As I said earlier: *BOING* :D