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Genrecon

November 25, 2012 by donnamareehanson

Sorry this is a bit overdue. Genrecon was at the beginning of November and now it is nearly the end of November. It’s really scary how I seem to be on a roller coaster heading smack into Christmas. My head is still firmly in fiction writing land and I picked up the paranormal romance I started in New Zealand and it’s like I’m obsessed. I want to find out how it ends. I have the outline I wrote on the way back from the Romance Writers of Australia conference, but I’m quite ready to toss it as the characters have taken off. I think perhaps I had too much plot but we’ll see.

Now back to Genrecon. What an amazing convention that turned out to be. It was a convention aimed at developing writers from crime, romance, speculative fiction, including horror writers, held in Parramatta. I’m not sure how many people were there. I’d say around 200.

We were late for the opening cocktail party as we had to drive up from Canberra after work. It was still going strong by the time we arrived. Matthew took refuge in our suite and I headed for the bar. Two panels sessions started, which I didn’t realise until I was ensconced in the bar. I caught up with people I new from SF cons, Jason Nahrung, Peter Ball , Chris McMahon, Jodi Cleghorn and others.

Breakfast was included in our room rate and when we went down, we found out it was combined with the conrate as well. (I’d booked too late to get the con rate so I got a priority awards rate instead). So the restaurant contained plenty of people we knew. Jane Virgo, Chris Andrews, Nicky Strickland and Damien Cavalchini.

My memory is a little frayed after a few weeks had passed. I remember it all worked really well. The mixture of genre writers created a new kind of tribe. Many were new to cons and others not. I caught up with Jodi Cleghorn, Abigail (@BothersomeWords) and met new people, such as the lovely Rebekah Turner @RbkhTurner, whose debut urban fantasy was released by Escape Publishing last week. To get the book ready for launch both Escape Publishing and the authors worked hard. Rebekah told me on her very quick turn around on edits and proofs. Her cover looks amazing. I met up with Kate Cuthbert (who I can now say is my publisher), Alex Adsett wonder person who gives advice on publishing contracts and is now an agent and I scored at pitching session with Ginger Clark, editor from Curtis & Brown NY.

I introduced myself to Dan O’Malley at breakfast. I’d written to him about Conflux 8 and 9 and I was hoping he would honour us with his presence. He was really nice and very popular as a panellist and the spontaneous kiss (Kate Eltham) during the debate knocked everyone’s socks off. If you caught the twitter feed people were saying he was pure gold.

At lunch I caught up with people. Here is a shot of Alan Baxter and Andrew McKeirnan.

Alan Baxter and Andrew McKeirnan

 

And Jodi Cleghorn and Alan Baxter

Jodi Cleghorn and Alan Baxter

There were three streams of panels during the day with main sessions combining all rooms. Genrecon had a lovely format for community partners to talk about what they  had to offer, Sisters in Crime, Australian Horror Writers Association, Romance Writers Association and Conflux. We all had 15 minutes to strut our stuff. The Conflux session was on Saturday afternoon and we had a prize draw. A stack of books, which I put together from our authors and from Angry Robot. That went off like a charm because the first person drawn preferred books to a membership. And luckily the second name was Amanda Bridgeman, who is a writer coming out with Momentum next year, won a membership. She was waiting in the wings to talk to me about coming along and wouldn’t you know she won a prize.

Later I had a pitch session with Ginger Clark. She was awesome but threw me a bit by telling me to sending her 50 pages and I’d only been there a minute. So I chatted to her about the Air NZ Hobbit themed safety video and blah, blah until the hook came to drag me off stage.

I went to the Pistols and Parasols banquet. I went to NZ so had to rush my bustle dress but I was pleased with the result. I also had a very pretty parasol. See picture that Matthew took below. I totally wanted to do ‘bustle punk’.

Me in my bustle dress

The food at the banquet was very good. The entertainment was awesome. First up Kim Wilkins, who was the MC, interview Kate Cuthbert about Harlequin’s new digital imprint Escape. Kate is awesome. She is an editor who likes to dress up!

Here is a shot of Kate Cuthbert and author Daniel O’Malley

Daniel (Fez) O’Malley and Kate (Cut throat) Cuthbert.

A shot of Alex Adsett and Dan O’Malley. Life is pretty awesome when even agents like dressing up.

Alex Adsett and Daniel O’Malley

Then Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books did an amazing talk including a cover snark of how Australia is depicted in US romance books. Absolutely awesome.

As I was leaving the banquet, I had to admire this dress. The lovely lady works for the Queensland Writers’ Centre and I think her name is Aimee (correct me if I’m wrong).

Aimee in her Edwardian gown

What was amazing about the gown, as well as looking fab, was that Aimee saw the dress in 1915 magazine and drew the pattern herself and then made it. How talented and patient. She said it took a month for her to get the pattern drawn well.

 

Here is a shot of Chris McMahon and one of Chris Andrews and Matthew Farrer (my Dweeb!).

Chris McMahon, author

 

Chris Andrews and Matthew Farrer both from Canberra

After the banquet we were moved on to the bar, except the normal people, (people from Rosehill Racecouse) were still occupying the bar. Apparently, it gets nasty and there are security guards etc. We had a letter and a pass delivered to our rooms in the morning to advise if we left the hotel we’d need a pass to get back in, because they tried to keep people out. It was very educational watching the drunk normal people behave very oddly. Eventually we got back in the bar.

While we waited I caught up with Cat Sparks.

Me and Cat Sparks

And I got to meet author, Charlotte Nash, who wore this Firefly inspired number.

Charlotte Nash

Matthew and I had to duck out because our room deal came with wine and a chocolate fondue. So we ducked up to our room and then I went back to the bar.

I snaffled a shot (a selfie) of me and Rose from @Fangbooks in the bar.

Rosie and me

Sunday it was one of the nerve wracking things were there were three panels I wanted to go to but could only get to one. I went to Sarah Wendell’s one about social media and blogs and marketing. I also went to a session on planning your writing career and copyright and contracts, which was a double header with Alex Adsett and Peter Ball. I haven’t written my plan yet but I’m onto it. Joe Abercrombie was interesting to listen to. I totally lost my smooze mojo when I spoke to him. I happened to mention that his first novel had very little romance. Things sort of dived from there and he choofed off quick and proper.

So overall a great atmosphere. It was totally catered, which I didn’t realise and I had bitched about the price so felt a tad stupid, particularly when Peter Ball told me it was all over the registration page. You don’t get that with cons normally and I wish we had enough $$$ to do at least one meal at Conflux 9. Conflux 8 did a lunch on the Saturday and it went down so well.

So thank you Genrecon for a great time. I totally enjoyed myself and thought it was very well done. The hotel was fab and the logistics of opening and shutting concertina doors was spot on. If I’m in Australia during the next one, I’ll be there. The next Genrecon will be held in Brisbane, backed once again by theQueensland Writer’s Centre and the Australian Writers’ Marketplace. Genecon you rocked.

 

Posted in General excitment, Genrecon, Steampunk, Writer conventions | 9 Comments »

Edits

November 23, 2012 by donnamareehanson

I received my edits for my YA space opera novella on Tuesday night. I had a stinking headache so couldn’t even glance at them. Wednesday being my writing day, I flexed by fingers in the morning and charged right in. I read the document through first to get a feel for what I was up against and I was pleasantly surprised.

I’m happy to say the edits were rather light. There was no taking out Australian idioms. Apparently I over used ellipses in this particular piece. I don’t normally over use them so I was surprised. I had to cut up a few chapters to make them similar lengths to the rest, which included new chapter titles and dovetailing the ends and the beginnings of those. Some very minor tweakage and I was done.

It’s short, 30,000 words so I finished the edits in the day. However, I printed it out to have a read over, which I did last night.

I do feel pressured so lucky for me my first time was only 30,000 words. I will probably freak when I get edits for a larger work.

The edits came in track changes, which I really hate mostly because of the RSI. However, I had something up my sleeve and also made the edits go rather quickly. My dictation software has a macro so that all I have to do is highlight the correction with the cursor and say
‘Accept change’ or ‘Reject change’. However, in my case I had just to say ‘Accept change’.

So last night, I emailed them off.
Time to go to work now.

Posted in Edits, General excitment, Science Fiction Romance, Young adult | Leave a Comment »

Delayed Conflux 8 post

November 18, 2012 by donnamareehanson

This blog post is also delayed. No excuses this time.

This will be a short post because I hung out in the dealers’ room promoting Conflux 9 (the 52nd Australian National Science Fiction Convention) in April next year. Link here. So I didn’t get to many panels (1.5 I think) so I can’t rave about how fantastic they were.

What I can report is that it went off swimmingly. The atmosphere was lovely and supportive and there were more people that I thought were coming.

I’d been helping out with payments in the lead up to Conflux 8, but the sheer luck of having the eftpos machine. The workshops were selling like hotcakes and so were memberships. So by helping out a little bit, I got an invite to the night before dinner with the committee and guests. We went to Sammys and that was awesome.

I met Tor Roxburgh at dinner, and she was great to talk to. She had been previously published in the young adult area many years ago. Took a break from writing and is now writing fantasy. Apparently, her agent doesn’t do fantasy so she went down the self-publishing route. I was very pleased to make Tor’s acquaintance. I got to say a quick hello to Keri Arthur, Traci O’Hara, Kaaron Warren and Dawn Meredith.

The interesting thing about Conflux 8 was that there was a lunch on the Saturday, included in the cost of the membership. It was a great idea and there was plenty of food and the theme was 1950s. There was a prize for the best 1950s get up and the best Hawaiian shirt. So all day I wore my lovely 50s dress and I’d made a little fascinator/hat thing with a veil. I don’t have a photo. Pooh! If someone has a shot, please let me know.

Kaaron Warren and I were the only ones to dress up. We tied for the prize. She wore her amazing pineapple dress she bought in a market in Nadi, Fiji. I was there. I saw her. She was very clever and told a story about the dress. Me…nah my head was empty.

At lunch I got to sit with Ingrid Jonach, who is soon to be published with Strange Chemistry. We had a long chat about her book, about books and about the convention. Fab Oh!

In the dealers’ room I had been tasked with supervising the decoration of Dalek cookies. This was fun and wiled away the time a bit. I got to mix with people. Pressure them into decorating cookies!

Here are some shots.

There is Yaritji in the purple scarf having a go at decorating the cookies.

 

One of the decorated cookies

I even have a shot with Nicole, who had the munchies, I think.

Nicole Murphy with her fire spitting cookie

 

Even the big Keith Stevenson got into the dalek action.

Keith Stevenson with the icing in his hand

On Saturday night I went to the book launches. I dressed in my jeans and t-shirt by then. I think there were five books launched, Craig Cormick’s, Greg Mellor, Jodi Cleghorn’s anthology, Gillian Polack’s and Tor Roxburgh. (I don’t think I left anyone out). That was a hoot. Jack Dann worked hard launching those books.

I got to hang with Keri Arthur, Janeen Webb and Kaaron Warren at the launch. Then we nicked down the pub for steak and chips.

Let’s see if this works.  Photo by Cat Sparx here.

Sunday I was in my Victorian gear to promote Conflux 9 and my ol’ time fav event, the steam punk themed high tea. This time Cat Sparks did manage to get a shot of me in it. I was wearing my new hat.

Let me see if I can link to Cat’s photo of me. Here.

I talked to people, got a few people to sign up to the high tea, chatting with KJ Taylor (as she was author in residence) and she talked to me about her latest idea and read a bit from her notebook. It was a fantastic idea and I can’t wait to read that one. I also caught up with Adam Browne, who also launched a book.

My steampunk themed cake was on display all weekend. It was getting photos taken.

Here is one or two here.

This is Katie Taylor checking whether her pocket watch matches the time on the cake.

Katy Taylor with the steampunk cake

 

I caught up with Keri Arthur and Cora Wright for lunch. We also dead dogged together. Keri is a very generous person. She shares her experience and gives advice and encouragement.

Here is a close up of my cake.

The cake

I managed to get into a panel session on indie publishing. Keri Arthur talked about her hybrid model. She is traditionally published but is also going to self-publish through her agent. The other panel I half got to was the one on point of view, but I got pulled out to attend to closing ceremony business.

At the closing ceremony there was more Jack Dann excellent shtick and Jack auctioned of my steampunk cake. I was hoping to raise some money for Conflux 9 and not bring the cake home to eat. Anyway, the lovely and excellent, Craig Cormick bought the cake for $100 on the condition that all the members of the con ate it. (Craig can’t eat cake himself) so it was cut up etc. Bloody amazing man. I hope we can lure Craig to more conventions because he is good value and way to clever and talented.

So that was my convention. I caught up with friends, Kimberley Gaal, Nicole Murphy (ok she lives up the road). Actually I spilled my tea all over her. Oops!

Here is a great shot of Kimberley in a hat borrowed from Lewis Morley.

Now for those photos from Cat Sparx try here.

Kimberley Gaal

 

 

Posted in Cake, Science fiction conventions, Steampunk | Leave a Comment »

The glitz, the glamour, the keys to escape

November 15, 2012 by donnamareehanson

Yesterday I was tweeting about a gig I had in Sydney. I wasn’t too sure what I was allowed to say because I’d been told it was all under wraps. However, I soon let it slip that I was at the Harlequin Escape launch (Twitter# goescape).

I thought people might think it was my amazing smooze power that had secured me an invite. But alas, I was invited because I am one of the authors. (to clarify not the goddess like debut imprint authors). My day will come in January some time. I realised I was allowed to say stuff when Pollina, the Harlequin Escape twitterer, tweeted a shot of me as the new young adult author. Then the questions rolled in.

So I drove up from Canberra and back again yesterday. It was worth the whole six hours in the car and the 2 am home time. What an amazing thing that launch was and what an amazing amount of author love (for the imprint’s debut authors!). Alas I am not one of the imprints debut authors but never mind because I don’t.

So the tweets came early in the day about hair getting done and a white limousine to show the four authors the highlights of Sydney and cosy chat with Harlequin staff. I was thinking  wow, this is some launch build up.

I invited my youngest daughter to the launch cocktail party. On arrival we had a photo taken on (maybe red carpet) and then we went into to get our name tags. I was listed under author, which threw me a little bit. Then we chose a key. The picture below is the Key(s) and the lovely invite I received.

There were four cocktails through the night all named after the books, plus wine, beer etc and stacks of people. I had met two of the authors launching their titles so I went over to meet them and congratulate them etc.

I met straight up, the lovely Jane who asked me what my title was. She was like “Hey, I’m going to illustrate that one next. I really want to read it too. And can you give me some ideas for the cover?” It was great, wow.

Then there was food. Oodles of food. The food was still going at 9.30 when I left (it started at 6.30).

I met Rosie from @Fangbooks and Abigail @Bothersomewords. I also met other editors.

Rosie from @ Fangbooks and me

Abigail from @Bothersomewords and me

My daughter took photos and found people to talk to, like Nina who has a book coming out the same month as me. It is a medical romance and my daughter works in a hospital. They hit it off!

Pollina and I slurping cocktails. #goescape twitter stream

My daughter made me pose for this pensive shot. I’m impressed she got the Harbor Bridge in there.

Erana’s shot of me being pensive.

Here is one of me in my lovely dress. (I  love this dress and the shoes). Shot taken by Pollina Harlequin Escape.

Me in my party dress! Photo by Pollina, Harlequin Escape

The big announcement moment came. The MD, Michelle LaForest, gave a great talk on what the Harlequin were trying to do with Escape. Also that answers were within 2 weeks and if accepted published in 3 months. A lot of work and corporate ingenuity was behind this imprint. After speaking to the staff, they are all in there working hard and getting it done. Awesome bunch of people.

So remember that photo with the keys above? Well the shiny one is actually a USB with the four books being launch on it available for free. ( I believe you get to download tem for free). Anyhoo what a clever idea! Who thinks up this stuff. Wow!

The other key, it was revealed, was for the Treasure Chest. I’m not sure exactly what was in there. My key didn’t fit. My daughter didn’t either but she said the girl behind her had her key fit. Part of the prize was a $200 voucher for Red Balloon and the surprise was an Iphone 5. Wow. Impressive.

The photographer wandered around snapping shots of people. I got a quick word with Kate Cuthbert (my editor/publisher). Here is a shot of her with Rebekah Turner. They had tired feet.

Kate Cuthbert and Rebekah Turner

My tired feet encased in pretty shoes.

For me it was great to see such pizzaz and marketing might behind this new imprint and also the innovative approach to selling the product. It was also great to speak to people who were excited about what I wrote. That just encourages me to send them more.

I managed to get a shot of my daughter in the lift as we were leaving. She said I was to invite her to the next cocktail party.

My daughter

And one final word, Harlequin Australian and Harlequin Escape are bringing Australian voices to international markets. Escape titles will be available in all the big stores, like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ibooks etc. All DRM free. As well as direct from http://www.escapepublishing.com.au. Link is here.

Posted in Harlequin Escape Imprint Launch, Publication news | 4 Comments »

Donna’s Breaking News!

November 15, 2012 by donnamareehanson

A while ago, I tweeted about receiving cry worthy happy news. Now I can talk about that news. I submitted a science fiction, young adult, romance novella to Harlequin Escape, a very new digital publisher, and it was accepted. Indeed, I did cry. I think it was from shock because I was in the car park at Queanbeyan and saw an email come in on my iphone. I thought I’ll read that rejection in the car. I thought there would be comments. As I sat in the car and scrolled through the message, I did a double take because it was an acceptance. So yes I cried a little bit in the car and rang Matthew to tell him the news. He brought me home lovely flowers. I might have a picture of these. Here it is. My first flowers from Matthew and they were lovely.

A congratulatory gift

I understand my title is due out in January. I can’t say what the title is because it is not official yet. I want to thank Romance Writers of Australia for it was their annual conference in August where I heard about this opportunity. I want to thank Harlequin for really going out there and taking risks with cross-genre works. I also want to that Nicole Murphy for basically twisting my arm to go to RWA Aus in August. I have been writing like a mad person ever since (I am that inspired). My house has not been cleaned properly since as a result. Long live the dust mites!

The next post will be about the fantastic, awesome and stunning launch of Harlequin Escape last night. I need to cook dinner first.

Posted in Sales, Science Fiction Romance, Submissions, Young adult | 6 Comments »

Still here

November 12, 2012 by donnamareehanson

I’m sorry my absence from the blog has been pronounced. I had my Conflux 8 post drafted but had to dash off to New Zealand for 9 days. I’ve been back for a bit but have been hard at it, writing, revising and stuff. I also popped up to Sydney for Genrecon, which was awesome. I’ll have a post and a few photos from that too. As I’ve been away for 3 weekends in a row I had a stay at home kind of weekend. I even planted some tomatoes. Even though I did not achieve the awesome house cleanliness goal I was aiming for, I am well satisfied with my domesticity this weekend.

Uni finishes this week. All I have left to do is listen to a lecture and submit my portfolio and then I’m done with Writing for Young People, which I really enjoyed.

I’m starting a new project at work, always fun. I hope to catch up with my blogs shortly.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Gamesday Aus 2012

October 15, 2012 by donnamareehanson

This blog post is well overdue. My only excuse is that I have been finishing off a novel and that tends to be a very intense closed- in that type of activity, which precludes writing blog posts. Work, family and university studies probably also take away my blogging time. Okay, I can add up that’s more than one and only excuse, but that’s enough excuses from me.

I’m writing this blog now because the Internet is been down in the vague hope that it will come up again, and I can lodge this blog post. Obviously, my optimism was worth it as you are now reading this online.

We went off to Gamesday again this year (September 9) . It went off smashingly well. The night before social gathering didn’t take place with the broader group, who had come out from the UK. Instead, Matthew and I managed to grab dinner at the pub with Anthony Reynolds and friend. We’d turned up to the Sydney city store to catch up with people and meet Gav Thorpe. It was pretty busy with his presentations and signings, so I caught up with Mal Greene instead. Mal and I were table buddies last year. (This year no table for me so I got to check out the place).

Hanging in the store, we managed to check out the new releases. Dark Revenge and it’s a new starter pack for those wishing to start playing. It has very cool chaos army figures. They looked pretty cool to my untrained eye.

I’m not sure what Matt is holding.

We retired to a hotel after arranging to meet with the gang to catch the train over to Redfern  to the Technology Park (Locomotive workshop). I’ll save you the pictures I took last year of the contraption I nominated as the Dweeb-catching machine.

However, I took some shots from inside, Victorian machinery/steampunk. very inspiring.

Lathe,which was used to sharpen wheels on trains?

A machine used for maintaining trains or extracting brains.

We got there  before and Gamesday opened, walking past the queue. There is something very cool about getting in the before all the people do. After grabbing coffee and stuff for breakfast, as the cafe we intended to have breakfast at had been shut, I took a little tour of the play tables, with very impressive dioramas and amazing constructions. Here I will put up some photos. During Gamesday due to the crowds and people playing games, it is really difficult to get a good view. In Birmingham Gamesday a few years back, I had no idea what was on the tables as people were crowded around sometimes several people thick.

A close up of the detail of those statues. Awesome stuff.

Close up of statue on previous construct.

That last contraption is a Stompa!

The writers and designers who were signing were all lined up in a pretty obvious spot as opposed to hidden away. Next to that staff were advertising the panel sessions. Apparently, that worked really well as these panel sessions were pretty full.

Here is a shot of James pretending to be Matthew at the signing table.

James pretending to be Matt at the signing table.

Of course is that the obligatory shot of us with the Space Marine. Apologies but I just had to put them up.

James posing with the Space Marine guy

Matt and the Space Marine Guy

Me and the marine

The most exciting moment is when the door is about to open and there is a countdown ten, nine, eight….one. People spill inside, rushing forward.  My photos of people coming in the door aren’t very impressive, so I took a shot of Matthew taking photos of people surging in.

Matt taking shots of the people charging through the doors. Excitement!

During the day it the boys were pretty busy signing books. I find Matthew is very dedicated. He doesn’t really stop for lunch and gets annoyed if I try and make him. So I just collected his lunch and slid it onto the table next to him. James and I managed a few forays to the tables during the day, just checking stuff out.

Here is a shot I took of the boys signing books.

Matt, Gav, Anthony in shot

I didn’t take a shot of my book haul, because Matthew raided it straight away. He stole my copy of Pariah ( a red hardback) by Dan Abnett. We did, however, get two copies of the Gamesday chapbook, which had a story from Matthew and Anthony. The two stories were linked. It was just very cool.

I think I went back to the black library stall number of times. I bought something from Gav, a bought a print, I bought the best of Hammer and Bolter among other things. James had come along to this Gamesday. He’s resisted geekification for a while now. However, as he was a little bit at a loose end so we joined the painting table. Both of us sat down and we painted Space Marines.

Here is a picture of our efforts.

Mine is blue and James’ is red and blue

Anyway, what happened was that we both got very enthusiastic about painting Warhammer 40 K miniatures. So after a bit of parleying with James and Matthew, we visited the tables once again. We came away with a painting kit, a miniature for me as we had determined that Matthew had stacks of unpainted Space Marines going back some 10 or so years at home. However, I did drop a bit of cash. As we were sitting at the table painting the Space Marines, James looked over to me and said “You’ve turned me into a geek.” He said this with a rather long-suffering and defeated expression on his face. It was just inevitable James. You are surrounded by geekery and it was bound to crawl between your skin cells and infiltrate your brain eventually.

The boys (authors is the correct term) also did a panel session in which some very interesting questions were asked. Like how do you imagine being an alien? Matthew says he gets so alien at times in his fiction, people don’t get the story.  He was thinking of his story ‘Faces’.

Henry, Gav, Anthony and Matthew

So after a fairly long day, Matthew and James and I headed to the pub to chill with the gang. Then we began the long trip back to Canberra. I believe that plans are underway for next year’s Gamesday as this one was a big success.

Here is one last shot with Matthew and an Inquisitor.

Matt and the Inquisitor

Posted in Games Day, Uncategorized, Warhammer | Leave a Comment »

I’m overdue for a blog post

September 28, 2012 by donnamareehanson

Things have been busy, with university, with work, with family and with convention planning. Then there’s the cake decorating (new obsession) and writing too.
It is time for a catch up, but first this weekend I’ll be a Conflux 8, actively promoting Conflux 9.
I made a steampunk-themed cake here.
So while it is raining, I’ll be geeking inside the convention space at Novotel Canberra.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

That strange feeling….

September 9, 2012 by donnamareehanson

We’re up in Sydney for Games Day, which is the big hoo-hah get together for Games Workshop fans. In case you don’t know, Games Day is where fans of Warhammer and Warhammer 40000 miniatures games and related things like books from the Black Library are experienced and purchased. My partner, Matthew Farrer, is here to sign books during the even tomorrow.

We are staying near central. I decided that we would walk to the Games Workshop event in the City store, near the Queen Victoria Building, rather than catch a train. I felt like striding out after sitting in the car all day as we had driven from Canberra. My energy was bubbling and I wanted to experience the night. The three of us walked along (young James is with us) and I had this weird sort of experience. The sort of experience you have, I suppose, after rusticating in the country for many years and then plonking yourself in the middle of the CBD.

Sydney is my home town. There are places here I know in my bones and that have been here as long as I can remember from the early trips into town as a child. So you think that visiting Sydney, as I do on occasion, is no big deal. Well tonight I felt I was travelling along a time walk. Part of me, the inner part, knew the city, but felt disconnected. Another part of me was riding the now, the sounds, the sights, the people, effervescing along with the current and another part of me was excited and full of wonderment and yet not really there either.

I’ve been pondering those sensations these last few hours. At the time, I had words running in my head, a sort of blog narrative that I wanted to capture but I had no pen, no moment to scribe it down, no place to pause. I had to keep skimming the moment or I would lose my ride through time. I saw the old things, those icons of youth, the Town Hall, Woolworths, the line of theatres in George Street and a smattering of other buildings. Then I saw the new and the changing, the different food on display, the range of people crowding along the streets, like corpuscles being pumped through veins, some moving slow, some moving fast, some congregating and others randomly stepping out. The traffic, the lights, the confusion all crowding in, smothering memory and thought.

As I pondered this experience, I thought about the cities I have visited and why this experience seemed so strange. I’ve been to London, New York and Rome and they were intense and wonderful experiences. Perhaps that was because I’m not a part of them. I was only ever a visiting organism drifting in the blood vessel of the city, fleetingly feeling its pulse. There was no time travel slide, no sense of disconnection, no tendrils of me reaching out to anchor me on streets I once trod. It is not the city then that caused this frisson of feeling, this spasm of mind and heart, but a moment of time growing taut like a string pulled tight, surging me from the past to a present that is alien and yet not.

Once out of the streets and at the event, the feeling faded rapidly. Later, at the pub over dinner and conversation, the feeling receded further still. Walking back along George Street, I was there in the present, feeling like I belonged, feeling a part of it all. My trip to the city of the past/present had ended. I was no longer sliding between time, but firmly here. I remember wondering what Matthew was feeling or how James was taking it. Then I realised that their experience was going to be different to mine. I don’t think they came time travelling with me.

I thought I’d blog this because that is what was in my head at the time, although these words are nowhere near as articulate as those imagined ones. It’s something I want to remember and also an experience I might find useful one day when writing fiction.

I’m putting this post up now, Sunday morning before we head off to participate in Games Day Australia 2012. I’m sure it is going to be fun and interesting. After playing with fondant and food paint, I’m curious about painting miniatures now. I might give it a go.

 

 

Posted in Games Day, Warhammer, Weird experience | Leave a Comment »

Home and revved after RWAus 2012

August 21, 2012 by donnamareehanson

I had an extra day in Brisbane after the RWAus 2012. It was really useful to me to see if the buzz lasted and all those plans I made about being serious were going to stick and whether I really did have a breakthrough in my writing. Well I’m home now, sitting cosy with the electric blanket on because it’s like zero outside. It’s a bit of a shock with 20C in Brisbane today.

I can report that I believe I do have a writing breakthrough. I wrote this morning in the hotel. I think it was about 1500 words on the work in progress. I’ve had trouble with the title of this one but I think it is going to be The Sorcerer’s Spell. So over the weekend, which consists of Saturday night, Sunday night and Monday morning, I’ve written about 6000 words.

As well as talking my head off to Matthew about plans and insights and resolutions, I got this story idea this morning based on something one of the publishers said. During the day the story began to unfold in my mind. We went on a river cruise and more of the story unwound. I had names of characters. I had motive, storyline, beginning, middle and the end. So on the train to the airport I started writing an outline. Now I usually don’t write an outline or if I do it’s usually a poor one with the opening and the ending. I continued to write the outline in the airport lounge and on the plane to Sydney, where we swapped over for the flight to Canberra. By the time I landed in Canberra, I had written 3500 words of the story outline, some 7 pages. I had the whole outline down. If I was to show it to anyone it would need a polish. I think this story is either a novella or category length. It’s romance-focussed with witches in it. I’m calling it Bespelled.

I think I’ll be able to sleep now that the outline is down. I often create whole stories in my head but don’t write them down. Then I forget the excellent detail because I don’t write the things for ages. Well now it is there waiting for me to start. I have to finish The Sorcerer’s Spell first and that’s likely to be single title length as they say in the romance business.

I realised on the trip home that I’m as wired and excited about writing as I was when I first started out. Over the years my enthusiasm fizzed for a number of reasons. My partner didn’t like my writing. My family got annoyed with me about it because I was so fixated and then I was learning to write too so success didn’t come. My progress has been slow and steady. I’ve focused on the spec fic side and left behind the romance side, well not really pursued it. My first attempt at writing was a Scottish Historical romance and I looked at the 900 words I wrote and thought they were crap. I knew nothing about writing then. Later in the year the desire to write came back again and then I got an idea. I wrote Relic in six weeks, practically downloaded it. The writing was pretty ordinary and I had no idea what I’d written. A science fantasy with sex with aliens and feminist overtones. I polished it for years. Nearly got an excellent agent but she dumped me when she heard SF was a hard sell. Then I got another agent but by then I thought Relic was a bit crap. I did get some advice that I should not discard Relic but I haven’t gone back to it in years. It is really a romance when I come to think of it.

So here I am 12 years on and it’s all back, the enthusiasm, the drive and the ideas. I have a different partner now. One that understands the writing, the internet addiction, the weekend long Austen movie fests or Star Trek movie fests. He’s a writer himself and has habits as bad as mine.

A few of those things sitting in my hard drive are going to be subbed pretty soon. Tonight I submitted two short stories. No more procrastination. Now I just have to finish my uni course, get through the next 7 months until the Conflux 9 (a SF convention) is delivered and then I’m home free as far as writing is concerned.

I’m feeling pretty good. Thanks to the RWAus 2012, I’m revved and I’m happy to be so. Thank you fellow romance writers for showing me there are opportunities out there and for being so supportive of writers of any experience. I love your ethos and my membership form was in the mail before I left for the conference. I found something in me that I thought I’d lost. Thanks to Nicole too for encouraging me to come along.

Posted in Paranormal romance, Paranormal romance writing, Romance, Romance Writers Australia Conference, Submissions | Leave a Comment »

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