Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing

Some of you may have heard that Colin Harvey passed away suddenly last week. He was more recently published by Angry Robot. I had the pleasure of meeting Colin at Anticipation, the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, Canada, in 2009. His book Wintersong was launched there, along with the imprint and the books of my friend, Kaaron Warren and Lauren Beukes. I recall also Andy Remic’s Kell’s Legend may have featured at the launch.

Sometimes you meet someone and they touch you in a way you remember and cherish. Colin was one of these people for me. I didn’t know him well, but I managed to keep in random contact via Facebook and Twitter and he came to have dinner with us when we were in Bath last year.I was very impressed because he caught a bus. We also caught up with him in Bristol, when the lovely Cheryl Morgan organised for us to attend the William Gibson talk.

He was cheerful, gracious, supportive and a lovely man. He was a talented writer. In our talk over dinner and wine last year, we learned a bit more about Colin. Mostly it was that he was happy and doing what he loved. (and surviving on a low income doing what he loved)  He was published with Angry Robot and had another book out, Damaged Time. He had retired from work some time before and was studying creative writing. He was editing an anthology, Dark Spires, with Cheryl Morgan and he lived with his wife Kate.

I read Wintersong after worldcon and wrote a review of it on my livejournal blog.

Here is the text of it:

Winter Song is an sf novel published by the new Harper Collins imprint Angry Robot.

Karl Allman lives in a post human world. His body is augmented by nanophytes and he can interface with artificial intelligence. Its a galaxy where humans terraform other worlds to make new colonies and where there are factions and wars. Karl’s ship is attacked and he crashes to the iceworld of Ishiemur, a failed terraformed planet, inhabited by Icelandic colonists. That Karl survives his spectacular landing is the first amazing thing, then that he survives his injuries is another.

Bera, a young girl, mourning the loss of her new born child, tends to Allman as he recovers. Living in a small community, her pregnancy, has drawn criticism and scorn from the other women in the settlement and her foster father, Ragnar. Icelandic traditions, culture and legends loom large in this colony and as it has been isolated for long in has devolved as well and technology is rudimentary. Scarcity of food and resources is a fact of life for the colonists. Most of the flora and fauna are toxic to humans and Allman is required to work off his debt, the food and care he received while recuperating. For some reason, Allman alternates between being rational and being another person, who the locals name Loki. He is either mad or a seer. It soon becomes apparent that Ragnar is not ever going to be happy with repayment and Allman has to make a choice to escape and send an SOS.

What follows is Allman and Bera’s journey across this harsh world to find a way to send a signal. Ragnar will not relent and the chase is on.

Winter Song is a fairly fast and satisfying read. Allman’s plight and Bera’s drew me in and I found I was fascinated with the relationships Bera manages in her claustrophobic community. As the story unfolds, Bera comes to terms with rape and I think Colin handles the feminist themes here quite well and sensitively. There are things that Bera would like to do and cannot because she is female in a strongly patriarchal society. She is also an intelligent and sensitive character that hides a secret to keep the peace and in doing so injures herself. Winter Song is the story of how Bera finds herself and learns to love. In this sense, Allman is an agent for change. He crashes into the planet and into the lives of the Isheimuri people and that change expands like a snowball rolling down a hill. In some ways, Allman is too indestructible and that can lessen the impact of his suffering and need.

Not all the threads of the story are tied together by the end. Trolls are examined and analysed in a satisfying way, but the legendary shapeshifters disappear from the narrative. Ragmar undergoes a change after much carnage. Yet I think it is Bera that has been most affected.

The Icelandic setting added a layer of fantasy-like dressing, horses, sword fighting and legends and gods and the cultural layers also represent as authentic. I felt that Colin had done his research. The prose style was strong and didn’t draw attention to itself and there was the occasional nice turn of phrase.

I bought Damaged Time and will read it now.

Here are some photos from that fantastic convention in Montreal. Colin with my partner, Matthew Farrer at the book signing table.

Colin and Matthew booksigning

Here is one of Colin, signing book plates. As his book had only just launched there weren’t many people lining up.

Colin signing

And one last one with Lee Harris, Editor, Angry Robot Books.

I’ll remember you Colin. Rest in peace.

Colin and Lee

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With regard to reading for Angry Robot Books, I am half way through the second last MS and will probably start the last one tomorrow and finish it sometime over the weekend. Today I sent out a few rejections and a couple of good news emails on further recommendations to Angry Robot Books. These two shift the gender balance further as both are male. That is 14 recommended manuscripts for the editors. I’m not sure whether they hate me or love me for sending so many. I’ll be asking for feedback from them eventually.

After reading the last of the MSs, I have to trawl through my submissions table (running at about 10,000 words) to find the names of those I said I’d recommend to the editors. I’m not sure how many of these there were-probably a handful. By being recommended they will be able to submit to Angry Robot in future, either with a new project or an improved one.

Yesterday, Angry Robot Books’ author, Colin Harvey died from a massive stroke. I was very upset about this and I really liked him. He was a great bloke. I’m will do a tribute post to him when I’m not so teary. I’m also going to have a drink with Kaaron Warren to say goodbye to Colin, later in the week. I can’t imagine what a horrible shock it must be for his wife, Kate, nor how she is coping.

I started my advanced editing course today and spoke to our lecturer. It seems I can use some of the content on this website as part of my editing journal. I am very pleased about that considering I have dedicated nearly six months of my life to reading submissions and then writing about the experience. Next week, my house may even get cleaned, but there are no guarantees! Reading submissions for almost all my spare time is kind of like an internship, I think. However, not completely as there were many editing related tasks I didn’t do, like write blurbs, design assignments, commissioning covers, marketing etc. So I don’t have too many tickets on myself.

I also think the insights gained, including the substance of the posts about the issues in manuscripts, will help me when I edit Claire McKenna’s novella for my major assignment.

For the record, I work in my day job for 30 hours per week, that is four days full time. I spend a lot of time stressing about my job in my spare time. Sometimes, I also stressed about Mss (including dreaming that I’m still reading them when I’m asleep) at the same time, which makes me a bit stressy and wakeful. Right now I’m feeling relaxed.

So next week, when everything is wrapped up, I think I will post some thoughts on reading submissions and maybe do an overview of the qualities of the MSs I did recommend, in a general kind of way, it being private and between the authors and Angry Robot.

I also want to thank Angry Robot for allowing me the opportunity to partake of this development opportunity. I know I whinged and moaned about it and it was so very hard at times to keep going, but I think all growth opportunities are painful in some way. I definitely learned so much and I’m quite excited about finishing off the editing component of my post graduate certificate in profession writing and using the insights I have gained in honing my editing eye.

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I’ve just recommended two more mss to the editors. That means the gender scales have shifted somewhat. I was fifty fifty before but the two latest are males. That’s 12 in total, which is rather a lot. I guess that reflects my earlier comments that there is a lot of good stuff in the submissions pile and some of that must be work that did not get picked up in previous years with the GFC and the continuing uncertainty in the publishing sector.

I am currently reading an SF ms and I have six more mss to go. I’m reading them as the mood takes me, leaving the longest one for last. The two that I recommended today I have been sitting on for a week or two.

I am feeling rather chipper as one day I might clean my house when all this is done and dusted. I am also in an MS reading mood, having written two reports and given two authors good news. On the downside, I also gave two authors not so good news. I so wish I could get this finished by next weekend.

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Another weekend with manuscripts. It was raining so that’s not so bad. Manuscript number 39 took me three evenings to get through (Wed, Thurs and Fr). Number 40 took most of Saturday and number 41 Saturday evening and all of Sunday. I’m starting number 42 tonight but going to watch a movie first.

The next few MSs are quite long, over 100,000 words. At this stage I am pretty sure I’ll be done by the end of the month. I am hoping for sooner though.

I have 12 to go! That is if I don’t find an extra one. Number 40 was one that I hadn’t written down so my 53 turned to 54.

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Finished ms number 32 and starting ms number 33. Things are going well. I wonder if I can finish number 34 before the weekend ends. 20 mss left to go.

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Currently reading ms number 31.
Dragon wine cutback broke the 150,000 word barrier, which means I’ve cut 17,000 words so far about one third of the way in.

Knackered tonight so relaxing with a ms.

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Just a quick update about Conflux Natcon 2013.

Here is a link to the website http://confluxnatcon2013.wordpress.com

Blog post three is on its way. Stay tuned.

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Just a quick note to say I’m still working on the next blog post. I had a few social events this weekend and I went back to the reading pile and read more submissions. Combined with working on a short story this left me with little time to get my thoughts together. Hope to have the next couple of posts up this week.

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