Friday, April 29, 2011

Decency Tassels


I’m writing this whilst some wedding of well-to-do horsey types plays out on the television. This gives me an excuse to ignore it whilst keeping an eye out for the very rich ‘commoner’ and her choice of outfit. I’m guessing ‘white dress’, but perhaps she’ll shrug off tradition and go with a leather and tartan number with a disturbingly low plunging neck line and matching ‘decency tassels’.
I’m reaching the middle point of ‘Waters Deep.’ I know this because I’ve now fully introduced the ‘bad.’ I’m not saying what it is, as I don’t want to give away any spoilers. Let’s just say the ‘bad’ is very bad and somewhat scary. I’m a big believer in not showing all you have upfront (if you’ll excuse the blatant imagery of that statement), and using a drip effect. This helps to heighten and exaggerate the tension, drawing it out for a big reveal. I’ve always preferred the Hitchcock approach to horror, rather than the current trend for blood and gore porn.
I’ve just checked - she turned up in the white dress - boring traditionalist!
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My agent is taking ‘Juvie’ to BookExpo America in New York later in May, so hopefully (fingers and everything else crossed) something might happen with it.
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Now back from Australia and New Zealand and I have a little over a week before I return to the UK for three weeks. I’ll be doing a stint in Edinburgh, Nottingham and down in London. I’ll try and get as much writing as is possible during this time, but I have Secret Societies to attend and the Doctor to meet, so time is short.


The photo above is one I took from the Great Ocean Road. The scenery in quite dramatic.

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Book review time...
City of Saints and Madmen By Jeff Vandermeer
Similar to ‘House of Leaves’ which I reviewed several weeks ago, CofS&M is meta-fiction, in so much it’s a collection of works about the city of Ambergris, a place that may or may not exist. Explored through fiction, ancient histories, letters, art work and a glossary, Ambergris is a mysterious city with a long and notorious history. Founded by pirates as a new world escape, the original occupants are demonised and retreat underground. These creatures called Grey Caps are half animal, half fungus, and so exist in the twilight underground of the city, waiting to take it back.
The author has written several work sent in the same space. In each Ambergris goes through many transformation, much like a real city does through history. It is an organic, shifting place full of adventure. In one section, it seems that a someone from the real world  has hallucinations about the magical city, only to be told that Ambergris is real and instead they are hallucinating the made up America.
Vandermeer is a great writer, able to capture immense detail, and yet keep the world he has created alive with wit and charm. I look forward to reading the other works.





McSweeney’s Quaterly Concern Issue 13
This is the comic book issue. A bit of a disappointment if I’m honest. The book is beautifully produced like all McSweeney’s, with a fold out cover that becomes a large newspaper size comic plus several comic inserts, but the content is mildly diverting at best.
There are comics from Charles Burns, but these are excerpts from other books (Black Hole) and some nice work by Adrian Tomine, but most of the other comics are quite weak with poor writing. Nice to look at.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Trembling in the Breeze

I'm now in Adelaide, but I wrote the below entry a few days ago whilst staring at field after field of vines.

I'm sitting in a rocking chair by a large picture window, the view is of vines that stretch far off into the distance, trembling in the breeze. It would be perfect, if not for the rain. I don't mind wet weather, in truth I quite like it. I just imagined something a little warmer, sitting outside drinking wine on a warm autumn night. Never mind. I have plenty of work to do.
I've put together two small essays for Edinburgh Libraries on books I like. The brief is wide in that I can write about any works that I enjoy so long as the library stocks them. So far I've written one on my love of comic books and how the library fostered this, and another on the Charlie Parker novels by John Connolly. I plan to do others as there are many books I wish to discuss.
I've also started work on an essay for another writing blog. One about travel and alienation. It needs work at the moment.
Now I plan to do some reading and relaxing. It's what I'm meant to be doing.


Fortunately, today I got my wish and drank much wine in the sun surrounded by vin yards. It was beautiful.

Finishing up in Penola I had the bonus luck of finding two first addition hardback Douglas Adams' novels, which kind of made this holiday perfect.

Two more days left. Tomorrow I'm going to look around Adelaide and then Friday we fly back to Sydney. It's also my birthday, just in case you're interested.


- From the desk of AJS. Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Australia

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Small Grey's

We did Sydney, staying in the rocks at a brewery. A good choice after the dry state of Tamil Nadu. The weather was good and we even went to the beach, exposing my bleach white skin to the brown and tan of Manley Beach. This was followed by the best thunder storm with rolling clouds reminiscent of the UFO exhausts in Independence Day.



We're now in Wellington, where Madame Vin and I lived five years ago. Has it been that long? Feels like only yesterday. It was here that I picked up many good writing habits and tricks from Chris Else writer of the excellent Brainjoy (looks like it's out of print, which is a shame) and other things, on a night school course at Wellington University.

We've been along Oriental Bay and checked what's changed in the city (very little, a few new buildings, that's about it). Wellington is small and easy to navigate.


Last night we went out to celebrate Madame Vin's fast approaching birthday with old friends at an old haunt. Much food and drink was imbibed.



One thing that is strange is the almost complete lack of news or details on Christchurch. It's mentioned, but only in passing and yet that city and it's disaster is just across the straights. Friends are making arrangements with their own emergency kits and disaster plans and others have made a few remarks about people cashing in on the disaster, but I haven't seen one collection tin on the streets.

I've just heard that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are in town promoting the new film 'Paul'. I'm looking out for them but haven't spotted any small Grey's just yet.

Tomorrow we fly to Melbourne.


- From the desk of AJS. Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Taranaki St,Wellington Central,New Zealand