New baby!
My sister had a second baby this morning. Both she and the baby (a girl) are doing brilliantly. Louisette’s exalted position of the youngest in her generation has been snatched already (at six and a half months) – yep, my sister and I managed to be pregnant at the same time. We are all over the moon.
“Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex” by Eoin Colfer
Artemis starts the book with a plan to stop global warming – a plan just as grandiose as all the rest, and with prototype technology backing it up. There’s only one problem: Artemis is losing his mind.
The rest of this review is at Comfy Chair.
Making your book look like a book
In order to get published, some people get their book made up all pretty-like, with binding and cover and all. According to Lyn Price’s article here, those people are just dumb. Well, dumb and annoying. (Okay, I might be making it slightly clearer than she does – she is more well-mannered than I, but her frustration comes across nonetheless.)
And if you think self-publishing will get a reputable publisher to take you seriously, you couldn’t be more wrong.
If this is actually news to you, please read the article. Join the battle against epic stupidity!
And she’s off!
Louisette is officially moving – so much so that the gate at the top of our stairs is now actually a necessity. And so the thrill ride begins.
Her mode of transport at the moment is highly experimental – a mixture of bum-shuffling, commando crawling, rolling, and directed face-planting. It was almost exactly a month ago that she began to lift herself onto hands and knees.
She soon realised that if she lifted herself up and then dived forward, she would end up slightly forward of her original position (usually; it often backfired and sent her backwards). Her attitude to toys just out of reach instantly changed: they weren’t out of reach any more. Not if she could help it.
Soon after that she began doing peculiar things with her legs and feet – pushing against the ground in an upward fashion when she wanted to go forward. This sometimes helped her, but mostly it just meant she was making a triangle, with straight legs forming one side.
This experiment had an unexpected result: she can now get herself into a sitting position (and often does so). Her sitting up, incidentally, is now very impressive. She generally chooses to move from a sitting position (after happily playing for several minutes) rather than falling over. Sometimes, she doesn’t even land on her face. If she slouches in her high chair, it’s because she’s bored or annoyed, not because she’s lost her balance.
The day I was in Melbourne – two weeks ago yesterday – she began shuffling her knees in a new attempt at moving forward. This was extremely exciting, of course. (Some babies skip crawling and go straight to walking, but apparently crawling is very good for coordination, so I’ve been very carefully NOT encouraging her to walk yet.) About a week ago she began demonstrating three-wheel drive: holding a toy in one hand while still on hands and knees. Then she began pawing the ground like an impatient horse – just about the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
Then last Saturday, with CJ and I in delighted attendance, she took her first full (knees + hands) crawling step – and promptly (yet triumphantly, clutching the toy she was aiming for) collapsed on her face.
Since then she has repeated this move several times. Soon she’ll leave less efficient modes of movement behind, and we’ll REALLY be in trouble.
Still nothing interesting to say
But you can hang around and gaze at the gorgeousness for a bit if you like.
Nothin’ to see here
Hey look! No blog entry all weekend! Go. . . . play outside or something.
“Fire in the Sea” by Myke Bartlett
A publisher once said to me, “We can’t tell if your book is literary or adventure. The writing is sometimes poetic and sometimes not, and it’s too slow to be popular fiction.” In Australia, “literary” is a dirty word – the conception is that the writing might be pretty, but it’ll be boring. So I sped up the pace of that book of mine, and all the others since. If I’d gone in the opposite direction – focusing more on stunning writing and less on a fast-paced plot – I might have won the Text Prize this year. Maybe. One of the editorial comments they gave me was, “You rush through things. You should slow down.” C’est la publishing biz. But I know what kind of writer I want to be.
“Fire in the Sea” won the Text Prize last year. I was lucky enough to acquire an advance copy – and even to get it signed. Myke and his wife were a lot of fun to meet and talk to, and Myke (a tall and easy-going man with a good sense of humour) was touchingly unsure of his signature, working it out over the course of the evening. I’m pretty sure that the awkward, half-formed autograph in my copy will be worth millions one day: catching the moment as a new and excellent writer is born.
I finished the book only moments ago, and wanted very much to sit and think about it before writing this review, but I knew that I wouldn’t have a better chance to blog in the next twenty-four hours, and I promised readers and Myke himself that I’d review it this week. I suspect if I re-read the book or engaged my brain a little more, it would have layers upon layers of smart symbology and intelligence. But, ya know, I got stuff to do.
The book was. . .
The rest of the review is at Comfy Chair.
Should I work for free?
Writing is something that looks super easy from the outside, so a LOT of people give it a try. Many of them get to a certain point and realise they need outside help. That is when they approach professionals in the biz and ask, “Would you mind just. . . . looking at my first chapter/writing me a foreword/telling me how to spell occasionally/giving me an awesome quote for my self-published book “Ocelots and why I love them”?”
Most people who’ve been around a while say a rapid no and back away quickly, overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers. If your mouth is the kind that reverts to a yes answer, this handy diagram may help you retrain yourself back into a sanity-inducing lifestyle. Also, it’s just funny to read. Also, if you think I’ll read your novel, maybe see where you fit into this flowchart first and then you can work out the answer for yourself.
Warning: There is some swearing. As in life, so in this flow chart.
http://www.shouldiworkforfree.com/
