I spent most of my extended (three-day) weekend reading material for the World Fantasy Awards. I puncuated the many pages with some music,  dinner with friends, watching some cricket and tuning in every now and then to the ABC coverage of the 2020 ideas summit. Frankly, it made for dull television, so I spent some time on the web tonight catching up with some of the great ideas put forward. 

And I got thinking - is it worth doing something similar for Australian speculative fiction writing?

What are the ideas that will shape the genre over the next decade?
How will writers best commercialise their work in the brave new world digital world?
What professional development opportunities will deliver value to genre writers?
And maybe most importantly - is thinking about genre writing in terms of Australia vs the rest of the world even productive?

Who knows what else. 

I'm going to ponder it for a while but if you've got ideas for topics and/or how it might be shaped, let me know. Stay tuned for more.

Have returned safely from the other side of the continent and my first Swancon. 

I took the opportunity on Thursday to visit my sister and her family who live in the 'burbs of Perth. When I returned to the hotel late Thursday night I found the bar closed and most people ready to head on out of there. So the con really didn't kick off for me until Friday. And I had a slow first few days, which I used mostly to catch up with old buddies including Ben, Cat, Launz (Dirk), Sean, Chris, Marianne (when she arrived), Lee, Lyn, Matt, Andy and some other former Clarion South students. I also spent time picking the brains of both Justin Ackroyd and Jonathan Strahan who have also been World Fantasy Award judges. Thanks guys. Made lots of new friends too once I started opening up and being more social.

I found the programming a little dull. I'm generally a bit more open to attending con panels than some of those jaded souls who quite happily announce 'I don't go to cons for the panels.' Swancon seems to be a bit more focussed on the panels that appeal to the fannish community - which is fine - but I would have preferred a few more panels on professional development for writers and some broader stuff on random cool and interesting topics. But I think most attendees went away pretty happy.

I was also surprised that there doesn't seem to be much of a book-buying culture at Swancon. I don't know if this is a chicken-and-egg type issue because I understand Swancon committees have taken the decision to do away with a dedicated dealer's room and have a market day instead. Some brave souls set up in a small (and dark) space and I'm told sales were pretty slow.  Again, it probably relates to having such a strong fan community in attendance.

The launches were all enjoyable. I only missed one and that was because a panel I was on was programmed against it. Regular readers will be pleased to know that the 'mystery' launch went well. It was held in the hotel carpark, which suited The Worker's Paradise particularly well. But Russell and Alisa did a good job of getting people there and attracted a crowd of 50 to 60 people. And sales were about normal for a con launch, so the promotion certainly didn't hinder people buying copies of either TWP or 2012.

The awards went well and I was particularly pleased to see Cat Sparks recognised for her writing (though the Aurealis Awards got there first). My highlight of the awards night was Russell B Farr's Best Collection win for Fantastic Wonder Stories. He tied with Jonathan Strahan and Gardner Dozois for The New Space Opera, which was kinda fitting. And it was great to see ASIM recognised across a number of categories, especially Tehani's win.

I suspect the biggest hit to come out of the convention however, will be British scriptwriter and author Rob Shearman. Rob made a big impression thanks to his intelligence, good humour and willingness to have a good old chat. And he felt so welcome at the con that he pretty much had everyone feeling they'd  personally been responsible for introducing an old friend into a wonderful new community. Hearing Rob read the story 'So Proud' from his collection Tiny Deaths was one of the highlights of the con for me. If you go here you can download an MP3 of Rob reading the story and buy a copy of the book. Go listen to it now.

Anyway, that was Swancon 2008 for me.  Bring on the Adelaide Natcon in 2009.

Charlie Anders over at io9 has a fun post about why prequels are evil. 

To make her case she says, in part: "But prequels aren't just boring and predictable - they're also morally wrong and a scourge on humanity, because they portray people as helpless pawns of a history that's already set in stone. Click through for five reasons why prequels are actually evil." She then talks through some specific problems and relates them back to the Star Wars prequels and the J.J. Abrams Star Trek prequel (though I'm guessing this will actually end up being an alternate universe story). 

The five reasons she elaborates on are:

• Prequels are anti-creativity
• Prequels are anti-futurist
• Prequels are anti-heroic
• Prequels are all about trivia
• Prequels are small and personal

While prequels can be all of those things, I don't think - by definition - they always are. There's not enough space on this blog to describe the things wrong with the Star Wars prequels. But one of the things that is right with them is their essential prequelness - that is finding out how Anakin became Darth. Yes, doing a prequel does constrain some things you can do plot-wise but that does not mean they are by definition anti-creative.

And there are lots of examples in genre fiction where prequels have worked well. I was particularly impressed as an impressionable teenage spec fic reader with Isaac Asimov's second Foundation trilogy. In those three prequels Asimov manages the quite substantial task of unifying his foundation novels with his robots and empire novels. This required a lot of creativity but he pulled it off quite well in my mind. They were also big stories that were at the same time small and personal - connecting two of Asimov's most memorable characters. People will criticise the books but I suspect those criticisms are probably ones you'd level at much of Asimov's writing.

But there are other examples too - The Silmarillion, the new Dune books and others. Again, just because some future plot aspects of the stories these books are telling is constrained it doesn't mean they can't tell a good story. 

Novels face all sorts of constraints. It's these constraints that drive good authors to tell better stories.

I'm heading to Perth for Swancon, so I've been keeping up with where the Ditmars are at. The shortlist has been announced. You can read it here. I think the short story field is a pretty stiong. I've got a couple of pieces to catch up on before I make any final decision. Though I think Fantastic Wonder Stories, edited by Russell B. Farr, is the best of the 'collected work' nominations.

I've got a story in the latet CSFG anthology Outcast. It's a simple fairytale - nothing more, nothing less, which I expect will sink into the abyss with little notice. That's - mostly - okay because it's a story I wrote with an audience of one in mind - my daughter. She's almost four now and the date I've handwritten on the first draft in my files is February 27, 2002 - a few months before she was born.

I hadn't intended to write a story for her before she was born but then I read a line in Neil Gaiman's American Gods that got me thinking. The Little Wooden Flute tells the story of a little girl who lives a harsh life in a cold land. Her only joy is to play music on the little wooden flute given to her by her grandmother before she died. But complications arise - don't they always - and make her life difficult. Hell, if you wanna know more than that, go read the goddam thing.

But the plot isn't important. What is important is that I wrote the story for my daughter and now she won't let me read it to her. We have a very settled night-time ritual when she stays with me, which includes dinner, some television, a bath, some reading in bed then lights out. So I was very excited when I finally held a copy of Outcast in my hands because it meant I could read it to my daughter. For some reason I'd decided it had to wait until it was published somewhere. But will she let me read it to her? No.

The first try went something like this:
Me: Would you like Daddy to read you the special story he wrote for you, tonight?
Daughter: No
Me: Please!
Daughter: No
Me, Okay, what should I read you then.
Daughter: The Red Tree 
Me: Damn you Shaun Tan, those terrible fates really are inevitable, aren't they?

I then proceeded to read The Red Tree, which took about three minutes including red leaf spotting time. When I finished I thought I'd try again.

Me: How about we read something else.
Daughter: Yes please.
Me: How about the special story I wrote just for you?
Daughter: No. I want to read Gordon (Gordon's got a Snookie)!

I did ponder for a few moments tying her to the bed and forcing her to listen. But then I remembered how much I hated being forced to read A Farewell to Arms in year 11. Forced reading is a bad thing.

So here I have an interesting little fairytale that will garner no critical attention, nor win any awards and I can't even convince, outwit or bribe my young daughter into reading it to her.

Writing; it's a harsh life indeed.

Steven Johnson has an interesting piece in Wired on the future of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Johnson suggests that over the next decade we'll see the notion of discrete game worlds like World of Warcraft and EverQuest fade and be replaced by a more unified environment. Johnson seems to be concentrating on the logic of technological convergence and leaving us hanging with the tantalizing notion of a Matrix-type metaverse that contains all games is possible. To be fair, the article only runs to 550 words, so it's hardly a detailed analysis. But it's a romantic idea that's fun to entertain. I don't play MMORPGs (it's a time issue mostly) but the notion of entering a universe and having the same character have experiences as diverse as games like The Sims and Second Life is very attractive. It would make the character even more central to the experience if you could work the same one through a diverse gaming experience. And once the thing reached a certain tipping point, having the one character could very quickly accelerate the unification of the separate gaming societies Johnson talks about.

On entirely tangential matters, the article also reminded me of how some authors write short stories and novels in separate universes and then decide to link them together into one metaverse. These bridging novels and stories can sometimes be fun but are more often like watching a car crash in slow motion. Isaac Asimov did it with his Foundation novels, and his robot novels and short stories, and my 15-year-old science-fiction soaked brain thought he did a pretty good job at the time.

It might be fun to try some time.

Two of my short stories Depart the Singer, Follow the Song and 617 Instances of Eleanor and Rising are themed around the same issue – future collisions of technology and entertainment/art – and are already set in the same universe. I have a few other random science fiction shorts that could be slotted in without too much difficulty. I have a suite of weird-idea fantasies that could be set in the same universe – as each other –  without much trouble. Linking those groups in a way that actually made for an interesting story to tell would be a real challenge. I'm working on two novels - a traditional fantasy and a hip probably-YA novel about cities and civil disobedience - which would massively add to the difficulties of linking my stuff. Plus I've got a few random horror and surrealist stories, which may be better left out of the 'canon'.  It would definitely be easier.

It's certainly a strange thought experiement that gives rise to some interesting story ideas.

I've received the list from programming director Heather Gammage of the panels I'll probably be on at Conjure, the national speculative fiction convention being held in Brisbane over the Easter long weekend. I haven't included times or full details of the other panellists because they may change but this list is here to whet the appetite a little and see if anyone has any ideas about the panel topics themselves. Shout loud if you have any thoughts.

What’s the scoop?
The future of reporting and consuming the news. Hear from Wired Magazine journalist Bruce Sterling and the former State Political Correspondent of The Courier-Mail newspaper, Malcolm Cole. 

The forces governing the news media - advertising, delivery, collection and consumption - are in a tremendous state of flux. But it's not the first time that people have made predictions about the reshaping of the news media. It will be fun to throw some of these ideas up in the air and see where they land. Bruce is smart. Malcolm is smart. I like to argue and throw evil questions into the mix. I'm not sure that I've fully formed my opinions on many of the issues surrounding this topic but I've been giving it a lot of thought over the past few days and I'm looking forward to doing some more reading and thinking on the issues.

Crumbs From the Editing Table
Editors give their insights into good writing, bad writing and the search for the diamond in the rough.

This is a panel I suggested, so I hope it works. Given the number of panels at cons about the business of writing, I'm surprised there aren't more on the craft of writing. Perhaps there's a reason for that.

Clarion South: Will it really help your writing career?
Hear from past students and tutors of this prestigious international writing workshop and find out how to apply for CS 2007. 

Ok, I can hear you saying this is just gratutous pimpage for Clarion South. And you're right. But lots of people are interested in the workshop and this is a very efficient way of answering lots of questions at once and exposing the good, the bad and the ugly of the whole thing.

Press # to register your protest
Technology and the future of political and social activism. 

I'm a big fan of creative civil disobedience (it's a major part of my new novel) and this panel will be a great opportunity to throw some ideas around. Could be one of those panels that either rocks people's socks off or falls flat. But the panel line-up is top-class for the topic. I have high hopes.

Those were the young years: Juvenilia Readings
Four great authors step back in time to read stories they wrote when they were twelve-ish.

This will be the most fun panel at Conjure. It will be the one they talk about for years to come and don't complain if you're not there - you've been warned. I've got the honour of chairing (not reading) and I'm going to spend most of my time getting out of the way of the authors. The wonderful Kim Wilkins suggested the panel and immediately volunteered to be one of the lambs to the slaughter authors who reads their work. 

I'll pimp my panel appearances further when I get official details. Overall, I think the programming team has done a great job in delivering panels that pretty much cover my unofficial tagline for the con: "Real Writers with Real Ideas."

The program for the NSW Writers' Centre annual science fiction, fantasy and horror festival, Magic Casements is up. 

Magic Casements is a wonderful event that is always well organised, well attended, and is a good excuse for me to go to Sydney for a weekend and catch up with buddies. If you're in Sydney on March 25, it's worth the trip. I'll be joining Cat Sparks, Zara Baxter and James Cain on a panel in the afternoon to talk about magazines and small press, so you can listen to me rant if you so choose.

I might blog a few thoughts on the panel topic before I head down, so I can hone my thoughts.

A few weeks ago I began a series of posts about the tutors for Clarion South 2007.

The 2007 workshop features as tutors Lee Battersby, Simon Brown, Gardner Dozois, Rob Hood, Kelly Link and Janeen Webb. Applications for the six week workshop have just opened. In January I linked to a story by Lee Battersby.

Today, it's Simon Brown's turn. I've been a fan of Simon's writing for a long time. And I think he has lot to offer the Clarion students, if for no other reason than he's living the dream - publishing science fiction and fantasy novels while maintaining a marvelous track record as a short story writer to boot.

You can read one of those short stories, which will appear in the Jonathan Strahan and Jeremy Byrne edited Eidolon I, here.

Random name generators aren't new but this little fantasy novel title generator is fun.

This is what one random set of 10 looked like:

Cityِ Nightِ and Desert
Dorte's Autumn
Dragonِ Seaِ and Spirit
Maiden and Chaos
Northern Memory of Vevriri
Ruby and Empire
Storm of the Rune Faerie
The Lossan War
The Storm of the Goddess
Vermondis's Night

About 1 in 30 or 40 comes out as a decent title.

The main page has some other neat random generators too.