Blimey, I’m not very good at this blogging thing, am I?

Last post was in April, and not very many before that … it almost seems as if I’m not even trying.

I haven’t been, to be honest.

Which is why I’m reviving my zombie blog (not quite in time for Halloween, unfortunately), in the hope that I manage to keep it in the realm of the living.

My goal still is to keep this strongly connected to my writing, and I’ve recently acquired Jeff VanderMeer’s new book, Booklife, which has many a good tip on how to manage being a writer in the 21^st century. Consider this restart an attempt at putting to the test the advice in the book. More on that later, though.

One of the writers I find most inspiring (not just because of his works, of which I’ve read far too few) is Joseph Conrad, who was in his twenties when he learned English (and French before that), and yet his stories are counted among the finest in that language. I can only try to become as fluent and confident as he, even though it certainly isn’t easy.

Recently I discovered that there’s a LiveJournal blog about “World SF”, i.e. SF written by people from countries other than the usual suspects like the US or the UK. The latest entry contained a link to writer Aliette de Bodard’s blog, where she explains why she’s writing in English (her first language is French), and what it means to her. If you exchange “French” with “German”, most of what she says applies to me as well – thinking in English, associating English with speculative fiction, feeling freer with English than with my first language, the glamourisation of English as a poetic and musical language.

In addition, there’s also another thing to consider in my case: I am conscious of the market for the stories that I want to write, and the simple truth is that the biggest market is the English language one. I might just be able to write a SFF story in German, but getting it to sell would be tough. Also, from what I can tell from my infrequent perusals of German bookshelves, the jacket design of  SFF novels often leaves a considerable lot to be desired. But I’m biased, and I admit that.

I’m doing the best I can to imitate Joseph Conrad with his mad language acquisition skillz. However, I believe that I may have to move to another country to do that, which is why I’ve given serious thought to doing just that eventually (i.e. in about twenty or so years).

Despite my resolution to post more often, I still haven’t changed my blogging habits much since January. It looks like it’ll require a bit more effort than I previously thought.

So, what’s happened recently in my life? Not much, other than me buying an appartment that I’ll be moving into by the beginning of June (I hope), so there’s lots of planning involved right now. This week I’ll finalise the design of the kitchen that will be put in in the coming weeks. Not only will I get a (hopefully) supremely comfortable living room, but also an office for writing and research. There’s a spare room that will become the library until it needs to be something else (a child’s bedroom, say, but that’s a long way off). All in all I’m very excited about this, and there is a lot to do before I can move in: colours to choose for the walls, a bed to buy, various chests of drawers, carpets, kitchen items, etc.  I’m enjoying this very much, even though it requires many decisions from somebody who isn’t used to make such important decisions (at least not so many in so short a time). Just these past two weeks I picked tiles for various rooms (kitchen, bathroom, toilet, hallway), floors (living room, bedroom, office, library), and am this close to picking my kitchen.

Surely that means I won’t have to decide anything else for the rest of the year. I’d like that.

What else is there to report? I’m trying to do a bit of writing-related work every day, whether it’s actual production of text or “mere” research. For that purpose I got myself a Moleskine notebook which lets me write anywhere without the need for a power outlet (yes, children, such a thing is possible in today’s world!). Sure, any other notebook would’ve done the same job, I’m sure, but I fell in love with Moleskine the moment I found out about them (which wasn’t so long ago, actually) while reading Tobias Buckell’s blog. Writing on paper lets me focus on the writing itself, and I don’t distract myself by hopping away to read something else that has absolutely no connection to what I should be doing. I hope that I can make this a permanent change, since it allows me to change creative tracks pretty easily and move from text to picture, from description to depiction, which can only be an advantage when I’m building a new world out of nothing.

Another advantage occurs to me: by writing on paper, I insert another stage in the creative process that may soon become indispensable if I do it right. Anybody who knows me knows that English is my second language, and while I’m more proficient in it than most people I know around here, I’m still learning a lot every day, and the more time I have to think about what I write, the better it usually gets. By forcing myself to convert the analog into digital, I give myself a chance to rethink word choices and entire passages, and perhaps spot something that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Sure, this makes everything slower and more work-intensive, but I believe it’ll pay off in the end. Keep your fingers crossed, though, just in case.

(with apologies to Jake and Elwood Blues)

My Secret Writing Partner and I seem to have a habit of coming up with ideas that at first look like short story material, but the more we think about it, the longer they get. At least, that’s the trend with our original fiction, which we’ve been trying to pursue steadily over the past year or so. Steve starts writing a short story that then turns into a novella as soon as I get my hands on it, and then gets longer and longer until it has to be a novel (not finished yet, in case you were wondering).

And now it was my turn, plotting out another short story that went the same route. I don’t mind; it’s just that we need to figure a lot out before we get to write this thing. At least now I know better and won’t start with this unless I have a finished outline in hand.

That’s what I’m working on tonight. The third of an outline mentioned in the title will get a thorough make-over, and then it’s off to SWP, who’ll let me know if he approves of it or not.

Well, not really. It just sounds good. :D

The novel’s been submitted, that much is true. Now we eagerly await our editor’s reaction to it. In the meantime, I have enough to keep me busy. Most important for this blog are of course my writing endeavours, whose targets are the SF and fantasy stories my Secret Writing Partner and I are trying to get going.

I find that I need some visual aspect to help me along, whether it’s a map or a drawing or, as has become possibly by my somewhat recent decision to learn how to use Google’s SketchUp, 3D models of spaceships and buildings. For a collaboration such as ours, having something to actually look at instead of having it described can only be an advantage, especially since I’d much rather show than tell.

This past week has brought us a number of interesting science news: from “weird life” (I just love that phrase – it’s so refreshingly non-scientific) to the revelation that there could be “billions of Earths” out there, to the joint NASA/ESA project to explore Jovian moons. I linked to these sites not only for their (disputed) factual content, but for the ideas they give me (well, except for the “billion Earths” one, since that is pretty much the basis for every SF story ever told). At least now I don’t have to put them off, since the novel’s submitted and I can concentrate on other things for a while.

It’s a good thing to have, but not always a fun thing to acquire.

Today’s status update (with a new word meter since Zokutou’s doesn’t seem to work well with WordPress):

The weekend’s approaching, and I expect to do some major work on the final two chapters then. I hope to have my part finished by my self-imposed deadline of January 15th.

In other news, I’ve stumbled upon a Japanese Watchmen trailer that makes the film even cooler than it promises to be. I just hope the legal battles will be over in time for the release.

Also, I have something for Allyn and Messrs. Wardilmore that they might not have seen yet: a review of Constellations that singles out their respective stories.

Something’s happening at LiveJournal (what exactly, nobody seems to know), and so I decided it was time for a change, and since Allyn Gibson recommended WordPress, I tried that out. Easy to set up, it was, and I even got to import my old posts from LJ. In doing that, I realised that I’d only posted five times during the past year! This won’t do. I hereby resolve to post more often.

It’s a good thing that my current writing project has been announced: a Myriad Universes novel for the upcoming Vol. 3, out in August 2010. My part’s current total is this:

24,700 / 30,000 (82.3%)

The 30K number is more or less arbitrary, since I have no idea how long my part will be. It should be 25K, but currently there’s no hope for that to work. There will have to be a lot of editing – something to worry about later.

It’s funny: so far, all the stories we’ve written were easily separable into two parts to let us write simultaneously without much sending stuff back and forth. Once we get to write a novel with more than two major plot threads, we’ll have to figure out a new way to do this.

Today was Election Day. See for yourself.

I know, I know. I’m much too late, and nobody’s interested. Tough.

My entire stay in the US was great, but if there’s one thing I have to single out, it is of coure SL, although the book-buying marathon the day before comes VERY close.

Anyway. We (, his friends Chris and Jon, and I) arrived at the Marriott just after four and checked in immediately. Then we stood in line to get our badges (on the third attempt, we picked the right queue – people standing in front of the signs made it somewhat difficult). As Steve has already mentioned, we went to see the “Blood and Fire” premiere, which was a great way to start the convention, being so full of (unintentional) humour that things were off to a great start. I mean, you can’t beat Denise Crosby changing into a space butterfly, can you?

Then we got something to eat before we went to the Pocket presentation, the first part of which we missed, but it turned out we didn’t actually miss anything, since there were slight issues with technology. Of the covers presented, I got to see only a few, and then only in thumbnail size.

After that, we had the main event (in my opinion, anyway): Meet the Pros. My second, and the first on the other side of the signing table. A weird feeling, and yet such a great one. “Are you in this book?”, indeed.

See the gallery for three selected images from that evening. Be prepared to be shocked.

And then, the bar. I had a great time there, both on Friday and on Saturday, even though I never got to talk to most of the people I knew. Another time (2010?) …

Saturday started with Bob Greenberger’s movie presentation, which sadly also encountered technical difficulties, and then the Boogie Nights, and although that’s a great way to start the day, Steve’s right in saying that the evening concert suited them better. Still, I’m glad I went, because I had a great time. After that, there was the The Sky’s the Limit panel, which went well. I managed to say most of what I wanted to say, actually.

I went to most of the actors’ Q&As, and I have to say that they were all very enjoyable. My favourite probably was Malcolm McDowell, mostly because he was so bloody honest about absolutely everything. (“I don’t remember anything!” “I did it for the money!” “I hated every single second of it!” “What a load of crap!” etc.) Then, the Quality of Leadership panel, and then the masquerade, which was fun, although I sometimes had a hard time understanding the reason behind some costumes (i.e. Mirror Scotty).

Sunday: the Doctor Who panel by , , and , amongst others, followed by lunch, the obligatory S.C.E. panel, another Doctor Who panel, and then three actors’ Q&As, before we got to Mystery Trekkie Theatre 3000.

All in all, I had a great time there and want to be back when I get the chance.

I’m back home (have been for ten hours, in fact), and I kinda sorta know now how zombies must feel. Still, I managed to not fall asleep yet, so maybe I have a chance of getting my internal clock back on track quickly.

And now I must read a book I couldn’t get into last year in order to come up with a good pitch. Wish me luck!

(Oh, and my Shore Leave report with a handful of pictures will follow sometime this week.)

Well, almost. Another eight hours, and I’ll be on the train that takes me to Munich Airport. Once again, I’ll make a nuisance of myself for the family of , until we set off for Baltimore and some sort of weekend party that takes place there.

See you all there! Or not.

This is my first post in 2008, and indeed my first post in over half a year. The reasons for that are numerous, but let’s just say that I don’t find blogging about personal stuff as appealing as I did before. Coupled with some other changes in my life that include selling my Trek DVDs, this made me reconsider the purpose of this journal. From now on, this will be for all intents and purposes a blog about my writing endeavours. I won’t rule out that there may be the occasional post about private or at least not writing-related matters, but the majority of posts will be about writing. I’m also making an attempt to be as regular about this as possible, meaning that, if I write something, you can expect to find out what it is (at least in rough terms), how much I wrote, and how I feel about it. :)

Most of my LJ friends are writers, and some of them post almost daily updates. Of them all, I find ’s particularly encouraging (and, at times, envy-inducing).

Some time ago, wrote in his journal about his story-a-week program. I’m now trying to do something similar, except that I’m also working on something else with my Secret Writing Partner which we send back and forth. My plan is: whenever I send something off to Steve, I keep on writing, ideally on a new story, with a daily minimum of 500 words during the week, and 2,000 on holidays and weekends. That would yield me a weekly word count of 6,500 at least, which isn’t so bad. Enough for a short story, certainly.

I know I can do that. In fact, I’ve been doing this for the past three weeks. I finished a story, which is now in the good hands of my SWP, and continued with the other thing that he sent back to me last week. I had a good day on Thursday, writing 3,500 in total.

Ovideo just informed me that the next batch of five DVDs has been posted.

#1: Waking Ned Devine
#2: Elisabeth (I didn’t even know Christopher Eccleston was in it when I put that one my wishlist)
#3: Relative Values (a comedy with Colin Firth and Stephen Fry; I have no idea if I’m going to like it, but it’s got Stephen Fry, so it can’t be that bad)
#4: Monsoon Wedding
#5: Billy Elliot.

Nice choices, but not those I’d wanted at the moment. There are a DS9 DVD and some TOS ones I’m hoping to get before tFB’s July 1 deadline, as well as the Galactica pilot. :)