Musings – Page 2 – markwebb.name

In which birthdays and small press are discussed

It’s not really speculative fiction related, but the NSW Writers Centre turned 25 recently and had their birthday party today. I don’t go along to as many Writer Centre events as I should – I’m hoping when the kids are a bit older there might be more opportunities. But I have been to some excellent functions there over the years, and I’m a fully paid up member, so it would seem churlish not to spruik their birthday and encourage any NSW readers to join up!

As mentioned in previous posts, Aurora Australis is Alex Pierce’s monthly round up of Australian and New Zealand speculative fiction news published at Tor.com. The October edition is out now, and well worth checking out if you like keeping up on the goings on of the Australian scene.

I was particularly sad to see that the Australian small press Fablecroft was going on indefinite hiatus. I don’t know Tehani (the owner) well at all, but I have observed her efforts and impact on the Australian SF scene, and it has been profound. She has brought many books into the world that deserved to be there, and never would have been without her efforts. Fablecroft will be missed.

Speaking of Australian small press, Twelfth Planet Press (a Western Australian based press) has had a run of award love for their anthology Letters to Tiptree, a work designed to showcase the impact that James Tiptree Jr (aka Alice Sheldon) had on the SF community in the year that would have marked her 100th birthday. In a similar vein, they have just announced a new project, Letters to Butler, designed to honour legendary SF writer Octavia Butler. They have sent out an open call for submissions, so if you have been impacted by Butler’s work it might be worth checking out.

I’m feeling a little short on news this months, so I’ll send this out into the ether now. Feel free to add in any more in the comments!

Monthly roundup culture consumed – September 2016

I hope September treated everyone with dignity and respect. I’m afraid my culture consumption has been a little light on this month – too many work events and family obligations preventing a good read!

Books

I finished Lois McMaster Bujold’s Falling Free (Book 1 in the Vorkosigan Saga). I enjoyed the book, but my initial concern that it didn’t seem to contain anyone called “Vorkosigan” in it was born out. I am assuming that it was some kind of prequel book, that has been listed as Book 1 for anyone wanting to read chronologically? In any case, the book was a good story, but not enough to make me immediately want to pick up another in the series. I’m told I should definitely try the next one, Shards of Honour, which I might do in the fullness of time.

I started the first book in Tansy Rayner Robert’s Mocklore series, Splashdance Silver. It is interesting to go back and look at the earlier work of an author you admire. I won’t say much here, because I’ll probably do a full review once I’m finished the book.

You know what I did? I got lazy and missed the last couple of episodes of the second series of Marvel’s Agent Carter on Channel 7’s catch up TV. Really kicking myself on that front – now I’ll have to wait to be able to obtain it through alternate legal means to find out how the story ended. Very disappointing. I believe that is the last series of Agent Carter, which is a damn shame.

Have been catching up on the latest series of Musketeers, but must admit to be finding it harder going this series. Not exactly sure why, I think the clash of modern sensibilities with the realities of a 14th century French monarchy are starting to overwhelm the show. Still, there is still a nice balance of both swash and buckle, so I keep going back.

Lots of the DC universe TV series are starting up this week – Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow. I’m in two minds about a couple of these series – almost ready to let some of them go. I might give them each a few weeks and see how I feel.

Speaking of superheroes, I watched the first episode of Luke Cage on Netflix last night. Looks really good – that is one superhero show I’ll definitely be sticking with.

Movies

Besides taking my daughter to see Secret Life of Pets I’ve been once again cinema free this month. I’m considering going along to see The Magnificent Seven, but that isn’t really SF so not much point in mentioning it.

I did watch the extended cut of Batman vs Superman on Blu-ray last week. It’s still not the best superhero movie of the year, but I did find that the extra material plugged a few gaps for me and made the movie seem a bit more coherent. I especially felt that Lois Lane came out seeming much more well rounded, which was good.

I rewatched Captain America Civil War as well (a father’s day gift). I really like Spiderman. Just sayin’.

Other

Issue 219 of Antipodean SF is out now, including my eBook versions (I actually got them done on time this month).

I have an Xbox, but I don’t really play it much anymore. I did, however, purchase a new game – Deus Ex – recently, which I’m looking forward to giving a whirl. I’ve always been a sucker for an futuristic augmented human game (harking back to my favourite game back in the day, System Shock).

From a writing perspective, things have been meandering along slowly. I’ve almost finished a first round of edits on my 27,000 word novella, The Reclaimers. Next I’ll be typing out the first 20,000 or so words of a science fiction novel or novella (depending on how much more story there is in it). I quite like the characters in this one, so looking forward to revisiting them (I hand wrote the story about 6 months ago).

So, what have you been up to?

Monthly roundup culture consumed – August 2016

Hello everybody! How was your August?

Books

I mentioned last month that I’d started The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu, and sure enough I finished it off during August. It turned into much more of an epic story than I was expecting from the first 20% or so. It is a “high level” novel – covering a fair period of time and dipping in and out of the various characters stories. The writing is very good and the novel pulls you along. I haven’t read much of Liu’s short fiction, but I could certainly see why he has gathered much acclaim in his short fiction career.

I also read Chuck Wendig’s latest Star Wars novel, Life Debt. This is one of the novels released around the new movies, to provide some context between the end of Return of the Jedi and the start of The Force Awakens. The novel is written in present tense, which is interesting but ultimately a little jarring. I know present tense is meant to impart a sense of immediacy, however I’m so used to reading in past tense that it kept jarring me out of the novel. Apart from that, it was a good read. I enjoy Wendig’s style of writing, and it is a good way to get a better sense of the new “canon”.

I’ve started on Lois McMaster Bujold’s Falling Free, billed as Book 1 in the Vorkosigan Saga. It is an OK read, although it doesn’t seem to have anyone called “Vorkosigan” in it. Still, I haven’t finished yet so more next month.

I’ve been making my way through the second series of Marvel’s Agent Carter on Channel 7’s catch up TV (I missed one episode because it expired, but other than that I’ll be able to see the rest). A great show – I love the retro look and the storylines without all the complexity of the 21st century version of the Marvel universe. It made me go back and re-watch Captain America: The First Avenger the other day. Well worth the watch if you can find it somewhere.

Not much else on the TV front – I’ve been watch a couple of non-genre shows on Netflix, but nothing worth including on a speculative fiction blog! I’m hoping to pick up Orphan Black next month and watch that from the beginning.

Movies

No visits to the cinema this month, had to compensate for the glut last month. I’ve been re-watching a couple of Marvel movies at home, but that’s about it. Sorry!

Other

I’ve mentioned before that I produce the eBook versions of the Antipodean SF monthly fiction releases. Worth checking out if you like flash fiction, we just put up issue 218 on the website at the time of writing.

What’s everyone else been consuming?

In which a random sampling of topics is covered

Hi all. Hope this blog post finds you well.

The 2016 Australian Speculative Fiction Snapshot just completed. Yours truly was interviewed, but don’t let that put you off checking out the whole shebang. The Snapshot is an excellent rounding up of what’s going on in the Australian scene – well worth checking out who’s doing what.

Note: at the time of writing, the 2016 front page linked into above does not have all of the interviews listed. Hopefully it will be up to date by the time you read this.

The Hugo awards were announced this weekend at WorldCon over in Kansas City. In yet another year of controversial nomination and voting practices, I was sad to see so many “no award” wins. I must admit that seeing the Hugos become an idealogical battleground in a away that artificially distorts voting patterns has made me a bit “meh” about them, so I haven’t paid as much attention to the shortlist/final awards as I might have in previous years. In previous years I have bought supporting memberships of the relevant convention so I could vote, but this year I couldn’t really be bothered. And that’s a shame.

It’s been great to see The Writer and the Critic podcast get back into its monthly groove. I’ve just listened to the latest episode, and while neither of the books interested me too much going in, the broader discussion about books that achieve longevity on best seller lists was quite interesting. Hopefully they’ll get back to more speculative fiction content though.

You may have noticed that I’ve started to republish one of my old stories on the website, over 5 parts. No real reason, just felt like it really. Part 1 of “Showdown” can be found here, and I’ll publish the last sections over the next few weeks.

I’ve almost finished the first draft of a novella length work – looking like it is going to come in at about 26k – 27k words. I’ll ship it around to a few venues, but if I don’t get much traction I might serially publish it as well. It’d be nice to get the publication credit somewhere, but I must admit that has been concerning me less lately. In this case, putting the words out there might just be the push I need to build up a bit more momentum. Anyway, still a fair bit of editing to do so I don’t have to make up my mind for a little while.

And finally, if you’re interested in general Australian SF news you should check out Alex Pierce’s column at Tor.com. Alex is much better informed than me – as her latest column demonstrates!

Monthly roundup culture consumed – July 2016

How was July?

Books

This month I read (and reviewed) Vigil by Australian author Angela Slatter. I reviewed the book for the Australian Women Writers Reading challenge here, so you can read my opinion in great detail.

I also read the final “Long Earth” book by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, called The Long Cosmos. I’ve enjoyed the series without loving it, and I must admit that my primary motivation around this book was to be a completist. The writing was good, but I must admit that the plot didn’t really seem to build to anything. If you like the series, you’ll probably already have read the book. If not, you can quite safely give this one a miss.

I’ve started on The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. I’m only a little way through the book, but enjoying it so far. It’s been a long introduction, but the characters are enjoyable and the world building interesting enough to carry me through. More next month!

Never having read any Lois McMaster Bujold, I’ve decided to give the Vorkosigan Saga a go. I’m starting with Falling Free. Hopefully I’ll have finished that next month too.

As reported last month, the second series’ of Dark Matter (a science fiction show that actually features a spaceship) and Killjoys (intergalactic bounty hunters) started back up. I’ve quite enjoyed both through the course of the month. Dark Matter is probably my favourite of the two, but only just. It is jumping around a bit cast wise, with one of the main cast from last season killed off and an array of new characters popping in and out. But the overall plot is interesting, and the acting good enough to keep me coming back.

Killjoys is getting better this season, with more of an overarching storyline to keep me interested. I think the show is a bit tighter this season.

I just today realised that the second series of Marvel’s Agent Carter is playing on one of the free to air channels (7flix). Fortunately their catch up TV still has the first six episodes so I’ll make a concerted effort to catch up.

Movies

A lot of movies this month. Last month I mentioned that my 8-year old daughter and I were going to see Ghostbusters. My daughter really enjoyed the movie, and loved the cast (and the “icky ghosts”). The movie was everything I was hoping it would be in terms of strong female cast, good story, good special effects etc. I’ve read some commentary about some people being disappointed, but it did everything I wanted it to. Well worth going, especially if you’ve got a young person in your life who’d like to see strong representations of women on the big screen.

I also went to the IMAX in Sydney to see the new Star Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond. I think this might be my favourite of the three new reboot movies, with a strong storyline and some great set pieces. The characters were strongly played (although seriously, how many times can they go back to the Mr-Spock-doesn’t-have-feelings-except-yes-he-actually-does-oh-he-is-human-afterall well?) and there was a good balance of action and humour. Clearly you’re probably not going to see the movie unless you’re a Star Trek fan, but I would say that if you like science fiction generally, this is the Star Trek movie I’d probably recommend for you.

Speaking of Star Trek, has anyone else seen the news that there is going to be a new Star Trek TV series starting early next year? And that Australian Netflix is going to show the episodes the day after they air in the US? I can’t seem to find any further details than that, but the news has made me unreasonably excited.

This weekend I also saw Suicide Squad. Look, I don’t don’t really want to get on the Suicide Squad bashing bandwagon. It’s not the greatest film in the world. You can probably wait until it comes out on DVD. Introducing such a lot of relatively unknown characters in one movie means that a LOT of time is dedicated to backstory. And the team bond together remarkably quickly considering they are all bad guys. But if you’re willing to suspend your disbelief it is a harmless enough way to kill a couple of hours. It gets a “meh” from me.

Other

Not much else this month. I’m not going to be at my computer next Sunday, so next week’s post might be a little delayed (I’ll try the automatic publish thing but quite frankly it has not served me well in the past). If it doesn’t work, I’ll publish on Tuesday. Promise!

Continued general ramblings

So, what’s up this week?

David McDonald has been kicking a lot of goals recently, including a Captain America novel, becoming a SFWA member, and writing some really interesting series of posts, on things like “Paying for our passion” (writers talking about how they support themselves in their writing). If you haven’t had the pleasure, I’d recommend jumping over to his website and having a look. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.

One of my favourite podcasts, The Writer and the Critic, is back onto a monthly publishing schedule, which I quite like. They’ve moved to a more “curated” format, where they pick books according to some theme. Admittedly usually a somewhat obscure theme particular to them, but a theme nonetheless. This is one of only two endeavours that I sponsor through Patreon, well worth checking out if you haven’t had a chance to.

I took my 8 year old daughter to see the new Ghostbusters movie. It was a lot of fun, and I got a real kick from seeing how inspired my daughter was by such a strongly female led cast. The friendship showed between the characters was great, and if this movie doesn’t pass the bechdel test, no movie does! If you’ve got any young women in your life, I definitely recommend taking them along to see Ghostbusters.

Monthly roundup culture consumed – June 2016

How was June for everyone?

Books

I mentioned last month that I’ve started watching The Magicians TV show, which reminded me to read the last two books of the original trilogy by Lev Grossman (The Magician King and Magician’s Land). I really liked these books, in fact I’m surprised I haven’t read them before now. Modern fantasy for adults definitely, but also the popular culture references that abound in the book seem particularly suited for people around my age. It does make me wonder whether the books will age particularly well. Still, for the time being I really enjoyed these two books and reading them did enhance my enjoyment of the TV series.

Nothing hugely different for the month of June. At the very end of the month, the second series of Dark Matter (a science fiction show that actually features a spaceship) and Killjoys (intergalactic bounty hunters) started back up. Looking forward to those shows.

Movies

No movies for me this month, but I did suddenly realise that another Star Trek movie is due out in the very near future. This wasn’t on my radar at all! As a result, I did make it my business to re-watch the two recent Star Trek movies, both of which I quite enjoyed. Looking forward to seeing Star Trek: Beyond in the next couple of weeks.

I am filled with joy that my 8-year old daughter is super excited about the release of Ghostbusters next week. I was relieved that the movie has been rated PG, so next weekend we’ll be off together to see the film. I can’t tell you how happy I am that there are more and more examples of strong, female led films and franchises for my daughter to consume. I know things aren’t perfect and still have a long way to go, but if I think back even 5 years ago I worried a lot about what would exist for my daughter in the future. Now, I can at least find a fairly steady stream of material.

Other

My daughter and I enjoy a show called Teen Titans, Go! There are quite a few nods to adults watching along, including an episode where one of the main characters listens to a song called Night Begins to Shine, a very 80s sounding song that you would almost swear you remember from your teenage years. It isn’t – the song was written for the show. However it is way too catchy, and I was forced to go onto iTunes and buy the song. It has made its way onto my exercise playlist. I’m currently a lot in love with this song!

General ramblings – Part 4

One of my favourite authors, Jason Nahrung, recently posted a free short story set in his “outback vampire” universe. I’m a big fan of Jason’s writing, and so it was a great thrill to read some more work set in an imagined world that I’ve really enjoyed. Details can be found on Jason’s website. If you enjoy the short story, you might want to try the two novels (Blood and Dust and The Big Smoke).

Are you still watching Game of Thrones? I recognise that there are many problematic elements of the story, depiction of women etc but I must admit that I still find it compelling viewing. The storylines do feel like they are starting to come together, I’ll be interested to see how many seasons there are left.

I don’t really have much else to contribute this week – I’m feeling a little out of interesting news. I might leave this entry as a very short one, and try to come back stronger next week!

General ramblings – Part 3

Some more general ramblings, brought to you by me – your friendly neighbourhood writer-nerd.

I’ve recently discovered a game on the Xbox One called “Elite Dangerous”, based on a very old game that I used to play back in the ’80s called Elite. It’s a spaceship/trading/bounty hunting type of game, where you make your way across the galaxy, building up your ship and making as many credits as you can. I think it is only very recently out, and its as buggy as all hell, but I’m getting a huge nostalgia kick out of playing it.

The Victorian speculative fiction convention, Continuum, is running this long weekend. I’ve been to Continuum a couple of times, but couldn’t get away this year. I’ve been vaguely following through Twitter, and it seems like a good time is being had by all. I’ve always found conventions to be a lot of fun, and over time they’ve got better. I’m not exactly “well connected”, but over the years you do get to know a few people and conventions are an excellent way to catch up and get to compare notes with fellow travellers. Hope everyone is having fun – maybe I’ll be able to come along next year!

Many years ago I supported a crowd funding campaign for a book called Glitter and Mayhem. Despite the book itself being released in 2013, I never received a copy. To be honest, I started thinking that perhaps I’d only thought I’d supported it, or maybe supported it at a lower level. Imagine my surprise when a copy of the book showed up through the week, along with an apologetic note saying they’d found a box of books that were supposed to go out back in 2013, but had been misplaced. That is some serious delay, but also a timely reminder that I don’t always check to see that I’ve actually received stuff that I supported through crowd funding.

But, in more timely crowd funding news, I also received my copy of In Your Face, an Australian anthology of speculative fiction stories that tackle confronting themes. I think, given the relative timeliness, I’ll read this one first! The book was put together by Fablecroft Publishing, a really innovative small press here in Australia that is well worth checking out.

And to keep the crowd funding theme, my radio in the car was finally replaced (it only took the insurance company 9 months to process the claim after my car was broken into). Why is that important? Because I’ve finally been able to start listening to the Night Terrace radio series with my daughter. So far, we’ve listened through the bonus “My Name is Eddie” short series, and are now listening to “Horatio’s Travels” before getting to the main event. I sponsored this season at a higher level, and as a result my daughter should be called by name in one of the main episodes. She has no idea, so I’m really looking forward to that particular surprise.

If you haven’t listened to Night Terrace, it is really worth checking out.

I’ve started trying to do a bit more exercise (sorely needed exercise), and I’ve been using an app – Zombies! Run. It overlays your music with a story about the zombie apocalypse, and it is awesome. The production values are fantastic, with great voice acting and an interesting plot. If you’re a spec fic fan and trying to get some motivation to exercise (especially if you’re a runner), I’d certainly recommend it.

OK, that’s about it for this week. Feel free to drop in a comment if you’ve experienced any of the above!

General ramblings – Part 2

I know, I know. I’m going to have to come up with a better line of blog posts than this. You’re all busy people, and you can’t afford to have your time wasted by some stream of consciousness malarky by a blog writer obviously running out of things to say. I mean, come on. This first paragraph alone has taken seconds off your life. And seconds can be the difference between success and failure, life and death, pancakes and burnt, inedible frisbees.

I read a good review of an advanced copy of Vigil by Angela Slatter over on Alex Pierce’s blog. I remember the short story that the novel is based around, from the anthology Sprawl. It was excellent, so I’ve pre-ordered the novel. Go and read Alex’s blog post then think about doing the same, unless you’re visiting this blog from the future, in which case just buy the damn book already.

Speaking of Alex, she also runs a great series of posts over on tor.com focusing on Australian and New Zealand speculative fiction called Aurora Australis. It’s a great way to keep up with author and publishing news from the antipodes, well worth adding to your monthly reading list.

David McDonald, who I did some parallel podcasting with a couple of years back, is going from strength to strength in the tie in novel space. He recently posted a teaser cover with Captain America on it, so that has to be a good sign. Great guy and all round good egg – well worth checking out his work.

My daughter’s love of the Teen Titan Go! series has morphed into a desire to own some of the comic books of the same name. We ventured into the city today, and my little girl got her first proper comic books. I could never really afford comic books growing up – pre-internet it was a bit difficult to know where to start, and south-west Sydney wasn’t exactly nerd heaven. Besides, the unrelenting cost! I never could have afforded to follow a series, even if I could have found a reliable source. I’m hoping my daughter might have better luck falling in love with this branch of the speculative fiction tree than I did. And Teen Titans seems like a good place to start.

Well, I hope you’re all doing better than me on the interesting culture news front. If you’re engaged with something fascinating, make sure you drop me a line and let me know.