Rather than give updatery goodness in self-contained pockets as per usual, let's just rattle a long one off and hope we cover everything. To whit:
HEALTH IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.
By which you know I mean this son of a bitch:
I've blogged recently about my Dad, and the problems he's been having with his memory. Well, turns out he has a thing, and that thing is called Primary Progressive Aphasia. Put simply, he's losing his capacity for words, which will eventually result in a loss of all verbal function, as a result of his brain physically shrinking inside his head. It's permanent, essentially non-treatable, and will talk a long, slow, terrifying 7 or 8 years to have full effect. As Dad tells me, if I point to a desk, he might be able to tell me it's a desk, or he might know it's that wooden thing you sit behind on the thing when you do work and stuff, and there's probably a word to describe the thing, but sorry, he simply doesn't know it. My Dad's a charming man, funny, intelligent, articulate. All that's going to go away, in front of his eyes.
And our youngest, the Mighty Master 8, has been throwing up consistently for the last fortnight unable to keep down solid foods of any kind. Initial diagnosis was that a food allergy had burned a hole in his stomach lining, so he went on a liquid diet while doctors extracted 5 vials of blood and ran every allergy test they could think of. All of which came back negative. We're now at the stage where he's even throwing up the jelly he's allowed to eat, and we've progressed to therapists, specialists, and even a chiropractor. Updates will be posted as we find things out, but right now, Lyn's exhausted, he's exhausted, and everyone's trying to make the best of it while being worried like worried people.
THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE WRITER
So, last weekend, everyone in the Australian SF Universe besides Lyn and myself attended the Continuum convention in Melbourne, having travelled there by rickshaw from Canberra's Conflux convention, which they also all attended and we didn't.
I'm not normally that fussed about missing Cons. I have enjoyed the eastern States ones I've attended, and would like to attend more, but I'm a guy with a large family, larger mortgage, and a day job that allows me little time off for extended trips. Plus I'm pretty much always skint. So, you know, I'm comfortable with the idea that it's never going to happen. But this year it really bummed me, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe it's just loneliness build up. Writing communities in the eastern states seem to be quite tight-knit, whereas my experience of the Perth community is that it's far-flung and tends not to gather all that often, and I'm ambivalent about the local Cons for the most part.
I'm also in an odd place, writing-wise. My agent is in the US, and has a large roster so doesn't contact unless he has something worth talking about: a sale, or a contract or whatnot. He doesn't get in touch to tell me he's hopeful. Which is fine: I knew that going into the relation ship, and accepted it, so I'm aware that the two projects I have with him will be discussed when they either hit pay dirt or he releases them back to me. My publisher is in the UK, and we've formally reached the end of our contract: I've delivered everything I was contracted to deliver, and they've done everything with it they said they were going to.
But that kind of leaves me in a limbo on non-communication: I'm not talking to anyone right now, for the first time in about 2 years, and it feels weird and unsettling. The only actual writing I'm doing is an 8k novella for a speculative project that won't net me any money but will expose me to the innards of electronic publishing, and everything else is editing, which i find a very insular and isolating part of the writing process.
Maybe that's why having my Facebook page clogged up with pictures of shiny happy writer types drinking and laughing together has given me such a case of the Thierry Ennuis lately. And maybe that's why we're turning the kids over to their grandparents this weekend, and heading out of town for three days: Lyn needs a break from full-time carer duty, we both need to feel like writers, and so Margaret River is the site of the first ever.....
BATTCON 13
Yep, Battcon 13, the inaugural Convention of Writing Battersbys, with twin guests of honour Lyn and Me. Taking place in the spa-suite and bar of a Margaret River hotel. Here's the draft program:
FRIDAY
7pm: So this is Margaret River, huh? Where’s the Bar?
Late: Sho this Margit Riv, ishit? Whesh my fucking room?
SATURDAY
8-ish. Maybe: Breakfast?
9am: Writing.
1pm: Suppose We’d better have some lunch.
3pm: After-lunch writing—does it really exist?
3.30pm-5.30pm: The spa culture, and how much wine is appropriate while in one.
6pm: Round-table discussion—is this meal really worth 40 bucks, and can we take the bar back to the room?
8pm: The role of alcohol in creative thinking
Late: Whesh my fucking room? Oh crap, I’m in it.
SUNDAY
8-ish: Breakfast? Bollocks.
9am: Breakfast with the authors.
10am: Okay, time to Start Writing!—Ways to kick-start that writing project you’ve put off all weekend
1pm: Authorial lunch and wine-tasting.
3pm: Okay, time to Start Writing!—Ways to kick-start that writing project you’ve put off all weekend
6pm: Round-table discussion—You’ll never be a top level author with that attitude, at least not until we open another bottle.
8pm: Barley or the Grape? Creative dichotomies in a liquid culture
Late: Sleeping in the spa: a shyminium… shimilimpim…. Shlymfucking talk! About… where’s my bed?
MONDAY
8-ish: Breakfast. Absolutely breakfast.
10am: Check out.
10.30am: last minute shopping and stocking up on wine.
12pm: Lunch or leave in time to pick the kids up from school?—a debate
12.05pm: Lunch
1pm: The art of phoning the children’s grandparents
4.30pm: Kids, grandparents, and apologies: an author’s guide
6pm: Dead Dog party.
We wouldn't be doing it, with Master 8's health the way it is, if the kids' grandparents weren't insistent we do, and we didn't trust them so implicitly, but they are, and we do, and the break is most necessary. So we'll be seeing you Tuesday, by which time Connor will be fully fixed, the internet will be returned to the Batthaim, I'll be a world-famous author with publishers pounding on my door demanding I work for them, Tony Abbott will have drowned in a vat of his own pus, unicorns will roam the high places eating Jackson's curse and shitting rainbows, Forest will have found a loophole in the rules and been awarded permanent EPL status, and I'll weigh 80 kilograms and have all my hair back.
Right?
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