Last updated: May 2010
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“Henrietta Dragon” drawn by Andrew McKeirnan of Kephra
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If totally amazing and wonderful things don't happen this year then I will be very disappointed in Chinese Astrology. This is the year of the Water Dragon and I was born in the year of the Water Dragon, which only happens every 60 years (quick rundown - there are 12 animals and five elements in Chinese astrology which equals 60) so I am at the beginning of a whole new cycle. Wonder if I'll make it to the second round [grin].
We've been nearly 12 months in our new lair and we're still happy. Hubby is working now and we've worked out our morning routine to the minute. Nothing worse than both trying to use the bathroom at the same time. Although... I digress. I've had another short story published in AntipodeanSF (issue 161) and Dragon Master is with beta-readers for feedback. I've started on the next novel and life is good. However hubby and I have discovered we are hopeless at growing veggies, even though we did produce a solid-headed iceberg lettuce (which is apparently very difficult to grow in this climate) much to the dismay of our neighbour who hasn't been able to grow one at all.
I have also found a good use for my Kobo eReader which I bought last year - instead of complaining about never having time to read the eMagazines I get regularly, I simply load them on the Kobo and read them on the train. After all, I do have two hours every day where I can't do much else but read! That commuting time is also good for editing and, on occasion, writing if the muse hits hard. I always have a notebook and pen in my bag!
Pretty much the best bit of last year took place in November when The Moody Blues came to town. Sadly I couldn't get a front row seat like last time, but the show was so much better than back in 2005 I was totally blown away. For men in their 60s (and one in his 70s) they ROCK! Their energy was infectious and I felt completely exhausted by the time the intermission came around. And then they did it all again! Well worth the ticket money and at least I didn't have to worry about airfares or accommodation this time - just hopped on the last train back to Caboolture (along with some others who'd been to the show) and very sensibly had the next day off to recover!
After months of chewed fingernails and cursing lousy real estate agents (we changed to a different agency in October) we finally sold our house in Cairns in early January. We got the phone call on the 4th, and by the 7th we had signed a contract on a house here in Caboolture. Four days later and the massive floods hit SEQ and instead of the usual hour it takes me to get home from work, it took me 6.5 hours! Needless to say the next morning hubby and I headed for the new house to check if it was okay as it is near the Caboolture River which had broken its banks and cut the town off from the rest of the world (but only until the tide went out!). It was safe, high and dry! Then, to confirm our excellent timing, we settled on the house in Cairns on the Friday before Cyclone Yasi went through!
Hubby has been working solidly since we moved into the house in early February, cleaning, painting, getting things installed and/or fixed, and generally doing a lot of "boy" stuff. I don't think he's ever been happier!
The Tropical Dragon is now a sub-tropical dragon. Yes, I have abandoned the steamy rainforests of Far North Queensland for the more temperate climes of the Sunshine Coast hinterland, about 30kms north of Brisbane, in the rapidly developing area of Caboolture. The reason for this relocation is three-fold: I became aware that a position had become available in the Brisbane office of the engineering consultancy firm I work for, doing the same work as in Cairns, but without all the fiddly stuff which was driving me crazy; I was getting tired of the heat and humidity, and thirdly, there's a lot more work available down here for hubby than there is in Cairns! So at the end of August we packed up the lair, crammed it into a couple of containers and headed south.
Oh, and while all the planning for this move was going on (it all started in June, so it was a relatively quick turnaround) I was doing the final editing and layout for the latest Tropical Writers anthology, Cracks in the Canopy.
The Tropical Writers Festival in October 2010 was very successful. I returned to Cairns for the weekend where I sat in on Sylvia's workshop twice; once with the kids and then again the next morning with adult writers, where I also got to participate. The dinner on the Saturday night was fun - Gretel Killeen tells a good story - but I have to say that I had no feelings of missing Cairns at all. It definitely helped knowing where everything was, and I used the gift card that was part of my farewell present from the Cairns office to buy a lovely evening bag for the dinner.
On the writing front - nothing much happened for much of the year, but in the last two to three weeks before I left Cairns I found myself having "conversations" with potential characters from my book after next - the one I did the research on in the UK last year. So the muse was coming back to life, and because there are times at work where there's not much to do, I've started working on finishing my first novel, beginning to edit the second and continuing with those conversations.
Well, I have been rather slack with my updates, but that's because I've been so busy, what with being re-elected as Secretary of Tropical Writers back in January, and even further back, in late June-July 2009, enjoying a fantastic holiday in the UK with one of my sisters, hooning around the southern English countryside looking at white horses. Not your usual, four-legged grass-eating ones, but the huge ones carved into the chalk hills that make up the bulk of the southern part of England (research!). We had lots of other adventures, all of which are chronicled in my travel blog: Travels with my Tardis.
Once I got back from that I was faced with a whole new project management system at work which meant a couple of trips to Brisbane where I stayed in an apartment block right on the river with fantastic views. Then it was hard slog when the new system went live, making sure everything had transferred across from the old system in a usable fashion, and if not then making it usable! I developed the patience of a saint with one project leader who was used to having his admin staff do everything for him - nasty shock when he discovered HE was now responsible for setting up his projects!
The Tropical Writers anthology is going well - all the chosen works are edited and in the process of layout. We're currently discussing titles (this seems to be an ongoing thing - always discussing titles) and the launch is planned for September 4th, six weeks prior to the Tropical Writers Festival in October where I get to 'mind' Sylvia Kelso (providing my Blue Card comes through in time!) at a workshop for young writers. Should be very interesting.
Election time at Tropical Writers - the old committee stood down and a new committee was elected, with me as Secretary. I get to do the monthly newsletter (much fun - especially with Word of the Month. I'm finding some doozies!) and sit in on the executive side of the group. Pip, our new president, is a very different person to the previous president and I feel the group will move forward well under her command. We've decided to hold off another anthology until next year - we did so much last year that we lost our focus - to write and create - so we're not going to drive ourselves insane trying to pump out another book this year and any other projects we come up with. We just don't have the energy! But, we are extending our reach and asking for submissions from other writing groups in the region. Fingers crossed we get an interesting mix of stories and poems.
November 29 saw the successful launch of the third Tropical Writers Group anthology Raining on the Sun. The theme this year is Monsoon, and the weather proved very cooperative. Shortly before I headed off to help set things up there was a torrential thunderstorm which managed to cut power for a couple of hours and take out a couple of sets of traffic lights on the highway. I congratulated the organiser for performing such miracles that she got the weather to be in the right mood for the launch.
I have two stories in this year's anthology, Second Chance and Rufus. Second Chance was the result of the description of a lake in Sweden that a friend visited and felt positive that there were things watching her from the pine forest. The story went through some iterations until it fitted the anthology theme, and there it is. Rufus is a cutesy little romance story, a feel-good kind of tale. Short and sweet, and after I read it at the launch someone came up to me saying how much she loved it.
It's a great feeling when you hear someone say they love your stories. Makes all the hard work worth while and makes me more determined to get my backside into gear and get THAT NOVEL (I've lost track of what I'm calling it now) finished, once and for all. Yes, I know, a story is never finished until it's on the bookshop shelves. But maybe... just maybe... when I get tired of painting walls over the Christmas break I'll get back into it and bash it into shape.
A year since my last update... what have I been doing? Not writing, that's for sure. Well, I have done two short 'stories' on the Sitting Comfortably discussion board for their Survivor Album series. That's been a lot of fun, especially as I wound up using characters from the novel, still in rewrite. I also did some work on my Troll story and it will be appearing in this year's Tropical Writers anthology 'Raining on the Sun' next month. The story got renamed Second Chance and is much nicer for the rework I did on it.
I attended Conflux 5 in Canberra the first weekend of this month - what a blast! Aside from giving me a very good reminder of why I moved north to the warm climes - waking up at 6.30am to 2 degrees Celcius is not fun - I met up with a bunch of friends, made some new ones, nearly laughed myself sick at the trivia game and didn't sell a single copy of Mangoes on Fire. Ah well, sitting at the dealer table gave me something to do during panels I didn't want to attend.
I also chaired a panel at Conflux, entitled Rewriting - the Real Art of a Good Story. I was quite nervous at the calibre of my panel-mates. Liz Gorinsky from Tor, Cat Sparks from Agog Press - I'm not worthy! But once I managed to get them talking amongst themselves it went okay.
Today I heard that a short story I edited for a fellow Tropical Writer has been published in Canada - without any further editing from the publisher! As the author said - kudos to me! The story is called Dog One Man Zero by Diane Andrews.
Back to the editing!
The Tropical Writers anthology, Mangoes on Fire, will be launched on 3 November at the Sapphire Tapas Bar and Grill in Cairns at 3pm. If anyone is in town and wants to come along - please do! I have added a page to the site - click on the book cover to get details of how to buy the anthology. There are some great stories and poems in there - a good smorgasbord of writing.
On the writing front things have come to a screaming halt - I am in major editing mode, with two large projects on the go. However I have decided that November is going to be kept free so I can concentrate on a couple of short stories I want to submit to an anthology - The Kiss of the Lily - and maybe get properly started on the novel rewrite. I can only hope.....
On the Tropical Writers front - the anthology title is Mangoes on Fire. The cover design is stunning and it's full steam ahead with the typesetting and printing. The launch is planned for early November.
On the Tropical Dragon front - I now have a PayPal account. Thanks to my niece Sarah who participated in the Sydney City-to-Surf race this month and was raising funds for the Kids Help Line, I got exposed to PayPal and decided it would be a good move to open an account. I'd been intending to for a while, just never got around to it. Thanks Sarah!
As for The Dragon's Tail...... OMG! The entire plot has been reworked and tweaked and fiddled with and brought back into line with my original premise - a romance story with Jovario as the hero. I started the rewrite this week - I'm going to aim for 170,000 words and then, if necessary, prune from there. Should be an interesting experience as I can use some of what I've already written, but a lot is going to be new stuff. The old brain is going to be doing some interesting imagining, but at least I have a definite outline to work to now - nothing will lead me astray (famous last words!).
The anthology story has been chosen - Bad Hair Day. The group is still doing battle over the title which will be settled very shortly. Once it has been chosen I will be advertising the book for pre-orders.
On the editing front I have been approached by a well-known publisher to be a freelancer for them - it means I will be very busy what with my own writing to do, but it's what I wanted - might mean I get to retire sooner than I anticipated (yay!).
Hubby gave me a beautiful dragon statue for my birthday in June - and she immediately told me her name was Calestina (one of the dragons in the novel). You can see a picture of her on the Writing page. The final edit of the novel is progressing, slowly, but it is getting there.
Another story has been accepted by AntipodeanSF for publication in their November issue, number 114. AND ... drum roll ... I am a contributing author to the Tropical Writers anthology to be published later this year. The name of the anthology hasn't been chosen yet, neither has the particular story I've submitted (we each had to submit at least two stories, three preferably) but when these are known I'll update this page.
Woo hoo! I'll actually have something in a real book that people can buy!
Back in August I sent off a story to an anthology in the US with high hopes. Sadly, as is the case far too often, the anthology wasn't picked up by a publisher, so this little dragon isn't breaking into the US market just yet. I'll leave that to Jenny Fallon for now *grin*
The Mandragon Chronicles have a new name now. I realised after an enlightening night's sleep that the story belongs to Gabrat, the dragon, so why the &*$%($& am I calling the book after the humans? Silly me *shakes head*. The new title is... drum roll... The Dragon's Tail: Book 1 Lost, Book 2 Found. And yes, the use of 'tail' is deliberate but if I say any more it gives away a bit of the plot. "Final" edit is in progress, well, as final as I can make it, so it won't be too much longer before it'll be doing the rounds. Fingers xx'd.
I was chatting with a friend yesterday when she pointed out a review of my short story Sunday Morning. I checked it out and nearly fell off my chair. Of the twenty stories in the 100th issue of AntipodeanSF my story was the one the reviewer liked the most.
In the words of the reviewer, Tansy Rayner Roberts:
My absolute favourite story of the whole issue was Barbara Holten’s stylish and startling debut “Sunday Morning”. It has a great sense of character, a bit of horrific surrealism, and a tantalising last line.
Go to ASif.com to check out the entire review.
Then, to add to the "woo hoo" factor I was checking the Aurealis awards page - a friend had been nominated and I wanted to see which of her stories made it to the list. I scrolled down and...OMG! That's my name. I got nominated! For an Aurealis!
Go to Aurealis Awards and click on Nominated works then select Horror.
Can you think of any better way to end the year? Oh, hang on, there's a very big Lotto draw on tomorrow night - and I've got a ticket *grin*
It's happened. I'm published! My first short story has made it out into the world, thanks to AntipodeanSF online magazine. www.antisf.com It's titled Sunday Morning and you will never look at your lawnmower the same again *evil chuckle*.
A few days ago I was thinking of resigning from one of the online groups I belong to when I saw a message seeking short humorous/sexy (but not explicit/erotic) stories for an anthology over in the US. I sent a query email with a rundown of a story I wrote a few years ago. The response was encouraging so after working over the story to spice it up a little more, it got sent off today with fingers firmly crossed.
The Mandragon Chronicles are now out in the world seeking a home. Yes, it’s finished! I can hear my hubby muttering “finally” in the background. Little does he know … this is only the beginning!
I owe a great debt of thanks to Eneit and Avani for being so patient with me while we did battle to get my 6.5 page synopsis down to two pages. And then I had an epiphany and rewrote it in half a page two days later.
Honestly, writing the synopsis was harder than writing the book!
So now it’s waiting time. And ‘move on to the next story’ time.
I submitted a short story (flash fiction) to an on-line magazine and it was accepted. YAY! It will be appearing on the ether in the September issue 100 and is called Sunday Morning.