Neil Gaiman

Last night I saw Neil Gaiman at the City Recital Hall in Sydney, a place I had no idea even existed. It was a great night, with Neil starting off by reading the prologue and first two chapters from his latest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

  

The tale seemed to be written in first person, and started as a very pleasant foray into a middle aged man’s childhood. There were elements of melancholy, nostalgia and the supernatural in it, but only hints. I’ll definitely be buying the book when it comes out in July.

After the intermission the band FourPlay took to the stage. An excellent string quartet with progressive rock, folk, classical and country elements to their arrangements. Like the City Recital Hall, FourPlay was also a new discovery for me, and they were excellent. The cello player has some very cool tapping and strumming techniques, and the other three violinists were extremely melodic and playful.

FourPlay started with a very cool introduction, and then went into a rendition of the Dr Who theme tune (which delighted a lot of geeks in the crowd). After that Neil took to the stage. He spoke briefly about Gerry Anderson, the recently deceased creator of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Fireball XL5 to name a few. FourPlay then played the Fireball XL5 theme tune, with Neil singing the lyrics! 

His singing voice is basically his speaking voice but louder. It made me smile to watch him perform, as he was enjoying the moment very much.

Neil then read (for the first time ever) the first third or so of his new absurd short story Fortunately the Milk, a tale about a father who goes out to buy milk for his children’s breakfast, but finds himself travelling through the space time continuum provided by an alien spacecraft, landing on a pirate ship 300 years in the past and then being rescued by a speaking stegosaurus in a hot-air balloon who claims to have invented a lot of things, including his own cardboard box time-machine and coconuts.

Phew. After that Neil did a quick (approx 15 minutes) and very entertaining Q&A session and then called it a night!

Finally I bought my two year old nephew a copy of Neil's latest children's book, Chu's Day. It will be a nice bed time story for him.

Money well spent :)

Birthday Gift

It’s my birthday tomorrow, and I’m going to treat myself (and hopefully any people reading this) to something new and a bit challenging. 

I am going to release a new short story on my website on the last day of every month for the year of 2013.

There will be one rule with my stories: they will be short. That’s all I can guarantee.  I hope they will be enjoyable, and offer a glimpse into my imagination.

I am still writing my second novel, but this will be something I’ll do on the side throughout the year. 

It will also be a good reason to get me behind my keyboard more often!

More to come soon :)

Equilibrium

Equilibrium is defined as:

1. A state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced.
2. A state of physical balance.

I’d like to think that my own take on the word is simply “a state of total balance between all external and internal forces.”  I don’t think many people strive for equilibrium, but instead they aim for perfection in certain areas of their lives. The perfect home, the perfect husband, the perfect friend, the perfect job, the perfect body. 

Perfection is not impossible, just not sustainable. If it occurs, it may last for a mere second, a minute, a year or a decade; but I do believe that perfection (or the perception of it) can be achieved. However, in order to reach such a level of mastery, there will be sacrifices and compromises made in other parts of one’s life.

The whole point of equilibrium is that we accept that we cannot have perfection in all areas of our lives, so we must strive for the perfect balance between these areas instead.

For example, my personal philosophy is to look at the “triangle of needs” (I just made this corny term up). The three needs are: health, wealth and relationships.

Every now and then I’ll quickly give myself a grade from A-F for each of those areas, and assess which areas may need work.

For example, a millionaire with a loving network of family and friends, yet also cirrhosis of the liver (caused by excessive alcoholic consumption), could score themselves: health (D), wealth (A), relationships (B).

From the outside, people may envy the millionaire’s financial wealth and lavish lifestyle, and think he has it all. But there is a clear imbalance, as his liver is close to packing it in. 

My belief is, if we can achieve and maintain an average of grade B in all areas we would all be very happy. 

Disclaimer: the beauty of this is that everyone will have different perceptions of what is optimum health, good wealth and good relationships. A man who has recently saved $100 may grade his wealth “B”, an overweight woman who has lost ten pounds in the last month may grade her health (A) etc.

Equilibrium is happiness.

What’s up?!?

I’m about 9,000 words into my newest project. A thriller with supernatural undertones, and moderate violence (just my cup of tea)! I’m really enjoying writing this one, and it’s nice to venture into this knowing that I can, and have written a 93,000 novel before (I CAN DO IT!!)

I recently bought The Australian Writer’s Marketplace – Publisher’s and Agent’s 2013 edition. A great little book with the most up-to-date contacts for…well, publishers and agents within the Australian writing marketplace.

I haven’t sent the Spirit Broker out yet, but after getting the long synopsis and cover letters sorted I’ll be all over it. It’s tough dividing time between writing the new novel and getting the synopsis etc done, as the former is fun, and the latter often feels like admin.

I’m going to formulate a timetable so that I can set out a plan for the next few weeks, as I’d ideally like to get the first few queries out by February 2013.

Another non-writing blog to follow shortly.