Category Archives: Writing

Two Months in the Word-Mines

Writing

So, a bit over 2 months into this writing hiatus, and things are going quite well. There’s only one embargoed project left to be revealed, which will hopefully be happening a bit later this year, and After the World’s “Army Corpse” is completely edited and out of my hands. Excellent stuff!

The complete removal of internet from the house is my sole secret to any success at this mad enterprise – yes, I’ve been locking the damn modem in the damn car 🙂 thus do words appear. Once the good Mrs Fisch hid it from me with my blessing, which turns out to be exactly what the talented Vandermeers do.

Best of all, my novel “Papa Lucy and the Boneman” is tearing along, like a demon horse with a coffee enema and rocketskates. If I can stick to the schedule, the first draft will be finished very soon, and I should have the second draft done by the end of October. My process involves writing 1st/2nd drafts concurrently, ie each writing session involves revision and tinkering, prior to any new words appearing, which seems to work for me (your mileage may vary, of course). Luckily, I haven’t spotted any major structural woes so far, which I’ll save for draft #3 after October.

So what’s in this opus? Once more, readers get to step into the world of Lanyard Everett, last of the jesusmen, scumbag and deeply troubled individual. I’ve shown glimpses of his world in my Aurealis Magazine stories, but this time around I get to play with the history of the place, the backstory, and some other awesome POV characters just to give this place a bit of depth and resonance. I’m trying for the flavour of Jack Vance, the structure is a bit Hyperionish, if you mix in a bit of Mad Max, Terry Dowling’s Rynocceros, and some of Sean Williams’ Books of the Change. I’ve spotted a lot of these influences creeping into the nascent draft, but I hope to give it my own unique twist, the insanity that I only just had the room to touch on in the short stories.

Having. A. Ball. 🙂

What else has been happening? Have been loving the extra time with the family, lots of reading time and cuddles with my boy, trips to the park and beach, the luxury of time to do errands and chores. Mostly though, I’ve been consistently pouring buckets of words into my various projects, and justifying the trust that Arts SA have put into my sometimes shaky time-management skills. Dudes, I’m coming up with the goods 🙂

After the World – it’s back and it’s BAD-ASS.

Pimping, Publication, Writing

Following the release of novellas “Killable Hours” and my own “Gravesend”, Black House Comics have upped the ante. Not only is the After the World saga continuing, it’s been expanded from a standalone novella into a full-fledged fiction anthology, available in newsagents around Australia (and online). You’ll still find a zombie apocalypse novella in each bimonthly issue of After the World, but now each instalment is accompanied by some fantastic fiction, with a bit of something for everyone.

Issue 3 is headed up by Jason Franks’ “Pack Rules”, an absolute hum-dinger of a story set in the same shared universe as the first two books. I’ve had the privilege of already reading this piece, and it knocked my socks off. Bikers scavenging for supplies in a zombie ravaged Melbourne; the residents of an upper-class apartment, holed up and terrified; a pack of feral dogs abandoned, desperate to survive in a world where dead monsters walk.

A whole swag of other fiction can be found in this magazine, including tales of science fiction, horror, and just plain weirdness. My contribution to this issue is the slipstream “A Clockwork Arthur”, where the argot of Nadsat meets the downfall of Camelot. To top it all off, look at that cover. Just look at it! Jason Paulos at his finest.

(image nicked from http://blackhousecomics.com/articles/after-the-world–anthology—issue-3-out-now.html)

Future issues will include my sequels to “Gravesend”, the upcoming “Corpus Christi”, and the third instalment “Army Corpse”. These two are intended to make Gravesend look like a trip to Disneyland, and hopefully folks get a kick out of seeing the surviving characters from the first book (and the bad things I do to them – oh so bad).

After the World can be found in your local newsagent, or can be ordered online via this link: http://www.blackboox.net/after-the-world-pack-rules-issue-3/

Aspiring writers, here are the submission guidelines for this very cool publication, check it out: http://blackhousecomics.com/submissions-for-after-the-world.html

StoryPortals, launched and live

Publication, Writing,

A while ago, I successfully auditioned for a spot in a shared universe, because playing in someone else’s backyard is always good fun. Each author got to use the main character of Katya, a capable assassin in a bizarre Byzantian setting, and it was an absolute hoot to write this. The good news is that these stories have just gone live, the even better news is that they are all available for free at the following website:

http://storyportals.com/

My story “Dead Letters” is one of the forthcoming pieces, but if you register as a member on the site (free membership) you will get access to these stories as they are released for public viewing. The first handful of Katya stories are now live, and two other serials will also be launched on the site in the near future. Editor Larry Segriff has attracted some seriously good writers to this project, including authors of D&D novels and some of my WotF buddies too. The setting is rich and detailed, much along the lines of the early Forgotten Realms, and as far as characters go Katya is seriously, seriously cool.

Katya, Lady Assassin

(image nicked from here: http://storyportals.com/series/katya-lady-assassin)

The resurrection of “Tusk” – ANNOUNCING TERRA MAGAZINE

Announcement, Publication, Writing

Sometimes, the best anecdotes involve those things that didn’t quite work out. In writing circles, we’ve all got that project that crashed and burned, the one that got away, the thing that for whatever reason lost its mojo, usually after a lot of effort, time, and heartache.

One of my favourite failure anecdotes was to talk about Tusk. This was a novel I wrote in 2004, the product of the Colin Thiele Literature Scholarship that I received from the SA Youth Arts Board. I was fortunate enough to be mentored by local fantasy author Tony Shillitoe, and over the course of 18 months or so I wrote this novel to the best of my abilities.

The tagline for Tusk is this: telepathic elephants enslave mankind. Planet of the Elephants, or as Tony called it “Gladiator in Grey”. So I spent a large chunk of time/money writing this book, sent it to one place, got a rejection, buried it in a drawer and it physically pained me to look at this MS forever afterwards. Again, we’re talking the journeyman stage of my career, where the sting of rejection is a brutal thing.

This was 2005 me. 2011 me is much older, much wiser, and much more ruthless. Especially when it comes to editing. So, after many years of fermenting, Tusk has once more seen the light of day, and has been polished to within an inch of its life. Even better than that, it’s already found a really awesome home.

Which brings me to the next part of this announcement. Black Glass Press have teamed up with the folks at Black House Comics to come up with a new regular anthology comic, called Terra Magazine. There are some brilliant (nay, award-winning) folks from comic circles involved with this project, and there’s a bit of everything in this book. It’s a bit like 2000AD, in that there are ongoing serial stories, you will soon find it on the shelves in your local newsagent, and there’s never a dull moment.

This book has got samurai, detectives, freaks in space, sorcery, yakuza, and cyborg lunatics. Terra Magazine is also the new home for Tusk, which will now be released as a serial story, illustrated prose much like Gaiman’s original stardust. It’s the only non-comic instalment, and will appear in each issue.

There’s some more info about Terra Magazine here:

http://www.terramagazine.com.au/

and a press release here:

http://www.blackglasspress.com/component/content/article/58-terra-magazine.html

On Writing Full-Time, and Finding A Rhythm

Writing

So since July 4th I’ve been a full-time writer, and shall be until the end of the year. Putting my money where my mouth is, I’ve cashed in all my long service leave, and taken the rest of the year off from my job to work on a number of projects. Chief amongst these is the novel “Papa Lucy and the Boneman”, which has landed me a Project Grant from the good folks at Arts SA. So, I’m basically a scruffy house-bound bum until 2012, supported by you, the tax-payer 🙂

In many ways I’ve been well-behaved, and have treated this chance at doing my dream job as, well, a job. I’ve steered clear of blogs and blogging (though admittedly I continue to dabble in the short sugar-hit aspects of social networking). I’m working through a list of goals, in order of time sensitivity, and putting down solid word-counts on a regular basis (average word-count is 1500-3000 words/day). So far, so good!

The List is as follows:

After the World: Army Corpse (1st draft now completed)

Embargoed Project

Papa Lucy and the Boneman (novel)

Embargoed Project

Both of the embargoed projects are super-cool, and rest assured I’ll be dishing out some more details when I can. Here’s some hints for the wise, *cough* elephants *cough* computer game *cough hack wheeze* 🙂 So this writing full-time thing is going very well, and if I keep this momentum, I’ll have no trouble meeting these goals, with oodles of time to polish everything up, and work on a few other bits and pieces that need doing, such as the story fragments kicking around on the backburner, the composition of new pieces for my upcoming collection (Everything is a Graveyard, from Ticonderoga Publications), and whatever else needs doing.

The first challenge with writing full-time was finding the rhythm of things, the sweet spot where I park my arse and unpack a bunch of words from my head. Clocking in a 8am with a cuppa and a smile just doesn’t seem to work for me, and I’ve had to try a few different methods before finding the one that works. The best method, the one that often gets that awesome absentee writer thing (where you vague out and come back hours later with something that you’re only partially responsible for) works for me as follows:

Mornings are for chores, correspondence, pottering, research, wool-gathering. An early lunch is held at the computer, going over the previous day’s work. Then the rest of the day is given to writing like buggery, until the family are all home, and then there’s tea and family time, and then another solid stretch of writing in the evening, through to 10-12 o’clock. And just like that, I’m pulling in 3000 word days, and it doesn’t even feel like I’m working. Am truly grateful for the opportunity to work like this, fitting writing in with family and full-time work was a bit of a bugger and this sojourn makes me very happy indeed 🙂

Some days the rhythm just doesn’t work, or other things come up. The wheels sometimes fall off for a day or two, but everything is mostly ticking along and I’m hopefully justifying the faith that has been put into my mad enterprise.

Will also try and update this blog/website more often while I’m on the public dollar. Speaking of which, when next I swing by I hope to talk about arts patronage, and some of my experiences in the last few years. I figure if I’m going to have an Official Website, I should use it to do Highminded Things.

Cheerio!

Fisch.

Oh, what’s this trumpet for? Why, to toot my own horn :-)

Pimping, Reviews, Writing

Haven’t done an updatey type post for a while, but here’s some writing-related stuff worth whacking on the ole blog:

Anywhere But Earth

First up, the complete Table of Contents for the Anywhere but Earth anthology has been released here: http://keithstevenson.com/CDLblog/2011/04/06/anywhere-but-earth-official-line-up/

It looks AWESOME. Several of my local writing idols have rated a spot in the book, and I’m totally chuffed that one of my Clarion stories “Eating Gnashdal” is also in the mix. Can’t wait to get my grotty hands on a copy (I especially love that retro-looking cover).

Shared Universe Shenanigans

A project I’ve been involved in with some of my Writers of the Future colleagues looks like it’s about to go live. It involves a single character in a shared universe, and it’s been both interesting and challenging to work for. Will say more when I can, but the editor has a great track record, the other authors seem to be top-notch writers or prolific young turks, and rather than a e-zine it seems more like an interactive community with some great possibilities. Again, more when I can say, will pop the link here when it all goes live. I maintain that writing is the single coolest job I’ve ever had 🙂

Review – An Eclectic Slice of Life

A review of Eclecticism’s first anthology An Eclectic Slice of Life has just gone live over at Horrorscope. Reviewer Matthew Tait has this to say about my contributions to the volume:

“Both Houndkin and The Ward of Hours take on mythological creatures set against eccentric backdrops – one in a hospital ward that lies at the nexus of time. The prose is mature and effortless … and it’s easy to see the argument for his success”

Full review can be read here: http://www.horrorscope.com.au/2011/04/review-eclectic-slice-of-life.html

That’s lovely, made my day that 🙂 I really get a kick when someone enjoys my Raoul stories, the same protagonist as from my WOTF-winning story House of Nameless – oh look, here’s a link where you can read it for free! http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43525 Oh hey, here’s the Ditmar ballot where it’s up for Best Short Story, if you’re so inclined http://wiki.sf.org.au/images/d/d4/2011_Ditmar_ballot.pdf 🙂

Midnight Echo #6

Just on the tail-end of it all now, doing the usual jiggery-pokery with contracts, bios, edits, and putting together an editorial for our themed issue. Was great fun, but will definitely be a relief to hand everything over once we’re finished.

RIP Livejournal

I’ve decided I’m more or less done with the infamous Russian Spam Factory, and will migrate most of my f-list and feeds into Google Reader. I just can’t do it anymore, everytime I fire it up it’s just depressing. I’ll still export this website via an LJ x-post, but apart from that I probably won’t be on there much from now on.

And the teaser…

There’s another cool bit of news that landed in my inbox this week, but it is unfortunately embargoed information. It’s killing me but the rules are the rules, I’ll post a mini update when it’s announced and all official-like. I LOVE BEING A WRITER! 🙂

“The House of Nameless” now available as a free e-book

Pimping, Publication, Writing,

My Writers of the Future winning story “The House of Nameless” is now available on Smashwords as a free e-book, available in several different formats. While I’ve ostensibly released this free version onto the world for Ditmar reasons (with the full blessing of the publishers at Galaxy Press) it’s also my trial run at formatting and managing an e-book. It’s also quite hard to get hold of the WOTF anthologies in Australian stores, so if anyone’s interested in seeing the type of story that gets into the book, here is one example. These anthologies are all available through Amazon, and now via Kindle as well – they also contain many words of wisdom from the best-selling judges, which are well worth the small download fee. If you want a hard copy, you will generally have to order these in (hence this e-book experiment to raise some 11th hour awareness of my story). 

This story can be downloaded here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43525

If you enjoyed “The House of Nameless” and want to consider nominating it for this year’s Ditmar Awards, the form can be found here: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2011/nominations.html . There are oodles of other most worthy works that you may also want to nominate, an almost exhaustive list can be found at the following wiki: http://wiki.sf.org.au/2011_Ditmar_eligibility_list

Project Lucy, and the fuel that gives it rotten life

Writing

Project Lucy

Not much more to add, but it’s coming together beautifully, and it’s nice to be nailing down the “ecology of the supernatural” that I’ve explored in the related short stories. In fiction I’ve always loved the use of ephemera, and in the jesusman stories this has been kicked up a notch – the world of Now runs on a scavenger ecology, a brutalised society picking through Before-Time junk from “bleedthroughs” simply to survive. Time itself, and the brutal nature of the Crossing, has all but wiped out knowledge of the soft world these settlers left behind. All they have to prop up their broken culture is what bleeds through, and some of this drifting ephemera can shape politics, even religion itself.

All I can say is, you’ll find one in every country town…I cannot wait to give the world Lesterton. Mwahahah.

Gauntlet Fuel Du Jour

You’d better *believe* that this novel is powered by bogan tunes. For those about to write, we salute you.

State of the Gauntlet

Writing

I’ll admit, there was a recent moment of doubt. A respectable pile of writing and auxilliary writing goals was starting to pile up on me there. There’s a looming grant application, Project Lucy, some extensive edits for a commissioned piece, and the workload for Midnight Echo #6, just to name some of the stuff that appeared all at once, and needed to be addressed pretty damn quickly (some goals were self imposed, several of them contingent on outside factors such as deadlines, or the scornful mockery of Peter M Ball). 

Woe is me, I cried. How will I ever prune back this growing pile of wordy goals?

I wrote down a to-do list, I listened to some 80s hair metal, made myself a cuppa, and I then proceeded to stay up late and punch said list square in the junk. I finished the mop-up of auxilliary goals with a solid slab of Project Lucy, and it felt awesome 🙂 so there is proof positive, elbow grease can get you out of just about any jam.

Also, the Gauntlet theme music du jour is as follows:

Well, this is it Ma, time to pimp that Ditmar!

Pimping, Writing

Once again we find ourselves rocketing towards the Aussie Natcon, which means that it’s once more Ditmar Awards season. I hereby give you my annual shameless self-promoting blog post 🙂 the usual disclaimers apply, this list of my eligible works is for information only, and you should of course be nominating the works that you found most worthy or awesome. Rumours of a Jason Fischer Ditmar pork-barrel are sadly exaggerated, and it seems it’s merit or nothing, until some sort of SF pun category sees the light of day (man, I’d be a SHOE-IN).

There’s a scarily comprehensive wiki being maintained, a pretty thorough list of what Aussie genre writers published in 2010. The relevant page can be found here: http://wiki.sf.org.au/2011_Ditmar_eligibility_list , but to make life easier for you, here are my eligible stories for the 2011 Ditmar Awards.

—-

Best Novella or Novellette

gunning for a tinkerman, Aurealis Magazine #44

Best Short Story

The House of Nameless, Writers of the Future Vol XXVI

The School Bus, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #46 (Highly Recommended, HorrorScope 2010 Recommended Reading List)

Sebastian, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #44 (Recommended, HorrorScope 2010 Recommended Reading List)

Goodnights to Heaven, Necroscope

The Ward of Hours, An Eclectic Slice of Life

Starship Zamedi, Zombonauts anthology

—-

A super-handy nomination form can be found here: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2011/nominations.html, or nominations can be emailed to ditmars@sf.org.au, or by snail mail to Ditmars, 6 Florence Road, NEDLANDS WA 6009, AUSTRALIA 

If you haven’t read any of these works or can’t get hold of them, please comment here, or send me an email at mail AT jasonfischer DOT com DOT au. I will hook you up with a reading copy of any of these, most likely electronic. I’ve made sure to get clearance from the publisher of Writers of the Future to share my winning story for this sort of purpose, so if you couldn’t get hold of the anthology and want to have a peek at my tale, please let me know.

I always take my Ditmar voting very seriously, and put quite a bit of effort into my nomination sheet, often rocking the establishment by not voting solely for myself in every category 🙂 I’m gonna go away and think about what other folks did in 2010 that rocked my socks, and will most likely post a list of this stuff when I figure it all out.