Category Archives: Writing

Stocking stuffers from the Fisch part 1

Writing

Much like a gift-giving grizzly bear on meth, Christmas is bearing down on us once more.  With that in mind, I’ve got a couple of fiction-related presents coming out to the world.  The first one is now official, Christmas Eve will see a brand new story of mine appearing on Chuck McKenzie’s zombie-tastic Necroscope blog.  There’s some other goings on as well (including some neat prizes for those who become Necroscope Shamblers) so check it out here:

http://zombiefictionreview.blogspot.com/2010/11/news-whats-coming-up-at-necroscope.html

The 2nd gift, well, you’ll just have to wait a bit longer, won’t you…

“Too much….pudding….”

On professionalism, goings on, and some quick absurdity

Uncategorized, Writing

Professionalism

I’ve kinda neglected the blogging a bit lately – call it a spurt of professionalism, in that I only wanted to blog Things Of Note and not just pollute my new site with rubbish jokes, pictures of stupid stuff I found funny, and all of the crimes against humour that I committed on my old Livejournal site since 2007 or so.  I tend now to email this stuff to a select few and spare the greater world my special brand of spam 🙂

Still, I’ve rethought this approach, particularly as my parents even read this to find out what’s going on and I’ve been more or less silent, barring some writing-related news.  There seems to be a cast-iron infallible belief amongst many aspirant writers that, above all else, you have to be professional at all times, and conduct yourself with perfect decorum in your online life, and most definitely in person when you are at cons or what have you.

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A retrospective account of Writers of the Future – Part 3

Announcement, Pimping, Publication, Writing

(for those of you who haven’t read these yet, the first two instalments of my WOTF retrospective can be found here http://jasonfischer.com.au/?p=136 and here http://jasonfischer.com.au/?p=155)

Immediately after the awards ceremony, we writers and illustrators made our way back into the hotel lobby.  Before the ceremony, this had been the venue for our swanky dinner, now we found that we were at the site of our first book signing.  The organisers of this event are nothing if not awesome, and it makes my head spin to think how quickly they effected this change!

The lobby of the Roosevelt, shortly after its transformation from a dining hall into a book launch/signing.  Big stacks of the anthology can be seen in the middle of the room, and along the outside of the room the illustrators wait next to their framed illustrations.  Most of the writers can be seen in the middle of the pic, madly signing away. 

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Story Sale

Announcement, Publication, Writing

Just sold my story “Eating Gnashdal” to Keith Stevenson’s upcoming anthology Anywhere But Earth.  Nice!  Some more info about the book here: 

http://keithstevenson.com/CDLblog/submissions/

And a list here of the other authors who so far have been accepted for this book, it already looks like a great line-up of local writers:

http://keithstevenson.com/CDLblog/2010/07/11/abe_update_3/

Many thanks to everyone at Clarion South who helped me with this story, and a big thanks to Russell B Farr for his advice and assistance.

A retrospective account of Writers of the Future – Part 2

Interview, Publication, Winner!, Writing

(Here is part 1 of my epic adventure for those who missed it: http://jasonfischer.com.au/?p=136)

So after returning to the Author Services building turning in our 24-hour stories, John Goodwin (President of Galaxy Press) dropped by to give our class a bit of a talk about media, self-promotion, and interviewing skills.  This was really invaluable stuff – I’ve done other writing courses/camps/retreats before, and not once has anyone ever told me about how to conduct myself in an interview situation.  Here’s a great example:  If someone says to you “so, what’s your story about?” can you neatly summarise your tale in thirty seconds or so?  Pretty much every time I’ve been asked this question, I come out with “there’s this guy, you see, and he lives in this land where so-and-so happens, and he has the ability to so-and-so, and then…” by which time the other person has a glazed look in their eyes and you’ve officially lost their interest.

Now change this into an interview setting with the media.  You’ve got thirty seconds to sell yourself and your new product, to an interviewer who is probably not interested in the genre and who will unconsciously attempt to derail the conversation to more familiar territory.  We were taught how to be concise, how to present ourselves, how to stick to the topic and answer the question we really want to answer (much as politicians do in interviews).

We were put into practice with our “twins” (person you’re sat next to for the workshop), and did dry-runs of our interviewing skills until we were blue in the face.  This was invaluable, as later on we first prize winners did film and radio interviews, and all the contestants did film and taped interviews with the folks from Author Services after the awards ceremony.  At some stage a filmed interview with us will appear at neverendingpanel.com, and we each did a spot for XM Radio.  I’m sure glad we had a bit of practice first!

 

All books published by WOTF winners are kept in a very cool library, and I too have a book here!  It’s the skinny one next to The Jane Austen Book Club. 

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Midnight Echo #6 – now open for submissions

Announcement, Writing

I have mentioned this a few times now, but the time is finally here!  Issue #6 of Midnight Echo (magazine of the Australian Horror Writer’s Association) is now open for submissions.  This is the SF/Horror issue, co-edited by myself, David Conyers and David Kernot.  Submission details as below:

http://australianhorror.com/index.php?view=144

This market is open to all, not just members of AHWA.  So have a read of the guidelines, and send your creepy alien tales (of 5000 words or less) to midnightecho@australianhorror.com – it’s as easy as that.

If you have any queries, comment on this post or email me direct at mail@jasonfischer.com.au and I’ll do my best to answer them.  Good luck and good writing!

A quick hello from the depths of WOTF 26

Announcement, Writing

Oscar Wilde, 1882, to US Customs: “I have nothing to declare but my genius”

Jason Fischer, 2010, to US Customs: “I have nothing to declare but my Tim-Tams”

So here I am, and barring the wonders of jetlag it’s AWESOME.  I’m definitely going to have to do some retrospective blogging to cover our goings on, it’s quite the hectic schedule we’ve been given.  KD Wentworth and Tim Powers are nothing but brilliant, and have been dishing out some life-changing advice.

Part of which was, don’t faff around on the internet, you have to hand in a complete story within 24 hours.  So a quick gudday and seeya later! 🙂

The lovely folks organising the WOTF week are blogging both the workshops here, complete with photos:

http://www.writersofthefuture.com/blog

Writers of the Future, Vol XXVI

Announcement, Pimping, Publication, Writing

Well, the time is nigh, I have my greenbacks and courage in hand, and Writers of the Future awaits me.  I’m taking it stateside for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to work with some jaw-droppingly awesome writers, attend the award gala, and finally meet my fellow contest winners (who seem like a lovely and talented bunch).  The anthology containing the winning stories is now available for pre-order on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Ron-Hubbard-Presents-Writers-Future/dp/1592128475/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282279171&sr=1-12

I love the cover-art on this – absolutely gorgeous!  Having collected a few of these anthologies, I can tell you that the essays from the judges are worth the cover-price alone.  Years of wisdom is thus dispensed, sandwiched amidst stories that could launch many fruitful writing careers, jammed full of the excellent artwork from the sister contest, Illustrators of the Future.

Still can’t believe my writing is actually in one of these…this sure is a nice feeling, folks 🙂

I will try and blog the Writers of the Future week when I get the chance, but it looks like they keep a pretty hectic schedule.  It may be a retrospective account of the workshop and other events, but it’ll all end up on here at some point.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Future needs getting to 🙂

On Conflict, and the Throwing of Plot-Rocks.

Writing,

So with the website humming along, all tickety-boo and how’s your father, I continue to plough through the sequel to Gravesend, the tentatively titled “After the World: Corpus Christi”.  Won’t be long and I’ll be signing off on this, my latest love-letter to George Romero and zombiedom as a whole.  My favourite part?  Revisiting some characters that I genuinely cared for, and telling the world What Happens Next.  Did I say I care for these characters?  You wouldn’t think so, going by the levels of woe I’m pouring upon them. 

I’ve been enjoying David Farland’s “Daily Kick In The Pants” series of emails, invaluable writing advice from a writer who was actually Stephanie Meyer’s mentor, a WOTF judge, and an author with an impressive back catalogue in his own right.  His invaluable writing advice can be accessed via this page: http://www.runelords.com/about/

Some of the things Mr Farland has spoken about are try/fail cycles, and actually giving your readers low levels of stress!  Yes, you heard me right.  When you are actually anxious about the fate of a character, that story just became a page-turner, and the author has successfully engaged you as a reader.  And then, with the correct resolution, everything is brought back to normal, and you’ll go away feeling relaxed and good about that story – and will be keen to buy anything else that author writes.

A simple formula for conflict that I’ve always remembered goes along these lines:

1) get your characters stuck up in a tree

2) throw rocks at them.

3) get them back down.

I tell you what, I’ve got my eye in today…pow!  Oh, sorry Tamsyn, didn’t mean to pop you in the face.  Hey, there’s no need to point that bow at me, I was just….TWANG!  Okay, thanks for the warning shot.  Promise I’ll cut you a break real soon 🙂 

PS I’ve finally got my LiveJournal cross-post thing working!  Many thanks to fellow Clarionite Aidan Doyle for his IT intervention.

Onward, to the lofty heights of professionalism!

Announcement, Writing

So I’ve reached that stage in the proceedings where it’s necessary to kick things up a notch.  I’ve been writing away for some years now, but have largely got by without any internet presence save forums and what-have-you, and after surviving Clarion South my rambling monster-truck of a blog over at Livejournal.  Seeing as the old Fisch-blog has become a dumping ground for bad puns, youtube clips, and the occasional writing related tid-bit, I’ve decided to start up my “I’m actually serious about this writing thing” official author website.

Coolest of all, there’s an email address attached to this thing, so I’m always reachable at mail@jasonfischer.com.au

I’ve collated all my writing-related achievements and put them behind the shiny buttons you see at the top of the page.  Many thanks of course go to Nyssa Pascoe (she of awritergoesonajourney.com fame) for her assistance in getting this website kicking, and of course for designing my nifty banner, with just a wee hint of Undead Camel.

This move to a paid domain and a Real Writer’s Website is partly related to the Writers of the Future win – I’m heading over to the workshop shortly and need to start thinking like a professional, conducting and promoting myself better.  With that in mind I’ve also printed off a bunch of business cards, which is another first.  I shall now have to learn business card etiquette – how does one distribute these without being a prat?  Do I require a spring-loaded case of rare leather, to shoot these into someone’s eyes the moment they say hello?  These are all things I shall endeavour to learn.

Geez, didn’t take me long to embed a video-clip…I’m incorrigible!  As if this was ever going to be a serious blog anyways.  That’s just how I roll.