by Jason Fischer | Jan 29, 2011 | Writing
The origins of the Gauntlet are somewhat lost to the mists of time, but sometime after Clarion South 2007, a bunch of us survivors slapped the bejesus out of each other with virtual metal gloves, challenging one another to write like one possessed, cranking out a stupid amount of work in a very short time. A bit like Nanowrimo, perhaps, but on a smaller scale and with many more friendly insults.
From time to time, it serves us well to blow the dust off the Fists of Steel, declare “GAUNTLET!!!” and have at the keyboard. Now is such a time. Following the fallow period that was Video Game January, my legendary ink-brother Peter Ball and I are taking 2011 by the throat and making it whimper. We’ve both got a bunch of writing goals that need meeting, and there’s only one thing for it:
I won’t be posting much in the way of word-counter thingies or updates, it’s sort of a personal superstition and I just don’t enjoy being publicly accountable if I have a crappy day or if Toddler Fisch/Real Life hijacks a writing session. But know this, there’s eye-strain and bad 80s music and a stupid amount of writing going on, up till March or so. It’s on, beyotches.
by Jason Fischer | Jan 13, 2011 | Writing
Seriously, it was a good year. Work was good, this writing gig started to come together, and my beaut little family kept me sane and smiling. Lots of great stuff came my way last year, including several exciting writing opportunities, the trip to America for Writers of the Future, and the production of just under 90,000 words – not bad considering I thought I’d been somewhat slack on the writing front. Early in the year I set myself a bunch of goals as per the awesome Booklife, and achieved 95% of what I’d set out to do (not counting the unfortunate scuttling of the-novel-formerly-known-as-Candlecraft). Still, the good bits of this project have been recycled for use elsewhere, so I haven’t wasted a word.
Here’s a list of my publications, sales, and achievements for 2010 – now that I look at it, it was quite a busy year. I’m hoping that 2011 will be just as exciting, that I continue to keep my passion for writing, and have a tonne of fun telling cool stories! Anything else is a bonus really 🙂
Novellas:
After The World: Corpus Christi, Black House Comics (forthcoming)
Short Stories:
Eating Gnashdal, “Anywhere but Earth” edited by Keith Stevenson (forthcoming)
Goggy, Midnight Echo (winner 2010 AHWA Flash Fiction Competition, forthcoming)
Hunting Rufus, Midnight Echo #5 (forthcoming)
Goodnights to Heaven, Necroscope
The Ward of Hours, An Eclectic Slice of Life
gunning for a tinkerman, Aurealis Magazine #44
The School Bus, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #46 (Highly Recommended, HorrorScope 2010 Recommended Reading List)
The House of Nameless, Writers of the Future Vol XXVI
Sebastian, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #44 (Recommended, HorrorScope 2010 Recommended Reading List)
Starship Zamedi, Zombonauts anthology
Podcasts:
Undead Camels Ate Their Flesh, Terra Incognita SF Podcast #26
for want of a jesusman, Terra Incognita SF Podcast #18
Comics:
The Harvest, EEEK! #2, Black House Comics
Achievements:
Shortlisted, Best Novella/Novelette, 2010 Ditmar Awards
Shortlisted, Best New Talent, 2010 Ditmar Awards
Winner, AHWA Flash Fiction Competition, 2010
Finalist, 2009 Australian Shadows Awards (Short Fiction)
by Jason Fischer | Dec 29, 2010 | Writing
I recently shared a bunch of old maps from my journeyman days, and briefly made mention of Tusk, the infamous “telepathic elephants enslave mankind” novel. The ultimate trunk-story, as it were. Poking around in these old folders, I also found an old amateur moment, shared here for your amusement. Yes, I invented a language for my elephant race. Not only that, a complex numeric system, and methods and devices for them to write, trunks being less nimble than human fingers. From memory, I spent WEEKS on this. Again, a great example of how too much time down the rabbit-hole of Research is not necessarily a good thing.
This sort of thing is best left to the experts. Namely, professors in Language and Literature. If Tolkien saw the following attempt at inventing a written fantasy language, he’d probably roll around in his grave: (more…)
by Jason Fischer | Dec 24, 2010 | Publication, Writing
As mentioned previously, I wrote a new zombie story for Chuck McKenzie’s zombietastic Necroscope blog, called “Goodnights to Heaven”. The goal was to come up with a christmas-themed tale of the undead, the result of which can be read at this link:
http://zombiefictionreview.blogspot.com/2010/12/fiction-goodnights-to-heaven.html
May you all have a relaxing Christmas, and it is my sincerest wish that your barricades hold off the corpse hordes long enough for you to enjoy a pudding and a brandy 🙂
by Jason Fischer | Dec 20, 2010 | Writing
I had recent cause to pore through my story-trunk, which is almost always a cringe-worthy exercise, followed by the opportunity to have a good laugh at my past self. For those unfamiliar with the term, a story-trunk is the repository of one’s failed writings, the term dating back to the time when the aspiring writer most likely had an actual chest or locker, stuffed full of bound manuscripts, rejection slips and gallons of tears. Sometimes this would be the bottom drawer, a tea chest in the shed, or a cobweb-wreathed filing cabinet. These days, the story-trunk is usually a folder on one’s hard-drive, an innocuous icon hiding a multitude of writing sins.
Prior to my recent incarnation as a short-story writer, I had any number of practice novels under my belt. And ye GODS, these things are bloody awful. Sigh. Still, we all gotta start somewhere, and I was well on my way to “write a million words before you stop sucking” by about 2005 or so. I look fondly on these books, as if they were a dodgy uncle at a family BBQ – they’re embarrassing, but at the end of the day they’re still family. No regrets, dudes.
In amongst my newbie fantasy novels are a whole swag of maps, lovingly adorned with various details. Because if you’re gonna suckle from Tolkien’s teat, you may as well indulge in some amateur cartography. I’ve included some for your amusement:
Around about the time I discovered Terry Pratchett, I decided that humorous fantasy was definitely my thing. Hence, the Woven World, a Pratchett-esque world springing from the knitting needles of the oblivious Aunt Gladys, aka God. I remember the mystical kingdom of Strailyer, famous for its chain-mail wearing bogans, hurling boomerangs and beer-cans at their foes. Glorious. My main protagonist was Chronick the Teutonic, wielder of the disastrous Scheissenhammer.
Here’s some more classics from ye olde story-trunk:
(more…)
by Jason Fischer | Nov 29, 2010 | Writing
I’ve long been a fan of postapocalyptic fiction, and there’s just something about humanity on its knees that gives me goosebumps. There was a phase when I consumed naught but postapocalyptic stories, movies and video games like a starving man in a Sizzlers, and you probably don’t want to know how many times I’ve watched Mad Max 2. I still consume the subgenre occasionally, but I think the point where I was voraciously reading the Deathlands books (war-porn postapocalyptic series, the publisher cranks em out every month or so) was when I realised I Had to Give It A Rest.
Still, good fun was had 🙂
As far as subgenres go, it’s been on the radar for a long time, notably since the Cold War, when folks were worried that the whole world was going to resemble Fallout 3 on a difficult setting. And according to the wise sages at Wikipedia, this sort of fiction has been around since the beginnings of literature, with the Babylonians and all their mates having a crack at it (and it posits that the Book of Revelations is a solid candidate for postapocalyptic fiction, which amuses me more than it should).
In my own reading adventures, one thing I’ve notably avoided is apocalyptic fiction. Disaster movies and novels, where the breaking of the world is actually taking place, this sort of thing barely keeps my interest. Okay, so the zombies have arisen, the meteors have struck, and the ocean just washed away your house: what happens next?
This is where things get interesting (for me, at least). It’s all about the What Happens Next. When the rules are wiped from the slate, when nothing is left of our society, our civilisation, except the tall tales told by the desperate around timid little campfires, the ruins hinting at what once was, what has been lost. For me, that’s where it’s at.
Which tells me that, despite all of my own tastes in media, and to some extent my own writing, I’m not actually that into the postapocalyptic. In the truest sense of the word, I’m a fan of the interregnum, and like my fiction spiced with a healthy dose of Dark Ages. Interregnum is quite literally “the time between kings”, and in some places it’s been treated as a great background device, the feel of a tragic loss, an ennui that can persist for centuries. I’m thinking of Asimov’s Foundation books, to some extent Star Wars from ep 4 onwards, and some great stuff like Mary Stewart’s King Arthur books, and most recently Stephen Baxter’s novel Coalescents. One of my favourite areas of historical fiction is the fall of Roman influence, the rapid and complete withdrawal of civilisation from the fragile British Isles, and Stewart and Baxter handled this brilliantly in their respective books.
In Fight Club, I was really rooting for Tyler Durden, and the prospect of Project Mayhem had me salivating:
“We wanted to blast the world free of history…. picture yourself planting radishes and seed potatoes on the fifteenth green of a forgotten golf course. You’ll hunt elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center, and dig clams next to the skeleton of the Space Needle leaning at a forty-five degree angle. We’ll paint the skyscrapers with huge totem faces and goblin tikis, and every evening what’s left of mankind will retreat to empty zoos and lock itself in cages as protection against the bears and big cats and wolves that pace and watch us from outside the cage bars at night.”
OH HELL YES. And this, boys and girls, is why I’ve drifted into writing stuff like zombie fiction – not because I give a rats about how an extinction event has happened, I really just want to know, what the hell is humanity going to do now that it’s on its knees?
What happens next?
