by Jason Fischer | Aug 26, 2010 | 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
by Jason Fischer | Aug 20, 2010 | 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 🙂
by Jason Fischer | Aug 1, 2010 | 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.
by Jason Fischer | Jul 31, 2010 | 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.
