Over the last few weeks, I've been busily cleaning out the house - and working on Flash Fiction. I've also been looking at the security of my blogs (if you've been trying to comment and found a few road blocks, I'm sorry about that).
I've had a stalker online on my Flash Fiction blog. He's a real prick of a person who doesn't give any real criticism, just tells me that I write drivel and shouldn't be writing at all. However, when I've challenged him to get off his duff and write something better, he doesn't. He'd rather dish out the crap than do better than somebody else; or leave them alone. So, upping the security was my best bet.
This will be permanent. I'm sorry it has to be this way, but to keep him out, those measures are staying.
Well, that's out of the way (I've been feeling a little guilty about that), I'm hoping to catch you all up on what I've been up to.
I started another blog (yep, there's more blogs to read!). It's about my journey through my decluttering of my house. I thought that I write about enough on one of my blogs that I ought to make a blog out of it. It's called 'A Work In Progress' and you can find it on my complete profile. There's not much there right now, but it will be getting bigger over the next year or so.
Well over the last month, I haven't been buying books - yay! - that's a good thing! Instead, I've been just writing some flash fiction ideas that have been good and bad (some haven't really taken off but I uploaded them anyway for a laugh). Then, over the last week, my Mum has started doing out her large bookcase and I've scored some books!
'The MacQuarie Dictionary' This may not seem like a huge deal, but my folks bought this book while I was in high school and it's a real tome! I have always wanted to take off with this book and learn new words - and man have I learned new words from it! I actually used this dictionary while I read 'Lord of the Rings' by JRR Tolkien when I was in my early 20's. There were so many words he used I had no idea of the meaning; but with this book there were three different meanings to the word 'fern'... so that's a positive to having a dictionary over 2 inches thick! I have had to tape it up as it's been used so much.
'The Perfect Journey' by David Dale. I'm not sure where this came from, or what it's about. But Mum and I thought it was weird by the description on the back. Then, we came across a couple of classics: 'I Sing the Body Electric' by Ray Bradbury; which I loaned to Mum and thought she had loaned to somebody else... but when we found it I was amazed and wanted it back! So here it is, back home again. Then we found 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' by Mary Ann Shaffer. Now, I've heard this one is fantastic, but have never read it. So, when I came across it, I thought Mum would love it. But she never got around to reading it; so into the bookcase (aka: tardis) it went, never to be seen again. Then, we found 'The Gun Seller' by Hugh Laurie (yes that one from 'House'). Now, I loaned my Dad this one, but he never read it - he didn't even pop the cover... so much for that. So, I brought it home to read it. I'm a huge fan of Hugh Laurie and hope to see what kind of writer he is.
So, what have you been up to over the past few weeks. For me, it's been so busy and stinking hot, I'm just taking my time and doing things that make me happy, keep me cool and I'm slowly working on some artwork for myself and an exhibition next month. Otherwise, I'm still looking for a title for my time travel romance book... yeah, still no title for that. Until my next post, happy reading!
I've had a stalker online on my Flash Fiction blog. He's a real prick of a person who doesn't give any real criticism, just tells me that I write drivel and shouldn't be writing at all. However, when I've challenged him to get off his duff and write something better, he doesn't. He'd rather dish out the crap than do better than somebody else; or leave them alone. So, upping the security was my best bet.
This will be permanent. I'm sorry it has to be this way, but to keep him out, those measures are staying.
Well, that's out of the way (I've been feeling a little guilty about that), I'm hoping to catch you all up on what I've been up to.
I started another blog (yep, there's more blogs to read!). It's about my journey through my decluttering of my house. I thought that I write about enough on one of my blogs that I ought to make a blog out of it. It's called 'A Work In Progress' and you can find it on my complete profile. There's not much there right now, but it will be getting bigger over the next year or so.
Well over the last month, I haven't been buying books - yay! - that's a good thing! Instead, I've been just writing some flash fiction ideas that have been good and bad (some haven't really taken off but I uploaded them anyway for a laugh). Then, over the last week, my Mum has started doing out her large bookcase and I've scored some books!
'The MacQuarie Dictionary' This may not seem like a huge deal, but my folks bought this book while I was in high school and it's a real tome! I have always wanted to take off with this book and learn new words - and man have I learned new words from it! I actually used this dictionary while I read 'Lord of the Rings' by JRR Tolkien when I was in my early 20's. There were so many words he used I had no idea of the meaning; but with this book there were three different meanings to the word 'fern'... so that's a positive to having a dictionary over 2 inches thick! I have had to tape it up as it's been used so much.
'The Perfect Journey' by David Dale. I'm not sure where this came from, or what it's about. But Mum and I thought it was weird by the description on the back. Then, we came across a couple of classics: 'I Sing the Body Electric' by Ray Bradbury; which I loaned to Mum and thought she had loaned to somebody else... but when we found it I was amazed and wanted it back! So here it is, back home again. Then we found 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' by Mary Ann Shaffer. Now, I've heard this one is fantastic, but have never read it. So, when I came across it, I thought Mum would love it. But she never got around to reading it; so into the bookcase (aka: tardis) it went, never to be seen again. Then, we found 'The Gun Seller' by Hugh Laurie (yes that one from 'House'). Now, I loaned my Dad this one, but he never read it - he didn't even pop the cover... so much for that. So, I brought it home to read it. I'm a huge fan of Hugh Laurie and hope to see what kind of writer he is.
So, what have you been up to over the past few weeks. For me, it's been so busy and stinking hot, I'm just taking my time and doing things that make me happy, keep me cool and I'm slowly working on some artwork for myself and an exhibition next month. Otherwise, I'm still looking for a title for my time travel romance book... yeah, still no title for that. Until my next post, happy reading!
Hi. can you run this as a guest post on your blog? RSVP and thanks. DAN BLOOM
ReplyDelete"Cli-Fi" as a subgenre of SF gains traction Down Under
by Dan Bloom
While it's true that Australia, unlike the U.S. and Europe, has not had a long history in the genre of science fiction, Australia in 2017 has a thriving SF/Fantasy genre with names recognised around the world. In 2013 a trilogy by Ben Peek fantasy novel and two sequels were acquired by a major SF publisher in Britain, Tor UK. His first novel in the series, titled Immolation, was published in spring 2014. The trilogy was called "Children" and books two and three were titled Innocence and Incarnation. By the 1950s, just as the SF genre was taking off in dozens of countries in Europe and North America, it took off across Australia in 1952 with the first of many Australian SF conventions.
Today there's James Bradley and Cat Sparks writing SF, with other writers, including Ian Irvine, Alice Robinson. Joanthan Strahan, Peter Carey and dozens of otthers following in George Turner's footsteps.
There is now a new subgenre of SF that's becoming popular in Australia, and it's been dubbed Cli-Fi (for ''climate fiction''. It's not so much as a literary subgenre to compete with other literary genres, but rather a PR tool, a media term, a way for newspapers and websites to signal to readers and book reviewers that climate themes in modern novels deserve a special mention. The cli-fi expression ws created as a way for literary critics and journalists to talk about novels of the Anthropocene.