Well, that was interesting. Obama did exactly what he needed to do tonight. He gave people a vision of the American dream, and unless McCain can trump that vision, or undermine it, this election is as good as won. The soundbites were there for all to see, ‘We are a better country than this’ andContinue reading “You Are Not On Your Own”
Category Archives: Writing Journal
Oratory
Tonight I’m going to stay up late to watch Barrack Obama give his acceptance speech to the Democratic conference. It isn’t a political thing, although in the balance Obama is my favoured candidate for president. This is a matter of history in the making. In the age of the soundbite, it is rare that greatContinue reading “Oratory”
The Value of Short Fiction
Gordon van Gelder, editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, has started a debate about the value of short fiction, specifcaly questioning whether it is being finacialy devalued by the increasing number of online venues distributing stories for free, venues such as Futurismic which have also taken up the debate. As a writer of shortContinue reading “The Value of Short Fiction”
The Reading
‘The Reading’ a special issue of Behind the Wainscot edited by Jonathan Wood exploriing the theme of The Tarot is now online. I was over-joyed to be invited to write a reading for ‘The Sun’ card, alongside Hal Duncan, Forest Aguirre, Ekaterina Sedia, Catherynne M. Valentte, Erzebt Yellowboy and the list of cool writers goesContinue reading “The Reading”
George Pelecanos…
…is one of my favourite authors at the the moment, and there is a great feature on him over at the NPR website. I discovered Pelecanos through the HBO series ‘The Wire’ and have picked up a coupke of nis novels since. I don’t tend to read crime fiction, but I love his work forContinue reading “George Pelecanos…”
Agency
As a writer, you get used to doing thing for yourself. But one piece of common place wisdom is that in order to get published writers need a literary agent. Mark Liam Piggott at the Guardian blog is not so sure about that, having been represented by agents but eventualy selling his first novel himselfContinue reading “Agency”
How many Clarionites does it take to record a podcast?
Eighteen apparently. Every week at Clarion, Shaun Farrell of the podcast Adventures in Sci-fi Publishing would pop by and interview the instructors, then in the final week he interviewed us, the Clarionites. You can listen to the result here. Be aware, I have not yet listened to this myself. The thing they don’t you whenContinue reading “How many Clarionites does it take to record a podcast?”
The Kindle is to E-Books as the IPod is to…
Or rather not. Today over at the Guardian, Jack Schofield asks if the Kindle ebook reader is becoming Amazon’s IPod. Schofield argues that it may be newspapers, not books, that lauch the e-reader revolution and draw the Kindle up to IPod status. But as Schofield himself points out, its more likely that e-books will proceedContinue reading “The Kindle is to E-Books as the IPod is to…”
Clarion: Graduating Class of 2008
So today I graduated Clarion. WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!! It has been a long, hard six weeks. So long. So hard. They don’t tell you how much hard work Claron is going to be when they let you in. I heard the words ‘Bootcamp for writers’ and thought..pfaff…all day every day to just read and write stories. EeezyContinue reading “Clarion: Graduating Class of 2008”
Racoon Totems
So those of you following the saga of our Clarion instructors totem animals are probably thinking, what about Geoff and Nalo? Kelly left us with Rabbits, Jim is flapping around with the Crows, Mary-Anne gave us hummingbirds and Neil arrived with a pair of hooting Owls (and a cricket match). Well tonight totem animal numberContinue reading “Racoon Totems”
Wainscot Tarot and approaching goodbyes
Amidst my hectic Clarion schedule I’ve been working on a flash fiction piece for Behind the Wainscot, who are publishing a linked series of stories inspired by tarot cards a little later this month. I was pretty excited to be invited to take part, especialy when I saw the list of other contributors which includesContinue reading “Wainscot Tarot and approaching goodbyes”
What do you want?
And who are you? Yesterday the Clarion group sat in a semi-circle around Neil Gaiman and listened to him talk about story. The light was shining so brightly everone was glowing. I have photos, I may share them. Neil talked about want, specificaly what characters want and using knowledge of that to make a storyContinue reading “What do you want?”
Damien Walter 