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Dissolved

/ saxonbullock2000 / 5 Comments

A day that could safely be described as difficult. I got another rejection for the novel this morning – and while I’d like to say I was terribly stoic and solid as a result of this negative news, I’d be lying through my teeth. It’s one of those times when I could really do with a gigantic amount of work to keep me occupied and stop the dogs in my head from barking, but fate being its usual self, I’ve got a semi-quiet patch before a serious amount of proof-reading, followed by the Edinburgh Film Festival which, together, will take up most of June. I’m just feeling rather tired and in need of distraction at the moment, like I’m patiently waiting for something that’s never actually going to arrive, and while I know I’ve got to be positive, there’s also a side of me that needs to forget about this and damn well get on with stuff. It’s never good when your usual outlets for relaxing after this kind of thing don’t work, or when you have the bright idea to call someone for a chat and it turns out that nobody’s home.

Anyway- while I may be a little down, I’m not out. And I’m certainly not about to let any of this beat me.

Black Tambourine

/ saxonbullock2000 / 1 Comment

A rather action packed weekend – a family visit to Devon and Cornwall which, for the first time, had to be compressed into a weekend thanks to time restrictions. Everything went fine, thankfully, a good time was had by all, and we even managed some decent weather after a somewhat shaky start. We drove back last night – and while five hours of solid driving is always going to be an unwelcome proposition, it all went well, and it was a relief to do it at a point when the traffic was pretty light. I’m now at the cusp of another week, with a book to read and review by Thursday, and a screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to see tomorrow (which I was undecided on – but the initial reviews seem to suggest it’s at least up to the standards of Last Crusade, which makes me feel better…), plus more work to do on the follow-up to The Hypernova Gambit. I got another turn-down from a publisher last week – the waiting is a little difficult at times, what with the mollases-speed that publishing tends to go at, and it’s sometimes hard to keep the faith and enthusiasm going when it seems to take a very long time for something to happen (and so far when it has happenned, it’s been people saying they don’t like it…). I’m not going to give up, though- and I’ve got a whole selection of really, really odd ideas for the later books – I just want the opportunity to actually do them…

Welcome to the Machine

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Weeks have passed, and aside from my vague Whoblogging, I’ve been keeping quiet here. My TV output has gone way down, mainly because I’m now doing a column for Vector, the BSFA magazine, and trying to sculpt my ramblings into 3,000 or so coherent words isn’t the easiest thing in the universe. (I’m also hugely thankful to coalescent for being prepared to edit out all the stuff that doesn’t work…). My most recent one was all about Torchwood, but I did try to actually tackle what I feel is conceptually wrong with the show, rather than simply bitching about the multitude of surface errors. There was a Torchwood-related link in this week’s Torque Control that said something significant (which I instantly wished I’d actually said in my article) which is that it’s a show that’s good at giving its audience what it wants (and no more) – and I think this is also true of New Who.

A short burst of yet more Who-related burblings…

A Stroke of Luck

/ saxonbullock2000 / 1 Comment

Life is ticking over at the moment – it’s one of those nice yet frustrating times that’s not quite busy enough to keep me completely occupied, yet busy enough to prevent me from panicking hideously. As an attempt to give myself a focus and calm myself, I’m part way through the XBOX 360 game Mass Effect, and when I’m not getting completely vexxed at the combat interface (which I’ve finally gotten the grips of – it’s not completely intuitive, and there’s no serious training level) I’m having a ball. Of course, Grand Theft Auto 4 is out next week, and that’s going to be an embarrassing drain on my time that I’ll have to keep an eye on. I spent three months playing through Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, and never even managed to get further than 60% complete – the Grand Theft Auto games are works of computer gaming genius, and the level of immersion and freedom that they acheive is something truly amazing. I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into number 4…

Post-wise, I received a package with a proof of Richard Morgan’s The Steel Remains. Few epic/heroic fantasies will get me to read them without money being involved at the moment, but I feel it’s likely I’m going to break the rule here.

I’m also having major trouble with my next Vector TV column. I’ve got some things to say about Torchwood (true, almost all of them negative) but trying to say them and keep in the ball park of 1,500 words is proving tricky. My last go was 3,500, and then I managed to wipe that version. I’m currently rebuilding it from scratch, while I’m also starting chipping away at the follow up to The Hypernova Gambit. The climax is in my head already – it just might be difficult reverse-engineering a way of getting there.

London tomorrow, and a screening (for a review, thankfully) of Neil Marshall’s new film, a homage to mid-Eighties post apocalyptic sci-fi called Doomsday. Malcom McDowell is in it. I am not hopeful…

(Although I have also bagged a screening of Speed Racer on Sunday, and am absurdly excited as a result. The film itself may be dreadful, but the trailers have reduced me to giddy schoolgirl-like squeals of delight, and at the least it’ll look good…)