I have, as they say, oficially arrived at Eastercon. My first panel went pretty well- I got to say a certain proportion of what I wanted to say about Doctor Who and Russell T. Davies, and the whole thing seemed to go down well with the minimum number of bizarre tangents. The actual journey itself was relatively calm except for the last five minutes, where I found myself bouncing up and down one particular road like a yo-yo. Thanks to various (possibly unwise) decisions, I’m having to go home tonight, but at least I know roughly where I’m going now, and I’ll have the advantage of staying the night. Fun so far- let’s see how the weekend progresses…
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The Sun Does RIse
Apologies for the lack of posts – there’s been way too much happening, not enough time to rest, and now I’m off to Eastercon (with the knowledge that I’m appearing on a panel in (gulp) three hours…). I’m taking my computer with me, but only time and fate will tell whether or not I get any blogging time. Stay tuned…
Adventures at Eastercon
Okay- these are the panels I’ll be appearing on at Orbital during the Easter weekend. I was hoping to be on the BSFA awards post-discussion, but I’ve had to back out simply because there was no way in hell I was going to be able to read all of the shortlisted novels and short stories in the time available. Anyway, here’s my three spots:
Friday 21st March –
11am – Russell T. Davies – Best of British, or Fanboy Let Loose?
Saturday 22nd March-
11am – Adapting Tolkien from Book to Film
1pm – What books do or don’t make good movies?
Timing being what it is, two of the most interesting panels- the China Mieville interview and the ‘Fantastic London’ discussion with people like Neil Gaiman and Geoff Ryman- are clashing with my Saturday panels. Grrr… Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to string two words together. At the least, it’s going to be a learning experience…
Don’t Stop Believin’
Jet lag has finally left me behind- the world now feels real, and I actually want to sleep at the proper times. Being back in England is strange- it’s surprising how quickly you get used to another environment, and a world of curving roads and green (rather than white) took a little getting used to. And, in the spirit of those thoughts, here’s a brief bit of blogging that I didn’t get the chance to post while I was away thanks to network/computer issues. Imagine that everything is getting that authentic Hollywood-style flashback wibble, and it’s the 1st of March…
Everything outside is white. Powdery snow is sweeping in from above, and covering everything you can think of. 9.20 in the morning (even though my computer is telling me it’s 14.20 in the afternoon- how very helpful of it…), and outside there are flurries of snow being buffeted around by the wind. When I was growing up in Cornwall, I saw a couple of harsh winters, and there’s be a couple of points where the landscape would end up covered in snow- but this is something different. This is serious weather.
I’m sitting in Anne and Jim’s house, in the Sun Room- a lounge with plenty of windows- and I’ve got a fantastic view of the line of jagged icicles dotted along the edge of the roof outside. There have been occasional warm spells (if you can count briefly rising above freezing as a warm spell), but it hasn’t been enough to melt the snow. The entire landscape of the country has changed- even in somewhere as normal as the Mall, it’s impossible to ignore thanks to the sheer volume of snow that’s fallen, and is simply not going anywhere. They’ve taken to ploughing the snow into gigantic mounds at the edge of car parks and roads, making some areas into bizarre hilly labyrinths, and removing some sights altogether (there’s a horse race track that’s now almost completely impossible to see). We’re only a couple of hundred metres from Lake Simcoe, a gigantic body of water which is currently frozen over, and dotted with various huts used for ice fishing.
Possibly the biggest and most fundamental difference was Thursday, and our trip to Niagra. Last time I went, it was the busy season, and it was a rainy day- the falls were still an absolutely spectacular, brain-numbing site, but the sense of damp greyness was a little difficult to escape. This time, however, the world was white, the water was topped by a surface of broiling chunks of ice, and once we got past the falls to the river and valley beyond, the entire river had frozen solid, thawed, and frozen again, creating a landscape full of cracks, ravines and gaping fissures. We even got some sun (creating a rainbow over the ice), and the sense of awesome scale and size was something to behold.
It’s always good to make sure that you’re seeing something new on holiday- and even though there may be a temperature rise scheduled for Monday, along with some wet weather, we’ve still seen enough to last us a long time.
As it turned out, while we got a brief thaw on Monday, with plenty of rain and an easing of the general whiteness of the world around us, it didn’t last for long. Tuesday night, we got home from some serious shopping, and my Aunt Anne’s drive had almost completely defrosted. The next morning, it was covered again in over half a foot of snow- it’s amazing how quickly it accumulates, and getting to stride around in some of the deepest and most undisturbed snowdrifts I’ve ever seen was one of the highlights of the holiday.
One of the other highlights was Sunday’s trip into Algonquin National Park, an area of wilderness that was still covered in snow, and one of the most breathtaking places I’ve seen for a long time. The temptation to simply head off into the woods was very hard to resist (although the survival issues kind of helped…), but the whole area was splendid, and one of the most genuinely quiet places I’ve ever been, a place where all you can really hear is the wind drifting through the trees- no traffic, no aircraft, and very little sign of human life once you get out of sight of the highway. It reminded me of what I loved about going on hikes with my Dad as a teenager- when we’d voyage to places like Dartmoor and Scotland, and we’d reach those places where you could turn 360 degrees and not see a single trace of civillisation. It’s given me a serious injection of wanderlust, and while a return to Canada might take a while, if we do go back, we’ll be seeking out more interesting wilderness, and seeing how far we can get from the noise of the modern world.
We also visited the CN Tower in Toronto, where I voyaged up over 140 floors to the SkyPod viewing area, and got one of the most spectacular attacks of vertigo I’ve had for a while. I’m alright with heights as long as I’m able to distance myself from what I’m seeing and pretend it’s just a really good special effect (I went up the Empire State and the Sears Tower with no ill effects)– but the SkyPod had a matrix of windows that sloped right down to the floor, meaning there looked like there was very little between me and a very, very long drop. As a result, I spent most of my brief time up there hugging the walls, or holding very tightly onto the viewing telescopes dotted around the pod. Even with all that, it was a tremendous view, and I want to be able to find a way of writing that kind of experience, of being able to conjure up the sense of hugeness and scale- I’m just not sure if I’d be in a hurry to go back there.
In short, though, it’s been a tremendous time- my aunt looked after us wonderfully, and I actually found myself switching off and properly relaxing for the first time in a while – an experience I’m seeing if I can stretch further into my ‘home’ time. The flight back wasn’t exactly comfortable, and sleeping on a plane never seems to work for me, but we’re officially back, and it’s been a wonderful rest.
One thing I did do while I was over there was brainstorm some ideas with George for the follow-up to THE HYPERNOVA GAMBIT, and it’s actually feeling like a genuine story now rather than a collection of cool concepts. One of the things I love about George is the fact that she’s able to keep up with my brain and throw in conceptual stuff that I’m not expecting. She’s a fantastic sounding board, and the fact that she’s now desperate to find out what happens next is certainly going to help…
Of course- I am going to have to work out what to do next. The fact that I’ve got a very crowded two weeks coming up (subbing in London, followed swiftly by Eastercon) is going to help keep my mind off things, but I have got to remind myself that just because the most recent bit of the process happenned at a dizzying speed, it doesn’t mean the rest of it is. As of Monday morning, the book will have officially been with publishers for two weeks- and fourteen days really isn’t a long time where publishing is concerned. My natural instinct is to sit back and wait, but I know I can’t afford to. Yes, something fantastic might happen with the book- but I’ve still got to keep some forward momentum going.
Onward, ever onward…
Home Again
We’re back. And we’re very tired. The “Let’s sleep on the plane” strategy didn’t really work out – we’ve spent most of the afternoon lolling around in a state of advanced jet lag, and it’s genuinely odd to be back in a world of green fields and curving, snake-like roads. A more detailed update should happen soon, but for the moment, LadyGeorge and I have had a fantastic time, and we’ll soon be collapsing into bed sooner rather than later…
Snowflake Days
There we were thinking that the thaw had begun- after a week of snow, temperatures were rising, ice and snow were melting, and the landscape was starting to return to normal. Now, there’s been another night of snow, and the world outside is back to a hazy, pale wonderland with some of the biggest and freshest snowdrifts I’ve seen in my life. We’re twelve hours from the flight home- there’s stuff to do and packing to sort, but there’ll also be time to walk in the snow, and be thankful for the fact that we’ve both had a fantastic holiday.
Home soon…
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
We wanted snow. And boy, have we gotten snow.
Arrived in Canada safe and sound- last time I did this journey, I got briefly stranded in Newark Airport thanks to a late connection, and then my aunt and I missed each other at the airport, but there were no such errors this time. Flight was smooth and nice- and even (shockingly) had a decent selection of films, with 3:10 TO YUMA and GONE BABY GONE as my choices, both of which were extremely good (even if I was desperately in need of something happy after GONE BABY GONE…). We’re now at my Aunt’s house (about an hour and a half from Toronto) in a world that’s been heavily doused in white, there’s a light sprinkling of snow falling outside, and I’m attempting to remind my body that it really is 9.04 am and not 2.04 pm. We’ve got lots of fun stuff lined up, and just the chance to get away from everything and decompress for a while is seriously welcome.
Time for breakfast. Yum!
I get sales talk from sales assistants, when all I want to do girl is lower your resistance…
It’s probably best if I update now. George and I are off to Canada on Monday for ten days, to stay with my Aunt (she lives a couple of hours outside of Toronto) and while I may get the chance to blog while I’m there, I’ll either end up doing loads of entries, or you won’t hear from me for ten days. So, it’s update time.
It has, to be honest, been a funny old week.
First of all, thank you to everyone who left congratulations messages on the last post. Each one of them was appreciated- I just spent most of the last week boggling in astonishment, and couldn’t think of any reply other than “Thanks!” and “Gosh!” over and again. So, thanks very much.
I’ve got an agent. It still doesn’t feel quite real.
One of the main reasons for this is that I was preparing myself for a long road to getting an agent – a friend of mine, who’s been a gigantic help with the novel and given me plenty of advice that’s been utterly indispensible, is also an author, and has been looking for an agent for the past two and a half years. She’s finally found one who is interested in her second book- but has asked for a major rewrite before they’ll take it on, and she’s currently waiting to hear back whether the rewrite she did as a result of that was successful. I know how these things work and how painful the process can be. I was ready to buckle down, do serious mail outs, and win through in the end after a long battle.
Instead, I sent my book out on Monday– and I had an agent by lunchtime Wednesday. I feel like I blinked, and the world changed, and it’s still taking me a while to get used to it. All the way through writing the book, I had a bizarre, unshakeable (and possibly slightly psychotic) conviction that if I got it right, something would happen. I didn’t know what, and I knew it was likely it wouldn’t be something I expected, but I felt that something would be sparked off by doing this. I just wasn’t expecting it to actually happen. Certain sections of the last week have given me the overwhelming desire to hide, and I’m also telling myself that it doesn’t matter if the next phase takes ages to actually happen– but the possibilities have expanded massively. And, to be honest, the fact that someone not only enjoyed the book, but enjoyed the book this much, is making me very happy. It’s reassuring me that maybe I wasn’t totally insane for rewriting and rewriting it until my forehead bled (metaphorically speaking, of course)…
The situation is that I spent most of today doing some tidying up and queries that John had on the book- nothing major, and some of which have ended up being genuine improvements that I’m happy are there. I’ll be sending the final ‘approved’ version of the manuscript tomorrow morning– and then, fairly soon after that, it’s going to start going out to publishers. At the least, I’ve got heaps of work between now and then to occupy me over the weekend, and then I’ll be in the snowy wilds of Canada for ten days, which is probably the best thing for me.
Life is feeling good. Odd, but good…
Fact x Importance = News
The ultra-secret news didn’t actually have to be secret for very long, as it turned out.
I’ve got an agent. And it’s all happenned rather quickly.
From the press release that’s just been sent out:
The latest client of the John Jarrold Literary Agency is journalist Saxon Bullock.
Saxon Bullock has been working as a freelance writer since 2000, and has written for a variety of magazines and websites including SFX, DVD Review, Channel4.Com and Hotdog magazine.
He has just completed his first novel – an epic science fiction tour-de-force entitled THE HYPERNOVA GAMBIT.
‘Once in a while I see a novel that grabs me from the first page,’ said John Jarrold. ‘That was the case here, as it was when I read Ken MacLeod’s debut, THE STAR FRACTION, when I worked with Random House in the mid-90s. I knew within the first six pages that I wanted to publish Ken, and I was equally certain within six pages of starting Saxon’s novel that I wanted to represent him. I got that pricking of my thumbs that every editor and agent loves, and sees all too seldom! THE HYPERNOVA GAMBIT is a novel for which the phrase “wide-screen SF” might have been invented. Its characters, colour, pace and plotlines are truly wonderful, and Saxon’s prose sparkles with invention and wit. This is really special, and stands with any of the SF authors who have risen to the top of the genre in the last ten years.’
At some point, this is actually going to feel real- but right now, all my mind seems to be able to manage is ‘wibble’…
Further Reasons to be Cheerful
The trouble with having ultra-secret news is that you can’t really tell anyone- because it’s secret.
So- in short- I’ve got news. It’s good. But I can’t say what it is quite yet.
Suffice to say, I am somewhat suprised…
(More information soon. Promise!)
Saxon Bullock 