life

I get sales talk from sales assistants, when all I want to do girl is lower your resistance…

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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

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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’…

Reasons to be Cheerful

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There are some days when the life of a freelance writer/reviewer can seem absolutely fruitless, annoying, and beyond depressing. And then, there are the days when a little bit of effort results in £100 of work coming in (and no transport costs to deduct), and when you open an interesting looking parcel in the post, and it turns out to have sci-fi author Greg Egan’s entire back catalgoue in spangly new jackets that say “I’M GREG EGAN, I AM!” Six novels- Permutation City, Distress, Schild’s Ladder, Quarantine, Diaspora and Teranesia, and two short story collections – Luminous and Axiomatic- all of which I’ve meant to get around to reading at some point, and they’re now sitting in the corner looking inviting.

It’s official. Just for now, life is good.

Update! Update! Update!

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It’s true. I actually still exist.

Life for the last couple of weeks has been odd– George has finally gotten over her illness, and we’ve gotten the spectre of Christmas completely out of the way, but 2008 is proving to be somewhat slow for me so far. After an action-packed end of 2007, work has slowed to a crawl– it’ll bounce back, but for the moment it’s consisting of an awful lot of running around chasing things, and not very much happening in return. It’s difficult for me, especially as I often only feel happy when I’m busy – I’m great when the work arrives, but actually getting the work is another matter entirely. On top of which, I’m still awaiting feedback on my novel, and I’ve got an upcoming holiday to Canada which is (a) lovely but (b) meaning that two weeks are essentially vanishing from my schedule. Life would be a lot easier if one particular client wasn’t still managing to neglect to pay me– but I may be letting slip the dogs of litigation ( or at least, their secretaries with a stern letter) so maybe it won’t stretch on for as long as all that. We can but hope…

News: I am officially going to Orbital, the Heathrow-based science fiction convention happening over Easter weekend. It’s the first sci-fi literary convention I’ve ever done, so in an attempt to make certain I don’t spend most of the weekend hiding and feeling out of place, I’m hurling myself straight into the crossfire. I’ve already volunteered for multiple panels (I’m definitely on one, and may be on another four) and am prepared to attempt to sound vaguely like I know what I’m talking about. I guess we’ll see how that works, but I’m staying over for one night, and it’ll certainly be an education.

In less than four weeks, I’m off to Canada for a holiday. I’m also feeling somewhat restless and in need of some direction – giving myself a breather after finishing the novella is a good idea, but I want to feel like I’m actually grasping hold of life’s reins and exerting some kind of control, not just being dragged along in its wake. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking, but I am getting fed up of waiting for something to happen. It’s about time I got back to actually making something happen.

There will be some TV updates soon. Just not quite yet…

Absolute Realisation

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A short, insignificant realisation hit me today. Now, I love DC Absolute Editions. Given that I adore beautifully presented books, the idea of huge, slipcase-covered editions of comic books packed with all kinds of extras and unseen art – they’re books as artifacts, and I’ve frequently cooed and gaped over them simply because they’re so gorgeously designed. This has even been the case with comics that aren’t that good. The legendary DC crossover series Crisis on Infinite Earths is, truth be told, an unreadable mess in almost anyone’s book, and yet the gigantic Absolute Edition (with the Alex Ross slipcase art) was so lovely that it almost had me laying down an absurd amount of moolah. My wife got me Absolute Watchmen for my birthday in 2006- and while it wasn’t something I’d immediately put on my list as something I really, really wanted… I’m so glad I have it now. The art has the chance to breathe on pages that large, you can see so much detail, and the whole thing makes it feel like you’re reading it anew. It’s like the difference between VHS and DVD, and the fact that they only produce a small number of them each year only makes them more special. The most recent one I got was DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke, a wonderful retro-look at the birth of the Justice League, and it’s like watching a maginificent animated movie (they’ve actually made it into a DVD feature, due out in a couple of months- although simplifying it down will mean losing a lot of the detail that made it special).

What this revolves around is that they’re bringing out Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman in the Absolute format- an expensive commitment, considering that it’s four giant-sized volumes whose British RRP is £70 (although Amazon has them for cheaper). I got volume 1 for Christmas last year, and I currently have enough to get volume 2… and yet I’ve realised that I don’t desperately want to. It’d be lovely to have– and yet, I’ve already got most of The Sandman (save for one story arc) in normal-sized graphic novel format. There are sections of the story I love, and I’m glad I’ve got them– and yet I don’t love it quite enough to want to buy it all over again.

Now, if it was Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing we were talking about, there’d be nothing stopping me – but combined with this, I was actually a little disappointed with the first Sandman Absolute Edition. It’s been beautifully recoloured and the art remastered and it’s a great way of having those stories… but while the original graphic novels were beautifully designed (by Dave McKean) and had their own identity, the Absolute Sandman feels a little uniform and corporate. There isn’t even any new art on the slipcase, there’s one section where a double-page spread has been split across opposing pages, breaking the flow of the art, and many of the original covers have a rather ugly white border around them. They just don’t feel quite as special as some of the other Absolute editions- and for £70 a shot, they’d better feel special. It’s just the realisation that despite having the collectors urge, despite loving the smell of new books, and adoring the world of comic books… I’m actually happy with my original hardbacks. They may not be as beautifully coloured, but they’ve got their own identity, and they’re good enough for me. Maybe I’ll have another major windfall sometime, and maybe the Absolute Sandman volumes won’t go out of print for a while (unlike the Absolute version of Planetary, which now goes for an obscene amount of money…), but for now, I don’t mind. I’m not sure if that means I’m growing up or getting sensible. I guess it’ll just have to do for now…

Con Air

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An odd, and rather frustrating week. Getting properly back to work has been tricky with George still ill, and hasn’t been helped by a cascade of “two steps forward, three steps back” experiences. I managed to gain and lose two days of subbing within almost as many hours this afternoon, and while I’ve bagged a few reviews (including Cloverfield, which I’ll be seeing next week), I’m aware of the fact that money needs to start flowing a little quicker. No word from the people at Death Ray about my outstanding payments, and no word from anyone who’s currently got a copy of my novel.

And, to add to everything, I found out today that, yes, I had left sorting out the booking for this year’s Eastercon way too late, and there aren’t any rooms left in the convention hotel, and there’s no way I can afford a near-£270 outlay for the ‘overflow’ hotel. The big advantage is that it’s in Heathrow, which is only about an hour’s drive away, but it would have been nice to be able to stay over for a couple of nights, and as well as being a mark of me being terribly disorganised, it’s also generally highlighted my general lack of experience, nervousness and sense of oddness when it comes to conventions. I’ve only been to four events that could be roughly described as cons in my life- two sci-fi TV/lit cons, a Dr Who con, and a comics con in 2000- and I’ve never felt completely at ease with the whole idea. I think it’s because growing up in north Cornwall and being miles away from anywhere meant that, by default, fandom was a very solitary thing for me. There were very few people around who were into SF at all, and certainly nobody into it at the sort of level I was at, and conventions were always so ridiculously far away that going to them seemed impractical. As a result, instead of feeling like I had to forget being into this sort of stuff and like more popular stuff, I dug my heels in and determined that I was going to like what I liked, even if it meant appreciating it on my own. I think it might be this that’s behind some of my unease– that my brain is wired for appreciating this stuff on my own, or with a couple of people who are into it as well– I’ve not always found the social side of fandom an easy thing to get on with, so while I’m still absolutely doing Eastercon, I’m a little nervous. I want to enjoy myself, I want to feel like I’m hanging with people of a like mind– and the fact that there’ll be so many of the fine folk from the BSFA (about the first SF social group that I’ve felt like I’ve actually managed to click with) will definitely help, but I’m still a little worried that it’s going to be that worryingly familiar feeling of seeing a party through a very thick glass wall, and not being able to interact with it.

It’s one of the difficult things about me – I’m both a stubborn individualist, and desperate to fit in. People always accuse me of looking lost, and it’s mainly because of a constant feeling that I’ve wandered onstage during a performance, and the cues and script I’ve been given don’t seem to match up to everyone else’s.

Sorry for the blather. It’s been an odd week, and I need to get some work done. This kind of thing only happens when I have way too much time to think…

The Vitally Important and Not At All Delayed Christmas Update

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Getting ill a week before Christmas isn’t advised, especially when you’ve still got a whole selection of things to do. Thanks to my in-laws being a pretty gigantic family, my Christmases have transformed from a quiet, reflective time to something resembling a military operation, but while the preperation is pretty major, the end results were more than worth it. Our first Christmas spent properly at home, and everything went smoothly. I received a whole selection of things, but the nicest part of the process was seeing George opening the presents I’d gotten her, and breathing a small sigh of relief as I realised I’d made the right choices.

Since then, life has been very quiet, and wonderfully lazy. We did, however, get ourselves a gloriously nice new TV (hooray for High-Def) and an XBOX 360, meaning life has been filled up with an awful lot of Chow Yun-Fat impersonations on the game Stranglehold, and discovering the true joys of oddball 3-D platform puzzler Portal, part of the ‘Orange Box’ collection.

Getting myself back into the swing of things is going to be an interesting process. 2008 really needs to be a serious writing year, whether I like it or not. Being terribly relaxed and lazy is all very seductive, but it isn’t actually going to get me anywhere.

Ah, well. Only time will tell…

Compression Factor

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It’s official. Time is getting short. Weekends where I end up with an absurd number of deadlines are starting to increase, and this upcoming weekend is becoming one of those times when I think “Right- that’s definitely the most I can cope with”- and then another heap of reviews and reports arrive. It’s the peril of being a freelancer, particularly in the run-up to Christmas– you just can’t afford to say no.

The good news is that I’ll be earning plenty of money. The bad news is that I may get a vague chance to slow down next Monday afternoon- just before I have to depart on another two-day burst of subbing.

I’m officially looking forward to Christmas, if only for the chance to not have to do anything for a little while…

(Tick tock, tick tock…)