...in the greenhouse.

All is pretty groovy here.

Keith Stevenson sent me my story with a few suggested changes - all of which made sense. I edited that and sent it back to him. I finished a minor rewrite on my first ever flash fiction piece, and have re-subbed that. I'm in the middle of two other rewrites that are coming along nicely. I'm halfway through a story that I need to finish by the end of the week so I can sub it to Writers of the Future for this quarter, and I have two story ideas congealing inside my brain.

I finished writing all my school reports for the semester, proofread a billion more until my brain turned to mush, finished virtually all my marking, and still had time to go out for dinner last night to The Pig and Whistle.

I've signed up for Conflux in October, started planning my school break that starts next week and have an Architectural tour of Melbourne next week. A wonderful present my wife bought for my birthday recently.

And as I sit here waiting for Anywhere But Earth to be released, life is pretty groovy. Just as I said.

Reports.

Tuesday afternoon around 3pm I suddenly encountered Con-lag. It was like a sudden wave of weary hit me - a lot like jetlag, but I hadn't been near an airport. I made sure I had a good night's sleep, and by Wednesday morning I was ready to go.

But then I had a whole lot of marking to do as we reach the end of the term, and all those reports to write. Ask just about any teacher, and you'll find reports are the bane of their existence. These days, in a world of information overload, reports have too much information, too many numbers and letters, too much superfluous comment. Most parents want to know:

1. Is my kid working?
2. Have they submitted all assignments?
3. Is my kid behaving?
4. What is their grade?

Instead we have pages of commentaries and recommendations and little charts and numbers. The parents I've spoken to would like it clearer, and the ones who choose to come along to parent/teacher interviews get a nice simple breakdown of where their child is placed in terms of the course, and where they are heading.

But we play by the rules mandated by the Department, and it's all over for another term.

Now, back to my writing - when I find some free time.

Continuum.

I had an absolutely fantastic weekend at Continuum.

The Philip K. Dick panel ran smoothly and was well received. Both Bruce Gillespie and David McDonald were fantastic - great insights and an obvious appreciation of PKD's work. I really want to thank them for agreeing to be part of this panel. I also need to thank Tessa B. Dick, Phil's wife, for so kindly answering a few questions for me. Don't forget, both her biography of Phil and her own autobiography are available.

The other panels I was on were good fun too. Sure, I was nervous just before they started, but once they were underway I completely relaxed.

It was great catching up with old familiar faces (Gitte Christensen, Earl Livings and Sue Ann Barber to name a few) and meeting new people. Once again I find it thrilling to be able to sit down and converse with people whose work I've bought and read and names I've only heard of. Richard Harland, Jack Dann, Joel Shepherd, George Ivanoff, Narrelle M. Harris -  and that's only naming a few. I must admit I was a little disappointed not to see some of the usual luminaries there, but I guess people have other publishing commitments and being the long weekend means other events are on also.

Despite the range of panels not being as varied as in previous years (C'mon, do we really need another three or four Vampire panels?) it was still an amazing weekend and I had a great time.

Onward and upward.

Full Steam Ahead.

An excellent weekend down at Rye, and then the excellent news that my application for a study grant had been approved. This means the Department of Education will pay for me to undertake some study over then next twelve months. Yay.

Of course it also means I'll have to get back into studying and writing essays, but I think I can cope with that.

On top of that I had an idea for another short story as I was walking along the beach. This is one I'm quite excited about, and over the past three days it's been thrashing itself out in my head.  Can't wait to start getting it down on paper.

I've also been doing some prep for the panels at Continuum this coming weekend. Should be a lot of fun. And if that's not enough, I've also been marking essays for my students. Some of them were quite good.

All in all, a pretty good time.

Chili, Chili, Chili.

I went out into the garden yesterday morning and picked lots of chili from my vegetable patch. Ended up with over a kilo. So I made my world famous Sweet Chili Sauce that I end up pouring on just about everything I eat. It's a pretty good sauce, even if I do say so myself. My wife's boss has a standing order for it. While I pottered around in the kitchen, pretending I was on MasterChef,  I listened to some XTC - Apple Venus. Some might think this an obscure album - it's certainly under-appreciated. (yeah Paul, my copy is autographed!)

And I've been writing lots. Subbed two stories last week, rewrote another, started writing a new one, and generally feeling good about it all. The mentorship I undertook with Paul Haines last year (through the AHWA) really seems to be paying off. I'm drafting less, and getting to the final product a lot quicker. The stories flow a lot better, and have a lot fewer irrelevant parts within.

And then it's back to school tomorrow. Busy time ahead, with lots of marking coming up as we approach the mid year.  We have our athletics day this week too. A day I don't ever look forward to, but usually end up enjoying. And film club tomorrow night - Coen Brothers' A Serious Man. I always love going along, if only for the social aspect. I managed to convince a few friends to join and we go out for dinner first.

I believe it's mixed grill this week.

Panels At Continuum.

Continuum is only a few weeks away, and I'm on a few panels. What's incredibly cool is that I'm on some of these panels with people I admire - like Aurealis Award winners Richard Harland and Karen Healey. Yep, both these writers picked up awards on the weekend. Congratulations!

I've put together a panel on Philip K. Dick, and how his work has been translated onto the screen. I'm really looking forward to that one.

Elsewhere I'm included on panels about Young Adult fiction and another on Young Adult media, and an Improv session. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

But the whole thing should be a lot of fun. And I really hope lots of people make it. There are a few faces I'm really looking forward to catching up with.

Cussing.

I've had an excellent two weeks writing - extremely productive - with two new stories on the go. I don't know whether the dreams of last week, or another dream I had this week, were the impetus for the sudden burst of activity, but when I'm in this frame of mind I make sure I stay that way as long as possible and write whenever I can.

The second of the stories I've written, is dark - darker than anything else I've done. And, in fact, even has some bad language in it. Now this is something I don't really write, and I surprised even myself when I saw the words on the screen.  But I plead "Not Guilty" on the following grounds.

Firstly: Last year I was extremely fortunate in having the amazingly talented Paul Haines as my mentor for three months. Not only did he improve my writing, workshop a story until it sold at an excellent market, force to me to consider aspects of stories I had never really consider before and make me doubt myself continuously, he also corrupted and twisted my mind and was generally a bad influence on me. Anyone who hasn't yet bought Slice of Life and The Last Days of Kali Yuga should do so immediately. Read these, then you'll understand what I mean.

Secondly: The character said it, not me. As I said this is a dark story, and under the circumstances it would have been incredibly unrealistic for her to say "Gosh", or "Jeepers". The story and the character cried out for it.

Thirdly: It was fun to write.

Surely no jury in the land would convict me. And no, this is a story not meant to be read by my junior students.