Revenge of Mr Dumpling

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I’ve said it before..

Aug 3

Posted by David in Sport, Writing | No Comments

…but I will say it again. Gideon Haigh is the the greatest living cricket writer, and one of the all time greats. Not only does he fiercely champion Test cricket as the paramount form of the game, but he refuses to compromise by pandering to the dominant forces in world cricket and hands out criticism equally, not just to one or two groups. Sadly, I feel that the jingoism prevalent amongst many fans (one only has to read the comments on Cricinfo to see what I mean) means he doesn’t receive his due, because people cannot accept comments critical of their nation or team – even when they are true. There are famous cricket writers who seem to write their articles to appeal to the lowest common denominator, fortunately Gideon Haigh is not one of them. This article is well worth reading. And for those who accuse him of bias against India, the following quote:

Number one today is India, which is a happy event, because they also happen to be the most attractive team to watch. And for all the hypermodernity of Indian cricket, MS Dhoni’s team is full of genuine five-day cricketers, not jumped-up one-day players and Twenty20 non-entities. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Dhoni himself, would succeed in any age; when you watch them excel at their craft, time seems almost to stand still. That is an illusion, as you realise when you range back over the generations and grasp the way that the leading teams of their time have been just that: creatures of their time. But it’s an appealing and warming illusion, and a comforting one to nurture at the pub.

It’s not the Indian team, or India itself, that he scorns, it is the BCCI who certainly deserve it. There are lots of people who can’t differentiate between criticism of the BCCI and criticism of India the nation, which I think says more about them than about Mr Haigh.

Speaking of wonderful cricket writing, I came across an article today that I had to mention. I didn’t necessarily agree with it all, but there was one phrase that stood out. I often do that in books, it’s like watching a cricket match and seeing a perfect on drive or a brutal pull shot, you just sit back and admire the skill and artistry that goes into, the joy of a craftsman at work. This was an equivalent moment.

Yesterday we had the ultimate cricket pathos of Sachin Tendulkar, the Little Master still pursuing his 100th international century, polishing a little diamond of an innings among the Indian rubble. He hit boundaries of exquisite quality, he explored the best of what is left of his repertoire and showed us why he has been revered for so long. It was like looking at a masterpiece hung in an otherwise ransacked museum.

That is good writing.

Dhoni deserves some of the criticism coming his way for the team’s performance, he is captain after all. But, he went up in my esteem a great deal after his recall of Ian Bell, as did the the entire Indian team. You can argue about Law versus Spirit all you want, but it was an edifying moment in a sport that needs all the edification it can get. To me cricket is the noblest sport of all, despite the money grubbing and the politics and all the rest, and it is moments like this (or this) that embody why it is more than just a game. Bravo, India!

Sambit Bal’s article on the event is well worth a read, as well as this one.

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Writing tools for the Modern Geek

Apr 11

Posted by David in Geek, Writing | 2 Comments

All my friends know I am a geek. I don’t care, there is no point denying one’s nature. And this is a great time to be a geek, the amount of technology around us constantly growing and changing. While there is much debate about the future of publishing and the impact that technology will have and is having on books, there is plenty of ways in which a writer can benefit from tech at our fingertips.

Many of you will have already heard of, and used, a lot of these tools but I thought I would run through a couple of things I have found incredibly useful, just in case you have missed them.

Scrivener – Mac/PC

Pretty much the reason why I bought a Macbook instead of a Windows PC (back when it was limited to OSX), Scrivener is an incredibly useful tool. There are far better posts floating around about it, but essentially it allows you to take all the disparate elements that make up a work in progress (text, research, outlines, drafts) and organise them in one place and when you are done spit out a manuscript ready for subbing. It has endless features, like full screen writing and customisable backups, which would take me hours to outline. Check out their site, or this excellent third party blog.

Dropbox – The Cloud

Ah, the Cloud. I am so sick of hearing about the new grail of IT in the meetings I have to sit through at work, but I can’t deny it has its uses. There are lots of cloud applications floating around (couldn’t resist, sorry!) but I am currently using Dropbox. After installing the application on my Macbook at home and my work laptop, I now have a folder that synchronises between them. It means I can be working on something at home, click “save”, and then when I am eating my lunch at my desk at work start working on it again.

The fact it is all stored online means that my greatest fear, that my laptop will explode or be stolen or eaten by alien goats, is no longer an issue as my work is safe from harm! Plus, I have set up Scrivener to save its automatic backups to the Dropbox folder when I close a WIP, so it adds to my redundancy. 2gb of storage is free, and if I get to the point I need more I can always purchase it.

www.duotrope.com – Web based

Duotrope is a web based service that acts a marketplace for short stories. People putting together an anthology or those running a recurring magazine or site will place advertisements that list what they are looking for, the compensation offered and their submission guidelines. It has a number of other handy features, such as a deadline calendar and submission tracker.

Duuotrope is free, but if you have any spare cash throw some their way, as this the sort of service that is invaluable to an aspiring writer.

Story Tracker – iOS

The only issue I have with Duotrope is that you can only track submissions for markets on their site. As some of the markets I have submitted to are outside of Duotrope’s coverage I wanted a way to keep them up to date. Story Tracker is an app for iPhone and IPad that allows you to do so, and obsessively check things like how long a submission has been pending. The developer is very approachable, and there is talk of an OSX native version, which would be great. You can try a trial version for free.

WriteChain – iOS

Another groovy iPhone app, WriteChain allows you to record the amount of words you have written in a day or session. To encourage you to do so regulary, it creates a “chain” that gets broken if if you go a set interval without writing a certain number of words. The challenge is to have as many “links” as possible and is a great way of setting goals. And, it’s free!

Google Reader – Web based

If you are anything like me, you would have lots of blogs and news sites that you follow, both to keep up with what friends and peers are doing, and for those little snippets of news that might inspire a story. However, I struggle to remember to check sites regularly, and I was finding myself getting behind. Google Reader aggregates the RSS feeds of whatever sites you specify, collecting all the updates in one place.

Byline – iOS

While their is a Google Reader client for iOS, I have been using Byline for news on the go. It syncs with your Google account but has the advantage of caching all the articles for later viewing, meaning I can download my news in the morning on my WIFi and then browse them later, even when not connected. The full version is pricey for an app, so you may decide that, like me, you cna handle a few banner ads and use the free one.

Stanza – Cross Platform

I quite like Kindle, but I use Stanza for non Amazon books. It allows a direct plugin to repositories like Project Gutenberg and can read almost any ebook format. It is lacking a way of organising your library, hopefully they will address that soon. Considering it is free, it is hard to complain too much.

Any other useful tools that I should check out?

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Fan Fiction or Intellectual Violation?

Feb 22

Posted by David in Faith, Geek, Writing | No Comments

There are numerous POV’s when it comes to fan fiction, from authors who fiercely protective of their work and forbid it to those who love it and allow open season when it comes to their mythos and characters, and everything in between. There is some high quality fan fiction out there and even people who have landed book deals on the back of their achievements, but my opinion has always been that is you are going to write 20,000 words why not put it towards your own manuscript and vision?

As a fan, if I knew that an author didn’t want fan fiction featuring their work I would refrain, from a simple sense of respect for them. Writing it anyway, out of some passion for their characters or world, would be sort of like stalking a girl who didn’t want you in her life to show her how much you cared! If I ever got to the point of inspiring people enough to have them write fan fic based on my work I would be flattered, but where I might get a bit protective would be if people were using my ideas in a way completely contrary to the spirit of what my work stood for. I think that is pretty wrong, and not something I would ever do to anyone or want done to me.

That is what I feel is happening here:

Well, there’s two sides to every story, or to quote a less banal maxim, history is written by the winners. That’s the philosophy behind “The Last Ringbearer,” a novel set during and after the end of the War of the Ring (the climactic battle at the end of “The Lord of the Rings”) and told from the point of view of the losers. The novel was written by Kirill Yeskov, a Russian paleontologist, and published to acclaim in his homeland in 1999. Translations of the book have also appeared in other European nations, but fear of the vigilant and litigious Tolkien estate has heretofore prevented its publication in English.

In Yeskov’s retelling, the wizard Gandalf is a war-monger intent on crushing the scientific and technological initiative of Mordor and its southern allies because science “destroys the harmony of the world and dries up the souls of men!” He’s in cahoots with the elves, who aim to become “masters of the world,” and turn Middle-earth into a “bad copy” of their magical homeland across the sea. Barad-dur, also known as the Dark Tower and Sauron’s citadel, is, by contrast, described as “that amazing city of alchemists and poets, mechanics and astronomers, philosophers and physicians, the heart of the only civilization in Middle-earth to bet on rational knowledge and bravely pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic.”

I know this sort of revisionism is fashionable, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth. Personally, I can’t see an issue with stories of “Good vs Evil”, and while there is definitely a place for more nuanced works with shades of grey and moral ambiguity (George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series is one of the greatest fantasy works ever written), why not write your own instead of leveraging off the work of someone who set out to create a particular type of writing?

I have read all the criticisms of LOTR, that it is sexist and racist and reactionary, but I don’t agree. You always find those things in anything if you look for them, and there is no doubt Tolkien was a product of his time. But, if you actually read the books, the heroes are not the aristocratic white powerful males, the heroes are people like humble and small hobbits or the woman who refuses to be bound by the roles foisted upon her by her society and destroys the most dangerous creature in Middle Earth. The established order is powerless to stop Sauron, and the whole theme of the book is of change and of the old order passing away…hardly reactionary stuff. It is a story where individual choices matter, where there is not simply some elite that determines the course of the world but where anyone, no matter how inconsequential they might seem, can make a difference.

LOTR is a revolutionary book, and I think it is under appreciated as such. It is not some vastly powerful magic wielder or muscled barbarian or extraordinarily disciplined army or the intervention of capricious Gods that brings down Mordor, but the values of love and loyalty and altruism and compassion. Imagine if any of those who had the chance had given Gollum what they believed he deserved, instead of the compassion Gandalf spoke of?

The science of Mordor and Isengard was not the sort of science that seeks to understand the world and to be good stewards of it, that seeks to make life better for all people and bring enlightenment and understanding. It was the science that dehumanises, that doesn’t consider the consequences, the science that seeks to bend everything to a political end. Both Sauron and his pale imitator, Saruman, seek to remake the world in their own image and absorb the individual into the collective. The Ringwraiths are the eventual fate of all those under the Dark Lord’s dominion, and it is why we don’t see the Orcs as individuals, because they labour under the tyranny of Sauron’s will.

It’s a fascinating concept, I guess, and I will probably read it. But, I know who I think deserves higher praise out of the creator and the corrupter of the breathtaking vision that is Middle Earth.

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Life Imitates Art

Feb 7

Posted by David in General, Writing | No Comments

A Sicilian couple thought they had the perfect weapon to get rid of her ex-husband — a slab of butter which would melt after they asphyxiated him.

But a post-mortem found remains of the butter in the airways of Calogero Lo Cocco and the pair were unmasked, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reports.

I wonder if they got the idea from the Roald Dahl story?

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Idolatry in the Baggy Green Age

Jan 5

Posted by David in Sport, Writing | No Comments

I have a lot of time for Justin Langer. He was a tough competitor, and as a devout Christian has been more than willing to donate his time to various good causes after his retirement.

That’s why I found this rather odd. Responding to comments from Mike Atherton (who I personally consider the best of the excricketers-turned-pundits brigade) that he felt were denigrating to the “Baggy Green“, Langer had this to say:

“Try telling every young kid playing in Australia that a baggy green isn’t something to aspire to,” Langer said.

“It’s like telling your own kids there’s no Santa Claus, monarchists that the crown jewels are a load of rubbish or a Christian that there is no God.”

Seriously? I am sure he didn’t mean it that way, but putting the Baggy Green on the same level as God is going a bit too far for my taste. I am a cricket tragic, but anyone who puts sport on that sort of level needs to get some perspective.

Since Steve Waugh‘s days, Australian cricketers have given the baggy green an almost totemistic place. While this has no doubt helped team bonding, and I am a firm believer in the importance and value of tradition and continuity, I tend to agree with Nasser Hussain that this is not where Australia’s years of domination sprang from, more from the coming together of a freakishly talented group of players.

It’s nice to know that it isn’t just in the church that people come to regard a symbol as valuable in itself, rather than being valuable because of what it represents!

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AUSSIECON 4 (or why I am a slack blogger)

Sep 8

Posted by David in Geek, Writing | 1 Comment

Well, the past week or so has been crazy. Surgery (again) last Tuesday, then the extraordinary madness that was AussieCon 4. I had an incredibly good time there, which I will go into further, but I am absolutely exhausted. Who knew geeks could party like that?!

I have also received a rejection notice for a short story I submitted more in hope than anything else, and a rewrite request for an anthology I desperately want to get into. It’s long odds, but there were (as far as I know) approximately 170 stories rejected in the first round, so I am happy to get a chance to submit a revised version. The challenge, of course, is balancing how much I want to get published with maintaining the integrity of the story.

AussieCon was my first major convention, and I really did have a blast. The funny thing was that I only actually made it to two of the panels for the whole event! But, I certainly don’t think I wasted my money, because it was the activities that surrounded the Con that really made it a truly memorable experience.

For a number of years I have been a member of a fan group for the author George R.R. Martin. This started when I started reading his “A Song of Ice and Fire” series and went looking for some information online. I stumbled across a fan run message board called Westeros and discovered a massive online community of fantasy and science fiction fans (15,000 plus). While it was ostensibly about GRRM and his works, there was discussion of every author imaginable, and huge debates about politics and religion. I made a lot of friends there and for a number of years was very active. I credit my exposure to so many diverse view points and some of the most intelligent people I have ever spoken to with honing my skills as an apologist, because in those debates if you didn’t know what you were talking about you would get torn to pieces. Lazy arguments were punished the way they deserved to be.

While as life moved on I cut down on my day to day posting, I still maintained the relationships I had formed, because these people meant a lot to me. Anyone who doesn’t understand that online friends can be just as important as ones you see daily probably should stop reading now! But, I had always hoped to meet some of them, and I knew there would be a fair few at AussieCon, and that GRRM would be there as well.

The fan group (the BWB – Brotherhood Without Banners) prides itself on its profile at conventions. and usually throws at least one party for the entire Con and organises a chance for the fans to meet GRRM. As someone “on the ground” I was involved in organising things in the lead up, like buying supplies and finding a venue for dinner the first night. Unfortunately, surgery meant I couldn’t be as useful as I had hoped! But, I managed to get the things done that were needed. It meant a fair bit of running around t, but I certainly didn’t mind that. The amount of pleasure I had gotten from GRRM’s writing and from my involvement on the board meant whatever help I could give was a privilege.

On the Thursday night 25 of us met with GRRM and his partner Parris for a private dinner at a pizza place in Southbank. It was incredibly exciting to get a chance to chat to one of my favourite authors, and over the course of the Con he gave  us all plenty of his time. In fact, I cannot speak highly enough of their attitude to fans and how accessible they made themselves to us, even in the last stages of the Con, when they must have been exhausted. The way they treated their fans was in stark contrast to some other authors who were there, including one very big name, who I will refrain from identifying!

Obviously, GRRM is someone I have always wanted to meet and I really did feel honoured and privileged by the amount of time I got to chat to him one on one. Not only at the dinner, I also shared a cab with them when taking them back to their hotel. I am, however, terribly embarrassed by the fact that I really did babble like the rankest fan boy each time! He was also very kind about my very modest writing achievements (which I couldn’t stop myself from telling him about) and left me inspired and encouraged to keep going with my dreams in that area.

But, as much as meeting George was the fulfilment of a long held dream, I have to say that I enjoyed just as much the chances I had to chat with Parris, and getting to hear about her fascinating life. She really is a lovely person, and she really made us fans feel important and valuable. I just can’t say enough good things about her (my wife thinks I have a bit of a crush on her because of how much I have talked about how wonderful she is, and maybe she is right haha).

On the Friday night there was a Con party, and I spent a lot of time talking to my fellow BWBers, and before I knew, it was 4:30am. After taking a few pain killers (due to the surgery after effects) I crashed and didn’t get back until late afternoon. Saturday was taken up with organising the finer details for the official BWB party we were throwing. We had to make a last minute venue change, and ended up hiring the VIP room at a Crown nightclub. I have to say it was a interesting experience going in and out and walking past the line of 50-100 people waiting to get into the actual nightclub to flash my ID and have a bouncer lift the ribbon and gesture me through with a “This way, Sir”!

The party was a huge success with hundreds of Con attendees turning up, and again we got a chance to see more of GRRM and Parris. We also raised a significant amount of money for charity. As fun as the party was, my glimpses of the nightclub itself reinforced my lack of interest in such things. No one out there looked like they were having much fun. My opinion of nightclubs is there are only three reasons to go…to drink, to dance and to pick up. As I don’t drink, I can’t dance and am very happily married it doesn’t really appeal to me at all!

Again, I got home in the wee hours of the morning only to discover I didn’t have my house keys. My wife reacted surprisingly well to being woken by my tapping on the window!

Sunday night we had more of a private party with GRRM and got to go on a traditonal BWB quest. Everyone just sat around and chilled, getting to talk to GRRM about all sorts of subjects. Monday was a sadder day as everyone began making their goodbyes, until finally there was only a few of the overseas visitors, the driving force duo from WA and myself left, sitting around reflecting on the wonderful time we had all had.

Aside from meeting one of my inspirations and spending time with people I had wanted to meet for years, I also got to make a lot of new friends (people who had started using the board after my time there had lessened). You couldn’t meet a  better bunch of people, and I will be endeavouring to catch up with them as soon as I can. And, the Con allowed to me to find out what some of the resources available to me as an aspiring Australian writer are, and caused me to sit down and set some real goals for the next few years.

I will probably post more on the Con in the next few weeks, but right now I am still recovering from all the excitment!!

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My first rejection letter

Jul 30

Posted by David in Writing | No Comments

It has been a bit of a crazy week. I had some minor surgery, so I am a bit sore and woozy, but recovering fine. About an hour before I checked in I received a rejection letter for one of the stories that I submitted at the start of the month. It seemed to be a form letter (well it read very much like a form letter), but I didn’t have time to think much about it, other than a natural flash of disappointment.

Later that night, I sent off a polite email thanking them for their reply, and asking if they could give me some further feedback, whether it was a quality issue, or whether it didn’t suit the theme of the anthology.

I woke up this morning to a very kind reply from who I think is someone further up the editing tree (judging from their forum) with some encouraging words, telling me that the quality of my work was definitely up there and that if I keep submitting to markets (he suggested using www.duotrope.com, which I use, and www.ralan.com, which I haven’t been) I will get published.

He went on to say that out of 200+ submissions mine was on the shortlist, and it came down to space, and then went on to tell me what he thought was the story’s only weak point. He finished up by saying that when I do get my first acceptance to drop him a line, and to continue to submit to them as they do further anthologies.

It is amazing how much someone taking the time to do that makes such a huge difference to one’s mindeset. It’s not that I would have given up on trying to become an author, but it was definitely a lovely email to receive and will to continue to inspire me as I work towards my goal. It’s great to know that I am not that far off the mark, because it is very hard to judge where you are at when you first start out.

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I will give up procrastinating…tomorrow

Jul 6

Posted by David in Writing | No Comments

Well, I submitted another story to anthology in the US last night. I am actually very happy with how the story ended up, but I think it may be too “Christian” for the publisher. Not that it is particularly overt, it was just a topic where I couldn’t avoid my own beliefs filtering through and it may not suit their needs. That’s fine, I think the story is strong to submit somewhere else if required.

One thing I am not happy with, though, is how with both stories I have submitted them right on the deadline. I don’t know what it is, but I always leave things to the last minute. If I am preaching, I usually finish my sermon prep on the saturday night or during the day Sunday. It usually works out okay, perhaps the pressure inspires me, but it would certainly be less stress if I left myself some time in hand!

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Christian Carnival CCCXXXIV

Jul 2

Posted by David in Faith, Writing | 2 Comments

The latest Christian Carnival is up. It really snuck up on me, I had planned to submit an entry this time around but I have been focused on getting these short story submissions done. Maybe next week.

As usual, there is a fascinating variety of posts, everything from finance to Reformed theology, but the one that caught my eye was From Head to Hand: Being a Christian Writer from Sarah at This is what Sed Said. Obviously, this is a subject close to my heart and it’s reassuring to see that I am not the only one who struggles with the tension between writing gritty and realistic stories and remaining true to our faith. Check it out!

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The start of something big?

Jul 2

Posted by David in Writing | No Comments

I hope so. Five minutes ago, I submitted my first short story to a publisher. I don’t want to get too excited…but I am excited!

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