A Writer in Need of Some Help…

Dave Freer, a fine writer and one of my friends on SFNovelists, is undertaking a major move from his home in South Africa to Australia.  The move is a complicated one, particularly because Dave and his family have many pets, and the cost of transporting them and getting them through Australia’s stringent pet quarantine is substantial.  As a way of raising money for the move, Dave has started an online story project.  Please visit the site and check out his work.  http://savethedragons.nu/

A Post About Marketing

Today I have another guest post up, this one at the blog of my friend Alan Baxter, an Australian speculative fiction writer and all around great guy.  His blog can be found at http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/.  So stop by Alan’s site, read the post, and enjoy!

The Fires in Australia

During our year in Australia we spent nearly three weeks — glorious weeks — exploring the state of Victoria.   We drove the Great Ocean Road, we visited Ballarat and spent several days in the lovely town of Healesville. (The picture is from a cottage we stayed at in the Yarra Valley, just outside of Healesville.)  The people we met there were kind and welcoming; the landscape was beautiful, at times breathtaking.

Watching the news for the past several days, seeing the devastation caused by the wildfires that are sweeping across that same landscape, we have grieved for those who have died and for all who have lost their homes.  We share the pain of so many who have had their lives destroyed as the fires have spread, and we despair at the great harm done to this magnificent part of a country we consider our second home.

To all in Victoria, and throughout Australia, you are in our thoughts and our hearts.

Interview with Alan Baxter

Alan Baxter is a friend of mine from Australia who has recently published his second book, MageSign. I first met Alan at the Magic Casements Speculative Fiction Book Festival in Sydney, Australia back in early 2006, and we hit it off from the start. He has a great sense of humor and a thoughtful approach to his craft. He also has followed an interesting career path thus far that should be of interest to new writers everywhere. Recently I asked Alan a few questions about his approach to writing, his novels, and his life:

 

Our Big Party (Which Is Why I Haven’t Posted In Days)

So, been a few days.  Had to focus on the rest of life for a little while there,  Every year Nancy and I throw a big party — an Australian Christmas Party.  What makes it Australian? you ask.  Well, in Australia, Christmas is a summer holiday.  It’s hot and sunny, and the year we were there we spent Christmas at the beach eating shrimp and fresh strawberries, boogie-boarding in the waves, and playing cricket.  So we get a ton of shrimp, we get Tim-Tams and Mint Slices (our two favorite Aussie cookies), as well as a ton of other food (cheeses, satay chicken, chips, etc.) we have our friends bring plonk, and we light a fire in the fireplace and crank up the heat so that people will come in shorts and t-shirts and be comfortable, despite the 30 degree (Fahrenheit) weather outside.  Great fun.  But also a lot of work.  So I spent the last half of the week shopping for food, as well as for holiday gifts for family.  Then yesterday we were getting the house ready for dozens of guests.  And, well, blogging and work kind of fell by the wayside.

The party was last night, and it was a great success.  And now I can get back to work for a week before traveling for the holidays.

The Nexus of Rights and Reponsibilities: This Week’s BOW Award

Did you know that in Australia voting is compulsory?  That’s right.  It is against the law NOT to vote in Australia.  Those who don’t show up at the polls on election day are asked to explain their absence, and if they can’t give a satisfactory explanation, they can be fined.  Voter participation in Australia is typically above 90%. 

In many third world countries that are taking their first hesitant steps toward some form of democracy, people risk their lives to vote.  Violence against voters is actually quite common throughout the world.  And historically speaking, it has been common in the United States as well.  Election day violence occurred in northern machine cities (like New York, Chicago, and Boston) and southern rural areas alike.  For centuries, in all parts of the world, people have fought and died for the right to vote.

As many of you know, I have a doctorate in American history.  I don’t think it’s possible to study the history of our nation, particularly the founding years (not my specialty, but I loved the period just the same), without coming away with a profound appreciation for the genius of those who conceived our political system.  Was it flawed?  Of course — these men were limited by the prejudices of their time.  But they managed to develop a system that was both strong enough to sustain representative democracy over the centuries and flexible enough to maintain its relevance even as the world changed in ways that none of them (with the possible exception of the brilliant Benjamin Franklin) could have foreseen.

What does any of this have to do with this week’s BOW (Buffoon Of the Week) Award?  Isn’t it obvious?  I could point out all the stupid, dishonest things done in the name of one candidate or the other over the past week, but really that was nothing new or striking to report.  Same fools doing the same foolish things. 

But as vile as some of the campaign tactics have been recently, the fact remains that we live in a nation that makes all of us the final arbiters of our own political fates.  There’s the old joke — “Everyone always complains about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it.”  Well, people in the United States are constantly complaining about their government.  More than eighty per cent of Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track right now.  And yet even the most optimistic projections put this year’s voter turnout at perhaps 70% of eligible voters.  Historically that would be a great number — higher than any election in the past half century.  And yet, if the projections are correct, nearly a third of American voters will have chosen to stay home.  

So to all those voters who waste their right, their opportunity, their obligation to participate in this week’s election, who through their apathy or laziness or ignorance take this precious gift for granted, this BOW award is for you.  I wish every person in the country would go out and vote for my candidate, but failing that, I just wish every person would go out and vote.  Yes, this all very cliched, and I apologize for that.  But as great as the promise of this nation might be, her chance of realizing that promise is dependent on all of us.  Democracy is more than a collection of rights.  It is, in fact, the nexus of rights and responsibilities.

So go out and vote.

Elegy for an Arch

On July 30, Nancy, the girls, and I hiked the Devils Garden Trail in Arches National Park.  We got up early to avoid some of the heat (at least as much as you can in the Utah desert) and took all of the side trails so that we wouldn’t miss a single arch.  It was a terrific hike — six miles or so through some of the most beautiful country you can find anywhere in the world.

Five days later, one of the largest of the Devils Garden arches, Wall Arch, collapsed.  No one was injured, thank goodness, and no one actually saw it fall.  But at dusk on August 4th it was there.  The next morning it was gone.  All that was left was a pile of rubble and two very unstable rock spurs on either side.  That part of the trail is now closed until the rest of the arch falls and the danger of falling rock is passed.

We were lucky that we got to see the arch at all — my photographs of Wall Arch are probably among the last ever taken.  Sure it was five days.  But in geological terms, we missed the collapse by the blink of an eye.  

In a way, this was a very sad event in the history of the park, which has long been one of my favorites.  (I first visited Arches in 1985, returned there in 1987, and then finally got back again this year.)  Each of the arches is like a museum piece:  unique, irreplaceable.  On the other hand, the fall of Wall Arch is illustrative of something fundamental to the personality of this park, and, in a larger sense, the entire Moab area.  The desert appears static at first glance.  It’s rock and sand and stunted trees.  But Arches and Canyonlands, as well as Zion and Bryce and Capitol Reef and all those other desert parks in southern Utah are constantly changing.  Wind, rain, snow, temperatures that range from winter lows in the single digits to summer highs in excess of 110 degrees are continually reshaping the landscape.  When you look at the fragile beauty of Landscape Arch, the graceful curve of Delicate Arch, the complexity of Double Arch, you start to realize that these things could come down at any moment.  It’s not surprising that Wall Arch fell.  What’s truly amazing is that these others are still standing.  The same processes that created the arches destroy them.  And these same forces are constantly creating more arches.  That’s a slower process, of course, but it’s happening all the time.

For my Aussie friends, it’s much like the collapse of one of the 12 Apostles a few years back.  We got to the Ocean Road too late to see that one, and also too late to see London Bridge (another coastal rock formation) in its original glory.  Those cliff faces are constantly eroding.  There will be more apostles to replace those that are lost.

I’m sad that the arch is gone, that I’ll never see it again.  But I also find it reassuring in a way.  I want to go back to Arches — I intend to return there again and again.  It’s kind of cool to know that a place that seems to be utterly static year after year, is actually changing all the time.

A Post About WorldCon

Hi!  Been a while.  Vacation, family time, and then WorldCon.  I’d tell you more, especially about WorldCon, but I’ve already written it elsewhere.  So go visit http://magicalwords.net and read all about it.

My First Exhibit

Today, for the first time in my life, I hung an exhibit of my photography in a professional gallery.  Okay, it’s a very small gallery that is also a coffee house.  But it’s a gallery nevertheless.

The hanging of the exhibit was actually tremendously fun.  We pulled out all the photos — eighteen in all, from the year Nancy, the girls, and I spent in Australia and New Zealand — and laid them out so that we could see the space as well as the work.  I felt utterly lost; I had no idea where to begin.  But Katherine, the gallery director, who is very, very good at this, pointed out two walls that she felt were the most visible in the space, and therefore the most important.  So we figured out what to hang on each of them.  This only took care of five of the photos, but it gave us a place to begin.   

It was very much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.  The first pieces are always the toughest.  But the more you get done, the easier it is to place the next piece.  Once those two walls were set, we were able to decide which pictures looked best adjacent to the first ones we put up, and then which ones to put next to this second set, and so on.  By the time we had finished, the exhibit looked even better than I had hoped it would. 

I have a couple of photos hanging in another local gallery, a space I share with other Sewanee artists.  But this show is entirely mine.  The show opens on Monday, though the opening reception isn’t until March 26th.  Already, though, I feel a little like a professional photographer.  I don’t usually fill in the “Mood” space, but if I did today, my word would be “thrilled.”

Today’s music:  Larry Carlton (Sapphire Blue)

Coffee House Ramblings

 Okay, I’m sitting in a coffee house here in downtown Sewanee (such as it is)  because my car is in the shop for an oil change.  And I’m having my usual, which is a strawberry banana smoothie with yogurt and apple juice. (They call it “The Town Tramp” for reasons I’ve yet to figure out.)  Anyway, what comes on the stereo mix here in the shop?  Nickel Creek’s “Smoothie Song.”  Not sure what that means, but there you go.

Happy birthday to my brother, Jim.  If you’d like to join me in wishing him a happy birthday, check out his web site.  He’s an amazing artist and his work is well worth a look.

Should also mention that I’ve done a separate post today at http://magicalwords.net.

Many of you know that I used to have a dog — Buddy, the Wonder Dog.  He died a year and a half ago, while we were in Australia, and I miss him every day.  Some friends here in town are dog owners now, and they went out of town for the week, leaving their adorable dog, Violet, with us.  Turns out, while I miss Buddy and like Violet very much, I don’t miss being a pet owner.  I’ve gotten used to not having to walk a dog on cold winter nights.  I’ve gotten used to not  having a dog dig up the yard or bark at passing deer.  I’ve gotten used to not seeing or smelling dog food.  Good thing it’s only for the week.

I feel that I should have something intelligent to say about last nights primary results, but I really don’t.  I’m kind of conflicted about the whole thing.  I wrote yesterday that I hoped Obama would win Ohio and Texas and put this thing to rest.  I still believe that Obama is the one candidate who might truly fundamental reform our political system.  But I also think that the final few days of this weeks campaign revealed weaknesses in Obama as a candidate that could be a problem in November.  Now, I’m not saying that these are fatal weaknesses.  But I’d like to see him recover from them; I’d like to see him handle this situation with the economic advisor who spoke to the Canadian trade reps; I’d like to hear him address more fully his real estate transaction with Tony Rezko.  I don’t think Obama is guilty of anything.  I don’t think he meant to make misleading statements about the NAFTA thing.  I do think he handled these matters poorly in the days leading up to yesterday’s primaries, and I think that these blunders, more than anything else, led to his defeats yesterday.  People in Texas who made up their minds in the last three days before the primary broke for Clinton 2 to 1.  She didn’t win with advertising; he lost with indecision and a sudden, uncharacteristic lack of resolve.  People in his campaign are complaining about Clinton “going negative.”  Ha!  Wait until he goes up against the Republican smear machine.  I want to know that he can stand up to what the wingnuts on the right are going to throw at him, and I want to know that this week’s mistakes were hiccups, rather than harbingers of more serious troubles to come.  I don’t regret voting for him on Super Tuesday, but at this point I need some reassurance that he really is the right candidate to go up against McCain.

Gotta say, I love this wireless thing.

Smoothie’s gone.  Think I need a muffin.  Later.