To all those who say the scientists are making stuff up

Here is a short cut from a 1996 documentary on the earthquake risk in Christchurch. As you can see, it wasn't that scientists were caught unawares by the damage we sustained in the earthquake swarm. Rather, they knew exactly what would happen and tried to tell people, but no one listened.

It's a testament to their knowledge and ability that this documentary was so accurate. Everything they described has happened.

Review of The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was surprised by just how addictive this book was, especially considering that it had a few things about it that I would normally classify as negatives. For example, I'm not usually a fan of present tense fiction, but the first person present POV of the book only took me a few chapters to get used to, and then after that I found the POV to be most appropriate for the story. What it lost in description, it gained in immediacy. Another negative was that I got the impression throughout the book that if I met the main character, Katniss, in real life, I would not like her. She is a cold and calculating character, and callous with other people's emotions. But again, this worked for the story because of the world that Katniss grew up in. It seemed natural that she would have developed in such a way.

All in all, I found the book most enjoyable, and I will be reading the next two books in the trilogy.


View all my reviews

Spent it wisely

Last time I blogged, I wrote about how I was approaching the end of the re-outlining process for my novel (now tentatively called Symmetry Breaking). If you look over to the right, you'll see that I'm now working on the first draft, and I'm doing well. Three weeks in, and I'm just shy of 13,000 words. Not too shabby. Mind you, I'm just writing; I'm not doing any revising or tinkering as I go. Still, it feels good be making measurable progress.

I've been busy outside my writing as well. On Sunday 18 March we held the 'Flights of Fancy' SpecFicNZ/NZ Book Month event. It was a great day, and both the readers and the audience enjoyed themselves. I was very nervous in the lead-up because I've never organised an event before, let alone an event open to the public. But it all went smoothly, of which I'm very, very glad. I had a lot of help with the event: the NZ Book Month team were supportive, as was the rest of the SpecFicNZ Committee; the staff of the Air Force Museum were great; Paul Mannering was an excellent MC (I don't know what I would have done without him); the readers were all so enthusiastic and gave such excellent performances; and my beloved became the driver / carrier of burdens / sound technician (i.e. he did all the things I forgot I wouldn't be able to do alone – like he always does :D ). I didn't do everything perfectly, but I feel like I have learned a lot through organising 'Flights of Fancy' and I'm glad I volunteered for this challenge.

Jennifer Fallon reading to the audience

What else has been going on with me? OH YES. These boots. On my feet.

Unless you can see microwaves, that is . . .

I am very, very close to moving from the (re)outlining stage of my novel on to the writing stage. And I'm so glad of that, because I'm chomping at the bit!

I've made the mistake in the past of getting impatient and moving on to the writing before the outline is sufficiently advanced. Some people can write by the seat of their pants (they can be called 'discovery writers' or 'pantsers'), but I am not one of those. I am a planner, an outliner. Through experimentation with shorter projects over the last year, and through failures prior to that, I've learned that if I don't outline and plan enough, then when it comes time to write I fall on my face. The project stalls.

So over the last several months I've been working hard on researching, brainstorming, and outlining. And now I'm nearly there. I have Monday off work, and I am determined that on that day I will get the outline, if not complete, then at least ready for writing.

I've given myself a deadline of 31 August for the first draft. If I write 5 days a week, that will be a daily target of just over 750 words. I can do this!

Although I am just about to start writing, that doesn't mean I have stopped filling my head with knowledge that could lead to ideas for my novel. I recently started a free trial membership with Audible to see what using their service is like and to support the Writing Excuses podcast. The free book I downloaded was Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku. I love popular physics. I'm enjoying listening to the book on my iPod when I'm walking, on the bus, or doing the dishes.

Today I learned a fascinating fact while listening to Parallel Worlds: the first person to solve Olbers's Paradox was Edgar Allen Poe! That's awesome! Olbers's Paradox is the question: If the Universe is static, infinite, and eternal (as was thought in the past), then how come the night sky is black, and is not blazing with the light of infinite stars? Early hypotheses included interstellar dust blocking the light of distant stars. Of course, the real answer is that the universe is not eternal – it had a beginning, and therefore the light from most of the galaxies in the Universe has not yet had time to reach us. (And because of the expansion of the Universe, it never will.)

I think it is fitting that a poet was the first to see the truth in such a poetic idea.

22/2 - One year on

I thought I'd get to today and feel the overpowering need to comment at length on the Christchurch earthquakes and how I feel about them. But now that I have Blogger open, I find that instead I just feel tired. I guess I've worn myself out; I've spent today watching the memorial on a projector screen in my office's largest meeting room, reading the quake memorial coverage on Stuff.co.nz, and watching a documentary about the quakes on TV. And now I've had enough.

But I do have one thought to share. Ever since 23 December (the most recent large quake event in CHCH) I've been thinking about how even though there are many people who have been suffering greatly for a long time, and those of us who have been lucky cannot even comprehend let alone compare with the trials the less fortunate have been through, every single person in Christchurch, Selwyn, and Waimakariri has been through a traumatic event. So those of us who still have our homes, our jobs, and our loved ones should not feel guilty if we feel a bit stressed by the earthquakes. It's OK. Simply experiencing an earthquake swarm is enough to affect us. We don't need help, and we don't need donations, but we do need to forgive ourselves for not taking everything in our stride.

Flights of Fancy: kiwi sci-fi, fantasy, and horror

I've been organising this event over the past few months. I've worked hard on it, and learned a lot along the way.

Are you in Christchurch? Would you be interested in coming? We've got some truly exceptional speakers lined up, and it's going to be great!

Out with the old, in with the new

Goodness gracious, am I glad that 2011 is over, or what? Although some awesome things happened to me personally, in general 2011 was one hell of a year, from natural disasters, to man-made disasters, to civil unrest. Of course, as I live in Christchurch, natural disasters have been the issue of most importance to me. 

Speaking of which, the latest damaging earthquakes we had here on 23 December have basically confirmed that Canterbury is experiencing a rarer 'earthquake swarm'-type event, rather than the normal 'earthquake with a tail of aftershocks'-type event. This means that we will likely have decades of aftershocks rather than months or a few years as is the global norm. Apparently the aftershocks will at some point decrease in frequency and size until they are no longer disruptive, but they certainly aren't there yet. Oh well. I've given up wondering if/when we'll have another large quake now. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm tired of giving it any more though than that.

On the writing front, I have written the first draft of a short story for a competition, and I am half way through tidying the second draft. I also made one of those goofy New Year's resolutions. I've decided I am going to finish at least the first draft of my novel this year, damn it. I've given the novel's Scrivener file a project target of 31 August, including the remainder of the re-outlining. Even if I fail that target, there will still be several months until the end of the year.

I received a Kindle for Christmas. I was not expecting such an extravagant gift at all. I very much enjoy reading on it, despite knowing that I am now part of the 'bookshop decline' problem. It is easy to snatch a few reading minutes here and there on the Kindle, which means that I have been reading much faster than usual since Christmas. I got through quite a few books over the holiday period, which I am hoping to review here in the near future.