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.

ChristChurch Cathedral added to CERA demolitions list

I can't say I didn't see it coming, but still it is sad to see that ChristChurch Cathedral has been added to the CERA demolitions list in the 'Partial Demolish' category. See the list here: http://cera.govt.nz/demolitions/list

Still, I was half expecting it to be a full demolition, the way they had been procrastinating making an announcement, so the news is not all bad.

Christchurch now

At the moment, there is a central city walk open to the public of Christchurch. It starts at the Re:START project, the container mall, and heads up Colombo Street to Cathedral Square. On Sunday I decided I wanted to see for myself what the central city is like. It was not a pleasant experience, but I'm glad I went. Here are some photos I took on the walk.

The Re:START project.

It's not too bad for a mall made out of shipping containers. Of course, the shops are mostly high-end and too expensive for most. Trelise Cooper is there, for example. Because a city can't go without its high-end fashion.

Colombo Street. What was there, again? I can't remember.

Corner of Colombo and Hereford. Again, I can't remember what has gone. I think whatever it was, it was renovated not long before the earthquakes. I seem to remember scaffolding on this corner.

Looking East along Hereford.

Looking down High Street. The lovely old building on the corner is long gone. That building with the top stripped bare is the Grand Chancellor Hotel. If you look side-on, the top is as airy as a leaf skeleton now. It's barely recognisable.

Where the Regent Cinema used to be. There was also a nice sushi place on the street level, and some gaudy souvenir shops facing the square. I spent a lot of time at the cinema (it's where the International Film Festival films were played).

Needs no introduction.

Buildings yet to be attended to in the section of the City Mall East of Colombo.

Steampunk Capital of New Zealand, plus steampunk short story competition

SpecFicNZ and the authors of the Steampunk adventure Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris, are together holding a competition for a spot in the supporting Ministry podcast, Tales from the Archives. The competition is open to all residents and citizens of New Zealand. This is really exciting, because the winner will not only get published, their name will be connected with a high-profile project, and of course all entrants can have fun playing in another writer's sandbox. The full details of the competition are here.

To get people in the mood for writing Steampunk, I thought I'd post a few pictures I took in Oamaru, the Steampunk Capital of New Zealand, at the end of October.

Summer

Happy to be rejected

Recently I worked up the courage to finally send a story to a paying 'zine rather than to a competition. Sending stories to competitions is not nearly so scary, because your submission will no doubt be one of hundreds, if not thousands, arriving at the same time. Also, you don't get 'rejected' from a competition: you just don't win.

I've been a bit worried about how I would handle rejections when I actually started submitting stories to publishers. I was afraid I would get upset and childish about it. But when I found my first rejection in my inbox a short while ago, I was surprisingly happy.

Why was I happy? Because I got a personalised rejection, with some advice on how the story could be improved, and an invitation to submit more work. I think that's pretty damn good for a first submission. I must be doing something right, after all!

Writing practice: something flowery

The other week I started using a site called 750words.com to motivate me to write on a regular basis. The idea behind 750words.com is simple: you have to write 750 words every day; you get points for every day you write; and the longer your streak is, the faster your points accumulate. Because you write your words directly into the website from your browser, you can write from most places. For example, you can write from work in your lunch break. I'm finding it to be a useful tool.

Of course, you have to think of something to write. Every day. Sometimes I draft emails or blog posts (I am writing this very text in my lunch break at work). Usually I work on my main WIP, the Novel. I've recently done a lot of worldbuilding in 750-odd word chunks.

Yesterday I needed a change of pace; I had been writing dry facts for days on end. And then I remembered what my wonderful gentleman caller bought me the other month: Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin. Steering the Craft is a book about the art of writing. I had read chapter 1 previously and so yesterday I decided to do exercise 1 for my daily 750 words. The exercise was to write a piece intended to be read aloud.

What I wrote is more than a bit rough. It also reads like two separate pieces, because about the time I felt like I was running out of oomph I saw I was only at 300 words, so I changed tactic. The exercise challenged me to write from a different angle to the one I write from on default, and therefore what I ended up with was something quite different to my normal prose. I wrote an emotive, sentimental piece from the point of view of a frequent traveller in the world of my WIP. This traveller is monologuing lyrically about the island nation of Adarentia, where my story is set. Although a bit off-beat, I think this piece will be very useful for me when it comes time to create a sense of place within the story.

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