Anthony Eaton's Blog: Musings from an Outer-Spiral-Arm

Next week I'm off to the Melbourne Writer's Festival. This looks like it's going to be a fantastic week, and if you're in Melbourne, please come and see me. It'll be my first time away from Toby and Min in eight and a half months, so I'm bound to be lonely and in need of friends :)

On the bright side, though, I'm involved in some great sessions, with some *awesome* people:

This Sunday, the 23rd, I'm part of a Professional Development Masterclass on the ins and outs of writing Young Adult Fiction a

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So, on sunday afternoon, we had to go out and buy a baby gate. You know, one of those aluminum things that bolt on to the wall, make it impossible for a toddler to escape, and require four hands and three feet for an adult to open.
Anyway, while looking at the gates in question, we put Toby down on the floor of the baby shop, and he made a beeline for this... thing.
I'm not sure how to describe it. It's kinda like a table. With lights. And levers. And music. And attached toys that squeek and rattl

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Editing. At the same time the best and worst aspect of getting a book published. This one's particularly painful, owing to the fact that it's a first draft and, therefore, horribly written. I'm cringing on a page-by-page basis as I work through this one, knowing that I've actually let people read this poorly written crap.

And, unusually for me, it's taking me ages. Today, for example, I've been working since about 9.30, and only done 10 pages. (Admittedly I've had a couple of interruptions for st

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Yesterday, I was really pleased to see this post here over at Steph Bowe's blog, not least because an old friend of mine, Ben Beaton, makes an appearance. (Or, more accurately, his new book: Mama's Song does...)

Ben and I met when we were both in first year uni, about 900 years ago. Then we both became high school teachers, then we sort of drifted apart for a while as life took us in different directions.

I know he's been working at getting a book out there for a long time now, though. And about f

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It's always such a lovely thing when someone reads one of your books, and then takes the time to write you you and let you know that they enjoyed it. The first time it happens, it's actually kinda surreal, and even after it's happened a few times, it never gets old.I got home this afternoon to find a card on my desk. Sent via my publishers by a nice lady who'd recently read Into White Silence. She liked it. She took the time to buy a card with a suitable image on it. She wrote a sincere and ver

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This one's been around for a little while, now: I first noticed it when Lili did it, and more recently Penny and have been meaning to get onto it myself ever since...

It's pretty self explanatory. First lines from your published, pending, and WIP's:

Published:

1. The Darkness: The Darkness returned to Isolation Bay the Year I turned sixteen.

2. A New Kind of Dreaming: The boat was dead.

3. Nathan Nuttboard H.T.B: There's one thing you need to know, right from the outset

4. Fireshadow: Old spirits live

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So, last week, just before I got hit by the dreaded Pig Disease, the readers and editorial reports for my next book dropped into my inbox, along with a frighteningly imminent deadline (Douglas Adams on Deadlines: "I love deadlines. I really like the 'whooshing' noise they make as they go past".)
This is always something of a good/bad moment, for me.
On the one hand, it's a sure sign that the end is in sight. Just two or three, or twenty or thirty rewrites, and then the book is done.
On the other ha

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I had every intention of being a good blogger this week, and blogging away every day. Even just a little bit.

And then, at 5.13 monday night, I got a sore throat.

"Darn. Here comes a head cold." I said.

Oh, such optimism.

By tuesday morning, I no longer had a sore throat. Instead, it felt like someone had scoured the inside of my neck with steel wool. I also had a headache, which I put down to lack of caffeine and tried to 'cure' with three double shot coffees over the course of the morning.

Not surp

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So...
This week I've been putting together a job application.
*gasp*
I know that for most of you who are, you know, living in the real world, this probably isn't such a big deal.
But for the last seven years I'VE BEEN WORKING AS A FULL TIME, SELF WRITER, PEOPLE!
And that's not the worst part. The last time I actually had to apply for a job was when I finished university and applied for my teaching position in Perth. I applied for one job. I had one interview. That was in 1994.  
That's right. The sum

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I'll be dropping copies of this in the mail this afternoon, to both the PM's Canberra and Queensland offices...

The Hon. Kevin Rudd
P.O.Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT

Dear Mr. Rudd,

I write concerning the recent proposal from the productivity commission regarding changes to Australian Territorial Copyright laws. As a parent, an educator and a practicing, published, Australian writer, the ramifications of these proposed alterations concern me immensely, and I appeal to

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