Deborah Kalin's Blog, page 25

go be out of character — for the better

I have saved a life. When my cousin leant too far over the edge of the pool in an attempt to examine the jet nozzle and fell in, I was the only one who noticed, and I was the one who pulled her out.1

I am addicted to telling stories — and because I therefore practise it all the time, I am developing a knack for it.

I see no difference between Art and Science, and find my brain lends itself to each of these allegedly dichotomous fields equally. I can talk about stellar nucleosynthesis, the way ...

cover art and review copies and photos, oh my!

Let me state for the record that a "windproof" umbrella is simply a lightning rod that is just as likely to turn inside out and nine times as likely to stab you in the eye with a prong as it pretends to valiantly not turn inside out. There's no win here.

But! On to more important matters. Namely, the cover art for Shadow Bound, in proper-sized glory!

If you look closely (click the pic to enlarge) you'll see that the back of Matilde's dress features Matilde in a couple of other poses — those...

apparently, being dead is kinda fun

In travel news, I appear to be enduring that pre-travel period which involves the haemorrhaging of money. I don't like this bit so much.

On the other hand, great advancements in travel preparations were made today, including taking delivery of my brand new camera. Which I don't know how to drive yet. But time and tide &c — just as I finished shoving the batteries and memory card into place, 2010's Zombie Shuffle staggered past.

They were moving pretty fast, for zombies, and there was an...

is it m-o-n-g-o-u-a?

While I was busy being jabbed by the GP1 the other day, I received a phone call from the Embassy of Mongolia. Cue wonder, and mild worry that something was awry with my visa application.

When I returned the call, I was greeted with a simple, blank "Hello…?"

Not entirely sure I hadn't misdialled, I gave my name and said I was returning a call, about my visa application. This was greeted with silence. And then a quick and hurried conversation in the background beginning with the phrase "A woman! ...

writing is such a chaotic sport

Justine Musk (who always has amazingly clever things to say on the topic of wordsmithery) talks about outlining, and why outlines change:

This is what took me way too long (and three published novels) to figure out about plot:

Plot is a process.

…the outline informs the novel but the growing novel also informs the outline.

…What this process requires, however, is a tolerance for ambiguity. For what I described in an earlier blog post as "the muck and murk of writing": the sense that you're...

why yes. i do anthropomorphise everything.

Yesterday, I jaunted along to the GP, who stabbed a few viscous, neon pink mL of rabies into my arm, told me I may possibly be the only person in the known world to have laughter-induced asthma,1 and then told me to hold still, this burning a section of my face malarky would only sting a little bit.

Yup, it's happened again. Sometime in the past two years I went and left the house and gambolled about outside, and now I've only gone and caught cancer. Again.

Luckily, this time, I actually am...

bye, little book

This afternoon, I lugged to the post office a ream of paper otherwise known as the proofs of Shadow Bound, and sent them on their merry way to Allen & Unwin. The proofs are dead, long live the proofs!

It's actually kinda sad, in a way, because this is the last I'll see of this book. It's now officially all grown up (or as grown up as it will ever be under my care) and now I'm shoving it out the door to face the big bad world. Here's hoping I taught her how to swing a punch and speak politely (...

pretty sure the stuff in my kitchen sink has achieved sentience

Deb vs Proofs, so far:

One (1) paper cut gash, to Deb's right index finger
 Several (5+) stubs to Deb's big right toe, because she keeps catching it on the chair or the corner of the desk when turning to check something on one of the stacks of paper on the floor
 Three (3) separate instances of Deb being caught muttering to herself on public transport, causing irreparable damage to her facade of being (relatively) sane
 One (1) moment of soul-crushing despair, on discovering a seemingly...

nothing like happy to turn a monday around

People, check it out:

seagull singing status: not yet

So far, the proofs have taught me three things (or at least, three things which come immediately to mind).

First, a "brace" is a pair of something. Did you all know this? I did not. I was in fact under the impression that it denoted decidedly more than two. Dear proof-reader, thank you for questioning.

Second, enjoy those easy pages which have no mark-up, because sooner or later you're going to hit a page with one tiny little question that makes you realise you have previously farked up the...