Deborah Kalin's Blog, page 35

moments of stupidity

Moment The First:

About a month ago, probably more actually (knowing my apathy on these matters), my coat pocket developed a hole. My first thought on noticing this was that I should mend said hole before something important fell through it and parted ways with me despite my desires. A couple of weeks after this thought, I slipped my lip balm into my pocket and it vanished. That weekend, spurred to action at last by such a grievous loss, I mended the hole in the coat pocket.

Last week, I noticed a

look who's had a makeover

An email from Allen & Unwin yesterday informs me that the A format paperback1 version of Shadow Queen is back from the printers. Official publication date is 1 September 2009, which means copies should start appearing on bookshelves… well, anytime over the next few weeks, actually.

Complete with the new format comes a new cover. Well, new cover design, since it's the same fabulous artwork:

I am otherwise bereft of content today, because I have spent the day doing such exciting things as arranging

it had to be done

If you noticed a brief silence on the blog, well done you, you're officially attentive. I spent the weekend in Adelaide, where I mostly distressed my grandparents with my (I quote) boundless energy (clearly, they haven't met Spawn) and distressed their cat with my strange and boisterous behaviour. He's used to much quieter, slower games, and definitely not used to flamboyant gesticulations. My cats don't even twitch an ear at random noises and gunfire chatter, or the stampede of running feet, or

well, that's a new one

Last night, I spent my sleeping hours…dreaming I was asleep.

…I think my brain is trying to tell me something.

just keep going, dammit

Last Saturday, a friend of mine said he might take a break from the novel for a bit, because he wasn't sure quite where it was going, and he didn't like it very much at the moment. And I told him that meant he was most definitely Not Allowed to put the novel aside for a bit. Put a novel down when you don't like it very much, and you run the very real risk of never picking it up again. And the only way to be quite sure of where the novel is going is to actually write it, and see where it takes yo

oh frabjous day!

Last weekend I nigh broke my back by parking myself in a disintegrating bean bag for the day.

It may not surprise you to learn, then, that the day after all that editing, I went couch-shopping. Today, five short days after I slapped down some cash I haven't actually earned yet, look what's arrived:

HUZZAH COUCH!

The sharp-eyed among you will note the remote control is already in prime position and yes, that is a cup of freshly brewed hot chocolate on the floor. Because watching those blokes lug the

everyone needs somewhere to run to

I've finished the first round of edits on "Shaping Lily" and sent them winging on their way back to the editor — who will doubtless send them straight back with a "Good work! You fixed exactly a drabble of the stuff that needed fixing…here's the stuff you didn't fix back again so you can have another go at that, and while we're at it here's some more!" Because edits are never done in one pass, and fixing one niggle always makes other jagged bits stand out. Writing is in the re-writing, as someon

today i sat in a beanbag for 8 hours (it was the best day evah)

Today, determined to finish the first pass of edits on "Shaping Lily", I decided to track my progress throughout the day. In the interests of accountability, you understand.

Read on at your own peril. You have been warned.

9:17: Realise I've been dicking around on the internet far too long already, mostly reading through 6 insane discoveries science can't explain (yet).1 This is not a promising start to my revisions. Quickly check my to-do list, and remember in a panic all those bloody things I p

i will never in my life earn enough

Regular readers of the blog may have garnered that I, not having one at present, need a couch of my very own, to love and nurture and call george loll about upon.

Last week I happened to mention this to a work colleague, because I knew he had recently purchased a couch and I thought, in my cunning apathy, that if he had done any couch research I might be able to simply mooch off his results and buy1 find a couch I wanted quickly. You know. Like, sometime this year.2

Said work colleague was startli

house of cards

Last night I stared at "Shaping Lily" with my edit letter in mind, and wondered if it's possible to fix what needs fixing without pulling the story to pieces.

It was a totally vain endeavour, of course, and I knew this at the time as well, but it appears to be part of my process. There is a point in my process — just after I've received feedback on a story but before I've actually started any (further) revisions — when the story hangs in the balance. A point wherein I basically sit staring at th