Keith Stevenson's Blog, page 24

Festival!

What a brilliant day at the NSW Writers' Centre Speculative Fiction Festival. Kate Forsyth and Centre Staff did a fantastic job and the whole thing went smoothly, including the launch of Anywhere but Earth. Richard, Alan and Margo read to a quiet crowd on the sunny lawn and afterwards we sold mucho books.

I also really enjoyed the two panels I was on. The Publisher's Talk was a great cross section of indy and mainstream publishing, and thanks to Leigh Blackmore for this picture of the panel.

L...

Se-wrap-eum

And of course I attended the Serapeum novel retreat a couple weeks back with fellow authors Rjurik Davidson, Andrew McCrae and Peter Hickman. Four days of intensive critting did just what I needed it too. Gave me some passion for the Kresh novel, made me question some key elements, and set me loose on a rewrite, which is going pretty well in terms of developing some real drive and momentum to character and plot. :)

Timeslip

Of course the reason I haven't posted for so long is due to moving house and... launching Anwhere but Earth. Yes, it's big and beautiful and for sale in a variety of 'p' and 'e' incarnations here. And the official launch is at the NSW Writers Centre tomorrow.

Thing 2

Woah! Where did the time go? I've seen that Rotten Tomatoes only gave The Thing 33% or thereabouts. Well for the lovers of the John Carpenter version, this The Thing was like a long overdue love letter. There may have been a couple of slow spots, but the majority of the movie recreated that fearful paranoia, expanded the alien backstory and created some beautiful set pieces which interlinked with key parts of the Carpenter movie in a way that brought a smile to my face. I'd give it 80%

Thing

I am so looking forward to seeing the new movie The Thing . I loved the John Carpenter movie and this prequel looks like it pushes all the right buttons. The isolation, the paranoia, and the pant-browning horror of the monster.

Covered

The cover and internal layout for Anywhere but Earth have been finalised and you can see the whole wraparound cover here. The book is off to the printer now and I'm waiting for the payoff that every editor/ publisher loves - holding the freaking thing in my hands for the first time!

Still nowhere to live as yet :(

However now that the proofreading is done I'm able to concentrate on reading the draft novels of my Serapeum buddies. Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson is on my Kindle right now, and a...