Craig Cliff's Blog, page 17
July 18, 2013
The Mannequin Makers Location Guide: Part Two: the Antipodes Islands
What the guidebooks say
Name: Bollons Island (aka Horseshoe Island, Lemon Wedge) and Antipodes Island (aka the big island)Nature: RealLocation: The subantactic (about 860kms south east of Steward Island)Importance in The Mannequin Makers: the islands were Gabriel Doig is shipwrecked.Inspired by: Museo del Fin del Mundo, birds, Wellington's south coast.
The beginning of the end of the world
Here's where it all started: Ushuaia, Argentina. The southernmost city in the world on the cusp of winter, 2009.
And in this town there was a museum (Museo del fin del mundo, the museum of the end of the world). And in this museum there was a small room devoted shipwrecks. And in this room there was an bilingual information panel.
And on this bilingual information panel there was a short paragraph about the final days of sail power, when steam ships were taking over the world. How some unscrupulous ship owners would send their wooden sailing ships around Cape Horn in the hopes they'd wreck to get the insurance money in order to buy a steam-powered vessel.
Okay, thought I, that's the ship owner's motivation. But what could possess a captain and crew to man an aging vessel being run hard on the most dangerous route in the hope they'd never come back? Money - sure. The thrill of defying death - perhaps. Madness? Perversion?
As I stood before this bilingual information panel in the Museum of the End of the World, very near the end of the world, characters and plots began to form...
Moving Tierra del Fuego
I began researching what would become The Mannequin Makers in late 2010. As I mentioned in the last post, I was calling it Fin del Mundo at the time. While my initial focus was on Eugen Sandow, department stores and life in urban New Zealand in 1902/03, I knew that I'd eventually need to write about my shipwreck rounding the Horn.
But then a couple of things happened.
1. I went to another museum. This one was closer to home: the Museum of City and Sea in Wellington. And in that museum there was a glass display case. And in that glass display case there were dead albatross.
I took a photo on my phone because I was struck by the size of these birds, even as they lay supine, wings folded away.
These birds has washed up on beaches in the Wellington and Wairarapa regions after the Wahine storm of 1968.
I knew, standing in front of that glass display cabinet, that I knew so little about the southern ocean. I'd thought of albatross as big seagulls, but these were of a different order.
I went back to see these birds a couple of months later and they were gone. They belonged to Te Papa and had been loaned to the Museum of City and Sea. Could I see them in Te Papa? No, they were in storage.
Now you see them, now you don't.
2. An emperor penguin came to Pekapeka Beach. I heard about his arrival while at work. The next day was "a writing day", but instead I drove an hour north to sea this interloper from the Antarctic.
I blogged about it here (I'm still sore the nonsensical name of Happy Feet stuck instead of the more obvious/appropriate Peka, but that's just the novelist in me).
Around (June 2011), I felt I'd broken the back of my urban NZ research and was moving my attention to the shipwreck. I started watching Wild South DVDs from the library and reading books.
I quickly became fascinated by New Zealand's subantactic islands. I devoured books about them. The stories about shipwrecks there were amazing. The fact the Government of Southland, then NZ, set up castaway depots and sent Government steamers down there to patrol the islands and pick up the unlucky souls seemed like such a rich vein of history.
I decided to move my shipwreck from Tierra del Fuego to the Antipodes Islands because I could. Because it would mean I could immerse myself in these books about castaway depots and poorly charted islands and put it all into my book. Because, in a rare bout of patriotism, it seemed like something Kiwi authors should be writing about.
Brass tacks
I'd learn too late about Gareth Morgan's Our Far South expedition to the very part of the world that had captured my attention and I'd attempt to depict in my novel.
So I've never been to the Antipodes.
Of course, I've never been to Marumaru. Or on board a clipper ship. I've been to Dunedin (which features in the novel for a chapter or so) but not in 1891.
I had my imagination.
I had my books (the most important being Straight through from London: The Antipodes and Bounty Islands, New Zealand by Rowley Taylor which made my top ten books of 2012) and DVDs.
I had another museum: Te Papa, where I got to see (and touch) biscuit tins and castaway suits from the Antipodes Island castaway depot. And I got to see a scale model of the GSS Hinemoa, the steamer that patrolled the depots.
I had the South Coast at my doorstep. I'd go down to Houghton Bay and stare into the teeth of the southerly, imagine it was twice as cold and twice as windy and that I had nothing at my back but a fingernail of land dotted with tussock and penguin guano.
And I had my trip to Dunedin, where I saw Royal Southern Albatross up close and in flight, and other pelagic birds. I blogged about it here.
And it turns out that was enough.
Name: Bollons Island (aka Horseshoe Island, Lemon Wedge) and Antipodes Island (aka the big island)Nature: RealLocation: The subantactic (about 860kms south east of Steward Island)Importance in The Mannequin Makers: the islands were Gabriel Doig is shipwrecked.Inspired by: Museo del Fin del Mundo, birds, Wellington's south coast.
The beginning of the end of the world
Here's where it all started: Ushuaia, Argentina. The southernmost city in the world on the cusp of winter, 2009.
And in this town there was a museum (Museo del fin del mundo, the museum of the end of the world). And in this museum there was a small room devoted shipwrecks. And in this room there was an bilingual information panel.
And on this bilingual information panel there was a short paragraph about the final days of sail power, when steam ships were taking over the world. How some unscrupulous ship owners would send their wooden sailing ships around Cape Horn in the hopes they'd wreck to get the insurance money in order to buy a steam-powered vessel.
Okay, thought I, that's the ship owner's motivation. But what could possess a captain and crew to man an aging vessel being run hard on the most dangerous route in the hope they'd never come back? Money - sure. The thrill of defying death - perhaps. Madness? Perversion?
As I stood before this bilingual information panel in the Museum of the End of the World, very near the end of the world, characters and plots began to form...
Moving Tierra del Fuego
I began researching what would become The Mannequin Makers in late 2010. As I mentioned in the last post, I was calling it Fin del Mundo at the time. While my initial focus was on Eugen Sandow, department stores and life in urban New Zealand in 1902/03, I knew that I'd eventually need to write about my shipwreck rounding the Horn.
But then a couple of things happened.
1. I went to another museum. This one was closer to home: the Museum of City and Sea in Wellington. And in that museum there was a glass display case. And in that glass display case there were dead albatross.
I took a photo on my phone because I was struck by the size of these birds, even as they lay supine, wings folded away.
These birds has washed up on beaches in the Wellington and Wairarapa regions after the Wahine storm of 1968.
I knew, standing in front of that glass display cabinet, that I knew so little about the southern ocean. I'd thought of albatross as big seagulls, but these were of a different order.
I went back to see these birds a couple of months later and they were gone. They belonged to Te Papa and had been loaned to the Museum of City and Sea. Could I see them in Te Papa? No, they were in storage.
Now you see them, now you don't.
2. An emperor penguin came to Pekapeka Beach. I heard about his arrival while at work. The next day was "a writing day", but instead I drove an hour north to sea this interloper from the Antarctic.
I blogged about it here (I'm still sore the nonsensical name of Happy Feet stuck instead of the more obvious/appropriate Peka, but that's just the novelist in me).
Around (June 2011), I felt I'd broken the back of my urban NZ research and was moving my attention to the shipwreck. I started watching Wild South DVDs from the library and reading books.
I quickly became fascinated by New Zealand's subantactic islands. I devoured books about them. The stories about shipwrecks there were amazing. The fact the Government of Southland, then NZ, set up castaway depots and sent Government steamers down there to patrol the islands and pick up the unlucky souls seemed like such a rich vein of history.
I decided to move my shipwreck from Tierra del Fuego to the Antipodes Islands because I could. Because it would mean I could immerse myself in these books about castaway depots and poorly charted islands and put it all into my book. Because, in a rare bout of patriotism, it seemed like something Kiwi authors should be writing about.
Brass tacks
I'd learn too late about Gareth Morgan's Our Far South expedition to the very part of the world that had captured my attention and I'd attempt to depict in my novel.
So I've never been to the Antipodes.
Of course, I've never been to Marumaru. Or on board a clipper ship. I've been to Dunedin (which features in the novel for a chapter or so) but not in 1891.
I had my imagination.
I had my books (the most important being Straight through from London: The Antipodes and Bounty Islands, New Zealand by Rowley Taylor which made my top ten books of 2012) and DVDs.
I had another museum: Te Papa, where I got to see (and touch) biscuit tins and castaway suits from the Antipodes Island castaway depot. And I got to see a scale model of the GSS Hinemoa, the steamer that patrolled the depots.
I had the South Coast at my doorstep. I'd go down to Houghton Bay and stare into the teeth of the southerly, imagine it was twice as cold and twice as windy and that I had nothing at my back but a fingernail of land dotted with tussock and penguin guano.
And I had my trip to Dunedin, where I saw Royal Southern Albatross up close and in flight, and other pelagic birds. I blogged about it here.
And it turns out that was enough.
July 9, 2013
The Mannequin Makers Location Guide: Part One: Marumaru
I'm going to run a short series of posts about locations in The Mannequin Makers in the lead up to its release. Specifically those places you can't easily visit because they're either made-up or darned inhospitable.
First up: Marumaru.
What the guidebooks say
Name: Marumaru (later: Marumaru South)Nature: FictionalLocation: The East Coast of the South Island, New Zealand.Importance in The Mannequin Makers: the town where the two mannequin makers, Colton Kemp and The Carpenter, have their rivalry.Inspired by: Baring Head (and later: Moeraki Peninsula and Waimate).
The creation of a town
Back in October 2009 I set myself the challenge of writing 30 linked 100-word stories set in the town of Marumaru South. At the time I wrote:
I hadn't been down to that part of the country for probably a decade when I started this challenge. It would be another nine months before I read Janet Frame's Owls Do Cry, which is set in Waimaru (a fictionalised Oamaru), so I wasn't channelling that, either.
I'm not actually sure what got me locked on that part of the world, anymore.
What I do know is that I was facinated by the views of Baring Head I could see from Mt Albert/Houghton Bay Road in Wellington, where I'd started living about three months earlier.
Baring Head from Wellington (telephoto!)The long stretch of green grass set above the cliffs seemed crying out for a story. It seemed manicured, yet wild. And there was a lighthouse - all fictional towns need a light house.
So I wrote '30 Ways of Looking at Marumaru South' and it got published in Sport 38 (April 2010). In 30 short bursts I'd managed to build up a picture of modern day Marumaru, and give myself the confidence to write a novel set there, only a century earlier.
I started writing The Mannequin Makers, though at that stage I was calling it Fin del Mundo.
I didn't go to Baring Head until January 2012. I blogged about that visit here and took photos like this:
From Baring Head, looking southBy this time, I'd written about half of The Mannequin Makers, including the crucial first section which lays out the town's geography and businesses - at least in 1902/03. There aren't many remnants of Baring Head left in the Marumaru you'll find on the page, except at the start of Chapter Three:
Later in January 2012 I went on a brief road trip in the South Island. I was mostly scouting locations for parts of the novel I was yet to write (see future post on Crossman's Gully), but I was struck by the way the Moeraki peninsula looked a lot like my imagined Marumaru.
Moeraki Peninsula from the north.
I also travelled around Waimate, which is probably the town closest to Marumaru in terms of latitude, just a few too many k's inland to be it. I loved my time in Waimate, and maybe some of it filtered into the final part of The Mannequin Makers, when we return to Marumaru, or during the revision/editing phases. I don't know. But it's worth a mention.
First up: Marumaru.
What the guidebooks say
Name: Marumaru (later: Marumaru South)Nature: FictionalLocation: The East Coast of the South Island, New Zealand.Importance in The Mannequin Makers: the town where the two mannequin makers, Colton Kemp and The Carpenter, have their rivalry.Inspired by: Baring Head (and later: Moeraki Peninsula and Waimate).
The creation of a town
Back in October 2009 I set myself the challenge of writing 30 linked 100-word stories set in the town of Marumaru South. At the time I wrote:
Each story will centre on a different character in the fictional South Island town of Marumaru South (there's a real Marumaru in the North Island, somewhere on the East coast). In my mind Marumaru South lies somewhere between Timaru and Oamaru (hence the name).
That's pretty much all I know at this point. My hope is that each day the town will come a little more into focus, and that maybe one day I'll be able return to Marumaru South with more words to spare.
I hadn't been down to that part of the country for probably a decade when I started this challenge. It would be another nine months before I read Janet Frame's Owls Do Cry, which is set in Waimaru (a fictionalised Oamaru), so I wasn't channelling that, either.
I'm not actually sure what got me locked on that part of the world, anymore.
What I do know is that I was facinated by the views of Baring Head I could see from Mt Albert/Houghton Bay Road in Wellington, where I'd started living about three months earlier.
Baring Head from Wellington (telephoto!)The long stretch of green grass set above the cliffs seemed crying out for a story. It seemed manicured, yet wild. And there was a lighthouse - all fictional towns need a light house.So I wrote '30 Ways of Looking at Marumaru South' and it got published in Sport 38 (April 2010). In 30 short bursts I'd managed to build up a picture of modern day Marumaru, and give myself the confidence to write a novel set there, only a century earlier.
I started writing The Mannequin Makers, though at that stage I was calling it Fin del Mundo.
I didn't go to Baring Head until January 2012. I blogged about that visit here and took photos like this:
From Baring Head, looking southBy this time, I'd written about half of The Mannequin Makers, including the crucial first section which lays out the town's geography and businesses - at least in 1902/03. There aren't many remnants of Baring Head left in the Marumaru you'll find on the page, except at the start of Chapter Three:The lighthouse, vacant since the death of its first and only keeper, stood at the head of a nameless crag. From the handful of times Kemp had gone fishing with his father he could recall the way the bluff and the land sloping down and away resembled the severed tail of a lizard. For twelve years the gas-powered light had acted as a beacon for ships — Mayor Raymond was still agitating for another townsperson to take up the mantle of lighthouse keeper — but for now the tall white tower and the rocks below attracted only would-be suicides.(Also at work here is my time living in Edinburgh, staring out my apartment window at the castle, which is set upon a 'crag and tail' formation).
Later in January 2012 I went on a brief road trip in the South Island. I was mostly scouting locations for parts of the novel I was yet to write (see future post on Crossman's Gully), but I was struck by the way the Moeraki peninsula looked a lot like my imagined Marumaru.
Moeraki Peninsula from the north.I also travelled around Waimate, which is probably the town closest to Marumaru in terms of latitude, just a few too many k's inland to be it. I loved my time in Waimate, and maybe some of it filtered into the final part of The Mannequin Makers, when we return to Marumaru, or during the revision/editing phases. I don't know. But it's worth a mention.
July 1, 2013
A quietly horrifying invitation
It’s the first of July. Which means my book launch is this month. You are all invited. All fourteen of you.
Just remember, I’m footing the bill. I’m not saying I endorse pre-loading or diets that exclude finger food, but such people will get a special message in their signed copy of The Mannequin Makers.
*
Speaking of book launches, Danyl Mclauchlan's first novel, The Unspeakable Secrets of Aro Valley, is being launched this Friday.
I'm gutted I can't make it because:I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on Friday afternoon. True story. So I'll be a bundle of joy at 6pm.The launch is at Philosophy House on Aro Street. As Danyl says, "if you live in Wellington you’ve probably thought about climbing over the high brick wall around it to get a glimpse into the incandescently lit basement, but never quite had the nerve." It's like he's seen straight into my soul!Like most people who've spent a portion of their twenties in Wellington, I lived in Aro Valley for a year and wrote average short stories set in damp flats. In fact, my first published short story ('Cristo Redentor' in JAAM 25) was set in Thule Street. So I'm looking forward to the unspeakable secrets being spoken, so to speak.*
But enough pretend-camaraderie. I've been to enough writer's festivals and had enough old ladies come to the signing table just to tell me they've already "overspent on books today" (*holds up bulging bag full of other writers' books*) but they "enjoyed my session" (*condescending smile*) to know that when it comes to the front table at Unity Books, it's every man, woman and young adult author for themselves!
So, Danyl Mclauchlan, Sarah Laing, Emma Martin, Carl Nixon, Eleanor Catton, Carl Shuker, Tanya Moir, Amy Head, Stephanie Johnson, Damien Wilkins, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Pip Adam, Fiona Kidman, Elizabeth Knox and whoever else has had, or will have, a new book out in 2013 - firstly, damn you! (Strong year for local fiction, huh?) Secondly, you should totally come to my book launch. All will be forgiven.
Did I mention there'd be finger food?
Just remember, I’m footing the bill. I’m not saying I endorse pre-loading or diets that exclude finger food, but such people will get a special message in their signed copy of The Mannequin Makers.
*
Speaking of book launches, Danyl Mclauchlan's first novel, The Unspeakable Secrets of Aro Valley, is being launched this Friday.
I'm gutted I can't make it because:I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on Friday afternoon. True story. So I'll be a bundle of joy at 6pm.The launch is at Philosophy House on Aro Street. As Danyl says, "if you live in Wellington you’ve probably thought about climbing over the high brick wall around it to get a glimpse into the incandescently lit basement, but never quite had the nerve." It's like he's seen straight into my soul!Like most people who've spent a portion of their twenties in Wellington, I lived in Aro Valley for a year and wrote average short stories set in damp flats. In fact, my first published short story ('Cristo Redentor' in JAAM 25) was set in Thule Street. So I'm looking forward to the unspeakable secrets being spoken, so to speak.*But enough pretend-camaraderie. I've been to enough writer's festivals and had enough old ladies come to the signing table just to tell me they've already "overspent on books today" (*holds up bulging bag full of other writers' books*) but they "enjoyed my session" (*condescending smile*) to know that when it comes to the front table at Unity Books, it's every man, woman and young adult author for themselves!
So, Danyl Mclauchlan, Sarah Laing, Emma Martin, Carl Nixon, Eleanor Catton, Carl Shuker, Tanya Moir, Amy Head, Stephanie Johnson, Damien Wilkins, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Pip Adam, Fiona Kidman, Elizabeth Knox and whoever else has had, or will have, a new book out in 2013 - firstly, damn you! (Strong year for local fiction, huh?) Secondly, you should totally come to my book launch. All will be forgiven.
Did I mention there'd be finger food?
June 12, 2013
2013 University of Iowa International Writers Program Residency
Big news Thrillsters, I’m off to Iowa in August. Look, there’s even a press release.
Don’t worry. It’s just for a couple of months. I’ll be back in Wellington soon enough to whinge about how busy I am and apologise for not blogging more often.
Things I’m excited aboutMeeting with the 30+ other writers on the International Writing Program (and becoming buddies with as many of them as my social skills can handle)The packed programme of readings and other events around Iowa CityWriting some freakin’ fiction – I haven’t managed to expand the 'The Cloud Seeder' beyond its first sentence, or write anything else, lately. Nine-ish weeks of solid writing (amid all the other activities) should let me finish at least three stories, and get me well on the way to finishing my next collection in 2014.I may even be able to do a spot of research for my project-after-next (the time travel family saga romance novel).Having plenty of material to write about for my fortnightly Dom Post column.The mid-residency and end of residency travel around the US.Weaselling myself into other parts of the creative writing programme at Iowa – meeting the workshop leaders, maybe a few guest speaking spots.A stopover in San Francisco on the way to Iowa (one of my favourite cities: El Taqueria in Mission, here I come).A bit of travel after the residency, before flying home (Plan A: road trip the length of the Mississippi)Having my wife and daughter with me (the length of their stay and where they stay are still being sorted out… there’s a chance of a house swap with a dude in Coralville, which would be awesome if it happens - please send positive vibes).Finding those US dollars I decided not to exchange a couple of years ago because I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll go back to the States sometime in the next five years,’ AND SPENDING THEM.Getting a bike and riding it everywhere (until the snow comes at least).Getting a new wardrobe (clothes are so much cheaper in the States, and it saves having to lug cold weather gear over there to arrive in 25 degree heat).Escaping the tail-end of the NZ winter.Birds (photos to be posted here!), squirrels, skunks, chipmunks (I haven’t actually researched the Iowa wildlife, but I’m sure they’ve got some cute/interesting rodents).Iowa Hawkeyes Football!
Kinnick Stadium, capacity 70,585Being within four hours drive of at least 4.5 hours drive of three NBA franchises when the 2012/13 season starts.The food (hence the need to cycle everywhere, if I wanna brave the beach upon my return to NZ).Cut and paste: "Creative New Zealand is keen to encourage emerging writers to apply [for the residency] (particularly, those who are on the cusp – with local publisher support – of breaking into the American market)" - who knows how far I am from the cusp, but being in the States for a few months might bring me closer to it, eh?Leaving NZ a fortnight after The Mannequin Makers comes out, so I’ll be available for any and all publicity opportunities that might present in the weeks either side of the launch, but will be completely preoccupied when the great slab of silence and disinterest that follows a new book inevitably falls.The timing also means I’ll avoid a lot of awkward conversations with people at work as they work through the novel (especially after they read pages 278-9). Better to just pretend they've all read the book and loved it when I get back at the start of the NZ summer.
Things I’m less excited aboutGetting Lia to Iowa – if she comes with me in August, she’ll be 8 months old. Not the best person to share a seat with for 16+ hours of flights (and the terminal downtime in between).Getting Lia home.If I can’t fly with Marisa and Lia there and back: letting the team down / being a long distance daddy / Skype father, even if it’s just a couple of days. Sob.The inevitable hassle that comes with going to another country for a block of time (visas, sorting out what to do with our house while we’re away, tax returns...).Having to pull out of an event at the mini-writers festival as part of this year’s Christchurch Arts Festival (last time I was booked to appear down their the festival was gazumped by the first Chch earthquake; next time, Canterbury, next time) [NB: this is what I was talking about when I said I’d finally said no to something the other month].Not being able to attend the awards ceremony for the BNZ Literary Awards and shake the hand of the winner I will have picked for the novice category (though I’ll try to pre-record a speech and tee up a meeting with the winner when I get back).Going back to work in late Nov/early Dec and finding out all the things I was working on before going that haven’t gone anywhere in my absence.
Don’t worry. It’s just for a couple of months. I’ll be back in Wellington soon enough to whinge about how busy I am and apologise for not blogging more often.
Things I’m excited aboutMeeting with the 30+ other writers on the International Writing Program (and becoming buddies with as many of them as my social skills can handle)The packed programme of readings and other events around Iowa CityWriting some freakin’ fiction – I haven’t managed to expand the 'The Cloud Seeder' beyond its first sentence, or write anything else, lately. Nine-ish weeks of solid writing (amid all the other activities) should let me finish at least three stories, and get me well on the way to finishing my next collection in 2014.I may even be able to do a spot of research for my project-after-next (the time travel family saga romance novel).Having plenty of material to write about for my fortnightly Dom Post column.The mid-residency and end of residency travel around the US.Weaselling myself into other parts of the creative writing programme at Iowa – meeting the workshop leaders, maybe a few guest speaking spots.A stopover in San Francisco on the way to Iowa (one of my favourite cities: El Taqueria in Mission, here I come).A bit of travel after the residency, before flying home (Plan A: road trip the length of the Mississippi)Having my wife and daughter with me (the length of their stay and where they stay are still being sorted out… there’s a chance of a house swap with a dude in Coralville, which would be awesome if it happens - please send positive vibes).Finding those US dollars I decided not to exchange a couple of years ago because I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll go back to the States sometime in the next five years,’ AND SPENDING THEM.Getting a bike and riding it everywhere (until the snow comes at least).Getting a new wardrobe (clothes are so much cheaper in the States, and it saves having to lug cold weather gear over there to arrive in 25 degree heat).Escaping the tail-end of the NZ winter.Birds (photos to be posted here!), squirrels, skunks, chipmunks (I haven’t actually researched the Iowa wildlife, but I’m sure they’ve got some cute/interesting rodents).Iowa Hawkeyes Football!
Kinnick Stadium, capacity 70,585Being within four hours drive of at least 4.5 hours drive of three NBA franchises when the 2012/13 season starts.The food (hence the need to cycle everywhere, if I wanna brave the beach upon my return to NZ).Cut and paste: "Creative New Zealand is keen to encourage emerging writers to apply [for the residency] (particularly, those who are on the cusp – with local publisher support – of breaking into the American market)" - who knows how far I am from the cusp, but being in the States for a few months might bring me closer to it, eh?Leaving NZ a fortnight after The Mannequin Makers comes out, so I’ll be available for any and all publicity opportunities that might present in the weeks either side of the launch, but will be completely preoccupied when the great slab of silence and disinterest that follows a new book inevitably falls.The timing also means I’ll avoid a lot of awkward conversations with people at work as they work through the novel (especially after they read pages 278-9). Better to just pretend they've all read the book and loved it when I get back at the start of the NZ summer.Things I’m less excited aboutGetting Lia to Iowa – if she comes with me in August, she’ll be 8 months old. Not the best person to share a seat with for 16+ hours of flights (and the terminal downtime in between).Getting Lia home.If I can’t fly with Marisa and Lia there and back: letting the team down / being a long distance daddy / Skype father, even if it’s just a couple of days. Sob.The inevitable hassle that comes with going to another country for a block of time (visas, sorting out what to do with our house while we’re away, tax returns...).Having to pull out of an event at the mini-writers festival as part of this year’s Christchurch Arts Festival (last time I was booked to appear down their the festival was gazumped by the first Chch earthquake; next time, Canterbury, next time) [NB: this is what I was talking about when I said I’d finally said no to something the other month].Not being able to attend the awards ceremony for the BNZ Literary Awards and shake the hand of the winner I will have picked for the novice category (though I’ll try to pre-record a speech and tee up a meeting with the winner when I get back).Going back to work in late Nov/early Dec and finding out all the things I was working on before going that haven’t gone anywhere in my absence.
May 18, 2013
Craiggate / Mulling the cloud seeder / zipped lips
Craiggate, or It's no longer paranoia when your fears are realised
The few months before a book launch can be nervy. Chances are publication day is swiftly followed by reviews that miss the point, interviews that misquote you and photo shoots in bright sun (squinty eyes!) or weird locales (hey, how about you pose by this construction site!).
The last few months I've had a very specific anxiety: that people will mix me up with Colin Craig, leader of the NZ Conservative Party. He's been in the news a bit lately, whether it's promising a day of reckoning after Parliament sanctioned gay marriage, or threatening a satirical news website with legal action for defamation.
At the risk of getting my own letter from Chapman Tripp, Mr Craig is a bit of a plonker.
Unfortunately, his name bears a number of similarities to mine.
CRAIG CLIFFCOLIN CRAIG
(To confuse things further, I have a great uncle called Colin Cliff.)
It's one thing to be little known in a small country. It's quite another to be little known and confused with a plonker.
I told myself it was just me being over sensitive. People weren't that stupid. No one would ever read 'Craig Cliff' and think, "That homophobic, litigious git who shelled out $1.3 million of his own cash for the last election but never got near a seat in parliament?"
I told myself I was being paranoid.
But then it happened. Perhaps the first of many befuddlements.
My latest light-entertainment column in the Dominion Post appeared on Fairfax's news website stuff this morning with the byline "Colin Craig".
Luckily it was still filed under "Craig Cliff" and the sidebar showed other columns by me. Two astute commenters picked up the anomaly and the Stuff editors fixed it.
In all, the faux pas was online for six hours and I only knew about it for two of those. It was small biscuits. A bit of a laugh really.
But I can't shake the thought that this is not the last time something like this happens this year...
Mulling the cloud seeder
Current word count of my latest short story: three.
Number of short stories other than the cloud seeder I've worked on: one. Oops. And it wasn't even one of the ten options I put on my poll.
Bad blogger!
My lips are zipped
Back in October 2011, my to do list included the item: "Say no to something."
I can now cross this item off. I initially said yes, but then I said yes to something else, something bigger, which meant I had to say no to this other, smaller but still exciting and worthwhile thing. Does that count?
The few months before a book launch can be nervy. Chances are publication day is swiftly followed by reviews that miss the point, interviews that misquote you and photo shoots in bright sun (squinty eyes!) or weird locales (hey, how about you pose by this construction site!).
The last few months I've had a very specific anxiety: that people will mix me up with Colin Craig, leader of the NZ Conservative Party. He's been in the news a bit lately, whether it's promising a day of reckoning after Parliament sanctioned gay marriage, or threatening a satirical news website with legal action for defamation.
At the risk of getting my own letter from Chapman Tripp, Mr Craig is a bit of a plonker.
Unfortunately, his name bears a number of similarities to mine.
CRAIG CLIFFCOLIN CRAIG
(To confuse things further, I have a great uncle called Colin Cliff.)
It's one thing to be little known in a small country. It's quite another to be little known and confused with a plonker.
I told myself it was just me being over sensitive. People weren't that stupid. No one would ever read 'Craig Cliff' and think, "That homophobic, litigious git who shelled out $1.3 million of his own cash for the last election but never got near a seat in parliament?"
I told myself I was being paranoid.
But then it happened. Perhaps the first of many befuddlements.
My latest light-entertainment column in the Dominion Post appeared on Fairfax's news website stuff this morning with the byline "Colin Craig".
Luckily it was still filed under "Craig Cliff" and the sidebar showed other columns by me. Two astute commenters picked up the anomaly and the Stuff editors fixed it.
In all, the faux pas was online for six hours and I only knew about it for two of those. It was small biscuits. A bit of a laugh really.
But I can't shake the thought that this is not the last time something like this happens this year...
Mulling the cloud seeder
Current word count of my latest short story: three.
Number of short stories other than the cloud seeder I've worked on: one. Oops. And it wasn't even one of the ten options I put on my poll.
Bad blogger!
My lips are zipped
Back in October 2011, my to do list included the item: "Say no to something."
I can now cross this item off. I initially said yes, but then I said yes to something else, something bigger, which meant I had to say no to this other, smaller but still exciting and worthwhile thing. Does that count?
May 17, 2013
Archival Activity
One for the archivesI'm in the process of updating www.craigcliff.com, which means sloughing away a lot of the A Man Melting-centric material and adding more current stuff about The Mannequin Makers and my general awesomeness (it won't take long).
In the interests of nothing much, except my own curiosity in twenty years time (what did my website actually say in 2010-13?) I'm plugging the soon-to-be-excised text here.
About Craig
Standard author's bio you'll find all over the place
Craig Cliff was born in Palmerston North in 1983. Since then he has accumulated three university degrees, experienced office life in Australia and Scotland, swum in piranha-infested waters, slept at 4,200 metres above sea level, tried to write a million words in one year and learnt there's not much to do in Liechtenstein. His short stories have been published in New Zealand and Australia; one of them made it into Essential New Zealand Short Stories edited by Owen Marshall. These days he lives on Wellington's south coast and works for the government.
Bonus Q&A — exclusive to craigcliff.com
You attended the International Institute of Modern Letters MA programme back in 2006. Did you write the stories in A Man Melting during your MA year?
No. I actually tried to write a novel that year — a great experience but I think it was a mistake to try and write a novel from go to whoa in eight months. Too many decisions were made for the sake of expedience that then became so integral to the fabric of the novel that it was beyond fixing. The manuscript now sits in my bottom drawer along with the novel I tried to write when I was twenty-one.
So when did you turn your attention to short fiction?
I've always written short fiction. It's a natural progression to start with the shorter form and work your way up to the longer, if that's your goal. I mostly read novels when I was younger (Douglas Coupland, Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk), so that's what I grew up wanting to write. Tastes change, of course, and eventually I found an appreciation for subtlety (though I still love me some Vonnegut). After finishing my MA, I really wanted to keep writing, but didn't have the reserves of energy needed to start another novel. So I returned to short fiction. The two stories I wrote were 'Copies' (already anthologised twice before appearing in A Man Melting) and 'Another Language' (won the novice section of the 2007 BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards). After that, things began to fall into place. In 2008, while living in Edinburgh, I tried to write one million words in 366 days (it was a leap year). I only wrote 800,737 words, but it was a very successful failure. Almost every story in A Man Melting was written or revised during that year.
But to write 800,000 words, you must have written more than short stories?
Oh, sure. There were long rambling blog posts about the Tragically Hip, audiobooks, life in Edinburgh and the places I was travelling that year. There were also a couple of aborted novels and screeds of poetry.
Travel is a common thread in a lot of the stories in A Man Melting. Are these travel stories based on your own experience?
Some more than others. I've never been to Equador or Cambodia, two places characters find themselves in A Man Melting. I used my experience in similar countries like Peru and Thailand, and read a lot of travel blogs and guidebooks to try and get the key details while keeping a tourist-eye view. Fiction, and short fiction in particular, works best when things are called into question. An easy way to do that is to take a character and pop them in an unfamiliar country. I guess I'm less interested in where people travel than what they might find out about themselves when they get there.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on a novel set in the past. I hesitate to call it a historical novel as that phrase isn’t quite right: ‘history’ shouldn’t come before ‘novel’. It’s fiction with a research element. Fantasy tethered by the occasional fact. No corsets are removed. No street urchins or rich benefactors. There is a lighthouse, though. If everything goes to plan it should come out in this part of the world in 2013.
A Man Melting
The blurb
A son worries he is becoming too perfect a copy of his father. The co-owner of a weight-loss camp for teens finds himself running the black market in chocolate bars. A man starts melting and nothing can stop it, not even poetry.
This terrific collection of stories by an exciting new talent moves from the serious and realistic to the humorous and outlandish, each story copying an element from the previous piece in a kind of evolutionary chain. Amid pigeons with a taste for cigarette ash, a rash of moa sightings, and the identity crisis of an imaginary friend, the characters in these eighteen entertaining stories look for ways to reconnect with people and the world around them, even if that means befriending a robber wielding an iguana.
Why you really oughta buy the book
Variety. Is it the spice of life, or is that cardamom? Either way, you've gotta love a book that covers house hunting and celestial mechanics, cheerleader porn and travel blogs, tug of war and car crashes, pregnancy tests, dwarves, hermits, cooking shows, dodgy teachers, the poetry of Sappho and the artistic potential of photocopiers.
Like animals? You'll find a veritable menagerie: cockroaches, fleas, lions, trout (rainbow), kittens (dead), apes (Planet of the), meerkats, whales, kereru, dodo, Yangtzee sturgeon, the indefatigable Galapagos mouse and many more.
Music aficionado? Well, there's references to Blur, The Beatles, Debussy and Dire Straits, but there's also Nelly Furtado, Neil Sedaka, Van Morrison, U2, Styx, and... urr... Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.
Want a dose of kiwiana? What about Cameo Cremes, Raro, Ford Escorts, PVA glue, New World Supermarkets, Rashuns, Ka Mate, Minties, cricket at the Basin, MAF consultants, Nick Harrison and those breast cancer t-shirts you get from Glassons?
Other reasons to buy A Man Melting
1) You're related to Craig by blood or marriage
2) You are Craig's mechanic, accountant, dentist, supervisor-one-removed, former teacher, or best friend from kindergarten
3) You collect books by authors with two first names
4) You have read the other 56 works longlisted for the 2010 Frank O'Connor Prize
5) You have read the other 99 books in The Listener's Top 100 Books of 2010
6) You love lists.
May 12, 2013
Grumble, grumble
So, that poll idea was a good one. Pity about the execution. I've no idea why the votes got wiped every night. If you believe Blogger, after seven days only three total votes were cast...
But this exercise wasn't a waste of time. I got to have conversations (in person, via email) with lots of people, some of them strangers, about ideas and what makes a good story. Some even tried to add to the list of ten ("11. A child catches a teacher being fed answers through an ear-piece."). Thanks Geoff.
The vibe I got from these conversations, and from my mental tally of the nightly votes on the poll (pre-wiping), was that #2 'The cloud-seeder' probably won. So I'm going to write that story next.
Heck, let's dive right into the first sentence:
Och! Instant classic. Now to write another 400 of the buggers...
But this exercise wasn't a waste of time. I got to have conversations (in person, via email) with lots of people, some of them strangers, about ideas and what makes a good story. Some even tried to add to the list of ten ("11. A child catches a teacher being fed answers through an ear-piece."). Thanks Geoff.
The vibe I got from these conversations, and from my mental tally of the nightly votes on the poll (pre-wiping), was that #2 'The cloud-seeder' probably won. So I'm going to write that story next.
Heck, let's dive right into the first sentence:
It wouldn't rain.
Och! Instant classic. Now to write another 400 of the buggers...
May 1, 2013
Decision 2013: What short story should I write now?
I have a list of short stories I’d like to write and I’m gonna share it with you. I know this runs the risk of people pinching ideas (phffft) or, more likely, the ideas shrivelling and dying the moment they see sunlight. So be it. Let only the strong survive.
Why am I sharing this list? Because I want you to choose which one I write now.
I only have time to write one story before my “writing” time* is gazumped by the demands of judging the novice category of this year’s BNZ Literary Awards.
[*Writing time = 5am-7am on those weekday mornings I manage to get up, which means those times I haven’t been woken too often by my 4 month old daughter, bless her tiny feet.]
Note: the titles below as just indicative. Most of the ideas have been percolating for a couple of years. One or two have been around for at least four. This might explain why some appear to have more of an arc, while others are more vague. Of course, these could just be two different types of story: high concept narrative short fiction and subtle, slow-burning character-based fiction??
Let’s see what the people prefer! (Please vote at the bottom. Please. There’s nothing sadder than a poll with no responses.)
The options
1. The sky-dive: A boy is obsessed with sky-diving. He nags his parents to let him sky-dive. They refuse, saying he’s too young. He nags and nags and finally they relent. Then he actually has to go through with it… [NB: you can read the actual moment this idea occurred to me here.]
2. The cloud-seeder: A pilot seeds clouds to make them rain, but isn’t very good at his job. Meanwhile, his ex-fiancée is getting married to another man… [This story comes from a blog entry that I never posted (due to a sudden rush of sanity), but might one day.]
3. ANZAC day: A NZer living in Australia attends an ANZAC day BBQ. An Australian who didn’t attend the dawn service is confronted by his friends and thrown out of the BBQ. Meanwhile, the NZer reflects on a trip to ANZAC cove ‘out of season’ (ie not for ANZAC day).
4. Fear of flying: A guy goes on a blind date with a girl. Turns out, she’s taken him to the final session of her ‘conquering your fear of flying’ course, where they all get to go on board a plane and simulate the flight experience without ever leaving the tarmac...
5. The lover of weeds: A young girl befriends her elderly neighbour who loves weeds and sparrows and all the things everyone else seems to hate or ignore...
6. The judge and the writer: A writer comes second in a short story competition. At the awards ceremony, the judge gets drunk and admits he regrets choosing the winning story over the writer’s, and continues to ring and email words of encouragement in the coming weeks, while the writer struggles with what to write next…
7. The online hitman: A father hires an online hitman to kill his son in a video game so he will have more time for homework… [inspired by this story]
8. Weekends at the port: An office worker takes his daughter to the port every weekend to watch the stevedores load cargo ships. In adulthood, the daughter reflects on what drew her father to the port…
9. The children of Wembley: A Ministry of Education official travels to a (fictional) small Wairarapa town to see if a school that closed in the 1980s should be re-opened. She begins to unearth the story of why the school closed in the first place…
10. The half-sister: A coming of age / desecration of youth story about a fourteen-year-old boy who goes to stay with his half-sister and her mother on the Gold Coast. Includes a scene in a thunder storm…
---
Okay, here's your chance. Vote away.
April 20, 2013
Where it's at (I got two book covers and microphone)
Post-its from final proofsThe Text
On Monday I couriered the final proofs of The Mannequin Makers back to my publisher. There were still a number of things that needed cleaning up - formatting stuff mostly.
This morning I went through a dozen or so queries from the second proof reader (11/12 queries resulted in tiny tweaks).
Now all that remains is to check a PDF to make sure all the changes have been made and that's the text settled. Finally.
The Playlist (for this last stretch of editing)
The Cover
I neglected to mention back in March that Random House Australia had agreed to take their own edition of my novel rather than just import NZ copies. (This made me happy as it increases the chances of getting reviews/coverage over the ditch.)
At the time, RH Australia said they'd use "the same files as RHNZ" (same text) and would probably use the same cover but can't guarantee it "as covers go through a lengthy committee process here." I read this as a piece of expectation management: 'Even if you manage to get a cover you love with RHNZ,' they seemed to be saying, 'you might not get it with us.'
In the words of Kylie Minogue: I should be so lucky. (Hey, if I'm gonna be interviewed in Australia, I'll need to get used to refering to their cultural icons instead of ours... sorry Shona Laing.)
Later in March I wrote about how I wasn't a fan of the cover Random House NZ had their hearts set on (or any of the other covers the designer had presented them), but had come to accept being overruled.
It seemed this cover was set when it appeared on the RHNZ website, though the thumbnail did say 'Not final jacket'.
Then, ten days ago I got an email from Australia after weeks of radio silence: "We continue to work away to come up with just the right cover for The Mannequin Makers and will send you through what we have when we get something we are happy with!"
Without being told Aussie hadn't liked NZ's cover, I'd just been told Aussie hadn't liked NZ's cover.
Well, I thought, maybe I'll get one cover I like. Or maybe Australia's will be even worse!?
Last week I got a look at Australia's preferred cover and oh the relief! I liked it. (Though a few hours later I had to wonder if I'd been conditioned to like it after disliking the first cover so much...).
I also got an email from RHNZ saying the Aussie cover had been passed on to them by their Managing Director (who looks after both NZ and Australia), "as she thinks [the Aussie cover] has wider appeal than where we had got to." However, the NZ team thinks the black panel "is a bit dated" and want to work on the design "a bit further".
Right now, we're in cover limbo. As of this morning, if you go to the novel's page on RHNZ's website you'll still see the old thumbnail pictured above, but if you click on the thumbnail, or click on one of my other books, the image for The Mannequin Makers changes to the Aussie cover.
I'm just a passenger in all of this. It's pretty funny, really. In all, I'm stoked Australia and New Zealand are working together to make sure the final product is a good one, and they're both trying their best to ensure it finds as many readers as possible on both sides of the Tasman.
The launch
As the second-most anticipated sophomore book by a Kiwi fiction writer to be released in August, I'm sure the world is waiting to hear my plans for the launch event. (I could be wrong. There may be someone else releasing their second book that month, in which case bump me down to third-most anticipated).
Well, I'm meeting with the publicity manager of a certain venue tomorrow morning to discuss the possibility of them hosting the launch of The Mannequin Makers in late July/early August. Can't say much more at the moment, but if things fall into place it'll be a bit different from your average Wellington book launch. And there may be something a bit extra in the days before and after the launch.
The next project
I'm going to write a short story, but I've got such a long list of story ideas I fancy writing and I change my mind daily about which one I should write first. So I'm going to crowdsource that decision in a blog post soon...
April 5, 2013
Common people / reading grumpy / see me go
The first ever issue of Common, "The biannual magazine for those with a creative bent and an inquisitive eye", arrived at my house a while ago. It looks a million bucks and was helped into existence thanks to a Kickstarter campaign. Here's hoping there's a second issue (and a third).
Inside there's an interview with me that includes the question: "What do you like about photographing birds?" and, coz the mag has an arty/visual bent, goes on to include a couple of my bird photos...
Regular readers of this blog will know about my birdy-bent, and may have even noticed the lack of bird photos of late. Well, dear readers, it comes with the lack of posting.
I did manage to take this photo of three silvereyes out of my bedroom window the other day. Anyone who has tried to snap a single silvereye will know how tricky the buggers are to capture, but three in one frame, in focus? I was stoked.
Instead of being behind the camera or at my writing desk, it's been the dayjob, the bike commute (see today's Your Weekend column), fatherhood and the occasional piece of housework-cum-modelling...
Reading summary - February/March
I've been a grumpy reader these past few months. It's probably to do with the fact I haven't had much time for books (biking to work means I can't listen to audiobooks as often as when I rode the bus) and I've spent so much time re-re-re-re-re-re-reading my tedious, flaccid, opaque, snore-fest of a novel (remind me to hit reboot on my emotions re: THE NOVEL closer to the launch date).
So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger (novel, audiobook, US)This was okay. A bit sprawling and unfocussed. And what/who the heck does the title refer to? Hood Roberts? You mean the fourth most important character? Or am I missing something? Surely I missed something.
The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard (play, audiobook, UK)Listening to a play on your iPod should work. I mean, it’s better than reading a script, surely. But, for me at least, listening to a play is a sure way of making it seem thin and lifeless. Sorry Tom S, but this was nowhere near as good as the real thing.
Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James (novel, audiobook, UK)
My god, the prologue! What a bore. At least old PD will hit her straps in the first chapter: a dead body, a cast of shifty upstairs/downstairs characters… But no. The text kept circling back to moments “six years ago” (i.e. stuff that happened in Pride and Prejudice), as if this was one long, insufferable cliff note on Austen’s novel. And when death finally came to Pemberley? I wanted to shake the hand of the perpetrator! The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (short stories, Nigeria/US)
These stories did little to arouse any great feeling in me, except perhaps 'Jumping Monkey Hill', which played with the idea of writer’s conferences, the colonial influence still existent in ‘African’ writing, and the old story-within-a-story trope. Things were laid on a bit think with the lascivious, condescending, decrepit English patron of the workshop. Like many of the stories in the collection, he felt functional, formulaic. And there were two - repeat: two - stories written in the second person. I'm sorry, but that's now way to win me over.We others, new and selected stories by Stephen Millhauser (short stories, US)
Hey, I actually liked this one. I’d read Millhauser before, but clearly not his collection In The Penny Arcade, which features the story ‘August Eschenberg’. It’s a darn good story – insofar as it’s masterful and anyone would be proud to have it in their back catalogue – and it’s got A LOT in common with my quaint wee novel The Mannequin Makers that’ll poke it’s head out of its burrow in August: department stores, window displays, the quest for mastery, a rivalry between two practitioners, the old art vs life divide. There are a few differences: Eschenberg makes clockwork figures, the dudes in my novel just make mannequins (hence the title), my novel roves widely, Millhauser’s tale is long for a short story, but sticks to its singular focus on the life of its title character. I’d have no problem if I had read this before (or during) writing my novel, because I think there’s worse things to do than be inspired by great fiction, but that’s not the case. Great minds and middling minds sometimes think alike, I guess.*
And finally, for no good reason, here's NZ's answer to Gang of Four:
