Peter Cooper's Blog

A While Between Drinks

... yes indeed it is, but I'm happy to report that the story I mentioned in the last post has been accepted by Aurealis. I've been trying on-and-off for a few years to get into that mag so it's nice to finally succeed. When I find out which issue and when it's coming out I'll be sure to post it here for your perusing pleasure.

I'm also reading Stephen King's On Writing at the moment. It's been on my hit-list for several years. Lots of really good advice, some of which I've heard before and som...

Still Here...

Salutations faithful blog reader. Yes, it's been just over a year since my last post, which I'm sure is a huge no-no in the book of blog-writing etiquette. And yet here I am posting once again, and it's very nice to be back.

"What has happened in the last year?" I hear you cry. Lots, but not a lot of writing. Part of that was due to my lack of motivation after Shamblers was rejected. Part of it was due to life just getting busy. We're in a new house now and there's lots to do, and those young...

Sliding Doors

Just over four months after sending Shamblers off to the publisher I finally found out the book has been rejected. Apparently the powers that be in the wider arm of the company didn't think it was a goer. It's a bit of a blow, especially after hanging out for so long to find out and not really being able to get into anything else in the meantime. What scared me the most in their reply was the fact they didn't want to take any kind of risk because Tales of the Blue hadn't done very well for th...

Musings.

Tonight is our very last night in our home of 16 years. When we moved in here we had to plug a cord into the phone-line in order to get internet, our TV was 30 cm wide and could only receive an analog signal (which was frequently blurry), my mobile phone was the size of a brick, and Friday night entertainment meant driving to the video store to hire a VHS cassette of the latest release.

My hope is that when it comes time to move out of our new home, it'll be by teleporter.

To George, or not to George

So a few weeks back I got an email from a 10 year old girl in New Zealand, saying how much she loved my books. Words can't express how much it boosts an author's morale to get a letter like that. To date I think I've probably read it about 93 times, and I'm not done yet.

The only slightly negative thing about the letter was that it wasn't sent to me, at least not initially. It would seem the young writer googled my by name and came up with an author in the UK. Mercifully, the other Peter Coope...

Movements.

So we sold our house a few weeks back, which means we're now able to buy the one we had a contract on. We'll be moving in January just after the holiday madness. The house we're moving to was built in 1870 and used to be the local school-house. It has no mains water, no mains gas, no air-conditioning and no electrical heating. We're relying on rainwater tanks and log fires. That's it.

Yes, that's a little scary, if the truth be known. In some ways it's like stepping back a hundred years. Our c...

Groaning Shelves

I have a lot of unread books on my shelf. Over and over I tell myself I won't buy another book until I've read what I already have. Then it hits me. I walk into the bookshop and I get hit by the smell of the paper and the colour of the cover and the voice of the demon on my left shoulder saying "ooh! this look good!" and before I know it I've done it again. Another one to add to the pile.

So, groaning shelf of unread books, what's to be done?

Recently I had a brainwave. What I've been doing is...

New Ground

I had the opportunity to give my first ever author talk a little while ago at Prince Alfred College. The audience was a group of about forty Year Twos plus teachers. I've been wanting to do school visits for a while now but holding down a full time "normal" job makes it a tad difficult. Fortunately this particular school is only fifteen minutes' walk from my work so I managed to squeeze the talk into the beginning of the day then power-walk to the office in time for morning tea.

Yep, I was pr...

A Post For Which I Could Not Think Up a Title.

Still waiting to hear whether Shamblers is up for publication or not. These things take time, apparently. In the meantime I can happily say I've done no writing at all. That's mainly because we've just signed a contract for a new house, and now we're frantically busy getting the old one into a fit state to sell. Selling your home of 15 year is very unsettling, not to mention time consuming.

I've also been reading. Currently I'm well into Clariel by Garth Nix, and loving it to bits. And yesterd...

Some New Thangs

So Shamblers has now been sent off to my publisher. Initial feedback is good but there are still a few hurdles to jump before it starts through the whole acquisitions process, if it does. Pretty well a repeat of this time nearly 5 years ago. Which I have to say, I'm pretty excited about. Deep down I was worried I might get an outright rejection, particularly as this book is very different from Blue Jade. The initial reaction is very encouraging. 

While I'm waiting, I'm thinking about pic...