Tor Roxburgh's Blog

Revising & Refreshing

If you were here, looking at my desk, glancing at my monitors, assessing my whiteboard notes, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’re back in 2012. The Light Heart of Stone was published that year, but bits of it are all around my office.

Last year I had the good fortune to come across Midnight Voss, an editor who specialises in genre fiction. She reviewed The Light Heart of Stone and The Rush of Stone (the second book in the series) and set me to work. New chapters, character revisions, plot adjustments.

The work has pushed me to refresh and extend my writing skills.

I wonder whether you’ve been going through something similar: a renewal or a change in your professional life? Let me know on Instagram or Facebook.

Book Recommendation

It’s been years since I read a spy novel. I think the most recent was a John le Carré and I remember being vaguely confused by the twists and turns. Not my thing at all. But Slow Horses is a delight. The seedy characters are contemporary, but are all suffering from cold war hangovers.

Read this for pleasure, but if you’re interested in writing as a craft, you can read this for Herron’s skills. He does a beautiful job anchoring the characters physically. He uses slabs of exposition without a leaden hand. He has multiple points of view and short scenes but you don’t get lost or irritated.

Slow Horses is Book 1 in the Slough House series.

Podcast

Patrick Bonello and I are deep in Season 2 of OK Smart-ass. 

The podcast continues to be a really terrific way to keep up with tech news.

Listen to OK Smart Ass My Newsletter

Keep up to date with my listening, watching & reading suggestions by subscribing to my newsletter.

Subscribe

The post Revising & Refreshing appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

Unexpected & Lovely

Late last year I published And It Will Be Splendid, which is my second title in a series to encourage journaling.

Unexpectedly and very happily it was noticed by BookAuthority and made it into the list of the 3 Best New Writing eBooks To Read In 2021.

This news has renewed my motivation to create another journal for 2022 and to keep working on my new guided journal for business book readers.

The post Unexpected & Lovely appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

Machine Learning, Books & Attitude

I love that rush when life is changing, but you’re learning; when the future is facing you, stepping on your toes, but it isn’t alarming.

Getting to that pleasurable point, for me, meant uprooting my 20th century self and replanting myself in this century. Embracing the 21st.

It’s led me to try new digital experiences, to listen to new sources of knowledge, and to read even more books.

Book Recommendations Faunaby Donna Mazza

Sometimes I don’t love a particular book but still find it interesting and worth recommending. Fauna is one of those. It is a science fiction novel about an IVF mother expecting an unusual child.

Donna Mazza does a fabulous job evoking the near edge of the future and the lifecycle of 21st century corporations. And I related to the experience of reading contracts without the words settling in any meaningful way in my head.

On the negative side…

Perhaps there wasn’t one. I was irritated by the main character but I think I was meant to be irritated. I wished I’d been given a more concrete outcome but maybe you don’t need one when the outcome is obvious.

Fauna was shortlisted in the Best Science Fiction Novel category for a 2020 Aurealis Award.

The City We Becameby N. K. Jemisin

N. K. Jemisin writes speculative fiction and is the first writer to win three consecutive Best Novel Hugo Awards (the Broken Earth trilogy).

I loved the Broken Earth trilogy but I was glad it was published after The Light Heart of Stone* because we share many motifs and I would have fretted endlessly (as writers tend to do) if my book had arrived after hers.

The City We Became is a very different kind of story. It’s a novel about New York that feels almost documentary in tone but is full of gritty gods.

If recent cultural shifts have got you wondering what fiction is like when whiteness is de-centred, this is a good place to begin reading.

(*The Light Heart of Stone is going to become a free ebook in a couple of months so don’t go and buy it now if you’re feeling curious – I’ll let you know when it’s available for free)

Bring Up the Bodiesby Hilary Mantel

I am late to this series about Thomas Cromwell in Tudor England so you may have read this book and Wolf Hall, which was the first volume. And perhaps you’ve also read the third book, The Mirror & the Light, which I’m yet to read.

I really enjoyed both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies but I’m curious about the why and how of it. The narration is so dry, dusty, and slow. And Mantel writes endlessly of, ‘He, Cromwell…’ in her curious present tense narration. It’s odd.

Perhaps it’s the odd voicing that works because it is different. We don’t write like that today. Perhaps it’s the unusual lack of moral sentiment that’s appealing. Most contemporary books have their hand on the back of readers’ heads to steer their moral judgement.

And the story itself is fascinating even though you’re reading about one ruthless man helping another ruthless man kill his wife.

Listening & Watching

Machine Learning – Lecture
I know nothing about machine learning but it’s something I want to understand. I listened to this MIT online lecture and found it useful and not too hard to follow. I think it’s a good starting point. If you end up joining me on this journey please let me know (via FB or Insta) what you’re listening to and watching.

Punk Rock – A Sit Com
I loved We Are Lady Parts, which is streaming on Stan (if you’re in Australia). It’s a British teen comedy about a band but it’s pretty different. Here is the trailer.

Podcast Listen to OK Smart Ass

Patrick Bonello and I are loving the process of making fortnightly episodes of our podcast, OK Smart-ass.

If you haven’t listened, please do. It’s all about tech and culture.

If you’re already listening and you enjoy the show and you want to help us make an impact please try any, or all, of these supportive listener moves:

recommend the show to a friendreview the show on your favourite podcasting platformsend us a question via our websiteshare our social media posts (FB, Twitter, Instagram-Tor, Instagram-Patrick)support us on Patreon. My Newsletter Subscribe

The post Machine Learning, Books & Attitude appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

Juggling Drafts & Reviewing Books

If you’ve been following me on Instagram you probably know I’ve sprinted my way through Draft 1 of The Rush of Stone. Now I’m dialling up the other part of personality, Methodical Me, to work on Draft 2. 

Step 1 Create a prompt sheet for revision. Step 2 Work over Draft 1 and check off the prompts.

Let me know on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like a copy of my Second Draft Prompt Sheet and I’ll send it to you once it’s up and running.

Book Recommendations The Animals In That Countryby Laura Jean Mckay

What if animals could speak? What if we could understand them even when we didn’t want to? What if we didn’t like what they said? What then?

Pandemic literature is often formulaic but Laura Jean Mckay’s novel is at the other end of the spectrum. It a shocking story about a virus that shoves the language of animals into human heads.

The book’s subtlety and literary style have turned off some genre fiction readers but anyone who enjoys revelation, that realisation that there’s another way to see something you thought you understood, is going to love this book.

Five stars for Georgette for recommending it to me and many, many, many stars for Laura Jean Mckay!

The Absolute Bookby Elizabeth Knox

I focus my reviews on books I enjoy but sometimes I might not like a book but still find it interesting.

The Absolute Book is interesting but I didn’t like it. It’s a portal fantasy novel with gods and plenty of life and death dramas.

On the positive side, I liked the way Elizabeth Knox worked with the revenge theme and gave it a decidedly feminine lens. The internal stories were lovely and the mysterious magical object was interesting.

On the negative side… I know that there are plenty of brilliant exceptions to the rule that you should show and not tell, but I felt told and when that happened I lost my emotional connection to the characters and story.

It’s a good book but not for me, unfortunately.

False Witnessby Karen Slaughter

I have lots of theories about why women like reading murder mysteries in spite of the predominance of stories where horrible, gruesome violence is directed toward us. My current theory is that we live with a level of fear and danger throughout or lives so reading about the application of justice is really satisfying.

I’ve enjoyed reading Karin Slaughter’s novels for many years but I particularly enjoyed this one. It’s a story about a complicated relationship between sisters, made more difficult by addiction.

I liked Slaughter’s characters but most of all I really enjoyed her writing about the animal-loving humans in the story. There was so much humour and gentleness in those moments.

Podcast Listen to OK Smart Ass

Patrick Bonello and I are making fortnightly episodes of our podcast, OK Smart Ass. If you haven’t listened, please do. It’s all about tech and society and gadgets and culture.

What have you been listening to and watching this month?

I’ve been hooked on Australia’s Coronacast podcast with a side serve of the ABC’s other fine offerings such as China, If You’re Listening (podcast) and Ms Represented (documentary).

My Newsletter Subscribe

The post Juggling Drafts & Reviewing Books appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

New Podcast & Book Reviews

I never imagined I would start a podcast about tech but there’s no accounting for what can happen when you get together with Patrick Bonello.

Patrick and I created Ok Smart Ass to talk about the things that go wrong and go right in the tech and gadget world.

I don’t know what tech and science topics the rest of the world is finding interesting right now, but I’m fascinated by AI and synthetic biology.

…and in case you’re scratching your head

If you’re wondering what on Earth synthetic biology is all about then have a listen to Rob Reid and Sam Harris talking about Engineering the Apocalypse or maybe watch Rob Reid’s TED talk.

Listen Now Who is Patrick? Patrick started his career as a radio journalistDoes fun stuff running his own business and making websitesDoes graphic design workLoves readingTeaches tai chiIs keen on gadgets and community activism and secularism and… generally likes thinking about things and doing thingsHas a dog named Fritz

Oh… yeah… and his website business is Genesis FX.

Book Recommendations Hamnetby Maggie O’Farrell

I am normally a genre-only reader and I’m not sure why I picked up Hamnet, but I adored it.

This is a fictionalised account of Agnes and William Shakespeare’s family life, focusing on the death of their only son. The writing was so crisp and evocative that I stopped to take notes. Maggie O’Farrell brings beauty to ordinary objects and ordinary people without disturbing the plot.

And there’s even a touch of the fantastical for a genre-loving reader like me.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara

Did I say I’m normally a genre-only reader? And once again I’m not even sure why I picked this book up, but it was a wonderful read.

This is a child’s eye view of life in the basti, the slum, where Jai and his friends Pari and Faiz struggle to find several missing children.

It sounds like a detective story for children but this is a literary novel with layers that are sweet, shocking, tender and grim.

Good To Great by Jim Collins

I’ve been consuming it at a snail’s pace as it’s part of my non-fiction project to create a guided journal for business book readers.

But less about me and more about Good To Great…

This is a genuinely interesting, exhaustively researched book about the counter-intuitive factors that lift a company’s performance. Happily the insights seem to be transferable to sole traders and freelancers and creatives!

My Newsletter Subscribe

The post New Podcast & Book Reviews appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

Guided Journaling

You know how good intentions pop into your head now and again and you play with them and then discard them? Usually it’s a case of:

too hard

not as much fun as you initially thought

you got distracted and

the idea went stale

Just occasionally your good intentions stick and translate into something exciting. The secret sauce is a tiny bit of luck – a little nudge from the world.

The right nudge can help you lead a more creative life.

A lucky nudge can help you build something solid.

It’s happened to me. Take that time I thought about building a stone wall. We went for a drive and we found a quarry, but the stones were all too heavy for a woman to work with. Then I got nudged. There was a pile of wistow bookleaf stone… BOOKLEAF? The name was mine and the pieces were just my size.

A resolution to write can be a similar story. You want to write. You’ve thought about writing. Maybe you have a genre or the glimmer of an idea. Maybe you resolve to keep a journal to get you into the groove. If it’s 2020, you probably wanted to make history personal.

That last of those ideas occurred to me on April 20 when I began writing about the pandemic. Four days later I confessed ‘I don’t seem to be much good at writing a daily diary.’ Ten days later my resolution was abandoned. Aggh sweet failure!

In October I decided to write a guided journal to help me (and you) retro journal 2020. It led me to create a book with weekly summaries of real-world events and creative writing prompts. The most enjoyable part of the project was trialling it: reading about what happened in the world and then looking back at the images in my phone and my WhatsApp feed to relive and write about my year.

I found my first book purchases for the year. I found landscapes I’d loved and amusing family images and missed birthdays and worries about employment and health. It was all there – ready for me to journal.

Maybe you think that using a guided journal isn’t what a hardcore writer would do. You might be right. But it’s what a clever writer would do. Give your phone and your apps a second look, open up your digital calendar, look back at your feeds, and write 2020.

If you fancy a nudge, have a look at And That’s How It Went – a year’s end guide for journaling 2020.

The post Guided Journaling appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

A Last Glimpse

I fully intended to keep a journal this year but it didn’t happen. My failure to journal was especially disappointing because 2020 hasn’t been ordinary. It’s been a wild and difficult year, a year to remember and learn from. I like to think I failed forward because I morphed my disappointment into “And That’s How It Went”: a guided journal to help anyone who, like me, didn’t get their act together in 2020.

The journal is about a week away from being launched and I am taking my own advice and using the prompts to begin recalling my year.

I looked in my phone and found the last photo from 2019. I took it on the 29th of December. It’s a painting from 1953 of Georgie Arce by Alice Neel. I was in the United States visiting my step-mother when I saw this. We were at MoMA and I looked at this painting and wished I was an artist – a real one, not just someone who dabbles. I imagined myself painting like Neel. If I was as good as Neel I would paint the characters and dramas of my local town just like she painted Spanish Harlem.

My step-mother and I returned to Savannah just before New Year’s Eve and I wrote emails to my family in Australia, missing them but loving my holiday. Did I know about the mystery illness in Wuhan? Yes – and I was thinking about it. I was worried. I put my anxiety down to years of reading dystopian fiction, but I was glad I was heading home the following week.

I wonder what your thoughts were and where you were.

The post A Last Glimpse appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

Cracker Brainwave Idea

Two and a half weeks ago I had a brainwave idea. One of those cracker thoughts that spins you around and keeps you working seven days a week.

It was all about journaling.

What if it wasn’t too late to write a journal for 2020????

I really wanted it to be possible even though it was October already and some of the detail from the last few months was already fading.

Future Family Member: ‘So what did you do in the pandemic? What was it like?’
Future Me: ‘Um… Yeah… Well, we wore masks.’
Future Family Member: ‘And?’
Future Me: ‘Um… it was stressful. I can’t remember all the details. Probably should have kept a journal.’

I can hear that conversation and I’m not impressed. Why didn’t I keep a journal in such an important year?

That’s when the brainwave idea hit. I could create a physical book to write in: a guided journal with prompts about real world events and writing prompts that relate to those events. Easy.

Fast forward two and a half weeks and it’s written, edited, proofed and sitting with the wonderful Holly Dunn, book designer extraordinaire.

I’ve created it. I’ve named it and I’m launching in seven days on November 20.
It’s called –

And That’s How It Went – a year’s end guide for journaling 2020

The post Cracker Brainwave Idea appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

Random Magic

Today, I submitted my entries to the Scribbles Creative Writing Awards. It was a nice feeling, even though I could improve the stories if I kept working on them (forever, ha!).

These two characters were snapped in Seville a couple of years ago: a bit of ordinary, ciggie-smoking, magic on the edge of the street.

The post Random Magic appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.

Writing Life Hurdles

I began writing professionally when I was 26. In the beginning, I loved it so much it felt as though every moment was a joy, including all the muddy bits and the mistakes and the struggles. Fourteen years and 14 books later, the joy evaporated. That 14th anniversary challenge, my first writing life hurdle, was all about something Jen Storer calls creative shame. My success wasn’t successful enough to meet my hunger for achievement. All I could see was the inadequacy of my books and my writing and it was emotionally crippling. When I walked into a bookshop, I was swamped by feelings of shame and envy. I didn’t want those emotions to be part of my identity, so I gave up writing. Since we’re talking athletics metaphors, I confess I balked at the hurdle and ran off the field.

I spent most of the next decade running a public art business with my beloved, which brought me lots of joy until I realised I missed writing. When I reflected on my writing life, it seemed as though it had barely begun.

I had always written the sort of non-fiction that I wanted to write but my fiction had been entirely transactional. I wrote teen romance for money. That felt sensible but I wondered whether that was the root cause of my creative shame. I decided to put my heart and soul into trying to write the sort of fiction I loved to read: speculative fiction like Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness and Herbert’s Dune. I was 46.

It took me five years to write and one year to self-publish The Light Heart of Stone. I understand why I self-published but I’m not quite sure why the book took me so long. I do remember that I was very lonely in front of the computer. I ignored the loneliness and started the next project: a science fiction murder mystery, but everything felt pointless. I walked off the field for the second time.

I spent the next three years as the Communications Manager at my local hospital. I loved working collaboratively, but writing other people’s messages wasn’t always satisfying. I kept thinking about my own ideas and the purpose of my working life. I wondered whether I should take a plotting masterclass and whether there was some way I could collaborate to ease the loneliness.

I started writing again last year. I wrote two children’s picture book manuscripts and found the constraints of the genre really stimulating. I wasn’t spending five years on a single story and it was nice to be a beginner again. In the second Covid lockdown, I enrolled in Jen Storer’s Scribbles Academy to learn a bit more about the craft of writing for a younger audience.

And the loneliness problem? I haven’t solved it, but I have resolved to be open to exploring new ways of writing. During the first Covid lockdown, I collaborated on a long piece with an old school friend. It was liberating and exhilarating. I’m also meditating and exercising, and I have my fingers crossed that the resultant improvement in my mental health will usher in a better writing life now that I have turned 60 and have become so clever and wise.

The post Writing Life Hurdles appeared first on Tor Roxburgh.