and now for something completely different.

So I was going to put up my 'things I learned this week #2' post today, but instead I received this amazing comment during the night.

Wow. I hardly know what to say. When I started this blog it was going to be a rant about the trials and tribulations of the rejection merry-go-round. I made a few posts about querying and then I got my first follower, Laila Knight. I didn't expect a follower at all let alone so soon, for I am not the first writer to start a blog about writing. That one person from the ether lifted me from the quagmire of the newest round of rejection, and I became determined to send out my proposal again. I might have started the blog to complain about publishing, but I was now going to try and make it a more detailed analysis of how you can forge ahead regardless of all the form replies in your inbox. (Mine were labeled 'Agent Query' in gmail and I always got a quick stab of hope when I saw another one had arrived -- only to be struck down a moment later)

Then there was an unforeseen problem with my blogging plans: I got a book deal.

Now this place is a documentation of how a WIP gets marked up to a manuscript, but Lalia will always be the one follower who was there when it was something else.

Anyway, onto the award:

Rules of the The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. 

Done. But why not one more time for the road; Thanks Laila!

2. Include seven random tidbits about yourself. 

Okay, the hard bit.

• The first real attempt at writing I made was a memoir/journal that will never be published. Ever. It was as much to get a whole lotta stuff off my chest (mostly the false angst of my middle class anxiety) but writing it had two positive effects. I learned how to write a little every day and I used it to seduce a woman into marrying me. But that is another story.
• I hate Harry Potter. Not the books per se, for I only got about a third into the first one, I hate the character. Seriously, we're meant to think he is tormented at the Wizard school? He has magic, friends and mentors aplenty. My real sympathy lies with poor Malfoy, who at least has parental expectations to excuse his behaviour. This may upset some people, but Harry needs to grow a pair, as we say downunder.
• I don't actually read much Fantasy at all now, to be honest, even though I write it. Can't say why that is, for I lived off it growing up. When I get the chance to read, it is straight to the Science Fiction shelves. Banks, Wolfe, Ursula, Pohl -- love them all. Even when a writer does both, its their SciFi I like best. But for whatever reason, I like to write about magic, dwarves, elves and dragons. Especially dragons..
• Okay, last point about books and writing. I think I prefer to listen to audio books now than read. My editor will hate to hear this, as he is a traditionalist, but about my favourite thing to do is go for a long ride around Melbourne, with the voice of a good narrator in my ear. Ask me some time about my thoughts on all this, as I have a theory that we will eventually move back to a more oral storytelling society as the web evolves even closer to a Banksian neural lace.
• I teach art, but haven't made any for over a year -- unless you consider my fantasy map as art, which I don't.
• About the only art I am actually skilled in is origami, and even then I only have one design I'm proud of; a butterfly that has one cut to make its wings, which unfortunately disqualifies it as origami. Like the journal that will never be published, I used these paper critters in the courtship of my wife. Never underestimate the seductive power of transforming a restaurant receipt into a paper butterfly. She kept every one.
• Last one. When I started writing, it was to do something that would make my father proud. He doesn't read fiction, let alone epic fantasy, but I wanted to make something he could point at and say 'my son did that.' Halfway into the book, my son was born. I finished it for him.

Okay, that's seven.

3. Pass award on to 5 others and link to their blogs. 

Kimberly Krey was my second follower. And  her excellent blog is excellent.

The Alchemy of Writing is a blog I love, so go there now and see what its all about.

Indie debut is a blog that every writer should follow. All about indie publishing -- a topic very dear to my heart.

RJ Astruc is another writer represented by my publisher, and this is a shout-out to her website/blog that has lots of her wonderful fiction to read.

And last but by no means least is the blog of Michael Foster, a writer, who amongst other things, is also an editor. My editor to be exact.

4. Let the people know you've given them the award. 

Check.

Okay, thats it. I have just completed another round of editing, and now I need to go and do some teaching.

Thanks again for stopping by.

T.B