Ignite Portland, plus a bit of roller derby.

Speaking at Ignite Portland was a blast. It was scary and interesting and challenging and filled me with a manic kind of energy.

You can see my talk here

and you can see the full list of talks here.

All these videos are brought to you by the fabulous folks at Blaze Streaming Media who do cool things like livestream and then archive Roller Derby Bouts for Portland’s Rose City Rollers. If you’ve ever been curious about roller derby I think these are the best videos of it I’ve seen around and every bout they work to make it better.

Mike has been helping out as a camera man (so you’ll see some of his camera work on some of the videos) and he is now an Assistant Coach for Portland’s roller gals. It’s nice to see him skating around (he was speed skater) and I am very proud of him.

Writer’s Block, Shovels, Ignite!

It’s 2am. In a little over 16 hours I will be presenting my first Ignite Portland Talk, How to Hit Writer’s Block in the Face with a Shovel. I love the Ignite format – 20 slides, 15 seconds a slide. It’s really challenging and it has been an interesting process winnowing my profusion of thoughts down into such a concise format.

Given the restrictions here’s some further reading. Some of these I encountered while I was preparing my talk and was sad not to be able to include them.

Creative Process

• The Artists Way – will get a brief mention in the talk.
• How to Get Things Done, by Robert Benchley – oh it is a delight, thank you Sara Ryan for introducing me to him.

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I didn’t know toes could do that!

I spent a lot of last week flat on my back plagued by a fearsome cold (or as we say in Australia, and the UK, a fearsome lurgy). On Saturday, recovering at last I did a bit of work on the laptop with my feet folded under me. I like to sit that way, it makes me feel like a hardcore martial artist… or tea ceremony gal. I must be doing it wrong, because these days my feet go numb very easily. Maybe I’m leaning back on my ankles too much. Anyway, unbeknownst to me my left foot had fallen deeply asleep and my right foot was lightly snoozing Continue reading »

Clarion Blogs February Update

Three new Clarion blogs have been added to the collection this month – Random Jane, Artemis Jones and Allan Rouselle. I found these blogs through a lovely e-mail Neile Graham sent me many months ago that I’m slowly working my way through. Thanks Neile!

My Campbell Year

Ever since I heard of the Campbell Awards I have loved them. The Campbell Award, given every year during WorldCon, recognises new emerging writers. Once you have received your first ok pay cheque for writing sf/f a clock starts to tick and you have two calendar years to prove yourself worthy of nomination. Carving out a life as a writer is a long marathon and it’s nice to see relatively close goals that you can aim for towards the start of the journey.

I’ve enjoyed thinking about how in 2010 and 2011 would be my years to chase the Campbell dream, to prove myself worthy, to aim high. In a strange twist of fate my first Campbell Award eligible work came out in December 2009, starting the clock a year earlier than I had dreamed (my Campbell bio is now up). I am delighted that Cracked Leather found a place to be published and has been so warmly received. I wouldn’t change it for the world (well maybe the world). It just means my tidy little fantasy of 2010 and 2011 to prove my worthiness for voting in 2012 has been truncated by a year.

The challenge is significant and I am not sure if I will prove my worthiness in time, but it is still worth striving for. I will throw myself as much as I can. This is a challenge to myself and not in competition. I plan to soar with my fellow nominees – we are in this crazy dream together. I will write, I will edit, I will send work to publishers, I will read, I will learn from my peers – as I do every year. But this year I will have an extra spur to my sides that I plan to use. This year will never come again.

2010 is my Campbell year. I’m going to enjoy the challenge.

How to find a comics artist part 1

“Good approaches for finding comic artists to work with,” is a question in my skribit that has been staring at me for quite sometime. I have so many different answers and ideas, depending on the specific project and budget.

This is a very general start point and articulation of things I have found and seen to be useful. There are many fine smart people out there and I encourage your comments, questions, thoughts and corrections. I have further blog posts stewing that approach this question and related aspects from different angles. Mike Luoma wrote an interesting post recently on how to get an indy comicbook out into the world that includes a section on how to find an artist within a broader context. There was also an interesting discussion of Mike’s post in the Comic Book Business for Creators and Creations in LinkedIn, with many views worth taking in.

Future posts I have percolating include “the targeted approach” and “how to get an electrician to work on your house for ‘free’”.

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A funny thing

I do love searching through Google Analytics. There’s so much crunchy data to contemplate I could lose days in it, especially when I’m procrastinating.

Someone found my website searching Liz Argall a funny thing. A funny thing is the name of a song I performed once or twice in the folk scene back in Australia. It was perky and poignant, the chorus was twee and yet I liked it; so I always had to get over a sense of awkwardness when performing (and it was no Telephone Song or Snowing Time). It was also the name of an angry poem I performed a few times (even today I have earned more cashes as a poet than a SF writer, though that is about to end).

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Campbell Awards – get ready to vote!

“The John W. Campbell Award is given to the best new science fiction or fantasy writer whose first work professional publication in the previous two year. of science fiction or fantasy was published in the previous two years” (Campbell official website).

I’m not sure if I’m in my first year of eligibility, though I am listed on the website! I open a terrible can of worms with Cracked Leather as it is a fairly interstitial piece. I’ve checked in with the moderators to make sure I fit, but I have not yet heard back from them. Lets focus on some other folks.

It is a pleasure to know some of the talented people who are eligible for nomination. These are the folks I know who are in their second year:

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Clarion collection of posts have been updated

I try to update the collection every month with a slow, catchemall plan (sustainability is crucial). This month my new catch, harking back to 1985, is from The Ferret. Thanks for flinging them my way dude.

William Shunn and Geoffrey A. Landis have been added to the collection.

Other news

The skribit question (see right hand side of the webpage): How to find a comics artist? has been buzzing around in my head a lot. I’ve composed about 20 zillion answers, generally while trying to fall asleep or not wanting to get out of bed. I have finally found an approach that pleases me and a very rough draft has been written longhand (yep, I’m old school). I have a few other things I have to write before I’m allowed to indulge in finishing it off, but it is coming.

Home from a Photoshoot

I just got home from a lovely photo shoot for Roving Horse Henna, photos taken (of course) by the lovely Annaliese. It has been quite an involved process, working with two delightful women I adore. Wendy, Ms Roving Horse Henna is an astoundingly talented henna artist and Annaliese is a great photographer.

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