New initiative to help Australian authors break into US market

(Apologies if you've already seen this. Reposted from an email.)

They're not hoping for Harry Potter levels of success, but the organisers of a new initiative to connect Australian fantasy and science fiction authors with American and other international publishers expect that it will result in book deals and a higher profile for Australian writers in general.

The project, coordinated by ACT Writers Centre Chair Trevor Stafford, New York Times-bestselling author Garth Nix, renowned editor Jonathan Strahan and award-winning writer Deborah Biancotti, has at its core a print and web promotional booklet that will feature forthcoming books to be published in Australia in the year ahead, writer profiles and contact information for authors, agents and publishers.

In November the booklet will be distributed at several events in New York City, including a reception at the Australian Consulate for key publishing figures. The booklet will also be given to delegates at the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, New York, a significant international industry event which gathers together several hundred agents, publishers, booksellers, librarians and other essential publishing decision-makers and gatekeepers.

"The catalogue will allow us to showcase Australian writers in the genre and we hope will result in book deals with publishers in the United States, United Kingdom and in translation," said Stafford. "Publishing is often about connecting a work with just the right person, and this catalogue will make Australian books much more visible to potential publishers and agents."

The catalogue will cover all forthcoming Australian speculative fiction book-length works that are to be published from October 2007 to December 2008, and will include an appendix for all Australian writers in the genre, whether they are writing novels or short fiction.

The project has been assisted through funding from Copyright Agency Limited and the Literature Board of the Australia Council.

It is being coordinated under the auspices of Conflux, which stages annual science fiction conventions in the nation's capital. Conflux 4 will be held from September 28 to October 1, 2007.

Authors and editors are invited to submit details of forthcoming books or short writer biographies at www.conflux.org.au/wfc by August 31, 2007.

The catalogue will be available for download in November.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

ASIM and bookplates

One of my little-known jobs involves maintaining the subscription list for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine - and packing and posting out every issue. (I've just sent issue 30, and given I took over these duties after issue 6 came out, you can see that's a lot of posting and packing.)

So, that explains the Hal Spacejock bookmark subscribers receive with every issue ;-)

Apart from sending copies to individuals I also mail the bulk orders to shops, and when I sent this latest mailout I included a handful of signed Hal Spacejock bookplates. These went to Galaxy, Pulp Fiction, Infinitas, Fantastic Planet and White Dwarf (all in Australia), so you might want to put your name down for one if you like that sort of thing.

On a similar note, if you happen to have an Andromeda Spaceways subscription and you like the idea of a signed Hal Spacejock bookplate, just drop me an email in time for the next mailout and I'll include one for you.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Speaking up on Crazy Tuesday

Yesterday I received a last-minute invite to the Crazy Tuesday show on Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio (Thanks, EM Sky!)

Anyway, the show airs from 10am on the first Tuesday of every month, and 10am in the states is 10pm here in Western Australia. I finally managed to get microphone + headset + skype working just after midnight my time, and a lively discussion ensued. (I think there were 5 or 6 authors on the line at the same time, but everyone was very polite and willing to let others speak.)

I also revealed one of many obscure jokes buried in Hal 1 which nobody has spotted yet (or if they have, they've yet to email me an Aaaaarrrgghhh!)

I'd certainly be happy to appear again, and if it does look like happening I'll give plenty of advance notice so folks can listen to the loon behind the Spacejock books.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

SF Novelists

I belong to a group of SF/F/H authors gathered under the SFNovelists banner, led by Tobias Buckell of Crystal Rain fame.

The original idea was to have a list where newly published authors could share horror stories, er, make that 'talk about their experiences working with editors, agents and publishing houses'. More experienced authors joined the list (some of them very experienced, with many books in print) which made it all the more useful.

Since then SFNovelists has grown in several ways, and the latest innovation is the SFNovelists site, where you'll find a communal blog, recent news items on member authors, upcoming releases and so on. It's a great central location to access a whole lot of writers, and I recommend you take a look and perhaps even bookmark it.

EDIT: Which authors belong to SFNovelists?

Charles Coleman Finlay, Tobias S. Buckell, Jim C. Hines, Jay Lake, Sandra McDonald, Mike Brotherton, Tim Pratt, Daniel Abraham, Karin Lowachee, Joseph Nassise, Chris Dolley, Karen Miller, Scott Lynch, Steven Savile, Nalo Hopkinson, Simon Haynes, Kristine Smith, Timothy Sanders, Joshua Palmatier, Jim Hetley, Greg Frost, Chris Roberson, Ilsa J. Bick, Barth Anderson, Cherie Priest, Jeff VanderMeer, Marie Brennan, S.L. Farrell / Stephen Leigh, Naomi Kritzer, Kelly McCullough, Mindy Klasky, Lyda Morehouse, Tate Hallaway, Martha Wells, Marjorie M Liu, Brandon Sanderson, Hal Duncan, Sean Williams, David Forbes, Sam Butler, Tanya Huff, Fiona Patton, Paul Crilley, Eleneanor Arnason, Maria V. Snyder, Chris Barzak, Paul Melko, Leah Cutter, Alma Alexander, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Kate Elliott, Sarah Prineas, Kat Richardson, Jenn Reese, Michelle Sagara, John Levitt, David Louis Edelman

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Uncovered during the rewrite

I had a series of scenes in Hal 4 where a major character was a bit of a spare wheel. (Relax, no spoilers here.)

This character wanted to help during a major crisis, but nobody needed the character's assistance. So, the character went off and fiddled around for three chapters while the others got on with things. I wanted to make the character feel lonely, isolated, unwanted. Maybe I did, but it made for poor reading and no tension.

Why? Because when disaster hit and the others came to ask for help, the character had no real involvement. It's a bit like an emergency worker waiting for a call-out - they know all kinds of bad things are happening out there, but until they're personally involved it's just stories from the pages of a newspaper.

So, how to fix this? I'm rewriting so that this major character will be involved in the crisis from the very first minute. The character is going to direct the whole thing, ordering the others around and taking complete control over the situation. Then, when things go wrong, the character is right in the thick of it.

Aside from being in the midst of the interesting parts, I can also build the character's emotions up - joy at being needed, the pride of performing a job well, etc. That makes the fall much harder .. and good plots are all about hard falls, not moping around for chapters on end.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Whole bunch of reviews

Reviews are like buses: you wait around in vain for one, and as soon as you decide to walk home a whole bunch of them run you over.


Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus has not one, but two reviews of Hal Spacejock Second Course. From the first review:

This "second course", then, while it offers much to entertain the reader, also manifests a slightly bitter undertaste that makes the amusement of the narrative the more delightful.

And from the second review:

As with the first, I liked the balance of humour and action within the narrative, giving the reader a story that they are interested in the outcome of, not merely to serve as an obligatory backdrop for the comedy [... ] readers who enjoyed Hal Spacejock (whatever the reason for reading in the first place) will enjoy the second helping. The book is very faithful to the theme and style of the first and fans of the characters will be finding themselves laughing away once more at their (mis)adventures.

You'll find the reviews here. (Minor spoiler warnings for the first one.)


EM Sky of the Mind Unbound newsletter just posted a review of Hal Spacejock Second Course.

Book two in the Hal Spacejock series by Simon Haynes is as good as the first. Maybe better. I know what you're thinking: "No way! Even better?" Indeed.

Read the full review here


Finally, Fiction Focus is a reviewing journal published three times a year by the Western Australian Education Department. It's a selection and buying guide for secondary schools and other institutions serving teenagers. And, according to my publicist, their latest edition contains a 'great' review for Hal Spacejock Just Desserts.

I'm very glad the Hal Spacejock series is finding an audience in high schools. When I were a lad, we were lucky to get a couple of Clarkes and a dusty old Gollancz yellow jacket in the school library. Youth of today don't know how good they have it ;-)

As soon as I get a copy of the review I'll post more.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Oddest phone call I've had for a while ...

My nine-year-old daughter just called from my mum's, where she's having a sleepover. The conversation ended up something like this:

Me: "What's up? Having a good time?"
"Yep."
"Great. So, we'll see you tomorrow then."
"Dad?"
"Yep?"
"On Linux, should I use Microsoft Java, SUN Java or default?"
"Huh?"
"This website wants to know which java plugin to use. I always choose the SUN runtime at home, but Nanny's PC is showing Default."
"Errr, yeah."
"I tried Microsoft but it took ages to load and then crashed."
"You got that right."
(Laughter)
Me: "Maybe try Sun."
"And I want to use the Gimp, but there's no icon in the start menu. Do I have to run it through the terminal?"
Me: "Ummm, yeah. Type gimp then press tab and hit enter."
Her: "Okay, seeya."

Half an hour later I get an email from her:

Her: "ive made an animated pic.... but how can i put it on my webpage from here??"
Me: "Send me an email with an attachment and I'll upload it for you."

Modern generation, eh?

The email just arrived, and so Flippo the animated bird is presented below for your viewing pleasure. (I've also added a guinea pig she did a few weeks ago.)


     

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Late night, end in sight

I was up 'til 1am yesterday (or is that today?) bashing out words for Hal 4. It's rare for me to write after 8 or 9pm, but I was into the climactic ending and couldn't stop. Didn't want to stop, to be honest.

Anyway, it rushed and rushed and I ended up with around 5,000 words, and the great thing about writing a slab in one hit is that it's all fresh in your mind - you don't forget things, and the writing is closer to second draft than early feel-in-the-dark work.

After (another) late night, I had to get up at 7am to take my youngest to school, and today I'm hoping to knock off the very last unwritten scene. (Not the last in the book. This one's around chapter 29 of 32.)

And if there's such a thing as a candle with three ends, I'm burning it. I've been up well after midnight all week, and still have to get up at 7am for school. Pity the night-owl parents, for they have no rest.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

I love it when a plot comes together

You hear athletes - and particularly marathon runners - talk about breaking through the pain barrier. Well, I reckon the same thing applies to writing a novel. Writing the last 10-20% involves more work than the first 80-90%, and there does come a time or three when you feel it's all become too much.

One problem I have is that I often end up with chunks of existing writing which I'm having to rewrite to fit into the plot as it now stands. Facing 2000 words of text in which the wrong characters say and do the wrong things to a version of the plot you discarded two months ago is not my idea of fun. However, if I break the 2000 word scene into the smallest possible units and tackle them one by one, it's much easier. I mean, how hard is it to rewrite a sentence or a paragraph?

Another issue is the drag of That Which Has Gone Before. Usually, multiple versions of it. Deep down I know I'll tidy it all up during the second draft, but at this stage my mental picture of the novel is that of 100+ dimly-remembered scenes, some of which have long since been discarded.

(That's a very good reason not to start rewriting until you get to the end of the first draft. Going through the book with all the later events more-or-less clear in your mind allows you to emphasise bits of the plot which foreshadow the ending, and submerge - or cut - the rest.)

Anyway, I can see the end now and the pain isn't as bad as I thought ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 1 sample as text file

A number of people have asked whether they could get the sample Hal Spacejock chapters in text format, presumably so they could load it onto their PDAs and read the thing under the desk at work.

I think that's a wonderful idea, because there's nothing like getting fired for laughing on the job. So, I've put the sample chapters up in an easily-hidden text file on this page:

5 sample chapters of Hal Spacejock in plain text format

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Handling Rejection - article

I've added another article to my website, this one on rejection. (The author kind, not personal relationships!)

You've spent months or years writing a manuscript, you've made a short list of agents to submit to, you've polished your query letter and first five pages until they practically glow in the dark, and you're just about to hit the post office. What's the most likely outcome?

This article also introduces my pyramid 'o' doom, as seen below:





(The pyramid is subject to revision, as are all my articles. I update them from time to time to correct rampant misinformation and physically impossible advice.)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Staying behind the curve

You know when some new gadget comes out and everyone's ooh-ing and aah-ing and plonking down serious amounts of cash? That's when I set a 3-4 year timer and go about my business.

Mobile phones, mp3 players, the original playstation, the Gameboy Advance, inkjets, laser printers, the PS2, digital cameras, just about all computer hardware ... you don't miss much by picking up slightly older or outdated gear. Or even waiting until a technology (e.g. Digital cameras) have matured to the point where a mid-range model now would have cost you $10,000 five years ago - assuming anyone had built such a beast.

For example, back in 2000 or 2001 we bought a decent digital camera at work to take pics for our product catalogues. I still have the camera in a box somewhere - Olympus, 3 x optical zoom, 1024x768 resolution and a memory card which can hold 4 pictures. (It uses a weird paper-thin wafer card, and when I tried to get a larger capacity I discovered all the bigger sizes use a different voltage and are not compatible.) The batteries (4 x AA) would take about five shots before they were drained. That camera cost my workplace $3600. The camera I bought late last year has a 10x optical zoom (28-300), takes pics at 3800 x 2600, holds 400 of them on the memory card and can take over 280 shots on one set of batteries. It cost me under $700.

Please note - I'm not saying nobody should buy the latest gear, ever. If you need the features and/or have the money to spend, I'm not getting between you and nirvana. For example, when it was time to upgrade my PC last October I chose an E6700 Core 2 Duo chip when the E6600 was half the price. Sometimes it feels GOOD to spend up ...

Strangely, the only thing getting more expensive year on year is software, and for that there's Open Source and freeware. (Just look at Firefox, Thunderbird, VideoLan Client, OpenOffice, The Gimp and many other apps ... and some of my own stuff, of course.)

As for tech, let's use PDAs as an example. Until yesterday I was happily using a Palm M125 purchased new in mumble mumble (yeah, a while ago). Nothing released this century has really caught my eye, and if it did it was over a grand. Devices and operating systems have come and go, and through it all I've held on to my cash.

Well, yesterday I sprung for a second hand Treo 650. This is a nifty phone/PDA/media player/etc in one neat little gadget, and while I can see the 680 or the 700 or the 760 or 9500 have more features (I can already hear the Palm enthusiasts rolling them off), I'll just wait a couple of years for those. Yes, Wifi would have been good, but that can wait.

With the 650 I can check my email on the go (at eye-watering data prices - won't be doing THAT very often), browse the web (ditto) and use a mini qwerty keyboard to write proofed, grammatically correct SMSs in plain English (Yes! I've avoided SMS until now, partly because of the leet speak aspect and partly because there doesn't seem to be a way of typing two letters on the same key without waiting for the cursor. Why isn't there a 'Yes, I want that letter. Now show me the damn cursor for the next one?' button? And don't get me started on predictive input. If my phone knows what I want to write, why doesn't it just go ahead and do it without me?)

The 650 has a few other tricks up its sleeve. Bung in the freeware TCPMP player and you can watch full size AVIs, resampled on the fly to the 320x320 screen. There's an MP3 player for the Treo too, and it'll play tracks off the SD card, so my 1 gig MP3 player is heading for retirement. There's also a bunch of emulators for older gaming systems - the ZX Spectrum, for example - which is like having an arcade in your pocket.

The 650 was apparently featured as the mobile of choice in the TV series 24, back when this PDA was over a grand (aussie dollars) and bleeding edge. Now they can be picked up relatively cheaply, and here's the amazing thing: They still have all the same features they had when they cost over a grand! Wow.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Get 'em while they're hot

With my publisher's permission I've put the first five chapters (53 pages) of Hal Spacejock online. There are 32 chapters in the book, so this represents just over ten percent of the total, which should be enough for anyone to decide whether it's their cup of tea or not.

You'll find the sample pages here. Right now they're page scans, but an electronic file is a possibility in the future.

Enjoy, and say hi to Clunk for me.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

I like my publisher ...

Fremantle Press is a great publisher for many reasons, and this is just one of them: For some time now I've had the first chapters of all three Hal Spacejock books online as free samples, but I just got permission to put the first five chapters of Hal 1 up. All it took was a quick phone call, and off we go. They're happy to leave it in my hands, and I'm happy to oblige.

I've just got the minor matter of writing a chunk of Hal 4 to deal with - now - but right after that I'll get a new section of the Hal Spacejock website set up to handle the 57 pages of freebie goodness. (The entire book is 350, so you're getting a decent chunk.)

The reason for five chapters? The first chapter doesn't contain any Clunk, and it's the Hal vs Clunk sections which make the entire series. Hal without Clunk is like a bookstore without Harry Potter.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Top 100 bestselling authors

This is the list of bestselling authors at Fantastic Planet bookstore since they opened their doors in 2005. (The books list I posted a couple of days ago was for individual titles.)

I made #34 on this list, and that's not bad when you look at the authors around that spot.

31..Isaac Asimov
32..R. A. Salvatore
33..John Birmingham
34..Simon Haynes
35..Neal Stephenson
36..Dan Simmons
37..Katharine Kerr
38..Arthur C. Clarke
39..Alan Dean Foster
40..Harry Turtledove

(The original list can be found on the web here)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 5* on Powells

Just spotted a nice five star review of Hal Spacejock on Powells. I never ask people to leave reviews for my books on Amazon, Powells or anywhere else, but I really do appreciate it when people take the time to do so.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Another happy 'jocker

"I couldn't possibly count the number of times I laughed out loud."

Review here

Thanks, EM Sky ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Back again

I just spent a lovely week in the South West of Western Australia with the family. Lots of bike riding, good food, crackling log fires and no rain (until today, but today was driving home so it didn't matter.)

Anyway, I'm back. I just synced all my email and source code changes across from the laptop and then I hit the web. And the first thing I saw was a blog post by Fantastic Planet containing their all-time bestsellers list dating back to when they opened their doors. Hal 1 and 2 both feature, which was a pleasant surprise. (Hal 3 has only been out 4 months, but it was a bestseller in January so it might show up next time.)

Here are the relevant portions of the list:

21..Nylon Angel…Marianne de Pierres
22..Woken Furies…Richard Morgan
23..Forest Mage…Robin Hobb
24..Flight of the Night Hawks …Raymond E. Feist
25..Hal Spacejock…Simon Haynes
26..Eldest…Christopher Paolini
27..The Blue Girl…Charles de Lint
28..The Gold Falcon…Katharine Kerr
29..Accelerando…Charles Stross
30..Altered Carbon…Richard Morgan

and slightly further down:

41..The Hallowed Hunt…Lois McMaster Bujold
42..White Tiger…Kylie Chan
43..Engaging the Enemy…Elizabeth Moon
44..Hal Spacejock: Second Course…Simon Haynes
45..Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell…Susannah Clarke
46..The Complete Chronicles of Narnia…C. S. Lewis
47..Bad Case of Loving You…Laney Cairo
48..Priestess of the White…Trudi Canavan
49..Court of the Air…Stephen Hunt
50..Iron Council…China Mieville

I don't mind being in that company, I can tell you!

View the full list here

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal supporters

I said I'd post links, and here's the first batch. Go visit them, say hi and commiserate on their folly.

Chief spanner holder
Engineer
Engine tester
AutoChef Tester
Robot polisher
Toolbox fetcher
Refueller

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

For the 3 people on Earth yet to win a copy ...

There's nothing I like better than giving away copies of my books, and now that my publisher has given ME a bunch of spare copies I've rejigged the Hal Spacejock Support Crew, turning it into another giveaway. Yes, it's another opportunity to score with Hal.

All you have to do is post the support crew info from this page onto your blog, and you're automatically in the draw for a signed copy.

Additional pleading will be viewed with favour, but may not affect the outcome ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Free books ...

... but this time they're mine! Temporarily, at least.

*

I'm not sure whether you realise this, but whenever I give away books in my monthly draw I pay for the books and the postage myself. (Yes, I get a discount on the books, but the average draw costs me $120-$200 depending how many I give away and how many of them are going overseas.)

Aren't publishers supposed to do this sort of thing? Yes, and they do during the first few months after the launch, but they can't keep pouring cash into publicity when a book has been out for a year or more.

Anyway, I asked my publisher for yet another box of books to give away, and when they arrived I unfolded the invoice and discovered they hadn't charged me anything for them. 25 copies for nix! (I know they appreciate my efforts, and they know I'm spending up to promote Hal Spacejock. I guess it works both ways.)

So, that's the next couple of months taken care of. More draws coming up - get your name in!

* Amongst the box of new release Hal Spacejocks I received some of the original Hal Spacejocks. So, I had to include the other cover image.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Throwing it all away

I was working on draft scenes in chapter 25 of 32, and I finally reached a point in the novel where I had to make a decision. I've been glossing over this section (about 6 chapters) where people are flying all over the place and the bulk of the Bad Things happen, because quite frankly it didn't really work and I knew I could come back to it.

I'd already written the aftermath and the beforemath (?), and so it came time to tackle the math itself. Hence decision time.

And what a fun day it's been. When the smoke cleared I discovered I'd thrown out a whole chunk of material - about 12,000 words all told - but I did have my outline for the last 8 chapters.

Is it set in concrete? No chance. But each run-through gets closer to the finished product, and involves smaller and smaller changes.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Linux to the rescue

My daughter managed to stuff up the boot partition on her Windows XP by resetting the machine while it was still updating files. I added her drive to my PC and tried to access the partition, but after a few minutes of flashing lights Windows declared the whole thing corrupted. It's formatted NTFS, which makes things all the more fun. I couldn't even run the Windows Repair since the partition showed up as zero bytes, no data, no free space.

I do have a couple of backups of her data, one a partition image from March and the other a My Documents backup from last Monday. However, I wanted to salvage whatever I could so I took her drive from my PC and put it into a Ubuntu linux machine. Booted up, mounted the damaged partition and bingo! There are all the files.

I'm copying everything off now via the network, and the moral of the story is this: if you think you've lost everything off a hard drive partition, don't despair. Before you wipe it and start the long reinstall process, try the drive in a Linux machine first. You might be able to get everything back.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Anyone on LinkedIn?

I was invited to this a while back, made a profile but never let anyone know about it. So, if you're on LinkedIn, here I am:

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 4 release date

Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch (book four in the series) had a provisional release date of January 2008, but after discussion with my publisher and editor we're now looking at April instead. (It would have been March, but there weren't any free slots.)

The main reason is that they'd need the final manuscript by the end of August to meet a January launch, and even then they'd rather have it mid-August. Depending on my editor's reaction when she gets the first draft that could be barely achievable or completely impossible, and so April is a much more sensible choice.





(I don't particularly like January launches anyway, especially when a book has a large YA audience. Schools are closed, everyone's on holiday and all the publicity, advance copies and launch announcements have to be done in December, only to be forgotten over the long Christmas break. Hal 2 and 3 were both January-ish, so I speak from experience)

So, big apologies to those hanging out for Hal 4, but it'll be all the better for the delay. And for those of you NOT hanging out for Hal 4 - now you have more time to pick up and read the first three.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Wild weather

I don't know the official figures, but Perth has been hit with loads of rain and some very strong winds recently. (Nothing compared to the flooding in Queensland and NSW, or the really bad flooding in the UK. But it always seems dramatic when you're caught up in it.)

Anyway, I thought I'd share a pic I took over the back fence yesterday:





As you can see - not your typical warm sunny Western Australian day.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

heARTlines Festival

I finally managed to visit the heARTlines expo at the Mundaring Art Gallery. Amongst many excellent exhibits were the original Dion Hamill paintings for the most recent Hal Spacejock book covers, which were shipped over specially. Pics below!

Big thanks to the organisers for putting on the whole event, and I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.




Acting the Hal 1 cover



Acting the Hal 2 cover



Acting the author

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Wet Ink Newsletter

EM Sky's 'Wet Ink...' newsletter for July 2007 is online, and includes several Hal mentions along with a link to a competition for Jim C. Hines' Goblin Quest or Goblin Hero. (To sum Jim's books up in a sentence, think of a dungeon-clearing adventure written from the viewpoint of a creature about to be cleared. I've read the first one and it was great fun.)

In the newsletter, 'Wet Ink...' has asked all their readers to email me to suggest I send a preview copy of Hal 4 ("Hal Spacejock - No Free Lunch") in for a review. And the emails have already started arriving...

There's lots more to read in the newsletter, and you'll find it right here.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

The entire Hal 4 outline - right here!

Here it is, my working outline with every plot twist carefully detailed:



(Relax, it's an old version.)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Okay, so where is it?

I was going to make this big announcement yesterday about finishing the first draft of Hal 4. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the end.

My wife and I were putting together dinner last night (I was doing my special hamburgers - ultra lean mince, an onion, an egg, breadcrumbs, dash of herbs - while she made a garden salad), and I started telling her about my plans for Hal 5 (or was it 6?)

I started coming up with some great ideas with all sorts of neat twists and turns, shady characters and a great outcome, and then I realised I had to write it all down. So, mid-hamburger-making I raced for the PC and spent about thirty minutes writing out a 1000-word outline.

(Yes, I washed my hands before I hit the keyboard...)

I'd already written 4000 words of Hal 4 for the day, so this wasn't instead-of, but after getting excited about this great new plot I decided to put off the rest of Hal 4 until today. (And I haven't done it, thanks to a murderous headache.)

By the way, the burgers were really good ... as was the salad.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock at Powells Books

A lot of my US friends are waiting for the Hal Spacejock books to appear over there - I know, because you keep writing to me and commenting in my blogs, asking when the hapless space idiot is going to get his stuff together and LAND already.

Well, it's going to be quite some time before you've all won free copies, and I'm afraid there's no word on any interest from a publisher yet. What I do have is an availability update: Powells Books are showing all three Hal Spacejock books as stock items. Hal Spacejock, Hal Spacejock Second Course and Hal Spacejock Just Desserts

They're back on Amazon too, so I guess that means the ship finally came in. It's a long, slow haul from Australia to the US, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Especially if he's trying to sell you cargo space.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 4 - Nearing the end

I had an email from the general manager of Fremantle Press yesterday (that's Hal Spacejock's publisher). He's attending the annual Penguin sales conference over east, and I got the feeling he was confirming the book was actually being written before he started promoting it to a couple of hundred wholesale reps ;-)

And yes, the book is being written. I've knocked off 24,000 words in the past 7 days, including 3500 today, and I only have a chapter and a half to go before the first draft is done. This is a very rough draft, one where a quarter of the scenes will have to be rewritten, where all kinds of inconsistences will have to be resolved, and one where three or four characters are going to disappear so completely you'll never know I wrote them in the first place.

Still, if I finish by tomorrow night I'll be right on target, and that makes me happy.

As for the daily word count, I've discovered I'm not a 1000-words-per-day-no-matter-what kind of person. I'm the do-nothing-until-you-have-to kind of writer who then goes nuts to meet the deadline. I just write better under pressure - I have to accept that and plan for it.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock Book 4 progress

I'm not one to post daily word counts (because I have software to do it for me!) but I do like to report on how it's all going from time to time.

My editor wants a copy of the Hal 4 draft on the 9th of July. Right now I have 14 new scenes to write and 28,000 words of existing material to rewrite. (The latter are scenes from earlier versions which no longer fit the current plot, but which more-or-less cover the same ground. Instead of stopping to rewrite them every time I have a brainwave, I just update the summary in yWriter and mark them as Draft - REDO.)

A few weeks back my plan was to write 1000 words a day. Then, the day after I upped this to 2000 per day, I got a case of the flu which addled my brain for a whole week. There's a lesson in there somewhere - i.e. do not give your brain any warning about lots of upcoming hard work.

After the flu I scraped out 1000 words a day for a while, until I got the email from my editor asking for the book. Then I realised I was going to have to up my limit, and 2000 it was. But over the past week I've upped that again, to 3000 words per day. I suspect it'll be 4000 before the end of next week.

I've also found that I'm thinking about the book 24/7 (yes, including my dreams) and that's helping me write it. I'm practically living the characters' lives by this stage, and slipping into writing mode is easy. It also helps that I'm working on the last quarter, where things get exciting, gripping and dangerous. (Those 14 new scenes are ALL from the last 6 chapters, and comprise pretty much the entire ending.)

I've given myself 5 days to write those scenes, and a further week to rewrite the 28,000 words in REDO parts. Then what?

Okay, at that stage I'll have a rough first draft, which certainly won't be ready for my editor. I'll print it all out, about 400 pages of double-spaced type, and then retire to a quiet spot for a read-through with red pen in hand. THIS is where the book really starts to take shape, as I strengthen a few connections, add some foreshadowing and look for parallel or similar events. And while I've tried a number of times, I cannot do this stage on the screen. On the plus side, at my book launches I've been known to hand out signed pages from one of these drafts, including all my scribbled comments, so they don't go to waste.

Apart from marking slow bits, rubbish, mistakes and so on, I also tend to cut the dialogue a fair bit at this stage, looking for every set of four sentences which can be trimmed into two. (You know the kind of thing: A says this, B retorts with that, A has a comeback and B says yah boo sucks to you. If I can turn that into just A then B, it's much tighter and reads a lot better.)

You'll note I've not mentioned spelling or grammar. I'll mark any typos, but this draft isn't supposed to be word perfect. (Typos are about the extent of it anyway - I correct as I write, and never intentionally let anything slip by. My most common error is editing a sentence and leaving a stray word in, or not updating all the parts of it at the same time - e.g. Hal went to grabbed a bucket. )

Okay, the draft is getting closer. It takes about a week for me to read and re-read it until I'm happy, usually going through a new draft each day, and entering all the changes that night.

Then I'll send it off, and what happens after that has been covered in an earlier post ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Will they, won't they?

This came up during today's writing session. The plot calls for one character (A) to go off and leave the other (B) behind. There's a prospect of danger for B, but they both agree it's the best way to handle things.

(I'm deliberately muddying gender so I don't give anything in the book away.)

During the writing of the scene I changed one tiny little thing: A and B always intended to leave together, but at the last minute B reveals they're not going (and explains why)

Is a little change like this really that important? Hell yes.

In the plot outline A and B knew they were going their separate ways and the reader would have got used to the idea over a chapter or two. When the characters parted it was expected, normal, boring.

In the new version, character A - and more importantly, the reader - is caught completely by surprise. B's suggestion is logical but unwanted. Conflict and tension result, and instead of the reader getting a couple of chapters to digest the idea you smash them in the gut with it in a single sentence. They don't want it, but they can see why it must be so. And that's what keeps people reading.

When plotting and writing keep an eye out for this kind of change. It's so easy to do but it's very effective.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Setting it to music

I know some people like to write while their favourite music is playing, and others prefer silence. I'm a silence person myself but there are special cases.

For example, if the kids are home and making a racket, music through headphones is a great way to isolate myself for an hour or two. I don't mean I wander round the house 24/7 in a musical daze, but if I need a couple of quiet hours of writing time to finish off my word count this is the way to get it.

Second, if I'm writing an important scene I find the right music can really help to set my own mood, and therefore the mood of the piece I'm writing.

And that's really the reason for this blog post.

You see, although you might listen to music while writing, how carefully do you select the pieces? I use my own yPlay software which allows 100 named playlists, but anything else with similar features should do. And here's what you need: a playlist for each mood and style of writing. Have a Romance playlist with gentle love songs, an Action playlist with heavy drumming and wild electric guitars, perhaps a Classical playlist for a bit of culture - something to listen to while you're writing about a visit to a posh hotel or restaurant, for example.

What you don't want to do is have one playlist with all your faves mixed up. It's very hard to write a touching romantic scene when heavy metal is hammering your ears one minute and Cliff Richard is going on about his walking talking doll the next.

Does anyone else use specialised writing playlists? If so, what categories do you use?

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

What to do when it starts to fall apart.

Has this happened to you? Your plot outline is nice and detailed, you've written half your book in record time and yet you have this horrible feeling it's not working.

Maybe your characters aren't behaving, or your big plot twist is more of a slight bend, or you've crammed in too many subplots ... whatever it is, you start to feel swamped and the big worry is that there may be too many problems to overcome.

I've experienced D) all of the above during the writing of each of my four books to date, and so these days I expect this kind of self-doubt. The only thing I have on some of you is that I've worked my way through it and am fairly confident of doing so again. I still experience strong self-doubt, though. Just ask my family.

So, remind yourself that it's quite normal for a novel to go through the disorganised mess stage. in fact, you can plan for it and even insure against it. Here's how:

First, if you have a major plot and several subplots, concentrate on writing the major plot scenes first. Leave markers in the text describing the subplot scenes and then skip over them.

Couple of reasons: One is focus, because you're sticking to the main plot and so it's harder to stray. Two is structure, because it's easier to follow the main plot arc if that's all you're writing. Three is complexity and word count: if you leave the subplot scenes until last you can drop an entire subplot if it doesn't work any more. You can add another subplot if needed, and you can also work out how many words you have to play with to meet your target count.

Example: You're writing a 100,000 word novel and your main plot alone comes in at 75,000 words. If you were planning five different sub-plots you'll now be able to work out how many words you can spend on each. Believe me, agents do not want to see sprawling 300,000 word novels from first time authors. Dropping subplots and characters after the fact is a lot more work than not writing them in the first place.

Next, only write your protagonist's scenes. If it's a multiple viewpoint novel, just put summaries in your text for scenes from the antagonist and secondary character POV. Why? Because while you're writing the protagonist's scenes you'll keep getting ideas for the other characters, and you can just dump those ideas into your notes. It's also much easier to get in character and write an authentic POV if you're not head-hopping every couple of thousand words.

Another reason for writing all of one viewpoint first: By finishing the protagonist's scenes you'll know exactly what the other characters have to do in their own scenes. No major rewrites and no wasted words. Again, if you're heading for a massive doorstopper of a novel you can cut out some of the secondary character scenesa and write less for the rest.

When I started writing my first novel I began at chapter one and tried to type the whole thing out sequentially, right through to The End. Nowadays I'm convinced that's the wrong way to approach the task. Look to the world of film for the best example: Movies are always shot out of sequence so that actors and sets can be employed for the shortest possible time.

Translating that to writing, it's easier to have consistent characters and locations if you stay with them until their scenes are done. And remember, your readers won't know how you built the thing. It's the result that counts.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Travel to Mars

Okay, so we might never get there ourselves but this is pretty amazing all the same.

For somewhere closer to home, try this one. (And try zooming the map right in for a google giggle.)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Why write a novel?

The problem is, about 9 out of 10 of people who set out to write a novel don't actually finish, either due to time constraints or because it turns out to be a lot more work than they thought. Usually - and this happened to me - the words and sentences hitting the page don't match the lofty ideals in the mind, and it's all too discouraging. The trick is to plough on regardless, because good books come about through rewrites, editing and revision. They don't just pop out fully-formed.

Because so few ideas turn into finished books, publishers don't want to know about your plot outlines or your plans for a series of fifteen volumes. They want to see finished product. (And once they see it they turn around and reject 998 out of 1000 unsolicited submissions.)

If it's all so difficult, why do people bother?

Usually because they have a burning desire to write a book ... for example, their characters are living in their brain and won't stop bugging them, or the tale has to be told no matter what the sacrifice. Every time I considered quitting I'd picture Hal and Clunk fadng to black, unseen by anyone but me, and the thought of losing them forever was enough to get me going again. Usually with a severe reprimand from Clunk and a sarcastic comment about quitters from Hal.

Anyway, there's all this and a lot more in my articles on writing and publishing.

Hope that helps. I don't mean to sound discouraging but writing a novel is a huge challenge. It can be frustrating but it's also a massive rush when the first draft is done and you can start on the polishing and rewriting.

This is the text of my reply to an emailed query on writing a novel and getting published. I did give it a light edit before publishing it here ... force of habit.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

heARTlines Festival

Dion Hamill's original paintings for all three Hal book covers (below) have been shipped over for the heARTlines Festival, which is taking place here in Perth, Western Australia from the 1st of June to the 1st of July.

Update: just got an email letting me know the ABC featured the festival on the news tonight, and they even showed the Hal covers ;-) Thanks Ted!




That's not the only attraction of course. The program features any number of authors and illustrators ... for more details and a PDF copy of the program check the Mundaring Arts Centre website.

heARTlines is curated by author Louise Schofield and proudly presented by ArtsWA Department of Culture and the Arts and Healthway Drug Aware.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Social networking for books

I'm already on LibraryThing, but Good Reads looks like an interesting site too. I wonder which will come out on top?



Edit. Just thought I'd add this. It's a Technorati search on all the people kind enough to join Hal Spacejock's Support Crew:

hal spacejock support crew

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

10 things

Spotted on Buzz, Balls & Hype ... 10 things an author shouldn't do

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 3 appears on the 'Page 99 Test'

An interesting blogging concept: Authors are invited to submit the full text of page 99 from their current novel, and to follow it up with a brief essay on the snippet. In their own words:

For the Page 99 Test, I hope to have authors comment on whether Page 99 reveals "the quality of the whole" about their books. We'll try the test on new books, contemporary classics, and a few time-honored books, with recognized experts applying the test to the text.

My effort is here.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Competition Winners

A big thanks to all who entered the wonderful sets competition, and I really wish I could send everyone a book.

However, there can only be one winner and Rob in Denver was first out of the virtual hat. The prize includes all three Hal books and airmail postage - you'll just have to supply the reading part of it.

Update: I couldn't leave it at that, and so I've picked a second-place winner for a copy of Hal Spacejock: Matt B

To claim your prizes just email me here: spacejock at gmail dt com

Again, thanks to all who entered and please keep an eye out for more chances to win Hal. For example, this one and this one.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Wonderful sets

This competition is now closed, but there's another right here

If you've followed my blog for a reasonable amount of time (say, two or three days), you'll know that I occasionally give away copies of my books.

Today is a bit different, because instead of giving away copies to multiple winners, I'm drawing ONE set of Hal Spacejock books 1, 2 and 3.




Yes, that's what three books look like.


The winner will take the lot, and I'll post them anywhere in the world. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me why the whole Hal Spacejock thing appeals to you.

I'll give it a couple of weeks, then draw one winner at random. Good luck!

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Death of a character

No, not that kind of death. Nobody gets killed in Hal Spacejock books. They just disappear in a mysterious fashion.

When I submitted the Hal 4 outline to my editor, one of the minor characters was a gruff desk sergeant, semi-retired. You know the type - worldly wise, unflappable, full of useful information and a father figure and guiding light to one of the major characters. He was Roger Murtaugh to Martin Riggs, William of Baskerville to Adso of Melk, and any one of those countless wise older hands which populate books and movies.

In other words, the perfect example of a cliche character.

So there I was last night, writing the scene where my major character returns to HQ and encounters good old Ted, sergeant cliche of the movie tropes squad. And I didn't want to write him in. I just couldn't do it. So, I gave up and played NFS Underground 2 against my kids until the game crashed. (For that I have to thank EA, Intel Dual Core, Microsoft Windows XP and Nvidia.)

Anyway, around 1am I found myself mulling over the Ted problem. The lights were off, the house was quiet and I was supposed to be going to sleep, but I never let minor challenges like oncoming unconsciousness distract me. Instead of coming up with a replacement for Ted I decided I'd introduce a third character, an original one which would be great fun to write. I ran a few conversations in my head, and my new creation held up just fine. A few minutes later I realised this new character had already supplanted staid old Ted: everything Ted could possibly bring to the plot this new character could do better, and with laughs to boot.

So long Ted, and may you live on in Hollywood buddy movies.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

7000 down

... 73,000 to go.

Actually, I'm feeling quite good. I mean, apart from having had chronic back pain for the past two weeks AND a sharp pain in my abdomen for which I'm having an ultrasound next week AND a nasty intermittent ear-ache which I only experience when I wake up suddenly in the middle of the night.

But I've still managed to write my 1,000 words a day, which is the important thing. The first two chapters are done, the words are flowing and my writing muscles are getting used to unfamiliar work. As time goes by I'll up the daily count to 2,000, and I still have a load of pre-written scenes which will have to be shoe-horned into the right places and then pounded into shape. Looking good for a first draft by the end of May. (I think I gave myself until the end of June, but time is tight for this book.)

One of the characters has undergone three complete transformations since I first came up with her. Her age and her position have both changed, so all the scenes I wrote with her slightly cynical take on things now have to be rewritten from a younger viewpoint, with a lot less cynicism. Dialogue, thoughts, actions .. it's like changing actors halfway through a film shoot, then having to redo the screenplay because the new person's personality and presence are so different. And in an earlier version she was definitely on the opposite side to Hal, whereas now ...

Of course, some time in the future I'm sure I'll need a cynical older female character, so I can't just delete bits or write over the top of them. First I have to store away every scene, adding to the 700,000 word pile sitting in my 'for future use' folder.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Happy International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day!

Today, writers all over the planet are giving away a piece of their work completely free, as a protest against an ill-conceived article claiming that ALL writers who put their work online for free are some kind of techo-scabs reducing the earning power of legitimate authors.

My contribution is the first chapter of a YA-oriented novel I started on between Hal Spacejock 1 and 2, way back in 2001. The novel is called the Golden Lyre, it's a space opera, and you can download and read chapter one from here

You may share the chapter with friends, family and others as long as there's no commercial gain, but you can't post the contents or the file online. Please refer people to my blog post instead.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 4 - Plot Done

Okay, I've just finished combining all my plot junk into a brand new yWriter project. (In the end I wrote an importer which took my text file full of paragraphs and created a fresh scene from each one, using the whole para as the long description and the first sentence of the same para for the short scene title.)

I decided to program the importer for 3 scenes per chapter, then ran it. Imagine my surprise when the finished chapter count ended up at 33. All three Hal Spacejock books to date have had exactly 32 chapters, and the funny thing about this one is that 3 scenes (1 chapter) are just markers for the start, middle and end points. I removed those and my plot outline came out at exactly 32 chapters. It's a sign, I tell you.

Now, bear in mind I still have two folders on my hard drive - one is Hal 4 2005 and the other, Hal 4 2006. Each contains a substantial, but unfinished, draft of the book with very different plots and totally different characters. My job now is to start writing Hal 4 2007 and only take bits from those earlier efforts which fit this one. Everything else will be thrown into my spare parts folder.

So, do I like the new plot? Yes I do. My only concern is that the event which drives the major plot story doesn't occur until several chapters have passed. But hey, I've never claimed to be part of the SMS generation. I even enjoyed the first hour of Peter Jackson's King Kong.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Freelance editing

The editor who worked with me on the first three Hal books, Janet Blagg, has started a new freelance business. Anyone requiring editorial assistance should head over to her website for more information.

Actually, you should have a peek for another reason: I designed and implemented the site as a big thank-you to Janet for her work on Hal Spacejock. I reckon it came together quite nicely, and the site ain't too bad either. (Boom boom.)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Plotting

Back when writing was just a bit of fun (that'd be before I got a publishing gig) plotting was something I'd tried and discarded as a devious kind of torture. I tried writing a novel to a plot a couple of times, and it was like memorising the screenplay of a movie before sitting down to watch it for the first time. Every twist, every turn laid out like the guts of an expertly dissected frog.

Where's the fun in that?

Well, one thing plot-haters soon learn is that their carefree and wasteful writing methods don't fit the commercial publishing model. If you have a deadline to meet, you can't spend eighteen months writing fun scenes just because they caught your fancy.

But how many second, third or fourth books have you read which didn't capture the fun and excitement of an earlier title by the same author? Ever feel a book was rushed out to meet a particular timeslot? Or that the plot was agreed to early on, and subsequently served as a strait jacket for the author?

I'm stitching my own strait jacket right now - I have an eight-page outline for Hal 4 which I've been revising and tweaking for some weeks. The idea is to have this comprehensive document I can discuss with my editor. (That's 'discuss' in the way that the English and French discussed Agincourt.)

I only hope that when I start writing I discover my dissected frog has a second heart, nine limbs and an electronic brain.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Andromeda Spaceways issue 28 available

Issue 28 has (finally) left the launch pad.

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine issue 28, edited by Zara Baxter, is now available.

Why finally? Issue 28 has changed places in the publication schedule TWICE. Originally slated to be released as issue 26, then 27, this glorious issue was munched up by the space/time continuum and has only now been spat out! At last you can read the wonderful works filling this issue, which include:

Fiction
Grace . . . Ian McHugh
Sweet Potato Woman . . . Chris Barnes
Polish . . . Kaaron Warren
Rest Stop . . . Marissa K Lingen
The Dark and What It Said . . . Rick Kennett
The Eradicator . . . Ben Cook
The Bluebell Vengeance . . . Tansy Rayner Roberts
House In Love . . . Gail Kavanagh

Special Features
This is How the World Ends — Not with a Bang but with a Rip . . . David Clements
The Art of Balance — Interview with Trudi Canavan . . . Gillian Polack
Retro-Review . . . Ben Cook

With cover art by Daryl Lindquist, issue 28 is available in Print or PDF from www.andromedaspaceways.com NOW. Don’t miss out, remember PDF availability is strictly limited!

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Swancon SF Convention - coming up

The latest (last?) Swancon progress report is online, including the current version of the program.

Some time back Russell Farr asked me whether I'd be interested in doing a panel on professional promotion. Now, I don't do a lot of panels at cons, mainly because you could pick almost any topic and there'll be someone at the con with more knowledge and/or experience of that topic than myself. Or at least, someone more willing to talk about it. (I don't mind public speaking - I regularly talk about writing, my books and myself to gatherings of schoolkids, and if you ever want to find a tough audience ...)

Anyway, I said yes, and I was pleased to see the panel listed in the program.

Time: Friday 3pm
About: Professional Promotion
Panelists: Russell Farr, Matthew Reilly, Angela Challis and myself.

By the way, "Professional promotion" is the kind where you don't need a thick skin and lots of very forgiving friends.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Nostalgia

I was born in the UK in 1967, and at the time my parents lived above a shop in the West Wickham high street. After I turned two we moved to a detached two-storey house in a quiet street near the station. It had an enormous garden, gurgly radiators powered by a boiler, and was the site of my first Goodies and Doctor Who experiences way back in 1971 or 72.

When I was eight we shifted to Spain, but my parents kept the UK house and rented it out. In 1983 we moved back in for six months, before selling up and shifting to Australia.

Anyway, ten minutes ago I happened to be browsing UK real estate - something I do perhaps once every couple of years, purely for nostalgic reasons - when I spotted our old house on the market:




An interesting fact: Before my parents bought this house it belonged to an english actress who - I believe - appeared in one of the early Bond movies. I remember my dad mentioning it in the 70's, so I'll have to ask him who it was next time I see him.

My dad laid that curved driveway, and there used to be neat box hedges below the ground floor windows. I distinctly remember water-bombing my best mate's sister through those windows above the entrance, and I also remember sitting at the window top-right at around 5AM in December 1981. We'd just arrived in England after a 3-day drive from Spain, via France and Andorra, and I was listening to english voices on my brand new walkman clone - in stereo, no less - whilst the smell of hot paint wafted up from the radiator burning my knees. Outside, yellow streetlight glistened off the rain-speckled windscreens of cars parked in the road below. Everything was different and yet familiar: I was used to the heat of Spain, spanish radio, marble floors instead of carpets, single storey whitewashed houses with thick walls, sun-warped wooden window frames and elaborate metal grilles instead of mock-tudor and small panes of glass in steel frames. And yet, I'd grown up in the UK, in that house, and so I was home.

If you think those two conflicting lives were confusing enough, throw in 20+ years living in Australia. It's hot, but we have carpets. Window frames are aluminium. Winter is in July, Summer in December. They speak English but the architecture and weather is mediterranean.

I only hope my kids are storing their own special memories of our current house.

Back to West Wickham: at UKP679,000 (Approx A$1.6m or US$1.26m), the old house is selling for almost ten times the price we sold it for in '83, and exactly 68 times what my parents paid for it in 1969/70.

Update: Found some old pics my parents took in the early 70's:





This one is July 1971, 12 months after moving in.




Same day, right hand side of the house. That's me in the white jumper and Paul Mycroft in blue. I was almost four years old in that shot.




My dad's Mustang out the front (no driveway, see?)




12 months earlier - 1970, same house as purchased.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

My first TV appearance

Last week I was interviewed about Hal Spacejock for the local TV show, 'The Couch'. It was an interesting experience - my degree is in Film & Television, but that only prepares you for life behind the camera, not sitting in front of it whilst trying to give semi-intelligent answers to the interviewer's questions.



What can I wear that doesn't clash with lime or pink?


Anyway, it came out okay and the station ran a promo giving away five copies of Hal Spacejock Just Desserts. The funny thing was, sitting in the hot seat the interview seemed to last 20 seconds, and I thought the host, Fred Mafrica, wound it up really fast because I'd made a mess of it.



It was only when I watched the interview today for the first time that I realised I sat there and answered questions for at least five or six minutes. Most of them semi-intelligently, too!

(The show repeats this coming Wednesday on Access31 TV in Perth, and I believe The Couch may also be shown in Melbourne.)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Westbooks 'Night with our Stars'

Last night (March 1st) was the Westbooks 'night with our stars' event. Twenty Western Australian authors and illustrators were invited to address the 150-strong crowd of teachers, school librarians and publishing industry professionals, with each presenter given a few minutes to discuss their latest work.

It was a fun evening, although I managed to smash a wine glass, drop my own book (twice), crumple the cardboard podium by leaning on it and finished up by accidently throwing my bottled water across the stage. No, I wasn't under the influence — I don't drink — but I was animated and somehow kept the audience laughing throughout my brief melee. Sorry, speech. (As usual, I carefully prepared something to read and then ad-libbed wildly instead.)

There was a photo session at the start, lots of food and drink, and a couple of signing tables set up for authors to do the business. Apologies in advance to anyone who bought my books for their school thinking Hal Spacejock was uplifting literature with a strong moral message. You should have listened to my speech a little more closely ;-)

So, thanks to Westbooks and congratulations to all the authors present. It was a fun evening, and I'm looking forward to next year.

Complete list of authors in order of appearance: Raewyn Caisley*, Simon Haynes, Kirri Somerville, Julia Lawrinson, Broome Public Library, Andrew Lansdown, Guundie Kuchling, Anne Morgan, Kate McCaffrey, Diana Chase, Joy & Mike Lefroy, Steve Hawke, Louise Schofield, Aleisha Zappia, Sally Murphy*, Liliana Stafford & Sophia Zielinski, Katy Watson-Kell, Dianne Wolfer and Ken Spillman.

* Sent apologies.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock in the Amazon Jungle

No, it's not a catchy book title, it's just a reminder that the Hal Spacejock books are listed on Amazon US. So far each of the three books has an average rating of five stars, and that's without my talking friends and family into posting fake reviews - who'd have thought?

Hal Spacejock

Hal Spacejock Second Course

Hal Spacejock Just Desserts (Showing 1 copy left)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Upcoming Publicity and Author Events

I've just been going over the Spacejock publicity stuff with Scott at Fremantle Arts Centre Press, which would be my publisher. (Actually, they're about to become simply 'Fremantle Press' - and I'd like to think publishing Hal Spacejock knocked the Arts right out of them.)

Anyway, here's the current list:

This Sunday I'm doing a TV interview with Access 31 here in Perth. The program is 'on the couch' and I'm supposed to discuss publishing. Hopefully not arts, because that's something I have no experience with.

Monday I'm being interviewed, photographed and suchlike by the Freo Herald. For their arts section, no doubt.

1st March I'll be appearing at the Westbooks 'Night with our stars', which is a do for school librarians and teachers. Each author has three minutes to discuss their upcoming/recent book, which should be interesting. I'm thinking of a talk on the subject of 'Hal Spacejock - It's Not Art!'

Apparently I'll also be doing an interview with Grant Stone for Faster Than Light, and they put podcasts online so I'll link to that. They're also going to play the interview during the morning segment on RTR.

Scoop Magazine is apparently running a review of Hal 3 in the upcoming March issue. This is a classy tourist mag which you find in hotel rooms across Western Australia, and they usually feature a lot of items of interest to the discerning tourist ... including Art. Not this time! Snerk.

Scott tells me Swan magazine is going to be reviewing Hal 3. Alas, I don't know what SF has to do with the Swans. I mean, they didn't even win the Grand Final. Maybe they need cheering up.

Non-Hal news - the Sun Herald and The Age both featured my share market software in their Sunday supplement last weekend. Programming is SO an art.

Back to Hal news: I've been invited along to the WA society of Editors AGM to (I think) read from Hal or discuss editing or something. Either that, or I'm the Elephant Man to Janet Blagg's Treves.

Then there's the appearances at the All Saints' Kids' Lit festival for my second year running. All those school kids just waiting to hear about Writing True Art, and they get me.

I'll also be pootling around Swancon as usual - probably with a T-shirt decrying the sad state of Art in Western Australia.

More to come - this is just off the top of my head.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 3 now available

Just Desserts

Hal Spacejock Just Desserts is now available from bookstores across Australia and New Zealand. (E.g. Dymocks, A&R, Collins, Newslink, most independents.)

Copies are also available in the US from the North American distributor, ISBS, from Powell's Books, and from Amazon.

Everyone else can mail order from Fantastic Planet or the Australian Online Bookstore

Related News:
      First Hal 3 review
      Hal Spacejock Interviewed
      Clunk Interviewed

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Launched

The Hal 3 launch was on last night, and we're all recovering nicely. Full details here.

We came, we saw, we launched. Now my focus turns to Hal 4.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Grumpy Old Bookman

Michael Allen runs an entertaining blog about UK publishing called Grumpy Old Bookman, and the third item on today's post is a neat little piece about the recent Hal Spacejock and Clunk interviews.

And about those interviews: feedback on both has been great, and Hal's is currently the third most popular item on the Specusphere. Clunk is not happy.

So, be sure to click Clunk's and shun Hal's.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 2 - it's on for young and old

Hal Spacejock Second Course has been nominated in the West Australian Young Readers Book Award. According to my publisher, this is a great indication that kids love the book.

The West Australian Young Readers Book Award is a readers' choice award, organised on a statewide basis for young readers. As such, it pioneered a new concept in Australia, allowing children the major say in their prize winning literature.

To find out more about the awards go to the WAYRBA website

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Your invitation to a book launch

Dymocks would like to invite you to a Book Launch for Simon Haynes's new book “Hal Spacejock Just Desserts”, book 3 in the Hal Spacejock series.

Simon Haynes is the author of three Hal Spacejock novels, a number of articles on writing and publishing, and several short stories, one of which collected an Aurealis Award in 2001.

“Hal Spacejock Just Desserts”

A mysterious sealed crate, a pair of shady mercenaries with more guns than brain cells and the amnesiac robot which may or may not be on a secret mission ... Only interstellar ignoramus Hal Spacejock and the unflappable Clunk could turn a straightforward cargo delivery into space opera with clowns.

Three simmering planets, two cocky spacemen and one huge mess: Just Desserts, for your pleasure.


Author Signing

DATES: February 9th, 2007 (This Friday)
VENUE: Dymocks Carousel, Cannington
TIME: 7.00pm
TICKET PRICE: Free
RSVP: Please call 08 9356 8888 or email carousel (at) dymocks.com.au

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Clunk interviewed!

The Specusphere just interviewed Clunk as part of the 'Hey, let's talk to Hal and Clunk instead of the author' series.

You can read the result here

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock Interviewed!

Specusphere has put the Hal Spacejock interview online, and you can enjoy Hal's thoughts on money, the future, and the nature of fictional characters right here.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 3 a bestseller

January's bestsellers at Fantastic Planet bookstore

1...Hal Spacejock: Just Desserts...Simon Haynes
2...Peace and War...Joe Haldeman
3...The Arrival...Shaun Tan
4...Galactic North...Alastair Reynolds
5...Pushing Ice...Alastair Reynolds
6...Running from the Deity...Alan Dean Foster
7...Red Phoenix...Kylie Chan
8...Red Spikes...Margo Lanagan
9...Thud!...Terry Pratchett
10..Temeraire...Naomi Novik

So, a big thank-you to all the staff at Fantastic Planet. Nice going ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Working with an editor part 2

Last July I posted about working with my editor, in an attempt to illustrate the amount of work that goes into a book once it's picked up by a publisher.

Around the same time I expanded the article for Writers' World, and yesterday I discovered the article went into issue 3 late last year.

Writers' World is an online mag, and as luck would have it issue 3 can be read online here

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Australia day photos

Australia Day 2007


Very hot weather, but beautiful skies for the evening fireworks display. One of the launch barges had a 'wardrobe malfunction', with raging flames and fireworks still going off long after the display had ended. Maybe it was the SS Guy?

Here's one pic of the event ... I've put the rest on my website




Fireworks Display

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Canning Times Article

I just spotted my ugly mug in the Canning Times alongside an article about the Hal Spacejock series. Then I saw it again on the masthead - cool.





(The article has a couple of factual errors, but who cares when they got the time, date and location of the book launch correct?)

Anyway, if you live in Perth and happen to glance at this week's Community News (other than the Canning Times), please let me know if you see the same article repeated. It was in the Arts section in mine.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Comet pics

I've been out taking pics of the comet most nights, and these two have come out pretty well:





(No digital manipulation - these are straight out of the camera.)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

To get published, you just have to know the right people ...

... and other fallacies.

This one irks me more than most, to be honest. I've seen it in blog comments, feedback, whiny 'I am SO a writer' posts on forums and more.

Does anyone seriously believe that books only make the grade because the author was buddy-buddy with the publisher? I mean, sleeping your way to the top might work in some industries, but have you looked at a bunch of author pics lately? (I think you'll agree most authors are built for writing and thinking, not for striking poses.)

Seriously ... to get published you have to write a manuscript which is better than 95-97% of the slush pile, and then you need some luck, which usually means an editor happens to be looking for something in your genre when your manuscript crosses their desk.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Comet pics

I added a few pics of the comet to my flickr page, then submitted one of them to the Sunday Times. Imagine my surprise when I saw it on their front page slideshow barely 30 mins later. (It's number 2 of 9 pics at the moment.)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Aus Spec Fic Carnival

Gillian Polack just sent me a big list of links to knock into shape for the Aus Spec Fic Carnival. This is a monthly roundup of doings in the Aussie SF/F/H scene with links to the relevant blog posts so you can go and join the discussions. (Most of the links are hers, all the typos and factual errors are mine.)


You're also welcome to post your own Aussie specfic links in the comments trail below.


Let's start this month's joyride with the publishing announcements:

Karen Miller reports that she's handed in Empress of Mijak to her publisher.

AShR reviews two new Brimstone Press titles.

News from Agog Press: Two further anthologies of Daikaiju stories and a secret project, all to be released in 2007.

Ticonderoga issue 10 is out and includes three pieces of original fiction, a Sean Williams reprint, a couple of interviews (Paul Haines and myself, Simon Haynes) a bunch of reviews and a competition.

Ben Peek's new book is out. Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth.

Glenda Larke has several pieces of good news at once.

Coeur de lion publishing is proud to announce the publication of Rynemonn, a new Terry Dowling collection.

And if I may be so crass, Hal Spacejock Just Desserts was released this month and you're all invited to the book launch


Okay, we're stepping off the publishing merry-go-round to visit the funhouse.

Yes, it's the 2007 Aurealis Award Shortlist as seen from London.


One quick stagger around the spinning cylinder thing and it's off to the coconut shy.

No more Magic Casements, it seems.

Larbalestier/Westerfeld and the Norton Awards

There's a new HarperCollins Voyager author: details here

The Australian Speculative Fiction Project published the latest edition of their newsletter

Fantastic Planet published two bestseller lists: Their 2006 bestselling authors AND their 2006 bestselling books (Wish more indies did this.)

NZ comment on Chris Lawson’s Written in Blood.

Russell Farr posts on accounts, small press and sales right here

Writer/editor/reader interfaces – variations: Russell Farr and Gillian Polack


Now it's off to the house of horrors. Yes, the topic of REVIEWS ...
Glenda Larke and Shane Jiraiya Cummings


Brrr. Spooked out, time for the rollercoaster:

The all-user guide to year's best lists (well, one bunch of them) can be found here

About writing (including some 'what I did this year' posts):
On paragraphs (Justine)
On perspective/POV (Kaaron)
On the writer at fault (Alisa)

So, what do authors owe their readers?


While you're up there in the sky, about to plummet into 2007, why not take a look back? All these people did ...

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine


Off the rollercoaster and into the water slide:

Justine Larbalestier writes about things that it is useful for a writer to do at some point in their life.

Jenny Fallon writes about world building


Dripping wet, it's off to the dodgem cars. Bzzzzt!

Clarion South blogging: A-one, two three


Finally this month, the grand firework display with complimentary feast and cartoon character puppet of your choice: Gillian Polack once again on the strange side effects of Regency Gothic banquet testing. You can also read the continuing saga of testing for the banquet at www.foodpast.com

That's it for this month - as I said above, if you have aus spec fic news feel free to add it below. To allow everyone a chance to comment, I'm pasting this to three different blogs:

Blogger (halspacejock.blogspot.com)
LJ (halspacejock.livejournal.com)
Myspace (blog.myspace.com/halspacejock)


E&OE. If you do spot an E just let me know and I'll fix it. You'll have to post your own O.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Interesting

"ACTING Premier Eric Ripper has listened to PerthNow readers - and backed down from his push for Sunday trading and extended shopping hours."

Ripper abandons Sunday trading

I don't mean Sunday trading in Perth (or the lack of it) is interesting, I mean it's interesting that a senior government minister changed his mind after reading the feedback comments on a news story posted to the internet.

Obviously there were other factors: "Mr Ripper said he had 'listened to radio talkback, read letters to the editor and the hundreds of emails posted on the PerthNow website and spoken to the community, caucus colleagues and the relevant union and business'."

When the average citizen is ushered into the presence of a government minister they're usually awe-struck. But you just know that people will say things on the net which they'd never say in person. Not only that, unlike the immediacy of talkback radio opinions posted to news stories are visible after the fact, and as many a blog owner has discovered, more and more people pile in to have their say, tempers fray, fights break out and so on.

Anyway, I'm in no way a political animal but this did seem to be a case of everyday people telling government what they wanted, and getting it.

PerthNow is the online site for our Sunday newspaper. Comments are a relatively recent innovation, even if they're common elsewhere. In fact, I once left a comment on Perthnow about housing, only to have a journalist from the paper email to ask whether she could get a photo & interview. It didn't happen, probably because she realised I'd be wearing a Hal Spacejock T-shirt, cap, keyring, forehead banner tattoo and anything else I could print up in time ...

Anyway, now people know they can chime in on a story and maybe even influence government policy, this could get really interesting. Instead of moaning down the pub, you can moan online where Big Brother (not the TM version) is listening.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal 3 is out!

It's official - Hal Spacejock Just Desserts, book 3 in the series, hits shops across Australia and New Zealand from this week.




Click for full size


I've also seen sales figures for all three books in the series so far, and Hal's rockin' ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Second chance draw - winner

Just before Christmas I drew four winners in the Hal Spacejock draw, but because it was the season of giving I set up a second chance where everyone who commented on the relevant post was included.

Well, the second-chance winner of a signed copy of Hal Spacejock (2nd Ed.) is ...

Paul Eisenberg

Just contact me at spacejock at gmail dot com and I'll sort out the book sending.

Commiserations to everyone else who entered, but I will be drawing more winners. Just make sure you're in the draw!

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Sings ... 21 again, 21 again

I turned 21 in 1988, and I just discovered I was also 21 in 2006:

All is revealed here

I also snuck into the top 50 authors here. Erk, "Not 44 yet, not 44 yet!"

In other Hal-related news (you thought this post was about anything else?) I'll have an announcement about the Hal Spacejock 3: Just Desserts launch shortly.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock's diary updated

It's been a while, but Hal and Clunk have posted a new entry

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Birthday competition

Win cake! (No, it's not my birthday and it's not my cake.)

If you have a little creative talent - or even a big chunk of the stuff - why not zip over to Julia Buckley's blog and join in the design-a-birthday-invite competition? Julia's hitting 30 and she wants an invitation which will ensure she's not partying alone.



Of course, living in Australia means draconian quarantine laws, so no cake for any aussie winners (and your piece would probably have added arsenic after the upcoming Ashes whitewash) but it's all just a bit of fun.

You only have a couple of days so drag out Publisher, Corel or Illustrator and start hacking away.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

New Year's Resolutions

Prompted by a post over on JA Konrath's blog.

I will submit a story to F&SF
I will complete the first draft of Hal Spacejock 4

As ol' JA says, don't set goals where others determine the outcome. Good advice.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

LibraryThing

I signed up with LibraryThing recently, after seeing it mentioned around the place. If you don't know what LT is, it's a site where you can catalog(ue) your books. Free accounts are limited to 200 books, or you can get an annual or lifetime account with unlimited entries.

Most popular titles already have an entry, and the site also offers a bulk ISBN import feature which gathers data from up to three different sources.

Unfortunately, of the 3000 or so books in my house I'd only catalogued about 1300 in my own BookDB software, and of those I'd only bothered to enter ISBNs for about 300. So, it's search-add-search-add for me.

The quickest way I've found is to gather all the books I have by a given author (thank goodness my collection is alphabetical!) and then I search for that author in LT under 'Search works' on this page (NOT 'Search authors' or you just get the author name...) When the list of works comes up you can sort by title and ctrl+click all the ones you have to open their pages in new windows, where you can then click Add to library.

The people running the site are open to suggestions - in fact, they've already made one change I requested and I've only been there a few days. They'll go far with that attitude - or else they'll get purchased by your local mega media conglomerate.

Signup is really quick and easy, with no personal details required, and the site is certainly worth a look if you've ever considered making a list of your books. It's fascinating to see how many other people have copies of the books you own, and you can also leave reviews and scores out of five for any title.

As for backing up, LT offers a CSV export, and naturally I'll be adding an importer to BookDB which will read their file format.

Final thing: If you have Hal Spacejock 1, 2 or 3 you can add them to your LT from their pages below:

Hal Spacejock LT page
Hal Spacejock Second Course LT page
Hal Spacejock Just Desserts LT page

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Draw Results

Every few weeks I draw a batch of names from a digital hat and send those lucky folk a signed copy of my novel. (If you're not in the draw you can enter here)

This particular draw is for a copy of Hal Spacejock with the funky new Dion Hamill cover.



Every person in the draw has received (or will receive) a unique number via email, and if your number appears below you've won a copy! Just reply to the notification email with your mailing address and you'll receive a signed copy of Hal Spacejock.


The winning numbers for draw 1221:

12305
12359
12698
12702



If you missed out, relax! There's a second chance! All you have to do is post a comment below, and in a few days time I'll pick a name at random and they'll also win a copy of Hal. (The second chance draw is one extra book for each of my Blogger, LJ and Myspace blogs. Keen Spacejock fans will no doubt seek out and comment on all three ...)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Upcoming draw

I'm going to draw three or four copies of Hal Spacejock in a couple of days time - this is just an advance warning in case you want to publicise the drawing amongst other fans of science fiction. Friends, family, worst enemies ... send them all here:

http://www.spacejock.com.au/HalNotify.html

(Remember, if THEY win a copy you can always borrow it .. then forget to hand it back.)

In a new twist, these copies will be from the second printing of Hal Spacejock book 1, with the NEW Dion Hamill cover.





And rest assured I'll be drawing copies of Hal 3 as soon as I get my hands on some ...

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Toast part 2

I'm sure you've heard of the Madonna toast and the Elvis toast, but this morning I ended up with Happy toast:



(The mouth is natural but I confess to adding the jam.)

Anyway, my kids thought it was neat, and is there anything greater in life than hearing your own kids laugh? (They're not at the eyeroll age yet.)

Now, I'm a practical sort, and rather than listing this @rare@ and exclusive item on eBay or preserving it in a temperature controlled cabinet for future generations, I decided to put it to good use.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Yoyogod meets Hal Spacejock ...

... and Hal wins ;-)

Read the review here

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Post for nature lovers

A few snaps from around my garden, taken just five minutes ago with a Fuji Finepix S9500 and severely downsized from the original 3488 x 2616 pixels

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Ticonderoga Interview

Russell Farr interviewed me recently for Ticonderoga Online, an Aussie mag which describes itself as "a ticonderogapalooza of gonzo and quality sf in the tradition of Bester, Waldrop and Womack. Fiction, non-fiction, reviews and interviews. Australia's best sf for free!"

If you'd like to read the interview, or indeed, the rest of the issue, or even JUST the rest of the issue, you can do so right here

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock amazon.com update

Amazon has finally added an order button to their listing for Hal Spacejock (book one in the series).

They don't have copies in stock yet, but at least it's the right price AND sold & shipped by Amazon.com instead of the 3rd party merchants who were charging double the sticker price or more. (And wouldn't Hal be proud of that little dodge?)

Book two has been listed on Amazon for a while here. Book three is still pre-release, and not available to order yet.


By the way, I'm not trying to get anyone to order the books, but I keep fielding questions from US and Canadian residents asking when they can get hold of them. So, consider this a heads-up ;-)


Update


Well, I bet you saw this coming. The minute I declare Hal 3 isn't available for pre-order, Amazon adds a pre-order button to their Hal 3 listing. They're obviously spying on my blogs.

"When can I order Hal 3?" is the OTHER question people keep asking me. Click here and you can do so right now ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Daylight Saving in Western Australia

If you live in WA this Microsoft patch for Windows XP, 2003 and Vista will automatically adjust your PC's clock for Daylight Savings over the next three years.

Better than setting them all by hand ...

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)