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)