Tabula Rasa lj

Jason Vey, my co-writer on All Tomorrow's Zombies, has just released his latest project: a Doctor Who netbook for Unisystem (the rpg engine for Buffy, All Flesh Must be Eaten and similar games). It's huge, and contains lots of information on the program (through all ten Doctors) with background and game stats, plus a suggested campaign with new characters.

He asked me to write a story to introduce the book, so that's included as well. As befits the nature of the beast, it's basically an excuse to get multiple Doctors and companions together, and maybe spark ideas for a different type of campaign.

All this is to be found on Jason's Doctor Who RPG page.

(I was particularly interested in reading through the summary of all the New Adventure books. Although peripherally involved at the time, I lost track of the big picture so I liked this succinct coverage.)

I've been home with the flu most of this week, which has hopefully cleared up in time for our trip to Melbourne for Christmas (and Spamalot somewhere on the way). In the interim I managed to watch a bit of Doctor Who, from The Crusade and The Last of the Time Lords, which is indeed a fair range. This was in aid of a story I have been asked to write -- my first bit of fanfic in over ten years apparently. I managed to send it off this afternoon, so cross fingers.

Nick Cave is obviously enthused by the entire thing (that's him at the screening of the Christmas ep, kiddies in tow).

As a bit of a change, we've been looking through or R4 DVDs for something suitably festive to take South with us. Ed Wood and Fire Walk With Me being the obvious choice...

The latest Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror edition is now available for pre-order from Brimstone Press. It has the best local horror stories of 2006, including Kyla's 'The Bat's Boudoir' and a lot more, so check it out.

Now Kyla's desk is up on Creative Space.

I've found a quick review of some of my fiction in All Tomorrow's Zombies, from lastshortstory:

"Rose Tea," David Carroll, All Tomorrow's Zombies - a really nicely crafted flash fic which does everything the form needs to do - hints at a world in tiny strokes of detail, establishes character and tells a story with brevity and restraint. the description of matches lighting at the very beginning of this story was just lovely.
[hah! first flash fiction I have recced this year, I think]

My study has appeared as part of martinlivings' Creative Space project. Arguments about whether or not this constitutes a mess, and how many books can be identified, will no doubt ensue.

A review of All Tomorrow's Zombies has appeared... on YouTube. It's the future, baby.

(It also comes as a real book, but we didn't manage to get a copy to him.)

( Prismatic in 100 words )
Thanks(?) to Word's AutoSummarise function, and started by halspacejock.

( And this )

We've just seen Primer. Freaky, man.

But I'm suspicious. It is the tenth anniversary of google being registered (more or less). A couple of guys in a garage take over the world... Did they really use a search engine?

Also, I read the chapter on time travel in The Science of Stephen King today. Mere coincidence, of course. But in any sane world, would I have wandered into a video shop this week to see Steve's wacky time travel romp, The Langoliers, being played?

I think not.

If nothing else, somebody should go back in time and tell the editor to make it half the length, and perhaps make a decent movie. (The Langoliers. I don't think cutting Primer in half would help.)

The Science of Stephen King isn't much good, alas. It manages to improve after the first disastrous chapter (on ESP), but still doesn't provide a particular coherent look at either science or Steve's work. A shame because, now I think about it, there could be potential in such an odd idea.

It did manage to equate two branes colliding with a certain Buick, which was a good trick. Made me regret yet again I couldn't get any brane-eaters in All Tomorrow's Zombies.

I should natter about All Tomorrow's Zombies at some point. I guess I'm waiting for my CCs to appear, but in the meantime it is in the shops and nice comments are accruing: its reception thus far has been really good.

We even received a sliver of hope about some of our other Eden projects this week, but I can't go into detail about that.

benpayne asks about people's first submission. Mine is sort of embarrassing. I wrote a story called 'The Hunted' about (gasp) a vampire in (eek) a bar, submitted it to my university union magazine in 1989... and got $60 for it! I liked the picture they ran with it, which gave the thing a different slant, but I'm sure specfic editors everywhere still turned in their graves.

I was a long time till I got that sort of money again. I believe I bought the Queen of the Damned hard cover with my filthy lucre.

Maybe I had written some Doctor Who stuff prior to that, I can't remember. But 'The Hunted' is what propelled my to do a writing course at the University of Sydney (up the road), which got me on my way.

Somewhere.

Game Mastering is somewhat like writing. It's not easy or fun, but once it is done, it can be damn fine. Tonight was like that.

(I could probably draw all sorts of other parallels as well, but to keep this short and chipper, I shall refrain.)

Kyla's interview is up.

(This will all be easier to follow when the interviews are put on a single site in the next week or so, but in the meantime, it's snapshots all over.)

Tansy's interview with me is up, as part of the 2007 snapshot.

We tried to do our tax today, only to realise the documents we'd been sent weren't the right ones... Still, it was amusing to see the accountant telling us to lie be creative.

Speaking of odd documents, my sponsored child 'graduated' out of the program recently. I discovered this because I was sent an unexpected bill for my next payment, and had to ring up to ask why. I don't really mind, but it's not exactly how you would imagine this happy occasion unfolding.

We had a house inspection yesterday; voluntarily, if you'd believe it. This is in aid of nascent wanderlust, but nothing is likely to come of it for some time, I suspect.

I completed yesterday's DA cryptic crossword -- by no means the first time, but still a rarity. The theme was very sneaky, and managed to fit all sorts of interesting people in.

We've spent the evening playing Dungeoneer, since again we had too many absentees for Ravenloft. There was much chaos, but using two different levels (haunted forest and lich lord's tomb) worked well.

We found that new Dymocks store I mentioned, and grabbed some Ray Garton, which was a bit unexpected. Meanwhile, Storm Front is picking up nicely, just as I discovered the Dresden Files TV show has been cancelled.

I wondered today if I should get myself organised and head out to New York for World Fantasy, come November. On reflection, I suspect not. At least not without a complete manuscript, on the off chance an agent might wander up to me randomly.

Which brings me (thank God) to the point. I guess I need to start writing tomorrow. The course is over; I have a plan. Now I just need a dearth of distractions (all of the above notwithstanding), as well as a vibrant supporting cast, and words.

It has been a strange day or two for local genre news. Here's a round-up (we'll wait till the Black Sheep fiasco resolves itself, though the fact we won tickets to the movie is presumably unrelated).

Christian Read (the_christian) has just had his supplement for the Call of Cthulhu game published: Mythos Magic. Here's his note about it. The cover is by toniaw. Looks excellent.

We got an email from some nice person telling us about their comic: The List (a tale of primal rage, insanity, and violence). I don't know much more about it than that, as yet, but it looks interesting.

On similar subject and medium, I found this recently: The Canberra Heresy: The Arcane Legacy of Walter Burley Griffin. I haven't put it up in the gallery yet, because that's #2, and I'm trying to contact the author about #1. From what I've seen, it hasn't got the most coherent of narratives, but at least the title is catchy.

People in southern Sydney may be interested to know the Dymocks Miranda is setting itself up as a SF/Fantasy/comics specialist. They are taking proactive steps in that direction anyway, including reaching out to locals, imports, and no less than two MySpace pages. We must go visit and see how it stacks up.

Finally, if there's anyone in Perth or Melbourne who wants a signed Prismatic, book plates with all three signatures (quite a rarity, actually) are now available from Fantastic Planet and the Angus & Robertsons, Frankston.

I have discovered that when you do an image search for 'Bellis Coldwine' (protagonist of China Miéville's The Scar), this is one of the first to appear:

( Read more... )

The past ain't what it used to be. Just got emailed an ad for some new downloadable movie site:

It offers a range of movies from Hollywood blockbusters to old favourites like Matrix Reloaded and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

It doesn't make me feel old, it makes them look stupid.

I have finally got my writing assignment for this week — there was some sort of email mix-up. Fortunately I have a head-start thanks to previous attempts to write this ornery novel. In the meantime, I'm a third of the way through Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box which is indeed very good thus far.

I sent off assignment 2 of my writing course yesterday, and just had my weekly one-on-one with the tutor, jnassise, thanks to the wonders of skype. One day I will kick my need for a deadline (which is not to say I don't regard even the mere possibility of, say, a ladnews deadline with horror), but in the meantime this is helping out a lot.

I did use the phrase 'sensitive new age vampire' during the conversation, but don't panic.

Day 2: not so good. But this is precisely why I took the course in the first place, and good things may come.

In other exciting and timely news, the deleted scenes of Phantasm manage to be even stranger than the movie itself... (and the director says the 'evil jawas' are entirely coincidental).