Speaking of Conflux

Conflux - in Canberra, Australia - is a slightly better excuse for not blogging frequently. Not only the trip away but the rush to get work up to date before I left.

It was a good trip, and I enjoyed it very much, even though I seemed to lose about two days of my life somewhere in the long hauls there and back (I mean two days more than the long journeys themselves. Time zones - go figure). And I seemed to suffer not so much from jet lag as season lag (it was winter there). And don't get me started on the parrots. That's just odd.

I'd always wanted to go to Australia, and a week's round trip to the Capital Territory probably wasn't the best way of fulfilling that ambition, but it was fine. If nothing else, it convinced me that I had to go back. The city is great, in a curious 'not a city at all' type way, but I can attest it boasts a frankly humbling art gallery and the best war memorial I've ever seen (a war memorial doesn't sound much like a great visitors' attraction, I know, but it was something else). Best of all, it was meeting people. Australian creators are great, enthusiastic and inspirational, whether they work in comcis, in art, or in the current rennaissance of Australian genre writing. And the fans are terrific.

So time out here for a word of thanks to all - especially Matt Farrer and Donna Hanson. Amd apologies - if any are necessary - to David Quinn for that conversation about Galactus, macademia nuts and his, uh, mother.

Glimpsed the Australian Deal Or No Deal while I was out there. That's just even wronger than the parrots. I mean, no banker?

Call This A Blog?

I know, I know... I'm going to have stern words with myself. My posts here have been less than, you know, regular of late.

There's no excuse. "I"m really, really busy" is not an excuse that washes. Other authors manage to write blogs agogo and still meet their deadlines. At Conflux this last weekend, I met and chatted to the lovely Trudi Canavan. We talked knitting and art (not in that order). Anyway, it turns out that she writes - I dunno - forty seven and a half bazillion blogs each day and still finds time to compose novels. I felt very inadequate (one post a month is kinda blog-phobic). Anyway, Trudi, if you're reading this, I'm trying this your way - blogging at the start of the day before I write instead of writing and then being too tired to bother blogging.