jiggedy-jig

[adelaidesean]

I'm back from Canberra and Brisbane where I've had a lot of fun catching up with friends and celebrating the act of writing--something all of us have in common, even if our methods of celebration differ (mine seem to involve lots of red wine, but that will soon change). A big hello to everyone who danced, chatted, work-shopped, toasted, launched, or schmoozed their way across my path in recent days. My memories might be blurry, but the warm happy of companionship glows on.

A whole bunch of things have accrued while I was gone. I'll work my way through them over the next couple of days. Here's the first installment:

You can peer into my study (the place in which I spend about half my waking life) here, as part of the survey conducted by martinlivings. I was amazed while writing the accompanying blurb just how of much its contents relates to my personal as well as my professional life. Everything seems to have a story--and that's as it should be, I guess, for someone who makes a living from the damned things.

Cat Sparks informed me that we missed International Cephalapod Awareness Day. How did that happen?

Audible has bought Saturn Returns and the sequel novella Cenotaxis. I am dying to hear who will be cast as the voice of Imre Bergamasc!

For anyone in or near Adelaide on November 15, I'll be speaking alongside such literary greats as Nicholas Jose, Juan Garrido-Selgado and J M Cootzee at the Adelaide PEN "Denied a Voice" commemoration of the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer. That's between 12 and 2 on the lawns of the State Library of South Australia. Come along and help raise awareness of those with fewer freedoms than us--and remember how those freedoms we do have have been significantly eroded by our government in the name of security.

And for anyone out there who missed the blanket-bomb email I sent yesterday: in the month formerly known as November, I'll be growing a porn star moustache in order to raise money to help fight male depression and prostate cancer. You can help by sponsoring me (and if you're lucky I'll spare you the photos). Details below the cut.

That's it for today. It's nice to be home--and even nicer to see the rain outside! Huzzah!

During Movember, the month formerly known as November, I'll be doing something I've never done before: growing a moustache. Not just to scare the kids, but also to help change men's attitudes towards health in the fight against male depression and prostate cancer.

Here are some grisly stats:
Depression affects 1 in 6 men. Most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer--equivalent to the number of women who die from breast cancer annually.
Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 5 years less than females.

The money raised by Movember is donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative, which will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and male depression.

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/au/donate, then enter my registration number (62042) and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Movember Foundation" clearly marking the donation as being for my registration number. (Please mail cheques to: PO Box 292, Prahran VIC 3181.) Or you can give me cash, in return for which I'll happily give you a receipt. All donations over A$2 are tax deductible in Australia.
I'll be posting progress reports and photos on my livejournal so you can make sure your money is being well earned.

Thanks for your support!

More info is available at www.movember.com.

Comments

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

What, your middle name isn't Gary?

All fixed. Sorry about that. :-)

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it just be unimaginable fresh if Gary Numan himself was cast as the voice of Render in the Audible version of Saturn Returns? Now THAT would make for a hell of a listen!

Incidentally, I need to get off my lasy ass and contact Herr Numan myself: I've been saying for years that I wanted to actually write the sci-fi novel that he himself was contemplating in the late 1970s, who concepts eventually found themselves converted into song lyrics for Replicas and, to a lesser extent, Telekon.

Damnit, I just want to write about Machmen and malfunctioning Friends aboard a generation ship whose governing robot mind, M.E., has grown suicidal (and homocidal) thanks to a malfunctioning postHuman upgrade virus that it caught through an infected telemetry/Solar Traffic Control ping!

I will bet you $10USD that I can use more Numan lyrics in this sucker than you do in your current works. :) (Seriously, I think it would a fun little informal in-joke to run with here. It would certainly keep me inspired enough to keep writing the thing...if, of course, Numan agrees to the idea.)

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Damnit, I just want to write about Machmen and malfunctioning Friends aboard a generation ship whose governing robot mind, M.E., has grown suicidal (and homocidal) thanks to a malfunctioning postHuman upgrade virus that it caught through an infected telemetry/Solar Traffic Control ping!

Who couldn't say that, really? :-)

I see your US$10 and raise it to 10 Pounds Sterling. Now you have to write it, because I want to read it!

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Can the rest of us have that in English?

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

In 1978, Gary Numan--the greatest New Wave musician who ever lived--came up with an idea for a sci-fi novel after reading a lot of Phillip K. Dick and other dystopian literature such as 1984 and Brave New World*. The story was going to be set in a place called The City, one of the last remaining cities of man on Earth. It was a highly-decadent place, where people lived empty, hedonistic lives, scarcely ever interacting with one another, and spending most of their lives with android 'Friends'.

The Central Computer, though, decided that it was finally sick of Humanity and wanted to eliminate them. Knowing that if its plans were discovered, the Humans--who greatly outnumbered it--could easily switch it off, it decided to start wiping out Humanity in the City by a number of devious means.

First and foremost among these were the machmen (machine-men), who were android assassins indistinguishable from Humans save for their horizontal-bar pupils (see my icon). The Humans also had a place called The Park where "criminals" (usually people randomly selected by the Computer and accused of various crimes) were sent to be hunted down and murdered by "rape machines" and other forms of killer bots. The City's decadent populace would frequently gather at a restaurant on the borderland of The Park called Zom-Zoms and watch the nightly murderfests in The Park.

There were an underground cult of "free thinkers," though, called The Crazies by everyone else who had figured out what the Central Computer was trying to do and were attempting to fight back, but they were vastly outnumbered.

This, then, was the novel idea that Numan came up with. He never wrote the book, but instead used the concepts he'd outlined above as the basics for the songs on his breakthru album Replicas.

I've decided to write the actual novel, following Numan's basic outline, but updating it for the 21st Century. The City is now a generation ship carrying the last organic Original Humans away from a Solar System completely over-run by postHumans, Machine Intelligences, and all manner of postSingularity superintelligences. The Central Computer running the ship is infected by a memetic virus created by anti-Human Machines in the Solar System and begins to wipe out the remnants of Humanity. Only a small faction aboard the ship realizes what is going on and is now trying to stop the CC from murdering everyone. That's basically what the whole rigamarole is about, and Sean's gonna owe me some serious cash when I have this thing done in a few months. :)

*I think the world of BNW is absolutely PERFECT, but that's just me....

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Please please write this. If Mr Numan agrees.

And thanks for the explanation.

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

It's on now, brother--just let me put the finishing touches on "Trois Freres v0.1 (http://theend.thecrawlingchaos.net)" and I'll get crackin'. I've had Replicas plotted out for about two years now--perhaps even longer--so, really, it just needs written.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

And you're the one to do it! Hurrah!

Sometimes I joke that once I've finished the Numan meme I'll write a novel structured around ELO's "Time" album, but that would be considerably less cool. :-)

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

I see your usage of ELO's Time and raise you The Alan Parson's Project Eye in the Sky. I've always wanted to write a novel structured around Eye in the Sky's quasi-Man Who Fell to Earth vibe...but I'd be afraid of writing something that sounds like Man Who Fell to Earth meets Phillip K. Dick (whom I actually don't care for very much).

Anyway, I'm gonna write an experimental prologue for Replicas tonight and post it in my blog. I'll give you a heads-up when it's there so you can check it out and let me know what you think.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

I see your usage of ELO's Time and raise you The Alan Parson's Project Eye in the Sky.

Take a look at this GOH speech I wrote a while back it might amuse you:

http://www.seanwilliams.com/Excerpts/MusicSF.htm

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Quote for you:

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.
- Madeleine L'Engle

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Men are far less healthy than women

But you never pay attention whe we tell you to go to the doctor!

[maelorin]

we pay attention to you any other time?

:p

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Probably not, but I'm not married to you. Whoever you are.

[maelorin]

that's a good point. on both counts.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

I'm very good at going to the doctor. Some might even say I'm too good at it. :-)