Sean Williams

Once upon a time, I used to think being a writer meant, well, writing.  All the time.  If only that were true!  When between books, as I am at the moment, I don't even attempt to stick to my 1500 words/day target. There just isn't time.  Here's what I got up to in the last week (Monday 5 to Sunday 12), for anyone interested in what I actually spend most of my time doing.

• I delivered re-writes of all four Fixers books to my editor at Scholastic;
• re-wrote outlines for The Resurrected Man and The Crooked Letter TV shows, as per feedback received while in LA;
• reread the story notes of Magic Dirt, seeking inspiration for a podcast about my fifteen year-old story "A Map of the Mines of Barnath";
• ditto my story "Ungentle Fire" in the forthcoming Dragon Book;
• was interviewed live on ABC radio at the Royal Adelaide Show (and ate a large amount of junk food afterwards);
• attended the Ruby/ABAF Awards;
• had a Skype conversation, transcribed some notes, and looked over an outline for a project I haven't mentioned here yet (ooh, mysterious!);
• attended a meeting of the SA Writers' Centre Board;
• took Christobel Mattingley's place on the SA Writers' Festival "Fact or Fiction" panel, down at the beautiful Wirra Wirra vineyards in the McLaren Vale, and chaired the "First Book" panel;
• read and annotated submissions for a retreat I'll be co-taking in a few weeks;
• signed up to sit on a grant assessment panel doling out money for young South Australian writers;
• suggested some spec fic titles for the Big Book Club's December/January selections;
• caught up on the parallel import situation for the Australian Society of Authors;
• revived my LJ and wrote this post. :-)

I also bought the new Steve Roach album, Destination Beyond, and Deepspace's World Ocean Atlas. (That's not really work, I know, but these albums will probably comprise my main writing music for the coming weeks, so it's kinda related.)

This wasn't an exceptional week, but it probably was a little busier than normal, thanks to the awards night and the festival. 

How was yours?  Did you manage to get some writing done?  If so, well done.  I am jealous!

I've been quiet lately, for which I apologise. (Writing 100,000 words in four weeks doesn't leave time for much else, although somehow I did manage to buy a house in there too. More on that later.) I just thought I'd quickly point out a couple of official appearances I'll be making in the coming months.

WORD: 21-23 March
This is the inaugural writers' festival for the Adelaide Fringe. Other guests include Anna Funder, Richard Flanagan, Shaun Tan, Fiona McIntosh and D M Cornish. I'm in the spotlight for a "Meet the Author" on the 21st, an industry panel with Fiona McIntosh on the 22nd, and a masterclass on the 23rd. If you're in town for WOMADelaide, the film festival or the rest of the Fringe, come along! WORD is going to be a hoot, with highlights such as "Read Dating", poetry and prose slams, performances by actors of authors' work, and other fun events to look forward to.

Sydney Writers Festival: 28 May - June3
The program will be announced April 14. I'll post the details here when they are official.

Also, the Australian Society of Authors is running elections for its Board of Management. I've put my name forward, so if you're a member of the ASA and are thinking of voting...well, you have been warned. :-)

* The subject line, btw, is a tip of my hat to the spoken intro to Frank Zappa's live performance of "Cheepnis", in which he talks about B-grade monsters emerging from their lairs to do battle with a movie's wide-collared protagonist (the inspiration for my current userpic.) This is a bit how I feel at the moment. I can be a bit of a cave-dweller at times, especially when I'm working to a tight deadline. Hopefully life can now get back to normal...