Sean Williams

While struggling with a title for my 120th short story (started and finished on the opposite sides of the planet), I found this:

"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

Frank Zappa isn't known for his grim apocalyptic visions, but this quote plus certain song titles ("Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America") suggest that he could be.

(More on the story later, once I've got a damned title...)

In other music-related news, I'm very pleased to see that Goldfrapp are coming to Oz. They are one of my favourite bands ever. Alison's voice makes me melt. Sadly, though, I'll be in Brisbane when they're in Melbourne and in Melbourne when they're in Brisbane, and they have no Adelaide date. Something like this happened last tour too. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever see them live!

(Terra Nova went well yesterday, btw. Aron Eisenberg--Nog from DS9--was a hoot. Thanks to everyone who came and bought books. I hope you enjoy them!)

When the jetlag finally fades, normal service will resume.

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Listening to: Thom Brennan - Silver Part 3

Just a quick note to say that I'm still here and intending to post properly soon. June was a hectic month, thanks mainly to finishing the first draft of Saturn Returns, editing the copy edited ms and final pages of The Devoured Earth on very tight deadlines and attending Conflux (which included the world premiere reading of the "Soap Bubble" script and interviewing Sir Arthur C Clarke via satellite). All are fabulous things to have done, but I'm glad it's now July and things are starting to slow down.

Attending Conflux reminded me, as cons always do, of the importance of the community down here to my sanity, if not my health. "A solitary human being is a contradiction in terms," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu in New Scientist recently. "You are human precisely because of your relationships; you are a relational being or you are nothing." That's been an important principle for me in writing the new space opera, just as it is in life. It's been hard sometimes in the last year or two to keep up with friends, so being in Canberra, busy as it was, provided a wonderful opportunity to do that.

One more thought to close with. Saturn Returns features quotes from Robert Charles Maturin's gothic masterpiece Melmoth the Wanderer. Here's one I didn't use, and which could apply to a certain great debate at a certain con, and to certain men who are clearly having trouble growing up:

"[I]n early youth superiority of depravity always seems like a superiority of power."

:-)