Nothing like last minute information but here goes...
People living in or near Sydney will find me if they dare to look in at this year's FreeCon 2008 Science Fiction Convention, both on Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th, at the Norman Selfe Room of the Sydney Mechanics School of the Arts (SMSA) building, 280 Pitt Street, good ol' Sydenytown. No charge for entry or any part of it, which is nice.
Here is their website for even more detail.
Sorry for the very late notice... I sure hope I see some of you there.
(especially you, Anna, because you live soooo close and all...)
76 comments:
Man, if I lived in Australia I would make a point to be there. Unfortunately Canada is a little too far :-P
In all honesty I'm a little reluctant to keep up with you blog cause I'm halfway through Lamplighter and I'm afraid reading posts may spoil the book. I love the book so far and I want to keep it a surprise!
Good book, by the way! Love it!
Your reluctance is probably well founded - spoilery business does go on here, which sounds like I am someow fobbing you off doesn't it... But no not at all, far from it in fact, now you've arrived it would be great for you to stay, but perhaps leave off too much Monster-Blog looking until Lamplighter is all done with.
I am SO going!
Please tell me as soon as you can, what time and what day will you be there?
Oh, sorry Emperor,
It's Albuquerque
All day both days, portals - I'll try not to be too disappointing.
Ok, Thank You!
Well, Mr Cornish, I´ll jump the next plane....just joking. I hope you can come to Sweden sometime, perhaps to the book-fair in my town that are held every year in the end of August/beginning of September or the book- and library fair in Gothenburg (which is a big thing every year).
In December I am going to Mocambique so I´ll be able to wave to you from there. It´s a bit closer to "down under" then from the cold and dark place I´m living in now.
Well thanks for confirming my woes. I should be done the book soon. Sebastipole just got his tattoo... so you know where I am right?
But if you ever do find your way to Canada, make sure you stop by the Calgary area! I've had to lend out Foundling to friends as they can't even find it in bookstores or libraries. Everyone who has read it seems to really like it! The next Lord of the Rings I do say.
If you do make it up to Calgary, Mr. Cornish, you should go southeastward and stop by Sioux Falls, South Dakota during the May-August period (otherwise, I'm in school and it would be cruel to know that education is foiling my chance to meet you). Would you, by chance, be considering a global tour or whatever the book equivalent is?
and if you ever find yourself in the US, please make your way to SoCal. it's not quite as awful as it's made out to be
Why did I have to live in Brisbane?!
I've only ever been to a cheap comic convention in some warehouse in the Valley, and the Supernova from this year. When travel money becomes a reality in my world I'd be going to all cons world over. Glad you're doing it though, it's great to meet the creators. I'd love to go to a convention that had Farscape... Get a job with Jim Henson co. and all that Jazz (I can dream).
-word verification is Shumpi.... Shy but Grumpy?
e n reinmuth, we can change places. How about a country where it gets dark 4 in the afternoon and the "sun" don´t come up until 7.30-8 in the morning? Here are cold winds, chilly rains (so far), no sun, just grey cloudy skies.
I´d love to be in Brisbane! Bet there is warm weather so I don´t always has to freeze.
They say you can always spot a swede abroad. We´re the ones with our faces turned to the sun, like sunflowers. No wonder since during the winter it´s so little sunlight.
I like the way you phrased that, Anna. It sounds very lyrical :)
(Smile)
Ill be there on sunday
That was great. The cover of Factotum looks really good!
Word verification:
sooferoo: someone who tries but fails to do a foreign accent
Damn I wish I could come. But I'm afraid I'm bound to schoolwork, and theres always the problem of being miles from Sydney without money or a licence.
I'm not going to mention coming here as I remember a similar thing happening previously. I think we ended up ordoring you to visit numerous countries world-wide. lol.
Anna! OMG! Is Sweden really that bad? Or am I the only one who wants to move to Sweden (the lovely land of volvos...). I'm afraid you are right about sunny weather. I live near Brisbane myself, and already it's boiling and it isn't even summer!
Oh and by the way Mr Cornish.
My friend and I are writing an epic story of ourselves, but we don't know much about publishing or really anything about being an author.
Do you have any useful tips?
Well susan, it depends how you see it. the "sunlight" wintertime is just as I wrote and the rest. The part of Sweden where I live don´t have trouble with the snow as they have further north. There were more snow when I was a child but I think because of the global warming it´s less and less during the Winter. One thing is really beautiful. It´s when it is snow and you ride (horseback) through the forest. Wow! Or when it´s really frosty. The downside is that it´s slippry to drive. And the cold. I just can´t stand it.
There is always good and bad things about a country. Hopefully there are more good stuff than bad.
Anna, I would take you up on that offer in a flash! Brisbane is so horrible this year, I moved from the tropics to get away from it (at least with the hope of) and it still feels the same: hot, humid, horrible. Plus I'm not a beach person... which adds to the dilemma.
As to the Twilight series, not too crash hot. I read a bit of a friend's copy and I thought it really makes vampires seem like pussycats... I like my Beasties to roar, not purr...
Awwwe now I really want to go to Sweden. Damn lucky, horse riding in snow... **grumble grumble**
Word verification: hacially- the envious sensation infusing laughter, like an unenthused cackle.
i.e.
person 1: "How about a country where it gets dark 4 in the afternoon and the "sun" don´t come up until 7.30-8 in the morning? Here are cold winds, chilly rains (so far), no sun, just grey cloudy skies."
person 2: "Ahaha, hah... ha yeah.... that's bad... >_>"
I'm still swimming from Seattle USA! Keep it going!
sesseso: a large, heavily salted pentagon-shaped cracker, the traditional fare of underpaid ferrymen. it does nothing to improve their tempers.
anna, i would trade our hot + nasty summer for your cold winter any time.
YOU ALL MUST BE MAD! Trade your wonderful warm weather just to become a popsicle! And not a tasty one either (lol).
Right now it´s 4 o´clock in the morning and it´s pitch dark outside ("what is she doing up so early?"). I´m on my way to the University to take a test at 8 o´clock and the train leaves at 6. So I´m going to take my blue Volvo (The Volvo is a very reliable "tractor", as we call it here) and drive to the train station in the nearest town.
I´m just like Garfield: I hate Monday´s and especially mornings.
Anna-
I want to go to Sweden
Mr Cornish-
Is observing the best way to get better at drawing?
D.M. Cornish- Thanks for the picture but I don't exactly find the message to be amusing. It's bad to wish bad things on people.
Anna- Is there good skiing in Sweden because if their is I'll trade!
susan- The fact that me and Portals have our English and History yearly exams this week didn't stop him from going...
lol I suppose. If I actually lived in Sydney I would definately be going! I was more pointing out the fact that with school, I would have no time to get down there from where I live in QLD XD.
Anna. I suppose I know how you feel, but living in this heat for too long and you start to think winter is a blessing! But I suppose it works in the opposite way for you too. (lol are volvos really that big in Sweden? If they are I am definately going at some point in time in my life XD)
I've seen snow once, and that was during the week long school trip to Perisher Blue, and even then it was stinking hot, most of the ice was artificial! I went to Tassie early this year and I fell in love with the weather. The sun doesn't go down until nine, and there's next to no pollution. Flowers grow amazingly well there, not to mention Pink Lady Apples the size of a child's head. It's so cool with the winds from Antarctica, and the Sun is always warm but never burning. Two things wrong with it however: 1. Jumping Jacks (inch long ants with huge pincers that jump further than a metre) and 2. Bogans. Being a small island with mostly farmland and all, there's nothing but rednecks down there, unless they're my relatives.
There's snow sometimes in summer there too, but after this year's sweltering heat I want to be buried alive in the stuff! Gimme gimme Sweden! Or the Black Forest.... OOooooh Switzerland so I can visit the Lindt factory!
Word verification: Chumsti
Like a Pigsti, but of a mate who's too good natured to be called a slob. Sometimes spelt Chump-sty
This whole conversation is a perfect example of "the grass is greener on the other side" thinking and it's really amusing to see this play out, since I can understand how Anna feels. Northern U.S.A. is probably close to as dreary, cold, wet, and windy as Sweden (though the horseback riding through the forest sounds amazing).
Emperor: north of Sweden has good skiingif there is snow, but mostly there is.
Susan, the tractor thing is about that you can drive the Volvo everywhere, like a tractor.Dependable and it kind of sounds like a tractor aswell (giggle).
E N R: Tasmania sounds really nice! Wish i could travel more to see places all over the world, sigh.
But northern USA is very nice in the Summertime, just like Sweden.
Carlita, you are right. I
like my country otherwise and wouldn´t trade that for a moment. Just the horrible cold(for me) wintertime.
ellorneo You should be able to find The Foundling in any Chapters out there. It's in the 13+ Series section. Took me a little bit of looking too, but I found it!
Hmmmm, yes - there are bogans in Tasmania, but no more than anywhere else I've been. The livery may change, but you can find them pretty much anywhere in equal numbers, city or country.
I live in South Carolina, where 100 degrees is considered "a little warm"...but one thing I've noticed is that SCers are never satisfied with the weather! When it's hot we long for the winter, and when it's cold (i.e. 60 degrees or less), we wonder what on earth happened to summer?
Epirdi: clothing that one can only put on when assisted my someone else.
Is the con over? Damn! [pushes off from Oz and starts swimming back home]
Everyone comment like mad. Let's try reach 80 again.
cowebru: a Kiwi Cowboy.....
Nalize: to incompletely analyze something, like only reading the synopsis of a book.
bleverro: a hasty and secretive church service on the back of a fast-moving vehicle
cendersu: gray, murky, grainy soup commonly eaten by the upper-class and famous for its coffee-and-fruit flavor
Just a stupid question from a foreigner: is it real words or made-up ones? I feel the urge to throw in some words...
has started to read Twillight (book 1). Not that bad. I´ve read worse. I´m a real book-oholic. Can´t be without a book to read for very long, then I go nuts.
I'm a n00b too, I think it's the word verification that they're assigning definitions too
lectopu: a near-sighted dentist
sedigats: an insulting term for people who talk for the sake of talking.
Honestly, can't we have a pertinent subject? Are we really such a dull bunch?
I take it some of you have negative opinions on Twilight so I'm wondering if you could enumerate what you think is wrong with the series. Not that I'm going to read it; an acquaintance is.
Well, since I don't have anything else to say (I'm something of a sedigat myself) I'll get around to complimenting Reinmuth on her awesome falsewoman sketch. I'd leave a devious review, but I can't.
-Ben.
My thoughts on Twilight: The first one was goodokayish, the second one was actually rather enjoyable, but the third one was rubbish. I didn't bother reading the fourth.
My major issues are with the hero, Edward Cullen: he's perfect in every possible way, an obvious vessel for wish fulfillment. Perfection is a bore. That's the reason I enjoyed the second book; the hero is absent for almost half of it!
Also, the villains get the short end of the stick; they don't even appear until maybe 2/3rds of the way through the book, then are promptly defeated almost before the chapter is out. In the second one the villain doesn't even make an appearance, just hovers around until the third book is almost over...then she speaks her first lines and is defeated before the end of the chapter. I love my villains.
In conclusion, I don't think the books themselves are really terribly bad if you like that sort of thing, but I'm repulsed by the fangirl craze mostly.
Tammetai: a warrior who is forced to give up his trade after an injury and becomes a chef instead.
my thoughts on twilight: s'Ok. nothing really wrong with it, it's just kind of...bleh. the writing itself is not bad, but the plot, such as it was, wasn't very interesting or original. the characters were nothing special, either. nothing to bash, nothing to rave about.
i do wish, for once, that someone would write a vampire book with something NEW in it somewhere
Acnfu: a small canoe-like boat made entirely from braided grass
Therns: The spiral shaped spine or thorn found on rare Bogles?
Twilight series... it's just really soft. Vampyres have and always should be the demonic flesh tearing blood drinking walking corpse they are, not simply a pale guy with prissy fangs who has the hots for a human. Vamp love stories are more elaborate than that.
And the whole comparison to vegetarians! "Oh gee, I'm a vampire yeah sure, but I only drink the blood of animals like a vegetarian" :P For one thing humans still are animals, and even then it's nothing new: Most vamp stories start with the new Kindred drinking off rats and such because they don't want to 'feed off humans'.
Anne Rice's vampires were fancy floosies because that was the time, and they blended into society, anything earlier than that they were the proud and infamous link between Man and Demon. Meyers' books are weak in the sense of a vampiric tale.
Anyone played Vampire: Bloodlines? I never read the books but I have the PC game 'Masquerade' and it's a fairly different take on Vampires too, but at least Masquerade hosts full blooded Vampyres...
Monday: Hellsing series was a pretty new take on it. The original series was a little more art-housey, but having Dracula (Alucard) as the traditional shadow demon {figure, by tales a vampire but any such demon also, who uses darkness into it's form} was pretty darn cool.
Oh and thanks Ben Bryddia, I know, you need an account to comment but it saves the artists lots of trouble with spam. Thanks again though. Whoa, large comment.
OK, just throwing in a word: hialös= patience-less.
it´s a word from my part of the country, not existing in the rest of Swe since we still have a quite specific dialect from the day´s we were not swedish.
Dinesse- adjective. Rather poncy term used for describing clothes of poorer quality.
Eg- 'Hippon wears very a dinesse coat, don't you think?'
Vampires- Unfortunately I once read a sieries about vampires. Now that I think about it I wonder how I could have read them. They were the 'Darren Shan Saga'. They consisted of four trilogies, and were written in first person. The author tried to be creative and original but it wasn't that good. He said that vampires had evolved from wolves and that they were tougher, faster, and stronger.
There is alot I could say but I won't because it will fill me with pain.
this is sorta really off topic... but going along the lines of orginal stories n such... me and my friend are writing a story (and i hope she doesn't kill me for saying this here :S) basically its about a hot werewolf guy, and his creator (the werewolf who bit him in first place) is like trying to make him join the evil side n stuff... and hes having like a high school rel, and yeah... theres heaps of in betweens but i dont wanna give away too much in case the evil gremlins steal the idea, but does that sound like something you would buy?
i agree with monday and noelle about twilight... it was good but was missing something... just don't ask me what! lol...
word thing...
renasil: hmm.. maybe a new brand of panadol, or maybe a mouthwash?
By the way this comment is from Emperor. For some reason I am not able to log into my account
Portals- It'd pain you too much!? The Darren Shan saga is the series that you were obsessed with before Monster Blood Tattoo! You wouldn't stop talking about it. You even said that it wazs the series that you were going to make me read before you read Foundling and forced me to read that instead!
jamel- No idea...
anna: i am so going to to use hialos [dots over o] in conversation today. :)
urgh. i remember Darren Shan.
droos: an amphibious three-wheeled pedal-powered vehicle.
Monday, glad to hear you´re gonna use the word! the O sounds long.
I used Esculap when I emailed my universityfriends, lets say they were puzzled, at the least (giggle).
Another Scanian word: Krued=crooked,bent,curved.
I´m not that fond of Anne Rice books, a bit boring in my taste. And whatever you do, don´t read "Let the right one in" (movie with the same name)=dull!
Don´t know how Charlaine Harris books are like...hmmm.
We need to comment more! As I said before, once we got to 80 . . .
Monday-
Yeah, sorry for bringing up Darren Shan. It's pointless, ridiculous, predictable, and terribly writeen, to say the least.
Emperor-
The Darren Shan books are awful. I think I only liked them because they were so easy to read.
Word verification:
Tessesio- Kind of pancake made of meat. Mainly made of lamp and beef. Popular among farmers.
More words: Bjer = small hill
Batting= small child/male calf/wild person.
If it´s a wild person you mostly say it :Vild-batting
Tragg= nagging
Spissnos =curious person/a pointed nose
I AM a vild-batting--cower, ye spissnos!
i love yr words, anna. :)
52 comments now...
sturebo: a bowler-like hat, made from thick felt, with sharply pointed wing-shapes extending from the back.
Lockoteer: A hired pirate, bandit, or raider.
Peativ: a very large bomb that makes a lot of noise but causes very little actual damage.
Hypula-
A cape made of reptile skin/scales.
An interesting thing I found about werewolves while reading a certain book on Norse mythology was how werewolves actualy became so by donning cursed wolf skins.
The myth in question was, if memory serves, a minor episode in the Volsung saga where the father and his son found some poor wretches who had their wolf skins hanging in a cottage. Being adventurous types, the father and son took the wolf skins and rampaged with mindless fury through the woodlands until the father slew his child. The son was mirraculously resurrected and the pair burned the wolf hides as soon as they could.
I believe Tolkien's werwolves are, for lack of a better word, demonically possesed. I believe a few show up in the Lay of Lathian in the Silmarilion.
Matrum[ation]: derailing of the train of thought halfway through a sentence.
Thanks for the Twilight information.
-Ben.
Ok, I´ve read Twilight about 3 times now (got it on Tuesday) in english. I liked the first part but now I´m getting a little annoyed about the last part of the book and the constantly "don´t leave me"-nagging. The author could have skipped a lot of those expressions. It hasn´t got me not to want to read book 2 though.
It´s hopeless to be a book-oholic! all these books you want (deep sighs).
Perhaps I should tell you, I have over 1500 books, not counting pocket-books. More exactly 1547. I might have missed some books.
Does anyone have more books?
i own maybe 30 books... lol but my bookshelf is becoming fuller as the years go by...
some of my favs include MBT (of course), Maximum Ride by James Patterson (mind you it's starting to lose it's touch), north child by edith pattou, inkheart/spell by cornerlia funke, the seventh tower series by garth nix, chronicles of ancient darkness by michelle paver i think?, uh... and some series called the riddle of the treesong or something... but theres heaps more I like and dont have that I can't remember anymore... XD
I think I'm a bit of a book a holic too... for one part at the start of the year i didnt read much and i think i did start going mad... lol
so far nothing has beaten MBT though... :D I'v already reccommended it to most of my friends and they like it.
man i really have to stop writing such long comments...
lol my word verification:
track: hmm... maybe a thing to run on? lol
Caria: A ceremony in which the religious leader tries to animate inanimate objects.
ben--i could talk about werewolves forever...did you know, f/e, that people with slanting eyebrows or bad skin or epilepsy were in the middle ages thought to be them? and that mistletoe was a repellent before silver came into the picture?
nessecti: the dissection of a mosquito
[long-dead, ocourse, because 'there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded mosquito']
my word veriication is 'vicks'.
- Portals: XD No more needs to be said.
More on Twilight, I was having a conversation with a fan and a critic, and we all came to the conclusion that it seems like some written down version of Meyers' love fantasy- Probably why the vampires aren't as hardcore as they should be, typical qualities a woman looks for is sensitivity and such. Typical, as in generally a lot of women do, it's no stereotype. Here I am liking manly Men, and here I am not liking the series.
Whining about Twilight is actually relieving the annoying tension behind waiting for book 3...
bagmant: What a Drunk person says when trying to say 'Embankment'
Who want to be together with an really evil man? Not me. E N, I think you draw every woman over one comb (does that expression exist in english?)
If the vampires would be hardcore in Twilight Bella would have been a snack the first day she started school. To make the story work you have to shave off some of the "hardcore" stuff (which has been done zililon times in movies. Gee, I can´t wait for Underworld 3).
Talking of stereotypes. Has anyone thought of that mostly it´s an male vampire and an female human in the stories? Why not female vampires?
Have'nt read Twilight. Should I?
More comments. A new post could come at any second ...
riessail: A type of sweet, soft, moist pastry, often used in wealthy people's sweet foods.
Perhaps borrow it on the library first, if you are not sure you like it (says I who read books over and over again).
choticus: a ceramic tool made especially for cleaning underneath the toenails of kings
I had wanted to read the series when it first came out then I forgot about it, since it wasn't that big yet. When it did get really popular, I accidentally checked out the third book from the series and then worked my way to the first. This was a bad way to read them, not because I was lost for the first book, but because I thought the 3rd was exciting and so when I read the first, I kept waiting to meet James and Victoria. And waiting. And waitng. And they didn't come til the end and by that point, I was so sick of Bella I could scream. So I had started with my favorite and gone downhill. That's my two cents on Twilight. (Sorry it got so long ...)
Have just read the first chapter in the fifth book of Stephenie Meyer, "Midnight Sun". It´s written in EDwards point of view and it seems something worthy to read when it comes out.
That´s the worsed part: waiting for sequal (the right word?) books to be published. You just wait and wait and wait.....and thinking: what the publishers are doing with the book, it can´t take that much time to print a book?
Twilight is essentially wish fulfillment. I mean, the heroine is a girl who thinks she's ugly but I think every male character falls in love with her, and of course she attracts the attention of the unobtainable perfect superhuman sexy vampire right away, on her first day, in fact. The reason so many people obsess over the Twilight books is that they can all identify with this fantasy. Wish fulfillment books always make it big; Harry Potter or Eragon, for example. They all share the "normal child finds out that they are somehow special" plot, and wouldn't we all want to find out that we're a wizard/a dragon rider/desirable to sexy vampires?
Shnestra: a traveling band of street musicians who play bizarre instruments that they have invented themselves.
Role playing and computer games are probably as popular as they are because they allow the player to live their fantastic lives in a world where they can act like demi-gods. One can self-identify with the characters and thus live through them if one refuses to live in one's own life. Or at least that's my theory on why I get so emotionally atached to certain stories.
Don't we all see ourselves as the hero/ine of the stories? Shouldn't good books help you live better, not merely provide an escape so you can live in a shadow world?
Parthyp=a member of the Athena cult.
Role playing and computer games are probably as popular as they are because they allow the player to live their fantastic lives in a world where they can act like demi-gods. One can self-identify with the characters and thus live through them if one refuses to live in one's own life. Or at least that's my theory on why I get so emotionally atached to certain stories.
Don't we all see ourselves as the hero/ine of the stories? Shouldn't good books help you live better, not merely provide an escape so you can live in a shadow world?
Parthyp=a member of the Athena cult.
-Ben.
Coniti- small, yellow vegetable, commonly used to give flavour to breads.
I'm sorry but ...
I wanted more comments.
I really do feel like the square peg here - I'm not a fan of fantasy/magic/vampire books, really not. Excepting LOTR & MBT, although both transcend the fantasy tag.
"Dhirthle: the state of being covered in dirt after digging in your garden for potatoes because your cupboard is desperately empty"
Anyone flicked through The Meaning of Liff? Gold for people who like having words for the previously un-worded...
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