Obviously, I have awoken in a crazy, fucked up world in which Tony Abbott is now the leader of the opposition party:

Mr Abbott scraped through a narrow party room vote, beating Malcolm Turnbull by one vote, 42-41.

Joe Hockey was considered a favourite to win the ballot but in a surprise result was knocked out in the first round of votes, winning the support of only 23 of his colleagues to Tony Abbott’s 35 and Malcolm Turnbull’s 26.

The subsequent run-off saw the conservative Sydney politician pick up a razor-thin majority of the party room to become the 13th Federal Liberal Party leader since its establishment.

It appears that Abbott has scraped through as leader by being the head of men and women who don’t believe in climate change, which I have to admit, must be a bitter pill for Malcolm Turnbull to swallow, given that all he was trying to do was put the party on the populist line on the issue. If you’ve never heard of Abbott–and a better life than mine you have had–then you might not know him as the very conservative Catholic who has a reputation for claiming that abortion is a national issue, cancer patients should wait, and being a general rat bag piece of shit, as we like to say.

Every other political leader in Australia must be having a party right now. Kevin Rudd can probably cut his election funding down to five bucks, a homeless guy outside Central trainstation, and a piece of cardboard that says, “I Plan to Steal From Your Children.”

On the weekend, my sister sent me a message, asking me if I’d like to get some cash for proof reading. She only really calls when there’s money to be made.

I figured that it wouldn’t be such a bad way to make some cash before Xmas, so I asked her what it was. I figured it was something technical, nothing too stressful, but it turned out that it was someone at her work, who wanted to be a writer. He had a collection of short fiction he wanted to pay me to read–something that came about, from what I understand, after my sister said I was a writer. Yeah, it’s been a quiet year, but those kind of things happen–I still put in the time, do the work, and all of that. Anyhow, this guy was offering a chunk of cash, and even with the holidays coming up, I turned it down. I told her that she ought to tell him to find a writing group, submit to things, and just keep pushing away at the publication angle, and not to pay money to anyone to get an opinion on their work.

There’s a lot of scams going round for new writers. The Harlequin Romance a week back was the big company scam, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t little versions of it going around, wherein you pay an author or an editor to read your work and give you feed back. Some of the people who do that are pretty decent authors and editors, too, but it doesn’t really change the fact that they’re scamming you. They’re taking your money, reading your stuff, giving you an opinion, and then that’s it. Nothing anyone says–for money or otherwise–is going to get you published, or will put you on some quick route to getting to the success and fame side. You could argue that there’s really not much difference to teaching than it is to proof reading, and perhaps there’s not, except for the mindset that you get into it. Of course, teaching is a scam, too, and the truth of it is, all you do is sit round, help people understand things, and then send them off to work–the difference, of course, is I don’t charge seven hundred and fifty dollars for that particular experience, and I tell you, up at the front, that you’re here to learn shit. You learn your syllabus, you learn a canon, you learn how to use whatever correct. In addition, teaching is aimed to get you marks, and despite what High School English teachers like to say, there is a right and a wrong in the subject, and it isn’t too difficult to get good marks. But being a writer and paying someone to proof read, go through your shit, and ‘mentor’ you?

You’re being scammed.

Write, meet people, join writing groups, don’t give money to people, no matter who they are. Well, okay, if you want to give money away, do it, but don’t expect anything out of it. There’s a million different opinions on what’s good, what’s bad, what sells, what doesn’t, and what makes good and bad writing. I can tell you my opinion of it, but I’ll tell you for free if I like you, or I’ll charge you an hourly rate if you want to be a student, but at the end of the day, a lot of really bad literature makes a lot of very real money, and I would never have published it.

Do you remember the milk scandal in China round the time of the Olympics?

If not, it was that melamine was added to the milk to fake the protein levels, and which resulted in the deaths of six children, and thousands of babies becoming ill. Well, this morning, as an end of the story, I guess, two of the men involved were executed. Sky News claims they were shot by a firing squad, but I read elsewhere that lethal injection was used. Either way, the Chinese Government had the two men killed. The highest ranking executive in the whole thing, however, a sixty six year old woman, was spared this by coping an earlier plea, and ended up with a life sentence. It probably doesn’t take too much of a distrustful mind to argue that she’s skated out of the execution by having friends.

However, what struck me as I was reading this, was really how much I can’t support the death penalty. I mean, here are some folk who were greedy and stupid and had thousands of kids get sick, and six even die. It’s a pretty awful thing. I’m not going to tell you it isn’t.

But.

But, a year and a half later, the government killing the people involved… It’s just not something I can get behind. Maybe it’s a fault in me, I’m not sure, but I’ve yet to see or read or experience anything that I thought the death penalty was a suitable response.

In 2002, the Polyphony anthology series debuted. Conceived as a short fiction venue for stories that would skate gracefully across the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, magic realism, and literary fiction, it was quickly recognized as the standard bearer for cross genre work. Since then, the series’ six volumes have become a vital, unique collection of voices in literature of the fantastic.

Polyphony has been twice nominated for a World Fantasy Award and the stories therein have been featured in several “Year’s Best” anthologies, along with garnering accolades from several award judges and committees. Polyphony authors range from multiple-award-winning seasoned writers to the previously unpublished. The series is truly a melodic interweaving of many voices: old and new, speculative and literary, heralded and unknown. Polyphony has not merely crossed literary boundaries, it has reformed and redefined them.

The harsh economic climate threatens to kill this vital series. Wheatland Press is asking for your help.

The authors have graciously made concessions to make Polyphony 7 a reality. They’ve agreed to a reduced pay rate to see the volume published. Now we need readers.

In order to publish Polyphony 7, Wheatland Press must receive 225 paid pre-orders via the website by March 1, 2010. If the pre-order quantities cannot be met, Polyphony will cease publication. It’s that simple. The preorder link is here: http://www.wheatlandpress.com/
(mid page)

If the preorder number is met, then Polyphony 7 will be published on or about July 1, 2010.*

We have heard from many in the SF/F literary community that Polyphony is a vital part of landscape. We agree, but we cannot continue without your support. We hope that you will support our fine authors and their art by becoming part of the Polyphony community and pre-ordering a copy of Polyphony 7.

*The fine print: If we do not receive enough orders by March 1, then all preorders will be refunded immediately.

Polyphony is a very good anthology series. I appeared in the previous volume, and my story, ‘There is Something so Quiet and Empty Inside of you that it must be Precious’ is set to appear in the new book. Since it has such an awesomely long title, you obviously want to read it.

On a more personal level, Deb Layne is a really awesome person, with really fine taste in literature, and it would be nothing but a shame should her hard work have to end because of the economic climate we find ourselves in. Go, support her, buy a few books, pre-order this book in particular, and lets keep things alive.

When you are 1500 feet deep, there’s no wind, there’s no ambient sound, and there’s no sunlight as well (no wonder!). However, ride on the elevator doesn’t take too long – during these seconds you virtually see your whole life in front of your eyes. The open cage whooshes downwards swinging around like crazy and your guts really seem to come all the way up to your throat!

When you’re out of the cage, you arrive to a small platform, where multiple tunnels are intercrossed. These tunnels are made for so called “taxis”, small diesel-powered vehicles that can transport 2 to 12 men, depending on their designation. The mine uptake is only a drop in the sea of shafts, since there are lots of tunnels, which lead to actual mining sites. The most distant longwall (which is the name of the place of actual mining) is 17 miles away from the elevator! The “taxi” drives at speed of 20-25 mph, so it takes quite some time for some miners to get to work.

Link.

Some days, I would forgive anyone who said that the publishing industry was one of the most poorly run businesses in existence. As one of the examples that could warrant such a comment, there is the latest plan by Harlequin in which their rejected authors can go and, well, basically pay for their work to be published:

Author Solutions has teamed up with Harlequin to form Harlequin Horizons, a new imprint for self-published romance authors. The imprint will recruit writers in two ways: authors whose manuscripts have been rejected by Harlequin will be made aware of the Harlequin Horizons option and authors who sign with Author Solutions will be given the opportunity to be published under the Harlequin Horizons imprint. According to an Author Solutions spokesperson, the imprint will offer special services aimed at the romance market, including unique marketing and distribution services. All services are on a pay-for-service basis.

Author Solutions will handle all aspects of the venture, although Harlequin Horizons will exist as an imprint of Harlequin, and the publisher will be able to monitor sales and sign authors to a traditional imprint.
This is the second deal Author Solutions has signed with a major publisher. Earlier, it reached an agreement with Thomas Nelson to publish self-published authors interested in reaching the Christian market under Nelson’s WestBow imprint. The Author Solutions spokesperson said additional agreements with other traditional houses are in the works.

In response to it, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) released this:

Dear Members:
Romance Writers of America was informed of the new venture between Harlequin Enterprises and ASI Solutions to form Harlequin Horizons, a vanity/subsidy press. Many of you have asked the organization to state its position regarding this new development. As a matter of policy, we do not endorse any publisher’s business model. Our mission is the advancement of the professional interests of career-focused romance writers.

One of your member benefits is the annual National Conference. RWA allocates select conference resources to non-subsidy/non-vanity presses that meet the eligibility requirements to obtain those resources. Eligible publishers are provided free meeting space for book signings, are given the opportunity to hold editor appointments, and are allowed to offer spotlights on their programs.

With the launch of Harlequin Horizons, Harlequin Enterprises no longer meets the requirements to be eligible for RWA-provided conference resources. This does not mean that Harlequin Enterprises cannot attend the conference. Like all non-eligible publishers, they are welcome to attend. However, as a non-eligible publisher, they would fund their own conference fees and they would not be provided with conference resources by RWA to publicize or promote the company or its imprints.

Sometimes the wind of change comes swiftly and unexpectedly, leaving an unsettled feeling. RWA takes its role as advocate for its members seriously. The Board is working diligently to address the impact of recent developments on all of RWA’s members.

We invite you to attend the annual conference on July 28 - 31, 2010 in Nashville, TN, as we celebrate 30 years of success with keynote speaker Nora Roberts, special luncheon speaker Jayne Ann Krentz, librarian speaker Sherrilyn Kenyon, and awards ceremony emcee Sabrina Jeffries. Please refer to the RWA Web site for conference registration information in late January 2010.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Gaylord Opryland!

Michelle Monkou
RWA President
RWA Alert is a publication of Romance Writers of America®,

Which is fair enough, and hopefully the backlash will continue–I don’t know if this is more than a slap, since really, it’s just one conference–and put a stop to something that only adds another layer of work and frustration and economic struggle to an author.

It makes you wonder about the mentality behind this doesn’t it? How poorly must Harlequin think of their authors to begin such a plan? I’m not a romance author but even I could feel the slight by a company there, one which appears to both belittle an author’s intent to make a career from their work, and to also place the contribution of the author at what one could argue as the bottom of the totem pole in getting creating a book. It almost says, that if you write a book, self publish it, and it gets enough to read it then you will be graced by people who will help package and sell your work and allow it into book stores.

Quality doesn’t seem to come into it.

It seems that Michael Moorcock will be writing a Dr Who novel:

The author of the Elric, Eternal Champion and Jerry Cornelius novels, and an inspiration to many creators such as Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Wiliam Gibson and Ian Sinclair, posted on his forum that;

Looks like it’s official. I’ll be doing a new Dr Who novel (not a tie-in) for appearance, I understand, by next Christmas. Still have to have talks etc. with producers and publishers but we should be signing shortly. Should be fun.

It’d be nice if it was written under the influence of a ton of drugs. I mean, I think Dr Who is one of the great all time wastes of brain space, I don’t really dig franchise novels–the authors are, by and large, writing just for the cash and it shows–but if there was a press release that said, “Six months ago, we delivered 112 kilos of cocaine to Michael Moorcock’s house. We locked the doors. We played endless episodes of Dr Who on giant screens outside his house. We give to you now what emerged.”–well, I reckon if there was a press release that said that, I’d have to overcome my prejudices.

I’ve been listening to Wolfmother’s new album, Cosmic Egg. I dug their last album, but I didn’t rush out to sample the next one, mostly because I didn’t feel the urge. Also, the clip for ‘New Moon Rising’ is really boring:

But, y’know, the album is pretty decent, and I’ve kinda dug it.

Hows that for an endorsement?

Local authors, book publishers and unions have secured a win over the major book retailing chains in their campaign to maintain restrictions on imports of cheaper foreign-published books.

The Federal Government this morning announced it would abandon proposed changes to Australia’s book publishing regime that supporters say would have made books cheaper and more widely available but critics argued would harm the local publishing industry.

In announcing the decision, Consumer Affairs Minister Craig Emerson argued the growth of online retailers such as Amazon and electronic books such as Kindle would instead drive innovation and price reductions.

“In the circumstances of intense competition from online books and e-books, the Government judged that changing the regulations governing book imports is unlikely to have any material effect on the availability of books in Australia,” Dr Emerson said in a statement.

Under the existing rules, a title qualifies for protection if the Australian publisher releases the book here within 30 days of its overseas release. Dr Emerson is believed to have explored a compromise that would have reduced this 30-day period to seven or 14 days.

But that plan, as well as an alternative proposal of a price cap similar to one in place in Canada, were rejected by the Government.

The decision means the Government will not go ahead with a planned new spending program for Australian authors and publishers, which had been recommended by the Productivity Commission to compensate the industry for the proposed changes.

The issue has divided cabinet, with economic ministers including Dr Emerson believed to favour reforms to the existing rules while other ministers had been sympathetic to authors, publishers and unions.

The Labor caucus and the ALP’s national conference have also put pressure on cabinet not to adopt the commission’s recommendations.

The Productivity Commission recommended in July that the parallel import restrictions be abolished.

It said this would put downward pressure on book prices and help local booksellers deal with the challenge of overseas retailers such as Amazon, which are allowed to supply cheaper foreign editions directly to Australian consumers.

Link.