Colin Harvey – author

Monday was a day of unexpected changes, which is why I’ve not blogged much for the last few days.

In the morning I started on the wip, which calls for 1400 words a day, if I’m to have the first draft finished by August Bank Holiday; it’s not quite as brutal a daily rate as Black Death, which called for 2000 words a day for a month, but it eats up a fair chunk of every day.

So far so good, since I’m bang on target at the moment with 8400 words written.

But then in the afternoon I took a call from the Bank Office in Bristol, asking if I could work at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Since we need to keep ticking over until the autumn, of course I said yes.

But it means that my day is now writing the wip from 7 to 11 every weekday, then off to work at the Trauma Clinic, not getting home until 7pm. And it’s draining work, telling patients that their clinic has had to be cancelled at less than 24 hours notice –they are often understandably distressed– and by the time I get home and have cooked dinner, I’m sinply exhausted.

So for the moment blogs and reviews will become weekend events, unless I get a little more time and/or energy.

OK, so it’s ofiicial: I’m an idiot.

I plugged the laptop in before coming away, and made sure that it was plugged in. What I didn’t check was that said battery was secure.  It wasn’t, so when I took my 1.35kg paperweight with me, it had a battery with no charge. 

Instead, you get some post-con ramblings here.

There is talk of making it a two-day event next year; whether or not it is one day or two, I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m packing before heading northwards for tomorrow’s Alt.fiction in Derby, so this will be one of the quicker posts, especially as I need to do some thinking about panels. 

I’m on the 10am opener talking about classic SF, together with Tony Ballantyne and Paul Cornell; then at 3pm I’m being locked in a broom cupboard with Mike Cobley and That Man Ballantyne (again) to podcast on The Future of the Future.

Meanwhile, over at Suite101, I’ve scribbled a few words on Futurismic‘s newest columnist, the always fascinating Luc Reid.

Hopefully, I’ll have time to write a few words tomorrow from the evnt itself, but until then…

Those of you who know me well will know my opinion of First Worst Group, part of the monstrous private oligopaly that determines how and when many of us travel within the UK.

The next time you buy a ticket, console yourself with the thought that part of your fare is going to pay the bonus of Marketing Director Ellis Watson, who was paid a ‘signing-on’ bonus of £250,000 last July for joining the group – and then another £22,000 for leaving in March….

Nice to see that our money isn’t being wasted.

If you click on this link, you’ll see some thoughts on Saturday night’s Doctor Who (Vincent and the Doctor) which contain spoilers. This added comment will avoid them.

What prompted the post was my own reaction to the episode, and a number of negative comments that I’ve seen lamenting the direction that the series is taking.  And in making the story small, even intimate (no threat to the world this week, just one Provencal village in danger), in making the drooling, near-psychopathic alien somehow almost poignant, and –heresy of heresies– in showing how resiliant the time-line is to change, Curtis certainly seemed to be deliberately flouting a number of conventions. But isn’t it about time some of the series’ conventions were flouted?

We’ve had five years of ever more grandiose set pieces. It’s about time Doctor Who lost some of the pomposity it accreted under RTD’s stewardship.

I was all set to write a blog post today with my schedule next Saturday for Alt.Fiction in Derby, but my publishers –bless ’em!– have saved a me a job, and probably put up a nicer post to boot.

So here’s the link showing all the Angry Robot-eers and their schedules.

In a stop press, I’ll also be in a panel titled ‘sci-fi’ with Tony Ballantyne and Paul Cornell at 10am. I’m not quite sure what we’re going to talk about, but I have a suspicion that that it may just have something to do with science fiction…

A new blog post over at Suite101 about the frenzy of writing and critiquing at SFFEditors.  I was determined to get the word ‘orgy’ in there somewhere; it might yet play the viagra-peddlers at their own game! (They’ll be so disappointed when they read what it’s actually about…)

About five weeks ago, I mentioned a new online review zine.  Since then The Portal (that’s the zine) has been gradually booting itself up for a launch. They now have a website, which I promised to pass on. So here it is.

Enjoy.

It’s a warm, damp Saturday afternoon that doesn’t seem to be able to make up it’s mind what to do.

Since I’m on holiday I’m not doing much work, although I’ve critiqued one piece of flash today. Instead Kate and I did a little shopping and lunching in Bath (the all-you-can-eat Lebanese mezze is highly recommended), and this afternoon has been spent watching rugby league and listening to cricket — when there’s some play.

And catching up on other people’s blogs. One of my new favourites is Madeline Ashby, who I first read in Shine. Her blog is as elegant as her fiction, and makes me grind my teeth with envy at the apparent ease with which she posts. Her latest entries muse about Stanley Kubrick, Playboy magazine and avocadoes. Head over there and enjoy.

I was relieved this morning when I looked to learn that I have 0 (as in nought) new spam comments on the blog. It was getting a bit worrying when it hit 50 a day (yes, that was fifty). I don’t think I have an overly fierce spam filter, since most of the comments seemed to be in Cyrillic, but if you’ve posted a genuine comment and it hasn’t appeared, drop me a line.

I’m 850 words into a short-short story at the moment, and have a novel synopsis and third chapter to revise, but my main work today is to work on the links page, following up on my updating of my bibliography page. So I’d best get on.

Oh yes, and I’ll be at the Bristol SF&FS meeting tonight, and the BSFA meeting in London on Wednesday. If I don’t see you at one, maybe I’ll see you at the other…?