Colin Harvey – author

Not just another Monday morning, of course. As (at least) one of my lecturers noted, it’s the start of the academic year. And it’s my first Monday for 3 weeks, during which time the dark has encroached noticably.  Not only was it pitch black when the alarm sounded at 5.30, but it was still dark when I took Alice out at 6.45 — it’ll soon be time to move to the winter dog-walking timetable.

I must admit to being profoundly depressed first thing this morning, especially at an item on the 6 o’clock news (about which more tomorrow) but as always after 2 or 3 hours woth of writing -at the end of which I’d revised a short story to submission stage– I was considerably chirpier.

Writing; my drug of choice.

This is shameless self-indulgence, I know…but forgive me. I’ve been working for this for thirteen years and I’m going to enjoy it for a few more days. Maybe one day I’ll be completely blase about having a book actually on shelf instead of the vast virtual warehouse of Amazon, Book Depository, etc. But that day hasn’t come yet!

There’s this vast warehouse of a shop that covers three floors in Portland, Oregon. It’s a bit of a legend by all accounts — and even I’d heard of Powell’s Bookstore.

A friend of mine who was there on holiday sent me a snap of the front of it which looks pretty unprepossessing, but inside is a wonderland of books…

…and there it is — out in the wild.

Not quite next to Joe Haldeman or Harry Harrison, but close enough. 🙂

A title which will, I’ve just realized, mean nothing to American readers . 🙂

Blue Peter was/is a much-loved children’s TV program where the presenters made things out of cheap -and years ahead of its time, recycled– materials such as sticky-back plastic, cardboard toilet roll holders, and washing-up liquid bottles. So the very words Blue Peter resonate with generations of British children.

 My day will consist of printing dummy covers for a book, swearing a lot as I realize my expensive but over-sophisticated printer won’t let me do what I need to do, printing it again, etc until I can finally mock up two-different sized paperbacks.

 Then I’ll be creating a new page for this site.

 I’ll post today’s post tomorrow instead — since I have to write it first.

The first of any month always makes me a little thoughtful. The first of September especially so. It’s only one day after the end of August, yet the very name of the month is autumnal.

It’s the start of the academic year, and in a day or two the road will be jammed with cars and buses on the way to and from Broadlands School, at the top of our road. In just over four weeks I’ll be registering at uni, and students and staff alike will be catching up with people they haven’t seen since the heady days of May.

The days are noticeably drawing in – it’s almost pitch soon after eight o’clock in the evening and now we rise in the dark as well. On sunny days especially, there’s a bitter chill in the early morning air — especially venturing down into the valley with Alice.                                        

Alice, drying out...

Mist hangs heavy on the ground, and the long grass in the fields is so wet that I need to wear wellington boots to keep my feet and legs dry. Alice takes most of the morning to dry out, and the wet fur smell of damp dog fills the house if I forget to open the windows.

Tomatoes are ripening on the vines, and at night lying in bed the quiet is broken by the constant thud of apples falling from the tree onto the lawn.  It’s a beautiful but elegaic time of year, as we (mostly) unconsciously start the clock counting down to a new year.

Well, here we are and it’s the 31st of August.

To celebrate the official US release of Winter Song (yes, really! Have I mentioned it already?) the lovely, intelligent and charming Sharon Reamer has updated an interview with me that orinally ran in Allegory magazine a full twelve months ago.  There’s plenty more where that one came from!

In fact, I’m not quite sure whether it’s actually in the shops, or just means that it’s officially in a warehouse in Omaha, or Oregon, or…

And this morning I finished the wip. 613 words over, but that’s not bad for a 105,000 word novel. It’ll be put to one side now, while I think about re-writes for a month.

Finally, but equally importantly, I wrapped the last of Kate’s presents yesterday.

All done and on target — a nice red letter day!

It’s been a busy old morning with lots happening, so if this string of bulletin points sounds a bit breathless, that’s maybe because it is.

First of all, so much for the power of 31. Anne and Brian’s baby girl decided not to hang around until the end of the month, but instead emerged into the world at about 6.30 am yesterday morning. I’m delighted for them.

Also soon to emerge into the world is ‘Chameleon,’ my flash story that will available to  subscribers of Daily Science Fiction in the first week of September.

Finally, the podcast of my panel on ‘The Future of the Future’ is up at alt.fiction’s website.

Right, time I sorted out some lunch.

It’s now 14 days until August 31st, a date which grows increasingly significant with every day. That’s because organizations and individuals target the first and last days of the month, so the 31st is always busy with some deadline or other.

It’s also the day before Kate’s birthday, by which time I need to have sneaked any goodies into the house and wrapped them. So usually in August I’m getting a little stressy. Although this year, I no longer have the annual influx of applications for the SLF‘s Annual Travel Grant.

Still, when I planned my summer workload it seemed to be against a view of one looooong siesta as I dozed beneath the apple tree from the end of the 1st year in May, to the 2nd year in early October.  I calculated that if I could finish the draft of Ultramassive by August 31st, I could take a month off before going back to uni. So far, so good; I’m 80% of the way through, and if I can keep producing my target wordage, I’ll make it, bang on schedule.

And although Dark Spires is to be launched at Bristolcon, the printers only need a couple of weeks, so I figured that with any luck I could even write the story for it in early October — at least, if I was lucky… if not, then late September. 

Ah, I thought smugly. A plan is hatched…

The first flaw came at the end of May. Angry Robot announced that they were gearing up the US launch to start with Winter Song. They are launching in September, but monthly deliveries go out on the last Tuesday of the previous month, which is….de de de de de de de…August 31st. (It’s actually great news, but it was about two or three months earlier than I’d expected, and Leeee keeps shouting at me for more interviews and more blog material!!!!)

Now, having thought that I could get away with a gap before turning my full attention to Dark Spires, it transpires that WTP’s lovely copy editor is expecting her first child soon, and we need to get all the editing done soonest. Last Friday I learned that it’s due…August 31. 

And that first annual deadline hasn’t gone away — at some point I need to get Kate’s birthday presents before she returns from holiday on…August 31st. (Can anyone recommend a mains-operated DAB radio that also picks up FM?) 

I know, I know. I could be writing, blogging, editing or…ew, shopping…instead of whinging about it. But hey, my therapist tells me it’s good to share.

But if anyone else has any deadlines for this date, keep them to yourself — at least until September the 1st.

Please? Pretty please?

This morning I received a note publicizing William Gibson‘s forthcoming tour , including his visit to Bristol in October:

William Gibson is the bestselling author of 10 novels. His first, Neuromancer, sold more than six million copies worldwide and his books and short stories continue to reach massive audiences and win just about every award going. He coined the term cyberspace and is credited with predicting the rise of reality television and establishing the conceptual foundations for the rapid growth of virtual environments such as video games and the Web. His comment – ‘The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed’ – first made in 2003 continues to be used widely. He has collaborated extensively with performance artists, filmmakers and musicians and has influenced many other authors as well as design, academia, cyberculture, technology, and the film The Matrix. His new book, Zero History, set largely in London, spookily captures the paranoia and fear of our post-Crash, late Capitalist times. A rare opportunity to see one of the world’s finest writers, someone who has had, and continues to have, huge influence in the making and understanding of the modern world.

Price: £7.00 / £5.50. Contact Watershed Media Centre, Bristol on: 0117 927 5100, book online (http://www.watershed.co.uk/exhibits/2481/), or visit in person.

Gibson is one of those writers who will probably never the impact of that first novel (I remember the buzz I got from reading Neuromancer that first time) but it will still be fascinating to hear what he says.

I’m still getting settled back into some sort of routine this morning. After a brief diversion into the land of short story writing, I took a day off yesterday to attend my step-father’s funeral.  Not the sort of day off that I like — I much prefer them to involve lying prone somewhere in sunshine on one hand, a long drink in another, and a good book — wait, that’s too many hands…

But despite being slightly worried about resuming novel-writing, once I got going, I found slipping back into the groove of writing Ultramassive surprisingly easy. I think that I’ve achieved a certain residual momentum. Or maybe the day ‘off’ did some good.

My only reminder of work yesterday was when Lee rang me from the Angry Robot office for one last minor edit for Damage Time. It came as Kate and I were buying some sandwiches for lunch in a bomb-site/Sainsbury’s-under-construction, on the edge of Exeter. I thought, ‘shall I tell him where I am?’ but decided against it. He might have felt guilty, whereas I was actually glad of the distraction.

And Damage Time cropped up again this morning, with this timely link provided by the lovely Liz van Zandt, via Facebook. I proposed in the novel that society might be entering a phase whereby economic factors affect people’s living arrangements, and even marriage. In the draft it raised more eyebrows and hackles with the crit group than perhaps any other point, which surprised me.

I suspect that I’m not done with blogging about this yet. In fact, I know I’m not…thanks Liz. 🙂

This morning has been one of those great mornings when it’s a pleasure to be a writer.

I finished ‘Spindizzy’ my story for Dark Spires over the weekend, or rather, I finished the main part of the narrative. I needed to write some short inserts that are pastiches of Golden Age SF. I started out fairly restrained, but as the morning progressed the battles got ever bigger, the villains more villainous and the women more beautiful. All in the space of a thousand words!

I’d almost forgotten how much fun SF can be.

Meanwhile the other stories have started to come in, and I’m enjoying reading them.

Tomorrow worn’t be quite so enjoyable, as it’s my stepfather’s funeral, so no blog tomorrow, and then it’s back to work on Ultramassive on Wednesday.