Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Wednesday, 01 November, 2006
It's getting really busy at work. This is the first job I've ever had where I haven't been getting through my workload: it just keeps piling up and piling up. It makes me feel like I'm not doing my job very well but I have to remember that I'm probably overloaded because, after all, I'm almost doing the work of two people since I've taken over a heap of responsibilities from Guan. Last week I did a bit of Teaching Little Ones and then built this and this and this.
On Friday night Cyndi came for dinner and we went to PEC Women's Fellowship where Judith gave a very good talk about women in creation and submission. On Saturday I woke up early and caught the train to Olympic Park for Supanova (which Ben called a “nerd convention” and Fish called a “geekathon”). The guys from that comics workshop I did back in May were all there—Angus, Snowy (plus Shell, Snowy's wife), Carol, Richard, Matt and, of course, the driving force behind Pulp Crucifiction, Dean. They were selling copies of Pulp Crucifiction as well as Snowy and Carol's Origins and some of Dean's stuff. (Incidentally, will you please consider buying a copy of Pulp Crucifiction? All proceeds go towards supporting earthquake victim Toto Winarno and the Comix 35 ministry). And Angus had his “Kate Hate” comics to give away. I spent some time chatting to them and also some time wandering around. I think I was in a very strange mood that day because I was in the middle of reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (it's about a boy whose father dies in 9/11 and he finds a key in his father's closet)—an extremely engaging and well-written book (though I was slightly disappointing with the end)—very beautiful in a lot of ways but also very sad. (Oh my, they're making a movie of it!) Anyway, I hope no one minded that I was in a strange mood. Plus it was a bit strange to be at a pop culture convention and to have stormtroopers, witches and baby goths walking by with no one so much blinking an eye.
I had to go at 2 so I missed Summer Glau's panel (she plays River in Firefly and Serenity) and I also missed the Serenity screening that night because I rushed home to prepare for the Word by Word literary dinner. I was going to cook one dish and order takeaway for the rest but Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close had me in its grip and I spent the rest of the afternoon reading instead and then was in a bit of a flurry when Elsie and George turned up and gave me a hand. In the end I just ordered takeaway for the lot but I ordered too much as three people who I was expecting to show did not show. The people who did show up were almost entirely people from my blogroll (with the exception of Andrew). One day I will have to write a blog post about my blogroll and how I know everyone but I suspect that if I did, no one would find it as fascinating as I do.
We ate dinner and then commenced the readings. The whole point of the dinner was the readings. When I was a lowly undergraduate at the University of Wollongong, the Creative Writing Department would have this thing called the Big Read roughly once a semester. It was mandatory for Creative Writing students to attend. They wrote their names down on a big list and then read out something they had written. It was good practice in reading your own work aloud, it forced you to complete something before the night (so you would have something to read) and it gave you a taste of what other people were working on. Usually the alcohol would be flowing too and the evening would degenerate into silliness with some of the later and more tipsy performers, but the evenings were usually a lot of fun nonetheless.
In later years, the lecturers (who didn't really like the old format) just invited the more senior creative writing students to read along with guests (writers, poets, actors). To me, that was a bit of a shame because it meant the younger students didn't get as much practice and were less invested in the Big Read. I wonder what they do now—if anything.
Most people had brought short pieces to read. Most of it was their own work which was good to hear. But we went through everyone fairly quickly and we were finished by about 8 pm. So I made everyone go to my bookshelf and pick out something to read to everyone else. I have to admit I hogged the floor a bit—I read a bit of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the piece I wrote for Pulp Crucifiction (which was originally written for Marinka's zine) and one of the pieces that I wrote for The Briefing (but which was never credited to me. If you're interested, it's in Briefing #332 May 2006 and it's the one that looks like a job ad: “Wanted: Fellow Workers”. (George made my day when she told me that that was one of her most favourite pieces out of all the issues for the year.) And I also read slabs of Anansi Boys which is incredibly fun to read aloud.
We finished up not long after that which was just as well as it was daylight saving and, as usual, I'd forgotten (I'd been reminded of it before but had promptly forgotten again). On Sunday I rose later than intended (because even though I changed my watch time, I forgot to change the alarm clock) and caught the train to Olympic Park again (reading Alan Moore's Writing for Comics on the train so I could return it to Fish). Fish showed up at Supanova not long after me and I introduced him to the comic workshop guys (Angus already knew him though but not as “Fish”). Dean let me rabbit on about my comic for a little while, and then Fish and I went wandering around the different stalls gawking at everything. We even got free T-shirts from Tokyo Night Train (I got one for Ben) and we did a survey at the Madman booth to get a free DVD (but were puzzled as to how Madman were going to get the free DVD to us as the survey did not ask for our address). Bron and Fish's friends Matt and Rachel turned up at this point so we did more wandering around together until I got rather hungry and decided to have lunch. Bron and I sat on the grass in the sun and she let me subject her to my ravings about Craig Thompson (Haoran lent me Carnet de Voyage [which I gave him for his birthday] and it is just gorgeous—it's Craig's travel diary of the three months he spent in France, Barcelona, the Alps and Morroco). I know I've only read Blankets before this but Craig Thompson is fast becoming one of my favourite comic artists. I wish he had a blog.
Bron and I wandered over to the anime arena where cosplay was taking place. We ran into Ian (who was on the C.S. Lewis Today committee) who happened to be in Sydney Olympic Park for a completely different reason and had been attracted by the spectacle. Fish, Matt and Rachel turned up not long after, and we watched the cosplay for a bit as I'd never seen it before (it was rather amusing, I have to say!) Then we went to a seminar with Christian Gossett who wrote The Red Star comics (which I'd never heard of until this convention). He was terrific—honest and wry and funny and extremely helpful. He spent most of the seminar answering people's questions. I asked him to talk about collaboration for a bit and his big piece of advice was to make sure the roles were clearly delineated—and, if you can, get it down on paper.
A bit later back in the exhibition hall, he was at The Red Star booth. I had wandered over to see if I could really justify forking out $75 to get the entire series (three volumes), and he saw me and waved me over. We had a good little chat about writing and comics. I asked him about whether he was a Christian because someone had told me he was. I asked him whether faith or what he believed affected what he wrote about. I told him about my sci-fi comic (still ticking away). He recommended I read Joseph Campbell—Myths to Live By, I think he said. And I bought Sword of Lies #1 (which I could afford) and he signed it for me.
Bron and I had to leave at this point because she was on sound and I was on band. We picked up Rosey but it wasn't even her turn to be on band but we didn't realise this until we were halfway to the church (though I really should have realised earlier). Band was heaps better that evening—I turned the volume up on the keyboard so Ben could hear me and we just gelled really well. We even did this impromptu pared back thing in verse 3 of “Psalm 145” (by accident—Ben wasn't sure if it was the end of the song). It made me feel much better about doing music in church.
Fish joined us for church and dinner afterwards, and then hit the road after that. He arrived home safe and sound—much to my relief because I was feeling extremely tired and figured he must have been feeling worse after so much driving. And I made myself sleep a good eight hours on Sunday night so I would be ready for work on Monday.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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your life sounds fun =)
and i’d be interested in your blogroll family history!
As a fishtale at the end of the story, I’d like to point out I was so tired from the drive back to Dubbo, that I learnt myself how to drink coffee. For the first time ever.
I was a 27-year-old coffee virgin.
Coffee! Ewww!!! I don’t know if I can talk to you any more, Fish! Just don’t make a habit of it.