October 2011

Big night for suspense author Sandy Curtis

admin Authors, Books October 22, 2011October 24, 2011 4 Comments

Which would you choose? Support a beloved relative (translation: my mother-in-law!) as she signs copies of her latest suspense thriller at our local bookstore, or hang out with spec fic buddies and critique their latest chapters?

The Answer: Why not combine both genres and events? That’s how What If’s October get-together ended up at Dymocks Booksellers in Bundaberg tonight, as my Mum-in-Law, Sandy Curtis, launched her sixth novel, Fatal Flaw.

What If, my speculative fiction critique group, meets on the third Friday of every month. Members range in age from fifteen to twenty-five and we spend the night eating, drinking, chatting, laughing and, of course, critiquing each other’s work, red pens in hand.

Tonight, however, instead of crumpled manuscripts and witty plot attacks, it was chardonnay and crackers as we queued at Dymocks for a personally-signed copy of Sandy’s latest novel, Fatal Flaw. Is the book worth buying? You betcha! The plot revolves around operative Mark Talbert who, still recovering from his father’s murder, is pressured by his agency to “get close” to long-time friend Julie Evans as a means of investigating her dubious father. Add a killer with a multiple-murder agenda and a terrorist suspect with Brisbane in his sights and Mark and Julie are going to have to fight hard for their happiness – and their lives.

Suspense thrillers are not my all-time favourite genre but I love the action and intrigue, and the twists and turns, of Sandy’s books. Not to mention the emotional resonance and happy ending. Fatal Flaw is brilliantly written, with a satisfying ending. Can I mention the frog, Mum? Can I mention the frog?

Tonight’s book signing flew by as I nibbled on appetisers and chatted to many an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in ages. I always wish I had more time to catch up with writers and readers at these events. I love being around people and finding out the latest chapter in their lives, especially if their passions include the art of writing.

Before long, Dymocks was packing up for the night and our What If members had sauntered into a nearby restaurant for our personal post-book signing party – a discussion of manuscripts over Chinese and coffee. We were lucky enough to have Dymocks’ guest of honour, Sandy, drop in and offer pearls of wisdom to our group.

Of course, no night on the town is complete without sundaes at McDonalds. Sandy headed home. The rest of us headed to the Golden Arches. Mmmm. Not much manuscript assessment was done tonight but the hours together proved fun.

Congratulations, Sandy, and I hope your page-turning Fatal Flaw sells well.

Portal travel’s a stone’s throw away

admin Books, Links, Other Worlds, Shahkara, The Ghost She Killed October 21, 2011October 21, 2011 2 Comments

Running late, I ignore the clothes strewn across my bed and dig through the kitchen junk mail in a desperate bid to find my keys. The Quartz clock ticks You’re late and I yearn to snap my fingers and conjure up a fairy god-mother who can transport me to my preferred destination. Within seconds.

Nup. No fairy god-mothers lurking in my garden or wardrobe. Instead, I’m hoping that quantum physics will one day create real-life wormholes (or portal travel), thanks to cutting edge research in superconductors and magnetic fields. Check out this quantum levitation experiment, presented by the Tel-Aviv University’s School of Physics and Astronomy’s Super Conductivity Group at the Association of Science-Technology Centers Annual Conference at Baltimore on the weekend:

Amazing, huh?

What is a wormhole? In physics, it is a hypothetical shortcut through spacetime – a connecting point between two far-flung regions of space (or time), a by-product of Einstein’s general relativity field equation. Madeleine L’Engle illustrated the idea in her YA novel A Wrinkle in Time (devoured while I was in junior high) where a tesseract (wormhole) was able to bend the space-time continuum to create a portal from one area of space to another. Although the two locations could be some distance apart, you could make them touch if you “wrinkled up” the space between them, enabling you to travel from one point to the other in seconds.

Okay, so it’s a huge leap from using magnets and superconductors to levitate a train, and using them along with silly amounts of energy to wrinkle up space-time, but hey, that’s what fictional super-scientists are for, right?

Wormholes are already a reality in my Shahkara trilogy, where Megalio scientists have invented Caladene, a fictional superconductor to outclass all previous superconductors. Half-human, half-Taloner, Shahkara is unable to return to her secret parallel world (Gorias) after losing the spell that conjures up the Twilight Mists. Instead, she must rely on the scientists to portal her home – until they reveal they need an address. Now, Shahkara is forced to check back into Hotel Earth until she finds the ancient coordinates to her homeworld.

I have always loved reading and writing about portals. There’s something about the wormhole concept that enables it to be recycled over and over again, each time with a new slant, each time bringing it renewed popularity – from earlier films and TV series such as Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Star Trek and Sliders through to Stargate, Torchwood and the Fringe.

For now, neither wormholes nor fairy god-mothers will save me from my deadlines. I’m forced to chain my keys to my bag to ensure a fast getaway. One day – maybe – our scientists will realise this technology and then all of us can experience the magic of a wrinkle in time. It’s an idea worth savouring or at least exploring through our own writing… and I suppose it’s time to get back to it now!

PS: Here’s the inside on how quantum levitation works:

Pinch me: LJ Smith likes Shahkara

admin Authors, Books, Creativity, LJ Smith, Shahkara, Urban Fantasy, Writing Tips/Events October 20, 2011October 20, 2011 12 Comments

Have you ever had a secret you were dying to tell but didn’t know whether you could or should?

My secret for 2011 was the most delicious of my life: I entered Shahkara (my manuscript) into a competition where it was read and liked by LJ Smith. I mean, THE LJ Smith, author of the Vampire Diaries (TVD), the Secret Circle and the Night World Series. LJ was the creative force behind the modern urban fantasy vamp, way back at the dawning of the 1990s, when mobiles were nearly as big as your toaster – long before Whedon’s Buffy slayer dazzled our TVs or Meyer’s Twilight tried to rock the Earth off its axis. LJ Smith is one of my favourite authors. She creates characters that resonate within us. Her heroines are smart and sassy, her heroes sexy-as and her plots contain more twists, turns and emotional punch than a cocktail party at Las Vegas.

Life can be tough when you’re a struggling, unpublished author. You juggle full-time work with late night and early morning scribbles. You fuel yourself on coffee and chocolate, then feel guilty when yet another weekend social event forces you to choose between those you love and that story that burns inside you, begging to be let out. If a big publisher has requested your manuscript, you’d think it would settle you but as the months drag on, you wonder if they’ll ever find time to read and assess it.

Imagine my delight when Lisa (LJ Smith) emailed me personally and said she’d been sucked in by Shahkara! The fan girl inside me was delirious with delight. I felt honoured that she’d even taken the time to read my entire manuscript, but then she wrote this: “Shahkara, the book, is unique, and Shahkara, the character, is one of the most engaging strong female role models I’ve seen in a long time. This girl can handle herself! The plot is full of ingenious twists, turns and surprises, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.” Yabba-Dabba Do! Lisa also offered valuable feedback on how to enhance my manuscript. It was back to the keyboard and I felt truly blessed.

So whenever you doubt yourself as a writer, or feel disillusioned by the passion you’ve given so much to, often without visible rewards, all you need to do is enter a competition or touch base with a fellow writer or friend. The act of entering a comp will buoy your spirits. It’s harder to lose enthusiasm when you have a few lures out on the water, waiting for that tasty bite to come in. Otherwise, put aside a night to spend with your faithful laptop and immerse yourself in your story. When you feed your passion, your confidence grows, and brings you closer to sharing your stories with readers across the world.