catsparx

Looking for a truly original Xmas gift? How about a celestial soul portrait by Erial Ali?
(note -- mine is not an Ali original but a dodgy martinlivings knock off)

Thanks Martin, finally an author photo I can be proud of!

1. My current writing project does not suck as much as I feared
2. Gluten and lactose-free friands are ridiculously easy to make. And disturbingly tasty
3. Ditto on gluten and lactose-free pizza
4. Smershy has been weeing in both of our studys. Bad bad kitteh.
5. JJ Abraham's Star Trek movie was every bit as good the second time through as the first

Had what could only really be described as a useless day today. Started off trying to write but Smersh wasn't going to have a bar of it. He's been very needy of late and kept up the headbutting of my mouse hand until I had to get cranky and put him outside. Then Rob and I went into town to do some shopping and sorting of stuff that couldn't be procrastinated any longer. I hate shopping at the best of times but pre Xmas is always really horrid. Is it even December yet? The aisles are already fully stacked with obese tattooed bogans clutching at singing reindeer animatronics and all manner of imbecillic and irritating inventions. I fucking hate Xmas... do you hear me? Hates it will all my heart!

So tonight we'll be watching the new Star Trek movie and eating home made smoked salmon flan in an effort to reset my zen so that tomorrow I can plant my carcass at my keyboard and spew forth another couple thousands plus words like I did on Friday.

Bah humbug.

Smersh has moved in to the food cupboard. No more of this waiting for dinner to come to you middle man bullshit. He wants to be close to the action.

My day job was rendered just that little bit more awesome this week with the acquisition of this plastic toilet seat inset with shells, starfish and little plastic fish

I've wanted one of these for the longest time...

I've experienced some pretty disturbing dreams in my time, but last night's really took the prize. It featured cannibalism and Duran Duran. That's all I'm prepared to say. That'll teach me to read Fortean Times in bed...

Interesting things I learnt last week include:

Tapioca flour and arrowroot are the same thing only arrowroot contains preservatives

Straight red cordial is a cure for Bali belly and other buggy water-related gastric upsets.

Wish I'd been aware of the latter when I threw up at the foot of Borobudur all those years ago.

Lately Pazuzu seems to be suffering from some form of existential angst. Last week he brought a large lizard into the house but it escaped his evil clutches and hasn't been seen since. Pazuzu, once content to sleep through pretty much anything, has taken to wandering the house emitting discontented grumbles. Eventually he settles, plonking himself down in inconvenient places. Inconvenient for those of us trying to write novels, that is.

This photo was taken at Kyla and David's vampire dinner party last night. More photos here.

Richard Harland did the honours and officially launched Couer de Lion's novellanthology X6 at Berkelow's bookshop in Sydney last night

A good time was had by all -- but then, when isn't it at one of these events?

Cat and Margo

The authors: Margo Lanagan, Cat Sparks, Trent Jamieson, Paul Haines, Louise Katz and Terry Dowling.
More photos here.

Angie, Fiona & Nick

Ross Lockhart just Facebooked this photo of me & Jetse de Vries taken in a room party at World Fantasy Convention, San Jose. It pretty much sums up the whole WFC experience for me. FUN!

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on my novella 'The Sleeping and the Dead', the third story in Mark Deniz's Ishtar project AKA Red, Hot and Bad. I'm pretty happy with it but it has yet to be sighted by any eyes other than mine. So it may well completely suck. The day before I submitted a story to Clockwork Phoenix 3. So, in all, I consider I've had a productive writing time since I returned from WFC.

I've got a bunch of reading to complete for the Anthologies and Collected Works judging category of the Aurealis Awards. When that's done I'll be commencing work on Arctica in earnest, a novel I've been busting to engage with for at least a year, probably longer. I had laid down 28,000 words of first draft already but I've decided to scrap them and start again after a combination of research and plot structuring led me to some cleverer ideas.

via LikeItHateIt

Spent a pleasant and leisurely afternoon in Kiama visiting Alan & Halinka. Kiama is about half an hour's drive south of Wollongong, utterly gorgeous and somewhere we have never bothered to visit up until now. It's best known for it's blowhole, quite literally a tourist trap as several idiotic foreigners have jumped into it with deadly consequences over the years.

Rob, Alan and Halinka on the back deck eating delicious gluten-free chocolate and orange cake.

San Jose was the third World Fantasy Convention I’ve attended and by far my favourite. Not sure why exactly, but at a guess I’d say it’s because I’ve finally gotten over the bunny in the headlights factor. I feel that I fit in. Like I’m part of the circus instead of just a misdirected tourist or a fortunate bystander. I’ve learnt that you don’t have to be a big time player to deserve a ringside seat. Or something. Of course, my sense of entitlement probably owes much to the generous behaviour of my traveling companions Garth Nix, Jonathan Strahan, Sean Williams and Deb Biancotti, and other good folks I’ve made friends with along the way.

It’s been a difficult year so I went to WFC expressly to cheer up and have fun. To soak up the vibe and to be with my people. To look the industry square in the face and ponder the significance of my own participation. I need ponder no longer. I know where I belong. I returned home content, with nothing to prove, yet everything to aspire to.

Full marks to Garth Nix, WFC guest of honour and Australian ambassador of awesome. He spent what I suspect amounts to thousands of dollars shouting drinks and picking up the dinner checks for his friends and colleagues, never missing a beat when it came to introductions and the opportunity to facilitate a connection or talk up the talents one of his countrymen. Garth is the truest kind of gentleman, sharing what he refers to as his 'good fortune', never succumbing to the temptation of self aggrandisation, transcending all such pathetic pantomimes by sheer force of style.

Sir, I raise a sea breeze* in your honour! May all your future novels be best sellers.

Entire WFC 2009 photo set here

*official drink of Australian spec fic writers abroad

Garth Nix took a bunch of us out to dinner in the Fairmont hotel grill the other night. I completely scored by being seated next to Peter Straub, one of my favourite authors and we got on like a house on fire. What an utterly adorable man.

I'm sitting in the hotel bar with the last of the Aussie attendees, waiting for a limmo to take us to the airport. I missed out on seeing the Star Trek exhibit that's showing in the museum across the road but we've all just ordered food off the Star Trek Menu. I've just ordered a photon burger. Paula Guran, Mary Robinette Kowall and Doug Cohen are sitting with us. Paula is sharing drinking stories and singing the praises of Graham Joyce and Michael Marshall. John Joseph Adams and his buddies were hanging with us too -- they managed to see the Star Trek exhibit before it closed for the afternoon... D'oh!

This was my third WFC and the best one yet.

So here I am in the Fairmont hotel bar sitting with Anna Tambour, Jonathan Strahan, Deb Biancotti, Danel Olson and, as Jonathan puts it, we're within vigorous spitting distance of Sean Williams who's in a meeting with his agent. Sean, Deb and I have just returned from a visit to the Winchester Mystery House, a whacking great mansion that apparently took 38 years to build. Sadly, we didn't encounter a single ghostly presence, however Deb, Graham Joyce and I did manage to interface accidentally with the occult yesterday when we went to have a squiz at the nearby Rosicrucian temple.

We got there just before 12 when a ritual was scheduled to begin & were invited to participate!
I found it quite a peaceful experience but Graham insisted a dark presence was lurking behind in the periphery at the edge of the light...
Here are some of my WFC photos, as yet unculled and unlabeled. I was planning to write a more informative blog post but it's really noisy in the bar and interesting folks keep rocking up to chat so I think I'll chuck in the towl and just leave you with a piccy.

Having a ripper time. Wish you were here...

... is underway right now in the Presidential suite, Fairmont Hotel, World Fantasy Convention.

your friendly bar staff Cat, Deb, Kirstyn, Sean, Jonathan, Garth, Jason & Liz

Here's the link to the entire set of Dad's exhibition photos. The photos don't give much of a sense of scale -- Artarmon galleries -- Sydney's oldest art gallery, I believe, features three rooms, all of which were utterly packed. Hundreds of people turned up for the opening, including three staff members from the Royal North Shore hospital. A nurse from Grenwich hospital -- a Japanese woman who Dad had gotten on with particularly well, sent him an enormous bunch of flowers.

My photos are not properly labeled. I need Dad online with me to accomplish that task and that's not going to happen for a couple of weeks at least.

Rob noticed that a couple of Dad's paintings feature ghosts! He's pointing to a yellow figure whose head is most definitely transparent