New blog for a while

As much as I like this Blogger page, I'm now blogging over at: carolryles.net

Some Links To Look At

Bruce Sterling talks about Steampunk: The Users Guide to Steampunk (Thanks to Jay Lake)

The people at NASA think a patch of ocean near Perth, Australia would be an ideal spot for a Space Elevator

Book View Cafe is here. An online smorgasbord of out-of-print, experimental, or otherwise unavailable work from over 20 authors including some of my favourites, Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda N. McIntyre, Sarah Zettel and Aussie, Sylvia Kelso.

Baby Wattlebird Leaves the Nest

The baby bird flew away yesterday. It was great watching her get bigger, venture out onto the branch and then just flutter away. Here's a pic I took a couple of days before while mum was still feeding her. If you click on the pic and make it bigger you'll see the baby bird with its beak sticking up just behind the small branch in front of its nest.



Her tree was getting a tad crowded, now that it's in full bloom. I refuse to buy a leaf blower, so it looks like I'll be out sweeping the truckloads of petals that are going to end up on the driveway. They look pretty, but turn the driveway a slushy brown if left for too long. Good for the arm muscles

Wattle Bird's Nest

This week a couple of wattle birds have been checking out our back patio, much to our cat's consternation (she's afraid of birds). But, in the end, they chose the Jacarada tree outside my upstairs study window. In a week or two I won't be able to see the nest any more because the tree will be covered in purple flowers.

Wastelands: Age of Iron

Returning home from Wastelands was like coming back from Clarion. I was just getting into the swing of being around like-minded people who love sf, fantasy....and (best of all) Steampunk and it was time to go.

It was:

Fun and frightening reading out my paper (a first for me).

Great catching up with friends new and old.

Awesome listening to Nick Stathopoulos about art and the titanic and Mr Squiggle.

Fantastic eating cupcakes and drinking tea and talking with the ladies from Twelfth Planet Press.

Amazing looking at all the dress ups. There's something about the Victorian costume that makes me wish we still dressed like that, except maybe for the corsets in summer. And, of course, the girl who gave me a business card advertising "The Arte of Weaponry" was dressed totally the coolest. And so was Lily Chrywenstrom who seemed to be dressed in something different every time I saw her!!

A totally awesome time. Congratulations Callistra and Cheshirenoir for a job excellently done.

Next steampunk convention, I'm dressing up!

Wastelands: Age of Iron

I'm presenting a paper at Wastelands tomorrow morning:

A Brief History of Steampunk: What Wound It Up and Why It Still Ticks

Steampunk can be purely science fictional or a mixture of science fiction and fantasy, suffused with anything from a heavy dash to a light sprinkling of neo-Victorianism. So why not neo-classicism? Or druidism? Or Roman chariotpunk? What is it about the Victorians that secures their place in steampunk? To explore this question, I will look at works of proto-science fiction, beginning from the early 1800s, following an evolutionary branch to the works of Jeter, Powers, Blaylock, Gibson, Sterling and Mieville.

And While I'm on the Subject of Caves

Back when I scuba dived Piccaninnie Ponds, Mt Gambier, I managed to take a few fuzzy photos underwater. This video from wavesncaves on YouTube brings it all back much more clearly though.



My best dive in Pics was a night dive when the water was so clear it felt like you could see forever. On the way back up again, you'd stop at about 30ft and turn your torch off and look up and see the stars. It felt just like floating in space.

And to think, if I hadn't read Jules Verne's novels, I might not have done this.

Steampunky Trivia

Dare I admit how long ago it was that I read the works of Jules Verne? Journey To the Centre of the Earth was my first SF novel. That impressed me so much that I kept reading SF and, when I grew up, took up caving and cave diving for a few years. Today I decided to have a reread of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in preparation for the paper I'm giving at Wastelands: Age of Iron. How tickled was I to relearn that Captain Nemo's Nautilus was powered by electricity.

All you DIY steampunkers and steampunk musicians whose awesome creations get dissed because they don't spout steam, here's your defence: The Nautilus didn't spout steam either!!

I know, I'm a failed blogger

Anyhow, here's some nice pics of Seattle:

The Suzallo Library, where I spent a few relaxed hours writing and critting:



Mt Rainier from Red Square:



A pretty street near UW:

I'm Home

Have been home for about 10 days. And I'm sorry for not blogging Seattle, but the writing experience turned out to be so intense, I ended up eating, sleeping (not much sleeping, mind you), writing and critting 7 days a week. That's what I went for, so I'm happy.

Anyhow, I'll get back into blogging soon, write some more about Seattle. The trip home was great -- all 40 sleep deprived hours of it -- thanks to the turbulence all the way from LA to Taipei. If it wasn't for this hilarious Japanese time travel movie, Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust (2007), I might not have survived. Here's the trailer:

Seattle Week 1

I'm over the jet lag, but the urge to write a story is much greater than the urge to blog. So here's a quick run down of what I've been up to since leaving Perth.

Highlight of the Flight: Seeing snow-capped Mt Fuji from the plane and a minefield of volcanoes on the approach to Seattle.

Awesome People I've spoken to: Vonda N. McIntyre, William Gibson, Paul Park, Gardner Dozois, Nisi Shawl, Connie Willis, Eileen Gunn

Awesome People I've heard speak on panels: Neil Stephenson, Jack Womack, Greg Bear, Charles N Brown plus some of above

Awesome People I've heard speak at the Hall of Fame: Peter Beagle, David Hartwell, Richard Gid Powers and Family, Rod Serling's Family and some of the above.

Awesome News I've heard: The announcement of the Locus Awards for Shaun Tan (for The Arrival ) and Jonathan Strahan (for The New Space Opera ed with Garder Dozois)

Spent lots of hours exploring nearby Seattle, sometimes with a walking stick, sometimes without, depending on how my foot feels at the time.

Finally, here's a picture which I'm sure BJR will love:

Blogging Seattle

My son came home from school yesterday and told me that someone who reads my blog (Hello Elimy) is tired of reading the Steampunk entry I wrote back in April and wants to read something else. So, okay, here's something...

I'm off to Clarion West Seattle next week. Lists have been written, jobs have been finished, plans have been made. Just when I thought everything was running smoothly, I fell off a step and broke a bone in the top my foot (Navicular). Fortunately, after resting up for a few days (Ohhhh how frustrating), I can walk on it again, but only if I wear my hiking boots for ankle support. Well...I'm not going to argue with that because I love my hiking boots.

So now I'm frantically catching up again. I'd hoped to do some writing in preparation for Clarion, but I've done very little as I've been madly finishing off my proposal and writing a novel chapter so that when I get back I'll still be up to date with my uni timetable. I hear it's good to go with a clean slate, anyway. Hopefully, I'll leave all my old bad writing habits behind me, try things I haven't tried writing before, surprise myself.

My aim is to blog the Clarion Experience as much as I can without it interfering with my writing. So I'll aim for once a week, and possibly fit in a tad more.