| The Best SF&F Authors According to Us |
[May. 11th, 2008|05:57 pm] |
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| | Home -3 | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Queen: We Are The Champions | ] |
Just finished putting together the results from this vote on the board. 85 people voted for 101 authors, with the Top Ten results being:
10. Frank Herbert
9. Joe Abercrombie
8. Stephen R. Donaldson
7. Steven Erikson
6. China Mieville
5. Robin Hobb
4. Gene Wolfe
3. R. Scott Bakker
2. JRR Tolkien
1. George RR Martin
Perhaps predictable, but I didn't expect Joe to be in there. He's been embraced like very few other new authors have been on the board and Last Argument of Kings in particular got a fantastic reception. The clear contender for the Campbell Award this year, IMO.
Scott Bakker's high placing was also surprising. I expected him to maybe hit the Top Ten, but not get that high, since for every person who loves his work someone else seems to hate him. But nevertheless a deserved place. The Prince of Nothing is the Dune of epic fantasy, a thoughtful and philosophical work which doesn't shirk on the huge battles or character development fronts.
Anyway, it was fun (if mildly tedious) counting this up and the results were very interesting. Not a single vote for JK Rowling at all. Not even one. Very surprising. |
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| Blog Anniversary |
[Nov. 30th, 2007|11:15 pm] |
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| | Monaco: What Do You Want From Me? | ] |
Hmm. It's been a year since I fired up the Wertzone. In this year I've gone from basically slightly more in-depth versions of my old Amazon reviews to getting free review copies of books (which is niiiice), being quoted in novels (sort of) and winning friends all over Poland thanks to my Sapkowski review (random, but cool).
I think my goal for the blog in 2008 will be to get more publishers on board (Orbit have kind of half-cracked and sent me a couple of review copies in addition to Gollancz, so I really need to work on Pan Macmillan, Bantam UK and Voyager) and try to devote more time to reading and less to teh Internet. I seriously doubt the latter will happen, but one can only try :-)
Oh, and obviously try to attend more cons (or any, indeed). Worldcon looks a bit touch-and-go at the moment, so maybe I'll shoot for World Fantasy instead. We'll see. |
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| The Hugo Awards 2007 |
[Sep. 1st, 2007|10:02 pm] |
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| | Electric Picniz '07 | ] |
Full results here: http://www.thehugoawards.org/index.php?page_id=127
Best Novel: Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge.
I haven't read Blindsight by Peter Watts which was supposed to be the shoe-in this year, but I'm more grateful that Temeraire by Naomi Novik didn't win. That was a very nice, light and fluffy book, but not a heavyweight SF or Fantasy contender at all.
Prediction for Next Year: A close battle to the death between Black Man by Richard Morgan and Brasyl by Ian McDonald, with Brasyl just scraping it. As fine as Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies is, it's not in the league of either of those novels.
The Campbell Award for Best Debut Novel: Temeraire by Naomi Novik
Argh! Better than The Lies of Locke Lamora? Not in a million years. Having Stephen King and Peter Jackson trumpeting your book works wonders, so I shouldn't be too surprised by this.
Prediction for Next Year: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. A fine debut (albeit swiss-cheesed with plot holes) and a rare stand-out talent in a somewhat slow year for big new authors.
Best SF Movie: Pan's Labyrinth
Fair enough. Would have preferred Children of Men or The Prestige, but still a worthy winner. Last year was prety good for SF movies, as the nomination list proves (aside from the dire V For Vendetta).
Prediction for Next Year: Heroes Season 1 is apparently being put in the long-form category, and should walk it (despite the lame season finale). The only other SF&F movie I've seen this year which could be a contender is Sunshine, which is very fine but has attracted mixed reviews elsewhere.
Best SF TV Episode: Doctor Who - The Girl in the Fireplace
The best episode of last year's Doctor Who and a good winner. However, the nominators inexplicably failed to put Battlestar Galactica's Exodus Part II (best episode of TV SF in the last decade), instead substituting the pretty good Downloaded in its place.
Prediction for Next Year: Doctor Who Season 3 ended strongly, with Blink, Utopia and the season finale all being stand-out episodes. BSG Season 3.5 was a bit weak and didn't produce any real contenders, maybe excepting the season finale. However, if the forthcoming BSG TV movie Razor is half as good as the previews make out, that could produce a real challenge. Otherwise, possibly controversially, I'd say the only real challenge comes from the resurgent Lost, the third season of which ended quite splendidly with three or four stand-out episodes.
Best Fan Writer: David Langford
Despite some speculation that we'd start to see bloggers breaking through this year, long-standing winner Dave Langford won this award (his 28th or 29th, IIRC, a world record) for his work on Ansible ( http://news.ansible.co.uk ), still the best monthly SF&F ezine around. Scalzi is okay, but lacks Langford's warmth, humour or wit.
Prediction for Next Year: Langford again, probably. However, I'm hoping the bloggers start breaking through a bit more and would gladly vote for William or Pat. |
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| Randyll Tarly |
[Jul. 16th, 2007|11:11 pm] |
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| | The Datsuns: MFer From Hell | ] |
The board ain't what it used to be. Someone's actually having a serious discussion about Randyll Tarly on the board and his status as uber-badass has not been very well defended, despite Errant Bard trotting out my Hymn to the Tarlster :-( Ah, for the good old days... |
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| Roundup and Congratulations! |
[Jun. 14th, 2007|09:24 pm] |
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| |  but not that drunk | ] |
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| | OMC: How Bizarre (how did this get on my playlist?) | ] |
OSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
I can't really be bothered. See ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) the_corbie's post for more. At least I got a new sig out of it.
Found out I was absolutely skint for the next week or so today, which cheered me immensely. My landlord took me to the pub and plighed me with beer until I chilled out (and told him what was going on he didn't get in AFFC, which he's just read), which was nice.
Took on a couple of people in GC who adopted the view that the USA was solely responsible for victory in WWII and that without the USA sending stuff to Russia it would have collapsed like a pack of cards (ignoring the fact that the USA didn't do this until months after the initial invasion). I even used facts and figures to back up my position! Then Os derailed the whole thread, which was good of him.
Missing my other half. She's on a boat having fun. Should be seeing her in a couple of weeks though, which I'm looking forward to immensely.
Getting lots of Polish people looking at my blog after word of my review of the excellent The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowksi got around, which is cool.
Oh yeah, and before I forget, congratulations to MinDonner and Arcticstoat, who announced their engagement on the board today. Of course, such a moving and touching gesture had to be announced on the Goodkind thread! |
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| Song Title Answers |
[May. 23rd, 2007|02:04 am] |
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| | Colchester, waiting | ] |
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| | Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor | ] |
Shewithweapons drops into Colchester tomorrow evening. Very excited and looking forward to the weekend. The BwB will rock Oxford like it's never been rocked before. Bros reprezent!
And those pesky song titles:
1) You are the sun and moon and stars, aren't you, and I could never run away from you. - 'You' from Pablo Honey, by RADIOHEAD.
2) Too much information, well I said you're good for nothing, come on to back, I said your needles count for something. - 'Empire' from Empire by KASABIAN.
3) I declare this an emergency, come on and spread a sense of urgency and pull us through and this is the end of the world. 'Apocalypse Please', the first track on Muse's mighty third album, Absolution. Answered by </a></b></a>rockstarwookie
4) Can I get your hand to write on, just a piece of leg to bite on, what a night to fly my kite on, do you want to flash a light on? 'The Zephyr Song', from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album By the Way. Answered by </a></b></a>the_corbie.
5) For sale? Same dumb c***s, same dumb questions. Virgins? Listen, all virgins are liars, honey! - 'Yes' from The Holy Bible by MANIC STREET PREACHERS.
6) Do you feel a little love? As your bony fingers close around me, long and spindly, death becomes me, heaven can you see what I see? - 'Dream On' from Exciter by DEPECHE MODE.
7) I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand. Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man? - 'Disorder' from Heart & Soul: The Complete Joy Division by JOY DIVISION.
8) Morning always seems too stale to justify, latent blossoms, hours, minutes of our lives. Broken thoughts run through your empty mind. - 'Sleepflower' from Gold Against the Soul by MANIC STREET PREACHERS.
9) Her hair, soft drifted snow, death white, I'd like to know why she hates all that she does but she gives it all that she's got. - 'Song for My Sugar Spun Sister' from Stone Roses by THE STONE ROSES.
10) I wanna scream, I wanna shout, I wanna know what it's all about, I've seen it before but not like this, I saw your name, it was on the list.
- 'Close Range' from Get Ready by NEW ORDER. |
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| Nerdastic Zergtastic Explosions & Some Tunes For You |
[May. 19th, 2007|09:34 pm] |
Having shamefully behaved like an 4-year-old-kid on Christmas morning after a full bottle of Coca-Cola at first hearing this news, I won't disgrace myself further here. Needless to say: STARCRAFT 2!!!
All it would have taken for my brain to melt out of my head in full-on nerdgasm would have been news of the completion of ADWD and the discovery that the Transformers movie was actually any good.
The other half has evacuated her crumbling house and is currently bedded down in a plush but temporary new abode. As usual, love to her and the next generation and many, many thanks to her friends who rallied around her when I couldn't be there.
Apparently this is the latest thing doing the rounds (nicked from mandyly1977 ). So, ten tunes found through shuffling on WinAmp, based on just their opening lines. All by pretty well known bands from the late 1970s onwards, so I suspect it's going to be an easy list to get (but no Googling!):
1) You are the sun and moon and stars, aren't you, and I could never run away from you.
2) Too much information, well I said you're good for nothing, come on to back, I said your needles count for something.
3) I declare this an emergency, come on and spread a sense of urgency and pull us through and this is the end of the world. 'Apocalypse Please', the first track on Muse's mighty third album, Absolution. Answered by rockstarwookie
4) Can I get your hand to write on, just a piece of leg to bite on, what a night to fly my kite on, do you want to flash a light on? 'The Zephyr Song', from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album By the Way. Answered by the_corbie.
5) For sale? Same dumb c***s, same dumb questions. Virgins? Listen, all virgins are liars, honey!
6) Do you feel a little love? As your bony fingers close around me, long and spindly, death becomes me, heaven can you see what I see?
7) I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand. Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man?
8) Morning always seems too stale to justify, latent blossoms, hours, minutes of our lives. Broken thoughts run through your empty mind.
9) Her hair, soft drifted snow, death white, I'd like to know why she hates all that she does but she gives it all that she's got.
10) I wanna scream, I wanna shout, I wanna know what it's all about, I've seen it before but not like this, I saw your name, it was on the list. |
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| They stuck needles in me! |
[Apr. 30th, 2007|09:33 pm] |
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| | Depeche Mode: Shake the Disease | ] |
Damnit. I posted previously about my illness on the Spain trip, which wasn't fun. Although I'm now fully recovered from that (aside from a somewhat lower tolerance for cold weather than before, which is already resolving itself), the pain in my right hand side the doctor expressed some concern about has endured. It more or less disappeared for a while last week and with other events going on (*sheepish grin*) I'd forgotten about it. Then whilst walking to work a few days back it suddenly came back with a vengeance, disappeared during the day, and then returned on the trip home. Mildly concerned, I went to the doctor's today. They cheerfully told me it probably wasn't appendicities (on the grounds that it would have exploded by now and I'd probably have noticed) but expressed concern that it could be inflamation or an infection. The doctor sounded more certain that it was a muscular problem, perhaps related to the occasional back problems I have caused by a fall three years ago (and exasperated by heavy lifting). To eliminate the obvious things, however, they drew sizable amounts of blood out of me (not usually a problem but they filled two syringes this time) and also booked an appointment for an ultrasound scan. Craptacular.
Hopefully I should get the blood test results back on Thursday or Friday and, with any luck, they should indicate it's not a serious problem.
In other news, have nearly finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's this year's Locke Lamora, only better (marginally). Look out for it at a bookshop near you (or, if you're outside the USA, on Amazon). |
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| Things I have learned in the last couple of weeks |
[Apr. 24th, 2007|06:32 pm] |
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| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
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| | Red Hot Chili Peppers: This Velvet Glove | ] |
1. That Battlestar Galactica, as well as an entertaining television series (mid-Season 3 slumps aside), is actually a viable weapon of seduction ;-)
2 (following on from 1, above). That I am currently happier than I have been in years. And I owe it all (directly & indirectly) to GRRM, Ran and Saul 'Motherfracking' Tigh. And whoever invented AIM, without which things would be much tougher to handle. Next time you see me, please pardon the mile-wide grin and the slightly distracted expression the whole time.
3. That China Mieville is, somehow, actually far more awesome than previously thought. Buy Un Lun Dun and read it to your kids. Read it for yourself. Read it to random people on the street. It is excellent.
4. That my job really, really sucks and it's gotten even more irritating over the last couple of weeks. Luckily 1 and 2 above have combined to cloak me in an impenetrable shield of goofy amenability, so my work's increasingly insane way of operating has just bounced off me. That said, they have given me time off at short notice for an impromptu overseas trip, so that is good at least.
5. That Rome Season 2 may represent the finest ten hours of sequential television I have ever seen. By fair means or foul, watch it and then give thanks that these guys (well, some of them) are bringing Game of Thrones to our screens.
6. That when I'm outrageously happy I tend to ramble lots :-) |
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| Blog Stuff |
[Apr. 15th, 2007|02:28 pm] |
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| [ | mood |
| | grateful | ] |
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| | The Killers: All These Things That I've Done | ] |
Added reviews of the movie Sunshine (watch this if you can on as colossal a screen as possible: the imagery is sensational) and The Prince of Nothing Trilogy, which is the first in an irregular series of 'classic' reviews I'm going to put up (the next one will be pretty old-school though).
Occasional spam comments aside, I'm pleased with the blog's progress. I worked out the other day that of the the books Gollancz have sent me for review that I'd have bought anyway, I've saved about £70, which is awesome, and there hopefully some joint-projects coming up with Pat's Fantasy Hotlist that should be cool (interviews with Peter F. Hamilton and hopefully Richard Morgan, although I need to get moving on the latter: RL has been very hectic for the last week). |
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| BwB in London: 05 April 2007 |
[Apr. 6th, 2007|02:17 pm] |
What a bunch of drunks :-)
Check out the pics!
(cutting and pasting from teh board):
Got to the Museum Tavern at about 11.30am (  ) and barely had time to get a drink in before Iceman, Sean and Barry rolled in. Within minutes we were debating how long it would take Barry and Sean to get so drunk they started smearing one another in excrement and they had adopted the names 'Spicy Dixie' and 'London Pork' (taken from the 'Sausage of the Day' menu). We were quickly joined by Williamjm, MinDonner and her boyfriend Ben (whose board name escapes me for the moment). Joe Abercrombie then arrived and pretty much his first words were a disappointed "Only 7 out of 10?" to MinDonner (referring to her review of The Blade Itself), which made her turn bright red and the rest of us laugh. Ser Mel T and the Xes then arrived and the true mayhem began. Much drinking was done, plans for laid for Oxford, board members were slagged off behind their backs and absent BwB members were toasted. Hereward and Tomfoster turned up a bit later by which time I was losing the power of speech. Joe signed some books before taking off due to family concerns, whilst Sean relayed to us reports of Nat/Silanah's progress towards the capital through overwhelming traffic. Sadly, dubious train schedules meant that I had to leave at 9.30pm whilst everyone else headed off to Chinatown for food. Sure enough, the train was slower than an arthritic snail on an escalator and I finally got home some time after midnight.
Now I feel hungover and emo  and happy that Oxford is only a few weeks away! 
(boring observation: hey, you can copy emoticons into LJ? Interesting!) |
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| How Many Ways Can You Spell 'Idiot'? |
[Mar. 24th, 2007|12:57 am] |
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| | Nirvana: Dumb | ] |
This is, of course, a purely rhetorical question. Let us say that you are a member of a fantasy book discussion board. You have a bit of an axe to grind and grind it regularly and repetitively to the tedium of all, but what the hell, they let you get away with it. Freedom of speech and all that.
Then, one day, whilst replying to a thread that has nothing to do with this subject that enrages you so much, you suddenly just let it out. All the frustration, vitriol and plain-old hatred that has built up. You don't care if what you're saying is ridiculously offensive, you don't care that it's just plain wrong. It's full steam ahead, damn the torpedoes!
Then your post of bile is deleted by a mod who tells you to take some time out and stop acting like a jackass. Do you:
1) Do as they say?
or
2) Repost exactly the same message, insults still included, whilst that mod's name is quite clearly at the bottom of the screen, meaning they are watching and will quite clearly delete your message the second it goes up again?
Answers on a postcard please to 'Pointless Martyrdom Competition' @ iamaknob.com. Winners will receive a gun to shoot themselves in the foot and a knife to cut their noses off to spite their faces. |
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| GoodBad |
[Mar. 19th, 2007|07:45 pm] |
The Bad
The dumbass new guy at work. Seriously a borderline mentalist whom they sneaked onto my department whilst I was off ill. They'd tried to transfer him several times from another store where we'd already heard of his stupidity and offensive behaviour (sexism and racism being two of his more pleasent attributes) but I'd always talked my manager out of it. However, this time he got through. What a prat. The next few weeks are going to be fun.
Having the last two episodes of BSG Season 3 spoiled in extreme depth. I enjoy a good spoiler here and there, especially in this day of the producers lying and letting slip false information so you never know who to trust. However, the Sci-Fi Channel didn't so much shoot themselves in the foot as run over it in a combine harvester. Detailed scene-by-scene transcripts blowing every major revelation and secret in the two eps were all over the net, and not very well spoiler-protected either. Grrr. In contrast the next two, apparently pretty big episodes of Lost have not been spoiled at all (aside from some fanciful theorising over a couple of photos from one episode). Oh well.
The Good
'Nuff said |
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| Ungood and Good |
[Mar. 15th, 2007|05:53 pm] |
UNGOOD
Couldn't get Saturday off for the Abercrombie signing/mini-BWB meet up in London. NOT impressed at all. And it would look far too dodgy to take the day off ill, plus my finances can't really afford it ( otherwise I'd try the old "Go into work moaning, force-feed myself Marmite and throw up over the manager," technique to get sent home). Luckily, the X-Visit falls on my nornal day off work anyway, so that's already fine.
No Heroes for another six weeks. Grrr.
GOOD
[attention whore] Got mentioned in SFX Magazine for the second month running, this time in a discussion about Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama.[/attention whore]
Lost is, if not back on real form, at least a hell of a lot better than it has been recently. BSG is also showing signs of marked improvement.
Black Man by Richard Morgan is so awesome it is difficult to articulate. |
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| Internet Stuff |
[Feb. 2nd, 2007|08:09 pm] |
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| | Cyberspace | ] |
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| | Super Furry Animals: Drawing Rings Around the World | ] |
I decided to earn my mod's pay by setting up an index on Westeros of all the authors that have been discussed there. Cutting out all the crappy general-purpose threads and I think this project is achievable, even though it will take some time to complete. So far I started with the big ones - Lynch, Jordan etc - who have attracted a lot of talk, and a few threads that were on Page 1 today. Naturally, I had to list all 14 of the Goodkind threads as well. Going through those was a bit of a trawl into the past :-D I'll have to track down the old Kalbear/Os "Is Robert Jordan a sell-out" thread from EZBoard, which was just brilliant (the 'sequel' on Invision, blatantly started by Zak as a ravan-baiting exercrise, is listed there though).
On the blog side of things, Pat from Pat's Fantasy Hotlist has sought my help in interviewing SF author Peter F. Hamilton next month. Sent the questions off a few days ago and waiting for the response. Should be quite interesting. Apparently this will get my blog advertised on both Pat's pages and also on SFFWorld, so that should be good.
On the RL side of things, off to Spain on the 22nd of Feb to see my mum, which should be great. Trying to arrange a cinema trip beforehand to see Hot Fuzz, which looks brilliant, as well. |
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| Best Westeros Thread of 2007 (so far) |
[Jan. 25th, 2007|12:18 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home, laughing | ] |
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| | The Datsuns: Motherf**ker from Hell | ] |
Oh my God:
http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?showtopic=15709
Starts off reasonably well, until The August Mr. Spies unleashes his 'wit and wisdom' and is then countered by both Os and AltOs, whereupon it degenerates into some kind of crazy revisionist philosophical treatise on the Nazi involvement in WWI and how TAMS is responsible for the death of Jesus.
Popcorn, anyone? |
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| Yep, I can hear the world's smallest violin :-) |
[Jan. 22nd, 2007|06:47 pm] |
So, my dad and stepmum were over from France last week, which is always a fun experience. Me and my dad have a reasonable but not very close relationship, and my stepmum, despite many admirable qualities, is not someone I like to spend vast quantities of time with. The main problem was my stepmum expressing her disapproval about not going over to visit them.
Some background here. My dad and stepmum moved to the south of France in early 2004 and I've been across to see them once, in January 2005. The problem is that they live literally in the middle of nowhere. The nearest big town, Pau, is about a 30-minute drive away (and I don't drive) and there isn't much to do there. My French isn't really good enough to get by on either. In short, spending holidays at my dad and stepmum's house involves lots of hanging around the house and not really doing much (and probably getting roped into manual labour for good measure). Not fun. On the other hand, my mum lives in Spain, in a town right on the Med. There's plenty of English people around, some great bars, and I've made friends with people out there I can hang out with whilst my mum is at work. Between the two, I'd much rather hang out in Spain and indeed I'm off out there again in a few weeks' time.
My stepmum wasn't happy with this arrangement and started making extravagant plans for me to go visit them. Luckily, between my next Spanish visit, Oxford, Copenhagen (although that's not definite) and possibly another Spanish visit next Feb, followed by Denver (touch wood), that's pretty much ruled out any holidays to France until the end of 2008. So I need fresh excuses for after then (yep, my stepmum is making plans that far in advance, even offering to pay for my airfare). I think, out of the need for familial (is that a word?) harmony, I may have to bite the bullet and suffer for it. And obviously it's a long time off.
To add to the suckiness, my birthday has so far consisted of a) work and b) emoing at my temporary inability to watch the latest BSG and precious little of c) booze. ;-) |
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| Birthday! |
[Jan. 9th, 2007|11:03 pm] |
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| | Ash: Folk Song | ] |
It's that time of year again. On 22 January I turn 28, which should be fun. As usual, my different groups of friends can't get themselves into the same place at the same time, meaning I'm looking at at least two different celebrations (not a problem!), maybe a third if I can rouse the London BwB posse to action. Oddly, I spent a lot of the time I was 26 feeling down at being into my late 20s but in the last two years I haven't given it a second thought. Maybe it's my grandad reaching his mid-80s and still playing tennis and going on walking holidays in the Australian Outback that's made me realise that age is nothing to get worried about. Or maybe knowing the lack of symptathy I'm going to get from my over-30s friends ;-)
I'm also happy that my birthday coincides with the return of Rome, Battlestar Galactica and Heroes, meaning that for the next few months TV should be decent, at least. I'm not too sure why but I've got good vibes about 2007. |
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| My job sucks. |
[Jan. 7th, 2007|12:24 am] |
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| [ | music |
| | Oasis: The Masterplan | ] |
It was never the plan to drop out of my uni course two-thirds of the way through and end up working in retail. Unfortunately, it kind of happened. My mum decided to move across the country (and I definitely didn't want to go to Wales with her and her alcoholic boyfriend) and I didn't have enough money to rent the great room I had found without dropping my course and working full-time, so that's what I did. When my mum moved back to Colchester a year or so later (having ditched the aforementioned alcoholic), I'd fallen in love with my independence and never really seriously considered going back to my course (an option which closed a few months later when the college shut down all of its uni courses).
Seven years on, with the Big Three-Oh closing in (more on that later), independence isn't all that. Selling fridge-freezers to elderly people, or trying vainly to explain to a chav how a HD TV works, is not that exciting and, thanks to our preposterous comission system (0.5% on all orders above £1K, and our department does £3K a week if it's lucky), certainly non-prosperous.
So for 2007 I sense a change in career is necessary. The only problem is that I can't afford to reduce my hours to do any retraining or work experience (well, one piece of work experience I did recently was pretty awesome but sadly unlikely to lead to anything paying) and I'm certainly in no position to go back to university. My debts won't cover it, and the big ones of those won't be paid off for another three years. The only things in my favour are my large experience in retail, which may land be a better job in a more senior position if I'm lucky, and my writing, which is frankly the only thing that I really enjoy doing but again unlikely to lead to any decent jobs in the near future. I also have recurring bad headaches that have cost me a lot of time off from work which will adversely affect my references, although these have been improving in the last few months.
I have been considering looking more closely at London for work, though. My aunts have a flat in North London which I may be able to rent off them at a discount and the main problem I've had with the idea of going to London - not seeing my friends - is pretty minor. Colchester is only 40 minutes away by train and I've no shortages of people to stay with back here, plus I know a few people in London already (now augmented by the London posse from the BwB). This is something I seriously need to start looking at. Simply put, I aim to be in Denver for Worldcon 2008 and it's going to be a hard, saving slog to do that on my current wage. And, if that is as awesome as I expect, then getting to Montreal or Kansas City the following year would be utterly impossible.
So, my first 2007 resolution is to kick my ass into gear on the job front. |
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