Colin Harvey – author

I think I may just have lost a sale, due to speaking my mind.

A piece that I submitted some time ago came back to me for revisions. No issue there; I’m happy to make changes as per an editor’s requests.

"I would like you to…." is fine. What I won’t tolerate is questions in caps (= shouting) or repeated comments like "You need to…"

I don’t need to do anything to a piece. I *need* to pay my rent, and go to work in the morning. That is *need*.

So I wrote saying exactly that, politely but firmly. I added that he will have the revisions next week, but I suspect that I’ll get a terse note back saying "Don’t bother."

But sod it, I’m being paid for my work, not to be a punch-bag for some upstart who wants to vent his creative spleen on me.

I’ll just have to write something else instead. It may be a pyrrhic victory, but I’ll settle for that.

It’s been another lovely sunny day, although that’s due to end soon, and it’s a real pleasure being able to take the laptop out into the garden while Kate reads. If I sit with my back to the sun, I can keep working without losing the laptop’s screen in the sun. I’m not sure whether there’s an established link between sunshine and productivity, but certainly my productivity has soared this week

Today I’ve written the obligatory 000 words, thereby passing the midpoint of Damage Time, finished reading –and reviewed– The Interpreter by Brian Aldiss, written most of a capsule article on Brian Aldiss for the benefit of the less knowledgeable readers on Suite101, and read –and reviewed, as well– most of Interzone 221.

It’s back to work in the bowels of the Eye Hospital tomorrow, which is one of the reasons why I want to get ahead.

 Another reason is that I’m in Dublin next weekend for P-Con VI. I’m on some interesting panels:-

13:00 Sat – Room 2 – Money in SF

How does it work, and how much is a Credit worth in Euro anyway?

16:00 Sat – Room 2 – High Priests and Priestesses of Love

An agony aunt response to questions of love supplied, anonymously, by Convention members.

 14:00 Sun – Room 2 – The End of the World as We Know it?

Are we about to enter the standard issue dystopia that sf has been warning us about (fluctuating oil prices, economic collapse, global warming etc.)?

 15:00 Sun – Room 2 – Genre fiction magazines

Genre fiction magazines are finding it more difficult to survive.  What are the options for survival, or are they a "dead horse"?

 If anyone has any thoughts on these topics, do share…

Wales 15, Ireland 17.

I’ll be in Dublin next Friday. I have a feeling that after 61 years of waiting for a second ever Grand Slam, the place will still be rocking.

I’m happy for Mary Robinette Kowal, whose marvellous ‘Evil Robot Monkey’ is now on the Hugo ballot for Best Short Story, and deservedly so, and Aliette de Bodard, nominated for the John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer. Equally deserving.

But sad for my friend Ted Kosmatka, who wrote the wonderful ‘Divining Light’ and ‘The Art of Alchemy’ and hasn’t seen either of them get the appreciation that they deserve, and James Moran, whose ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ is IMHO the best ever Doctor Who episode.

Oh well, I’m sure that their reward will come in time.

It’s been a good day today.

I got my 000 words written by 11 am, and this afternoon reviewed issue 4 of Polluto magazine — the review will appear soon– and this evening tore a friend’s synopsis to pieces (in a good cause, of course!).

In between I managed to replace the speakers on the new PC, help Kate get four bags of compost back from the garden centre, and most enjoyably went for lunch with Kate at the pub. As I drank my second pint and ate my fish and chips,  I commented that this was one of the joys of being self-employed, sitting in the sun, watching the office workers bolting their food.

Kate corrected me: “This was the point of being self-employed.”

She’s right. But the sunshine wouldn’t have been half so enjoyable if I hadn’t got all that work done.

I had my new PC delivered today.

The good news was that it worked and it was fast.

The bad news was the installers hadn’t copied across any of the programmes across as they had agreed to do, so the files were inaccessible, and they denied that they’d ever agreed to do so.

Good news came a little later when one of the staff rang back and said that he hadn’t been in the shop when the manager put my irate phone call on speakerphone but as he’d heard what had happened came shooting over to fit the missing programmes.

Bad news came when I turned on the speakers to find that one of the jacks didn’t find the socket.  Nice of the original installers to mention that.

Guess I’ll be going back to the shop tomorrow….

All,

A quick note to summarize the events we’ve lined up to promote Future Bristol:

ONE:

Eastercon Launch. Sunday 12th April, 14.00 — 15.30 hours at the Con Hotel. 

Present: Andy Bigwood (artist), Christina Lake, Colin Harvey, Gareth L Powell, Liz Williams, Stephanie Burgis.

There will be a raffle, plus free wine, juice, coffee, tea & muffins.

TWO: 

Bristol Signing at Forbidden Planet Superstore, Saturday 25th April. 13.00 – 14.00 hours.

Present: Andy Bigwood, Colin Harvey, Gareth L Powell, Jim Mortimore, Joanne Hall, Liz Williams, Nick Walters

FP have asked us to be there a half hour before the start, and to hang on for an hour after the event. I suspect that we might then repair to the pub across the road…

If anyone I’ve listed can’t make it, please let me know asap.

Cheers

Colin

New from Swimming Kangaroo Books
Blind Faith “Compelling…stylish…as gripping as it comes.”
Gary Fry, author of Sanity & Other Delusions
Killers –Original Stories by Jonathan Maberry, Lee Thomas, Eugie Foster &others

http://www.geocities.com/colin_harvey
http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/colinh60

I’ve posted a new blog over at MySpace on work, sport as the weather. Feel free to swing by.

What kind of thieving shitheads charge £9.50 for a DEBIT card transaction — where the money goes straight out of your account? I can understand such a charge for a CREDIT card…

…the answer, of course, is Ryanair. Easily the world’s worst airline.

Man Utd 1 Liverpool 4

OK, so we won’t win the Premier League, despite the result, but it’s made my weekend.