I'm impossibly weary. Last night (or was it actually this morning?), at around 1.00 am, I sent the latest draft of my new novel, 'Vulture's Gate', to my editor. I wish it could have felt like a liberation but as the published work won't be available for another ten months (September, 2009) it's only another step toward publication. It's a long, long road from the first premise to the final story.
The version I sent last night was the fifth draft - the third that I've subjected to outside editing. There's still a serious round of copy-editing to get through before it's ready for the press and, of course, the long difficult process of deciding on the cover. Everyone knows you can't judge a book by it's cover and this book, in particular, is so layered and perplexing that coming up with a decent cover is bound to be complex. It's weird. I feel as though I've bled onto every page in the writing of this simple yet fraught story, in a way I have with no other. But maybe I have a short memory and perhaps every book goes through this process. It's a bit like having babies. If every mother and every author remembered how painful it is to birth a child, or a book, there would be few people on the planet and few stories to share.
The cover image in this post is only a rough version of one of many alternative covers. I like the way it's captured several facets of the book. There's something dreamlike about this novel as well as something very frightening. It contains so many elements that I've never attempted to incorporate into a story that I have felt both bewildered and excited by the whole writing process. Every book is an adventure. If it wasn't, there'd be no point in continuing to write but perhaps 'Vulture's Gate' has been the most exhaustingly adventurous story I've attempted. I am so ready for a good night's sleep.
At last!
Literature for everyone
Last night I went to the SLV to hear a panel of bookish folk talk about what it means to be a City of Literature. Everyone made warm, enthusiastic noises about why Melbourne is such a perfectly literary city and a contingent from Edinburgh, the first UNESCO City of Literature in the world, told the audience about how they expressed their literary pride.
It could have just been a warm and fuzzy sort of event but then Elliot Perlman, one of the members of the literary panel, took the michrophone. Perlman spoke movingly about the importance of books and ideas. He said literature, unlike our education system, is never elitist. As long as public schools remain underfunded and teachers underpaid and unappreciated, the joy of literature will be denied to far too many young people. In Elliot Perlman's vision of Melbourne's future, every child in the state of Victoria would visit the new Centre for Books and Ideas at least once in their schooling - if not more often. Perlman also said it was of primary importance that Melbourne, and Australia, celebrate their own literary culture before worrying too much about extending invitations to overseas literary megastars. Not everyone in the audience liked what he had to say but I loved it. Perlman is definitely on the side of the angels.
Distraction
I've been distracted of late. Since returning from Western Australia, I've had a lot of trouble settling down to work at the desk. I've spent too much time browsing the internet for information that I don't really need, checking out Facebook and fiddling with bits of stray paperwork. Which is probably why I really enjoyed reading Damon Young's Distraction: A Philosopher's Guide to Being Free
Distraction is accessible, informative and fun - traits we don't conventionally associate with works of philosophy. I know a lot of older teenagers who will really enjoy reading this book - I'm buying multiple copies for Christmas presents.
I especially love this particular quote from the book:
'But if we want emancipation from distraction, we have to listen more carefully. Because if we are the ones who have to live and die (rather than machines) then we have to be decisive about the values that inform, motivate and justify our lives. This is something technology will never do for us.'
In all the workshops that I conduct with young writers, I try and encourage kids to listen to the stories that are part of their every day existence, to look keenly at the world around them. In a world full of colourful distractions, sometimes the best stories get overlooked. Which is exactly what is happening to the manuscript of my futuristic novel Vulture's Gate - all the distractions in my life are letting me overlook how important it is to finish it. Not least because my editor will be really cranky if I don't meet deadline. I don't need more inspiration - this is the fourth draft - but I do need to stop allowing myself to be distracted by things of less importance. Time to be decisive and get back to the future.
