Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Catch Up

Haven't been posting much here of late. Looking back over the last few months, the frequency of my posts has been erratic, with plenty of week-long breaks. I'm well overdue for a decent ramble.

So. What have I been doing?

The new job is taking up a fair amount of mental processing power. I'm still on a learning curve but enjoying it greatly and muchly. It's good to stretch my programming muscles again. I'm afraid that's all I can really go into here. It is the gambling industry after all, and if I tell you much more I shall have to kill you.

My passion for computer games has been resurrected thanks to the Xbox 360. I've been racing exotic cars, riding horses across medieval lands and, most importantly, killing zombies. Truckloads of them. Entire shopping malls full of them. Lots of good, clean, bloody gruesome fun. Which might explain the following.

I seem to be continually exposed of late to the ominous and looming presence of those little people called 'children'. Went to my first first birthday (two firsts in a row, what an achievement!) and spent it lazing around with a bunch of adults that were, well, tired a lot. The kids weren't, and they pranced and frollicked around in the sun, finding entertainment in the shape of balls, cupcakes, grass, each other. And I swear to my dying day that the birthday boy is an actual zombie. The eyes, the shambling, the strangely high pitched groans ...

Work, the threat of kids, computer games. None of these has been enough to stop me writing. Lunchtime is proving to be nicely productive and I'm finding my second novel taking shape slowly but surely under my calloused fingers. I hit five thousand words yesterday and that's not including the few thousand worth of notes. But I promised not to do a wordcount report this time, so I'll leave it at that.

I've also polished off a story called BUDDHA BEHIND BARS which is probably the most spiritual piece of crime fiction I've ever attempted, based on a snippet of a paragraph from a book called DESTRUCTIVE EMOTIONS. The book is an account of a series of talks between the Dalai Lama, philosophers, neuropsychologists, and a swath of other brainy types. It's a serious attempt by some of the world's greatest minds to come up with ways of improving life, and from what I have read, it seems that it was a success. The plan is to send this one off to Murdaland, if they'll have me, indeed if they'll have anyone (where did the submission guidelines page go?).

Another piece of flash fiction is percolating in my hard drive, waiting for the right moment to fire it off to Tribe's Flashing In The Gutters Country Extravaganza. We'll see how that one goes, then.

Me eyes is gettin' tired now and I must be off to sleepy-na-na-land.

Please do enjoy my latest post of rambling goodness. May I wake up tomorrow morning and not be embarrassed at the crapness of it.

G'night!

EDIT: A murder of crows told me that the Murdaland website is on the verge of an update, which will include the submission guidelines. May I never be accused of slander.

10 comments:

Christa M. Miller said...

Did the birthday boy try to bite you? Though, with a toddler, even that isn't always a sure sign....

Glad things are going so well for you!

Stephen Blackmoore said...

Children's birthday parties are remakes of Dawn of The Dead done with midgets. Nasty things, children.

The Murdaland site is supposed to be up soon. I emailed them for guidelines the other day and got a response. I'll bounce them over to you.

Can't wait to see the story in its final form. It's an excellent piece, and I'll think you'll find a home for it soon.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Christa: no bites, but there was some slobber involved, so I should probably go to my local Zombie Witch Doctor and get it checked out.

Stephen: Thanks for the info, I'll be sending the story off any minute now. Or maybe have just one last look at it ...

Christa M. Miller said...

You know, guys, children really aren't that bad. You DO get to make fun of them. And they believe most everything you tell them. And can either of you tell me that you haven't thought of taking Daniel's birthday party experience a step further?? I'm envisioning a Shaun of the Dead-type short story, myself. The zombie epidemic actually starts with a bunch of toddlers, but the adults don't take it seriously. At least not until their little angels start spilling real guts and not just pinata guts.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Christa, it sounds like you want to do the story yourself. I mean, you've got all the insider knowledge. I say go for it!

And I don't mean to be down on kids, I loves them I do.

Christa M. Miller said...

But that's the thing about ideas - everyone approaches them differently. ;)

And no worries about the kid thing. Like writing, they're not for everyone - sometimes not even their parents! LOL

Daniel Hatadi said...

No worries? Hey, that's what we Aussies say all the time!

John Rickards said...

BUDDHA BEHIND BARS is an excellent title.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Thanks mate!

Sandra Ruttan said...

Hope to see you in Murdaland soon! I got a copy from Jon Jordan- haven't had much of a chance to look at it yet.