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A true story.

It was a Tuesday morning. It was weeks ago and it was yesterday rolled together. It was hot as balls.

We were looking at an infographic on Digg about the rising cost of weddings in the US. According to the article, it cost $38k on average to get hitched. We decided this was ridiculous, and laughed together, and I felt little pearls of sweat coalescing on the nape of my neck.

She had brought chocolate bread back from a recent visit to Canberra, and I cut four slices and set them under the grill as our breakfast. We watched them brown.

I said, "We could do it so much cheaper."

She said, "Easily."

I closed my eyes a moment, and forced one long shuddering breath, and then another. And I said, "Do you wanna?"

"What?"

"Give it a go. For less than thirty-eight grand."

She stared at me, brow crinkling, not quite understanding. "What, now?"

"Well, not right now. The toast is burning."

She swore, and turned the toast, and then went back to staring, as if she was not looking at her partner of three years but at some new, terrifying lifeform wearing my stolen skin. "When, then?"

"In a while, I guess?"

She frowned, sucked on her lower lip. Then she said, "Yeah, that'll do."

Because sometimes you don't need roses and a ring with a big rock. Because sometimes you realise you have everything you need, and that every day is just fine, and all you want to do is continue living as you already are with the person you're already with.

Because it's all good.

So long as there's tea.

Posted in Life. Tagged with .

By ruzkin
February 8, 2010

7 comments

Productivity picking up

Finally, a worthwhile day of writing. I broke my own #1 rule and got stuck on a single scene for nearly a week, until I finally realised I was in a rut and jumped to the end of the book. 2000 words today is the best I've done on Century of Sand in a while.

I think it's a positive sign when I'm halfway through a scene and I stop and think, damn, I'm going to LOVE re-reading this when I'm all done. So yeah, I'm excited for how this novel is going to turn out.

Thanks for the questions, by the way. Keep 'em coming.

Posted in Uncategorized.

By ruzkin
January 29, 2010

5 comments

Ask me anything at all.

Yeah, I'm jumping on the bandwagon.


Ask me anything anonymously. So long as it doesn't incriminate me too much, I'll answer.

Century of Sand is moving slowly, but it's moving. More to post soon, maybe?

Posted in Uncategorized.

By ruzkin
January 26, 2010

8 comments

Two things:

First: Breaking Bad is a truly excellent show. If the rest of the season lives up to the precise and cutting writing, acting and emotion of the pilot, then I think I have a new favourite show to sit beside The Wire. Viewing it in the context of just having read The Scene Book by Sandra Scofield (truly excellent text, all writers get a copy now now now), I'm truly blown away by how much was done in so few scenes with so few words. Freakin' masterful.

Second: Rape is terrible, horrific, unconscionable. But if you allow yourself to take offense at every possible sideways reference to rape - to the point of accusing Neil Gaiman of perpetuating rape culture simply for saying "It means I'm nobody's bitch" - then you need to get out of the house and take a deep breath. Because it takes EFFORT to get riled up about a throwaway line like that. It takes CONCENTRATION. And it helps nobody.

I don't see how attacking a delightful, caring, intelligent and very much pro-feminist author like Gaiman for using a catchphrase strengthens the cause against the proliferation of rape culture. If anything, it just makes out the author of the post as whiny and hysterical, and that's exactly the opposite of what the fight against rape culture needs.

You want to fight against something you consider deplorable? Fight the people actually perpetrating it. Not the people making one-off oblique references. Especially not people who have, up to that point, been on your side.

I mean, I was physically assaulted in the past, by a large group of youths. As such, I spend my weekends training people in methods that may save them from assault. I don't sit and cry every time Warren Ellis makes a sideways reference to brutal testicular stampings (or similar). Because I know Warren doesn't want me to be assaulted. He doesn't want anyone to be assaulted. Because it's just words, and my time is better spent taking action.

Dear Melissa McEwan - Shakesville is a good blog. It does good things. But this is petty and pathetic, and you can pick more worthy targets.

Posted in Discussion. Tagged with , , , , , , , , .

By ruzkin
January 22, 2010

7 comments

My dreams are the worst dreams

My dreams are conspiring against me.

Continued...

Posted in Uncategorized.

By ruzkin
January 18, 2010

3 comments

DIY Book Cover for Alpha Slip

Now, I'm going to be pushing Alpha Slip for traditional publication as hard as I can (once I have a final draft in place), but if I reach the point where all the trad publishing options are exhausted I'm probably gonna go the self-published ebook route and sell the sucker for $2 a pop. And, in that case, I'll need to design a cover.

This was a photo I took for a photography class last year which I think turned out pretty okay. Yeah, the lights under that bridge are naturally like that. Soooo rad.

Alpha Slip Cover

I'm no professional artist, but I've noticed a couple trends from my years in the bookshop as to which covers sell and which don't. These are my theories:

1) Unified colour scheme, if possible. One major colour and one minor, max. Neither can be brown.
2) If you MUST have a number of colours, like the cover I put together for Alpha Slip, they must be tempered with 1/3 pure black or white.
3) In scifi, bold colour and design always wins over desaturated wishy-washyness. Bump up that contrast!
4) Text must always stand out on its own. Simple, single colours for text, if possible (no rainbow fills). The colour must pop - if you need to use a drop shadow to make the words stand out, pick a different colour. If there's no way to make a single colour stand out, get a new cover designer.
5) Identifiable faces must, of course, be beautiful. In scifi, identifiable faces must be female. Male faces are only allowed on fantasy covers. If you're writing romance, no faces are allowed at all.

But hey, they're only theories.

What about you? Designed any of your own covers for ePub purposes, or just for fun?

Posted in Alpha Slip, photography, science fiction. Tagged with , , , , .

By ruzkin
January 17, 2010

7 comments

New year, new novel.

First up - hello to all the Avatar fans who are somehow finding their way to my site and my review. I was kind of freaked out when I popped online after nearly two weeks of technological deprivation and discovered hundreds upon hundreds of clickthroughs coming from... somewhere. I didn't think my review was particularly special, but my Mum liked it, so that's something.

Anyway.

New house = no internet = time to sit and concentrate. Also, time to sit and write. So here, for your reading pleasure, is the first chapter of my 2010 novel "Century of Sand." It's an epic fantasy based on the events of my short story "The Ant Tower", featuring a bunch of the same characters many years afterward. I think it's gonna turn out alright.

Enjoy!

Continued...

Posted in writing. Tagged with , , , , , .

By ruzkin
January 13, 2010

5 comments

2010 Resolutions and Goals

I started 2009 full of hope and chutzpah. I had goals - grand, lofty goals - and nothing was going to stand in my way.

Did it work out that way? Of course not. But in my defense, I didn't fail on EVERY count.

I didn't finish Weathermen and start sending it to agents. I didn't even complete the fifth draft. A couple of chapters in I got hit with a crippling case of self-doubt and pretty much binned the entire project. I've recovered since then, and haven't given up on the novel entirely, but I'm still searching for the magic solution to the problem of Weathermen being inherently boring.

I didn't write a cyberpunk novel with Iriah either. Instead, I wrote a completely different cyberpunk novel, polished it, and have sent it to many friends for test reading. Feedback has been mostly positive, and while there has been some harsh crits coming back, everyone is pointing out the same issues. That's hella good, because if everyone was pointing out different issues, it would mean the novel is fundamentally muddled and shitty. Instead, it's a pretty good novel with a few small, shitty chunks that need excising.

I never finished the Titanic short story. I don't think I wrote a single short in 2009 that I was really proud of. It just wasn't a short-story kind of year. Maybe 2010 will be different.

So, here are the new-year goals. In 2010 I will:

- Revise Alpha Slip before July 1st and start sending out feelers to agents in the US.
- Put at least 50,000 new words into Century of Sand (the super-grand fantasy novel I'm working on.)
- Put at least 50,000 words into Pax Americana/11 Days of Adam/Whatever I end up calling it (the scifi roadtrip novel I'm planning.)
- Accept that there is no such thing as perfection.

To ring in the new year, I've put up the first five chapters of Alpha Slip as a preview. Anyone who reads them and likes them can ask for the full manuscript - that goes double for any agents or editors passing through!

To everyone else, best of luck in the New Year.

Posted in Alpha Slip, Life. Tagged with , , , , , , , .

By ruzkin
January 1, 2010

5 comments

Review: Avatar, by James Cameron & co

DAAAAAAANG.

Avatar

I knew I said I'd posted my last post for 2009, but then my parents took me, my bro and my lady to see Avatar and I was compelled to bust out a review before the images faded.

So, here it is.

HOT DAMN.

Continued...

Posted in Life. Tagged with , , , , , .

By ruzkin
December 29, 2009

8 comments

A 2009 Writer’s Retrospective

Another year down. The upcoming new year will mark two years since I started blogging seriously, offering my fiction up for free and writing essays instead of rants and updates on my day-to-day life. 24 months, many thousands upon thousands of hits, and a lot of new friends. Merrilee, Tama, Texture of Weaponizer, Graham, Cassie, Atavisitian, Sue, Tom... all great people, and writers to watch in the future.

2009 was a damn productive year for me, too. In order: I wrote the 3rd draft of Weathermen and sent it out to friends, I busted out the first third of Century of Sand, I wrote 4 or 5 short stories, I wrote Alpha Slip in its entirety, I started revising Weathermen again, and then I completely revised Alpha Slip just in time for Christmas. All up, it's close to 400k of fiction. Yeah, I could have done more, but I seeing as I was still a full-time student and had to build a bloody couch I'll allow myself a little pat on the back.

I also wrote some pretty rad posts during 2009, and I've put together a list of the six most popular... and my three LEAST popular (some of which were a real surprise.) I'm pretty proud of my blogging in '09 regardless. The move to my own site instead of a wordpress hosting (thanks again Arcwhite!) made all the difference.

So here we go.

#1: Mx Publishes Bullshit Article, Nobody is Surprised
With nearly 1000 views, my close encounter with Melbourne trash-mag MX takes top spot! And really, nobody is surprised.

#2: Ruzkin on Writing: Plot vs Story
My first big how-to-write article got a lot of love from the wider community. It's not my best article, but hey, I meant well.

#3: Why We Fight
I think this one remains so popular because it has a photo of me all bruised up after being punched in the face. Which is as good a reason as any, really.

#4: The Ant Tower
This remains my most popular short story. I'm still hoping I can do it justice when I adapt it into a novel over 2010. Wish me luck!

#5: Book Review - Spook Country, by William Gibson
You know why everyone likes this post? Because nobody likes Spook Country, that's why.

And, a very close #6: My Ten Best Albums of the Decade
It went up late in the year but got linked to from a number of bigger, sexier blogs, and so was popular enough to make the cut.

Now, my LEAST popular posts of 2009...

#3: A shout-out to the two that always have my back
I guess the greater internet community don't love my parents as much as I do. Shame on you! Mum, Dad, you've been amazing parents all through the year. Thankyou.

#2: Japan, how I love thee:
I guess nobody loves Japan either... but that's self explanatory, really.
BECAUSE THEY MAKE GAMES LIKE THIS.

#1: Seven Things about Me: A Meme
My most unloved post of the year! Eight views, five comments. Nobody cares about me and my seven magical unknown facts. Maybe if I do another post with more incredible facts I could score negative views?

Thanks for all the comments, feedback, test readings, support and reprimands. I've learned a ton from you good folk, and I hope I'll continue to learn throughout 2010. Until then, take care of yourselves, have a great New Years Eve, keep writing, reading, smiling, chatting, loving.

Ciao guys!

Posted in Life, parkour, photography. Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

By ruzkin
December 26, 2009

4 comments

Chris Hayes-Kossmann, AKA Ruzkin, writes and posts free science-fiction and fantasy in both short story and novel format. He also regularly reviews scifi books.