Neil links
Monday, 29 November, 2004
All via Neil.
Continuum 3 has been updated with further conference information and the line-up now includes Robin Hobb whose work I've never read but Erin always highly recommended it and I do own Assassin's Apprentice, just never gotten around to reading it because it's the first novel in a trilogy, I don't own the other two and I've heard it's awfully addictive. Unfortunately, it's now packed away in a box bound for storage so I cannot read it now unless I go out and borrow it which I might someday when I am ever in need of good things to read (which hasn't happened yet).
I'm sort of half-thinking about saving and going but I've never been to a convention before and I haven't been to Melbourne since 1993 when my aunt took me to see The Phantom of the Opera and the whole prospect scares me silly while at the same time also being rather exciting, especially if some nice friends will come with me ...
Very interesting article on plagiarism, intellectual property and art:
The ethics of plagiarism have turned into the narcissism of small differences: because journalism cannot own up to its heavily derivative nature, it must enforce originality on the level of the sentence ...
Creative property, Lessig reminds us, has many lives—the newspaper arrives at our door, it becomes part of the archive of human knowledge, then it wraps fish. And, by the time ideas pass into their third and fourth lives, we lose track of where they came from, and we lose control of where they are going. The final dishonesty of the plagiarism fundamentalists is to encourage us to pretend that these chains of influence and evolution do not exist, and that a writer's words have a virgin birth and an eternal life. I suppose that I could get upset about what happened to my words. I could also simply acknowledge that I had a good, long ride with that line—and let it go.
(Source)
Current:
Bible: Isaiah (ESV) 28/09/2010
seen: Tropic Thunder 26/09/2010
seen: The Life of Mammals 24/09/2010
seen: What a Girl Wants 19/09/2010
seen: Jerry Maguire 19/09/2010
seen: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 06/09/2010
seen: Tomorrow Never Dies 05/09/2010
seen: Nanny McPhee 28/08/2010
read: Mercury (Hope Larson) 27/08/2010
read: Spellcheckers Vol 1 (Jamie S Rich, Nicolas Hitori de, Joelle Jones) 16/08/2010
read: Solipsistic Pop Vol 2 (Solipsistic Pop) 16/08/2010
read: Chiggers (Hope Larson) 15/08/2010
seen: Josie and the Pussycats 14/08/2010
seen: Mr & Mrs Smith 14/08/2010
seen: Step Up 2 13/08/2010
Blinks:
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
Online magazine that publishes fairy tales that are not reworkings of old tales.
Journal that publishes fairy tale writing.
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Disqus comments
Other comments
I’ll go if you do!
Seriously. I’m more than half-thinking about it, too. It will be my second because I went to Conflux in Canberra this year (that was great - one writer to every three attendees).
Incidentally, I’d love to stay at the hotel this time around, so if you are going… (Realising of course you’ve never met me
But the hotel is expensive, even with 3 to a room. So maybe there is a youth hostel closer.
Wow, I can’t believe you want to go to a convention with me! You’ve never met me and we might drive each other crazy!!!
I’m still to be convinced whether or not to fork out the money. A huge consideration is that we will be very poor next year with a next to nil income. :(
But you can try to convince me some more—I don’t mind!
You read DWJ, watch Miyazaki and like Gaiman, all of which are good signs. Besides, I’m difficult to drive crazy. As for driving you crazy… Best to ask Deb. She still likes me
Okay. Conventions are crazy-wierd places but for all the best reasons (mostly). Have you read DWJ’s “Deep Secret”? It isn’t actually that far off. You will get to meet and talk to and hang around Actual Authors, and possibly artists (there were artists at Conflux who had worked on Dark City and Matrix). People don’t mind if you aren’t completely ‘normal’ because hey, it’s an SF con after all. I get the impression it’s best if you stay at the hotel, or near it (I had to catch buses to the other side of Canberra), but youth hostels are regularly near the city centre. It’s good if you know someone to start with - to ‘seed’ a friendship group.
If you fork out the money before the end of this month, it will be cheaper - then you can save up for living expenses while there.
Please go!