Focus : The Muse's Little Helpers

It's the most intoxicating feeling when your writing's 'in the flow'; the story's rocketing along on invisible fuel, your characters are writing themselves effortlessly into and out of sticky situations, there's not a plot-hole in sight and your prose doesn't hit a single log-jam (maybe just the odd twig). Wonderful. Sublime. Then the phone rings. It's time to get dinner. The washing needs doing. That ache in the side of your head starts to intrude. Loved ones outside your storyland need a bit of attention. The budgie cage could do with fresh sand. All that focus dissipates in an instant. Or your own mental or emotional dialogues start to cut into the writing stream, take you off on a thousand diversions. Maybe, since your brain is so inclined, entice you with new stories, a dozen gleaming plot trajectories. Or maybe said brain just got fatigued and opted out of the 'flow' for a while. This is natural, of course. It's Real Life. And the mind's fluctuations. The story will wait for you, patiently or not. But what state will your mind return to it in? What do you do if it won't or can't connect back into all those lovely strands it was unwinding?

I'm sure we all have our own methods of refocussing - and reconnecting - with our stories. I'd like to share with you my favourite helper; music. Not a startling one. I'm sure it's a favourite for many writers, and with good reason. For a start, music is linear - it usually has a beginning, a middle (no matter what genre it belongs to, apart from certain avant-garde forms) and a conclusion, related to the linear nature of stories and the written word. Music and writing aren't the only artforms with a fundamental linearity. Dance, theatre, film all share the same basic 'line' because they exist in time (unlike a painting or other stationary medium where a moment in time is frozen, preserved). But it's not that easy to write while your vision is engaged with something external, unless that is the thing you're writing about! Well, not for me, anyway.

But music can assist the writing process in much more precise ways than that. Music speaks to emotion, or conjures specific emotional or mental states. I find that if I've 'lost my way' with a story, music is the most likely thing to bring me back on track. I used to use this in a general way; by playing music that would either relax (or if I was tired, stimulate) my mind before starting to write. From there, I graduated to playing music that would relate to the type of scene I was writing, using it to 'set the mood', my mood, for the action of that particular scene. Some of those pieces of music have become so ingrained with certain stories or scenes that hearing them will immediately trigger that scene in my mind (just as music can powerfully trigger emotional memories). Massive Attack's 'Silent Spring' (featuring Elizabeth Fraser), for instance, is now inextricably bound up with a wistful scene in the novel currently underway. The delicate Andante from Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No.2 in F Major inspired the emotional atmosphere in a scene where a character in a very fragile state found her internal poise.

Now, I'm 'pre-programming' all my main characters with specific pieces that express their personalities, and which get me straight back into the groove with them if I've been away from them for a while. Looking at my playlist, I see I've looped some songs 140 times. Wow. That's a bit of writing time! My villain has been running on Muse's 'Butterflies and Hurricanes' for some time. It's perfect for him, the intense mood, the escalating, complex structure, even the lyrics, and this song is now so strongly identified with him in my mind that if I play it, I'm right in there with him straight away. If a character is going through a change in their personality, then I find a new piece of music for them that links to that change. It's fun, and enormously helpful.

Currently, I'm taking temporary leave from the set of all-consuming novels to finish a short story. The first thing I've done is to find music for the new story. It had to be music never used for the novels, or it would link me back to them, shift the focus away. So the story now has a defining 'song' of its own; when I hear it, I'm immediately present to the new story (this works best, naturally, if you really like the piece of music too!). And I know when I go back to the novels, their 'soundtracks' will be waiting there to help me get back in touch with them. All great food for the muse!

HorrorScope: Australian Speculative Fiction Blog Carnival (July)

This month's Australian Spec Fic Carnivale is up! Talie has done an excellent job of organizing and collecting this month's links.

HorrorScope: Australian Speculative Fiction Blog Carnival (July)

World Science Fiction Convention

We Egobooers are excited about Australia’s biggest SF event for a decade. For the first time since 1999, the World Science Fiction Convention is to be held in Australia!

From September 2-6, Melbourne will be awash with visitors from interstate and overseas, who will flood to the Melbourne Convention Centre to network, attend panels, talk, drink, play dressups and generally have and all round Good Time. There will be many noteworthy guests, including Guests of Honour Kim Stanley Robinson, Shaun Tan and Robin Johnson.

Kim Stanley Robinson from America, author of twenty books, has won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for his internationally bestselling novels. His work incorporates themes of ecology, environmentalism and social justice. In his Martian trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars), the terraforming and colonization of Mars provide an exploration of sustainability, ethics, corporate greed, and the value of scientific pursuit.

Shaun Tan, an Australian writer and artist, is the author of five books and is an award winning illustrator. His numerous awards include the World Fantasy Award for Best Artist. His illustrations have been included in a number of exhibitions around the world, and he was a concept artist for the hit movies Horton Hears a Who and Pixar's Hugo-winning WALL-E.

Robin Johnson has worked tirelessly for many years to promote and organize science fiction conventions in Australia. He was chairperson of the 33rd Worldcon in 1975, the first Worldcon to be held in Melbourne. He has three times been co-chair for the Australian National Science Fiction Convention. In 2007, he was the winner of the Big Heart Award, the highest honour the science fiction community gives to one of its own.

Other guests of note will include Alan Baxter, Gregory Benford, Jenny Blackford, Russell Blackford, Trudi Canavan, Bill Congreve, Alison Croggon, Jack Dann, Ellen Datlow, Marianne de Pierres, Cory Doctorow, Kate Elliott, Jennifer Fallon, Dirk Flinthart, Bernadette Foley, Kate Forsyth, Dave Freer, Pamela Freeman, Laura E. Goodin, Tim Holman, Robert Hood, Ian Irvine, Trent Jamieson, Deborah Kalin, Ellen Kushner, Glenda Larke, Martin Livings, Juliet Marillier, George RR Martin, Sean McMullen, China Miéville, Karen Miller, Lara Morgan, Nicole Murphy, Garth Nix, Andrew Porter, Michael Pryor, Alastair Reynolds, Lezli Robyn, John Scalzi, Joel Shepherd, Robert Silverberg, Stephanie Smith, Cat Sparks, Jonathan Strahan, Charles Stross, Lucy Sussex, Kaaron Warren, Kim Wilkins and Sean Williams and many others.

These guests and many other authors, editors and agents from Australia and overseas will be featured on panels encompassing an array of topics drawn from the areas of young adult literature, science fiction, fantasy, horror, academic papers, TV shows, science, ecology, and other genre-related topics. Some items will feature more direct contact with industry professionals, such as kaffeeklatsches (small group gatherings with authors for a coffee and a chat), author readings, and signings.

It’s going to be fabulous. Go check it out at http://www.aussiecon4.org.au/

Writing Groups.

I recently went to a meeting of the face to face writing group I joined fifteen years ago. This group is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, quite an achievement since they meet during the day once a week for eleven months of the year. I have been less regular in my attendance lately for reasons beyond my control and I regret that. This group took me in as very much a beginner and I doubt I would be the writer I am today without them. They gently taught, encouraged and sometimes, when it was needed, pushed me. They shared my joys and disappointments. Actually I think they were as excited over my first competition win as I was. They critiqued my work honestly, fairly and kindly. I owe them a great deal.

I'm describing this experience because to have such a group behind you is invaluable to a writer. Writing is an isolating business. Most of the time it's just you and your computer. You sit there writing away at something that is in your head demanding to be told and it's hard to know whether you have it right or it's just a pile of rubbish. You fall in love with a piece of writing and can't bear to let it go or you think everything you've written is dull and stupid. The truth is you really can't judge your own work objectively because you are too close to it. That piece you've fallen in love with may be completely extraneous to your story and the dull bit might only need to be tightened but you can't see that. You need fresh, impartial eyes on it - not your mother, your best friend or someone who doesn't read anything but the newspaper comics. You need a critiquer.

The group I mentioned above is not the only critique group I have belonged to but they were the first - and they are the standard by which I judge all others. I feel blessed that the two groups I now belong to are just as generous, knowledgeable and supportive.

Although I prefer to belong to a group I have gotten to know well, there are other options including several online critiquing groups in the genre. Among them are Online Writers Workshop and Critters. Although I have no personal experience of either I have heard good reports about both. Apart from peer critiquing they offer a variety of information on useful resources for writers and are run by experienced writers and editors - and, of course, there's always the chance that you might be discovered by a publisher who is taking an interest in what is being put up for critiquing.

4F Day! Four Questions for Friday

Thank goodness it's Friday again! Here's some light entertainment to help you get through the until lunchtime. After lunch, you're on your own!

Helen Venn

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
I don't think I have a style that is similar to any one writer. It's  more a mixture with my learning from everyone whose work I've ever read. I guess I'd describe my style as tending to the lyrical probably because I also write poetry and love to play with language.

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
I've been influenced by a lot of different writers and they all have  elements of style I'd like to be as good at. Immediately springing to mind are Patricia A McKillip, Jennifer Fallon, C. J. Cherryh, Margo Lanagan, Stephen King, Glenda Larke and Peter S. Beagle but there are so many more that this is by no means a definitive list.

3) Who would you like to be?
I'm quite happy being myself, thank you, but better health would be a
bonus.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
Assuming I could still keep my own brain (I'm quite fond of it) and  they didn't have to be writers, there are a lot of interesting people out there. Among the women - and in no particular order - Dame Julian, Elizabeth 1 and Jane Austen for starters. The men - again in no special order - Mark Twain, John Donne, Rousseau, the writers of the  King James version of the Bible, Gerard Manley Hopkins and yes, Shakespeare. That's only a sample though. Think of all those other amazing artists, scientists and philosophers, each with so much knowledge, stretching back to the beginning of time.

Carol Ryles

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
I think I'm a mixture of a whole lot of different styles. I suppose if  I listed all the books I'd ever read, you could say I was a bit of this and a bit of that.

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
Not sure if I'd wish for that. Though of course, I do not believe I  could be totally unique either.  So to this I am going to answer I would like to be a mixture of all my favourites -- those I listed in the previous 4F Questions.

3) Who would you like to be?
Now that's one of those questions that should be prefaced with: "be  careful what you wish for" or "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know." If I could change into someone else, it probably wouldn't be someone real. Probably someone fictional who has lots of adventures and a seemingly impossible goal that, after lots of
twists and turns, she eventually achieves. When I try and think of  exactly who, I'm thinking "Not her, because of xyz" and not him, because of abc", so maybe, for me, the answer for who I would like to be is unanswerable. I would prefer not to start out knowing who I am, because the pleasure is in the discovery. Once I have everything I
need, I would no longer have any goals. I'd probably want to be  someone else again.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
So long as I could keep my own brain as well, I think it would be neat  to download the memories of one of the first ever homo sapiens sapiens. I'd like to see if there really was an Eve, whether she was mitochondrial Eve or whatever. I'd like to know how it felt to be part of a new species, learning new skills in an old world, telling new  stories perhaps?  Or maybe changing old stories that didn't quite fit any more?  I'd like to see how those old stories began, what they were about and whether they were filled with ideas from our non-homo sapiens sapiens ancestors. I'd like to see how different those stories were from the stories we now consider to be the world's first. How  would it feel living in a world that still felt all shiny and new and seemingly endless and impossible, where the things we now take for granted were totally inexplicable? I wouldn't want to be stuck in that situation, but to know how we all started. That would useful, I think.

Sarah Parker

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
I got told once my style was similar to earl Anne Mccaffrey and Lois Mcmaster Bujold, so as you can imagine it made my YEAR.

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
No one. I don't think anything is polished enough to have a definitive style. I'm working on that right now though.

3) Who would you like to be?
Me! I'm pretty darn happy thanks! Although... Sarah Genge has some rather awesome short stories floating around right now. And Kij Johnson certainly seems to be able to write opening lines that grab your attention.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
I've been crushing on Carl Sagan for a few months now, so I'll pick him. I was going to say Asimov, but apparently Asimov said that Sagan was one of only two minds more brilliant than his. I'd also love to check out Nora Robert's brain.

Joanna Fay

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
My style is probably poetic more than anything else, and stylistically reflects a number of lyrical writers. I enjoy subtleties of syntax and word imagery in both poetry and prose and have unconsciously absorbed a fair dose of 'aestheticism'. My current project is learning how to balance that aesthetic with character, action, tension and the demands of plot, which has meant getting handy with the pruning shears and taking a hard look at where and when to pare back the prose and tighten it up. Still learning.

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
Much as there are many authors I like, it's hard to think of any one I particularly want to emulate. My own reading tastes have changed over time, and it follows that my writing tastes (and therefore style) will change too.

3) Who would you like to be?
I'm quite happy being me...although a slightly healthier me would be nice. I guess I could handle being Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice or, come to think of it, Virginia Woolf's Orlando would be pretty interesting, starting out male and ending up female, with a lifetime spanning several centuries. I'd love to be one of my own characters (of the winged variety) for the thrill of flight, except that such horrible things keep on happening to them. Most offputting.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
Ah, but there have been many admirable brains! How could I choose just one? I think I'd want a whole stack of brains, to make the most of all the different types of gifts. Given my metaphysical leanings, I might end up opting for someone like Deepak Chopra or Karl Sagan, David Bohm or Stephanie Dowrick, for her insight into human nature coupled with her outstanding, forgiving compassion. People I've read and admired. There are so, so many. I feel really inspired just thinking about them!

Satima Flavell

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?
Well, one person did say my work was a bit like Jennifer Fallon's, only not as good...

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?
William Shakespeare. Sadly, fantasy written in blank verse doesn't seem to be selling terribly well at the moment.

3) Who would you like to be?
Me, only luckier, younger, more talented, and better looking.

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?
Can I have Shakespeare's? He isn't using it any more. I'll like Ursula K. LeGuin's, too, only she's still using hers.

You!

1) Which author's style is similar to yours?

2) Which author do you wish your style is similar to?

3) Who would you like to be?

4) Who would you like to download the brain of?


--
Sarah

Ferret's Six Guidelines to Good Critiques

As a Clarion attendee, Ferrett feels very strongly about the benefits and lessons he learned during his time at Clarion, and is trying to put some of these hard earned lessons out there for discussion.

Ferret's Six Guidelines to Good Critiques

These guidelines are excellent. They focus on the TEXT rather than the author, the author's intent, or the critiquer's opinion. A good crit is worth gold, and it's a techniques that needs to be learned.

At the KSP we encourage people to use the Milton method of critiquing:

* What's It About?
* What worked
* What didn't work
* What Happens Next?
* Notes

- Suggested method the 'Milford Method' (explanation by Lee Battersby):

1. What It's About- the critiquer gives a short description of what they thought the story was about (A man wants to marry his girlfriend, but then she reveals that she's a mermaid, he leaves her but falls into the river and almost drowns, she saves him, they reconcile and have an underwater wedding). This enables the author to see whether the story and narrative they *thought* they were writing is actually being received by the readers.

2. What Worked- the critiquer outlines those technical elements s/he felt were the strong points of the story. Note: that's NOT the things they liked, emotionally, but whether the elements worked in writing terms: you may *hate* the drunk paedophile villain of the piece, but if you were supposed to hate them, well, that element is working.

3. What Didn't Work- the opposite of section 2: the critiquer focuses on what elements didn't work, or which let the story down (The hero states he grew up in France, but then didn't know the difference between a baguette and a croissant....). Again, it's not an emotional response, it's a decision regards what technical matters need improving.

4. What Happens Next- the critiquer offers an opinion regarding what the author needs to do with the story, whether that be "combine all three bad guys into one so the hero has a stronger focus and the reader doesn't get confused" or "Hey, it's perfect, get it in an envelope" The goal here is to give the author a plan of action.

Lastly, if you're especially confident, and definitely if you've got a group that communicates well, give the author a right of reply at the end of the critiquing circle (ie: after everyone else has spoken). It gives everyone a chance to expound on points the author may wish redefined, or for the author to open a dialogue regarding what they were trying to do, and whether it was successful.

Often when I am stuck, I will cut and paste the header text and use that as a tool to critique some one's work. Critiquing is a fine balance of helping to make a text stronger, but not to over power that need by offering too much suggestion, or too much opinion, or too much detail. A crit is not an edit. It can be a lot of fun, as long as you are working in tandem with the author, not against them.

--
Sarah

4F Day! Four Questions for Friday

Hello and Welcome to our weekly Four Questions! As ever, please do join us in our fun, and fill out the questions below. Have a great day!

Satima Flavell

1) Who is your favourite author(s)?

There are so many good writers around at the moment that all I can do is point to the ones whose work I follow — and that's without considering the many fine authors of twenty, thirty, forty years ago whose work I still treasure! So, in alphabetical order: Joe Abercrombie, Jaqueline Carey, Robin Hobb, Guy Gavriel Kay, Glenda Larke, Juliet Marillier and Karen Miller (K.E. Mills). In most cases I have the author's entire oeuvre on my shelves.

2) What do they do well?
It's easy to see from the names I've picked that I love historically-based fantasy, including that which is set in the history of our own world and that which is set on imaginary worlds. I should probably point out here that I adore history — adore and revere it. As a family historian, I long ago realised that history is simply the sum total of all the family histories of our world. It is where we come from and where we are going. It is the place where our ancestors still live. To disrespect it, therefore, is to disrespect our ancestors, who collectively built our society.

So, in reading my favourite books, I look for historical credibility. Even if the story is set on another world, its history needs to be similar to that of our own. In fact, it would resemble very closely the relevant historical period on our planet. Could Paxton have created his press if his society had not already invented paper? The alternative might have been to print on vellum, which would have meant that farmers would have had to send young animals to the slaughterhouse instead of keeping them for breeding, which would have resulted in a shortage of breeding stock and a shortage of large carcases and dairy produce. You can't change even one thing in a society without a serious ripple effect. Therefore, except for a cleverly-placed anachronism that is designed to make a point, such as the submarine in Dave Luckett's recent book Subversive Activity or similar effects in some steampunk novels, I want and expect to read books set in a historically cohesive world. Idiocies such as armoured knights on horseback travelling by spaceship, or people living in castles when a neighbouring society has nuclear weapons, will get short shrift from me, both as reader and reviewer. Such things not only disrespect history, they demonstrate poor logic, so my suspension of disbelief flies out the window.

Likewise with language. Writers who have not done their linguistics homework will also find their works among my discards. Of the above writers, I would point to Guy Gavriel Kay and Jacqueline Carey as numbering among those who've gained HDs for their devoirs!

In other words, I find casual dissing of history or language because the writer either can't be bothered doing the necessary research or because they can't see that it matters really hurtful and offensive. Conversely, I love works in which these aspects have been given the love and attention they deserve. My favourite authors all show signs of having done a fair amount of research in those things that matter to me. And then they write a damned good story about it!

3) What do they do badly?
Some of them fail in the originality stakes here and there. Kay, for instance, seems to have stock characters that continually turn up in his books under different names. But they are good, well-drawn characters with distinctive traits, so their re-appearances in different guises don't make his work any the less enjoyable.

4) Favourite book of theirs and why?
Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself; Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart , Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice; Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine Mosaic duology, Glenda Larke's The Last Stormlord, Juliet Marillier's Wildwood Dancing and Karen Miller's The Innocent Mage. But that's just today. On another day I might pick other faves, and if you go out and buy anything by any of these authors, I promise you will get a good read.

Helen Venn

1) Who is your favourite author(s)?
I started writing a list and when I got to fifty I realised that wasn't going to work. I have very varied taste in writers so the list included thrillers, police procedurals, historical fantasies, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy as well as many others, old and modern. So I guess I should just pick three and resist the demands of the rest to be included. For obvious reasons I've chosen speculative fiction writers and of those the ones, I've most enjoyed recently in alphabetical order are Robin Hobb, Glenda Larke and Juliet Marillier.

2) What do they do well?
I'm going to concentrate on one author or this would become an opus - and, for no other reason than because she comes first in alphabetical order, Robin Hobb gets the guernsey. She has a great ability to evoke a setting. In one of Hobb's books the reader is drawn into a richly imagined setting that is totally believable. In The Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven, two recent releases, she built fascinating worlds ranging from a recognisable city one, through a place where the ground is so hostile a city has been built in giant trees and on to the depressing wild world where rivers run so acid that they kill and just surviving is an achievement. The worlds she creates are alien and familiar at the same time. We have sentient ships and dragons along with people living ordinary - and sometimes extraordinary - lives. At the same time she has a cast of believable characters. The reader wants to know what happens to them and cares about them.

3) What do they do badly?
Hobb can be wordy and, while all these lovingly crafted characters and settings are cleverly described, the reader can find themselves wishing that things moved on faster. There's also a tendency to hammer home a point and not rely on the reader to remember what they had already been told. Don't think from this that she is not an entertaining writer. She certainly is but, for me, the repetition can get irksome.

4) Favourite book of theirs and why?
It's very hard for me to pick favourites. I loved The Farseer Trilogy - Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest, The Live Ship Traders trilogy - Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny and The Tawny Man trilogy - Fool's Errand, The Golden Fool and Fool's Fate - for all the reasons I've mentioned above.

Joanna Fay

1) Who is your favourite author(s)?
I tend to have favourite novels or series of novels rather than favourite authors as such. I can't think of any whose whole output I have enjoyed, yet I've been touched, changed, inspired by many writers in particular works. To name a few; in SF and Fantasy, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Frank Herbert's Dune, Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, Tanith Lee's The Silver Metal Lover, Julian May's Many-Coloured Land and Galactic Milieu series, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Death Gate Cycle novels. In the 'classics', Jane Austen's Persuasion, Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Honore de Balzac's Illusions Perdues, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. In more recent times, Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist, Eleven Minutes and By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, Albert Camus' L'Etranger, Francoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse and Emma Tennant's Wild Nights. So many others too. I do appreciate for various reasons the fantasy phenomena of recent years, J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter books and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels.

2) What do they do well?
Well, I'll just pick one here or this will turn into a major essay! Tolkien probably hasn't been surpassed as a world-builder, in depth, breadth and sheer detail of vision, because he truly thought from inside his world. You can smell, taste and breathe it as well as see it. Middle Earth feels amazingly 'real', because the histories he created behind his stories were so complex and layered. He always maintained his starting point was the languages (which are an evolved artform in their own right); that he then had to envisage the people who spoke them and the life events/cultural impacts that developed those languages into their various branches. He intelligently used real world mythologies (as do G.G.Kay and Julian May) to create a world with a high level of 'internal reality' (by which I mean it is highly resonant with our collective unconsciousness and its stored mythopoeia).

3) What do they do badly?
He wasn't good at finishing things! There are so many great stories in The Silmarillion that could have become another Lord of the Rings if Tolkien had gotten round to writing them as fully fledged novels rather than as discontinuous, variably personalised, fragments of history. The story of Beren and Luthien is a case in point. It has all the ingredients of a 'great story' and sits at the very centre of his storyworld, yet remained little more than a compressed 'history'. He first wrote it as a poem (The Lay of Leithian), got to 10 000 lines and then abandoned it! From photos of his original manuscript it appears that he was writing firstly in elvish, then translating into English (which might have slowed him down!). Perhaps this is why his work has such a unique ambience. It's frustrating though; this story could have been exceptional. It has deep elements, its reversal of the myth of Orpheus being one of them (in Tolkien's story, it is the woman who charms the god of death in the underworld after ensorcelling his hound, and manages to extract something precious from him). Clearly, this story was right in its author's heart too; the names of Beren and Luthien are carved into the gravestones of Tolkien and his wife.

4) Favourite book of theirs and why?
Here I'll go over to Guy Gavriel Kay and put in a word for The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy (and not just because of its lovely weaving metaphors!). Some of his later novels might be more tightly crafted, but these books are wonderful in their use of Celtic and Arthurian myth in a completely original - and deeply poignant - way. Yet they never overbalance the world he has created, or his passionately drawn characters, or the turns and twists of the (very large) plot. He's holding a lot of threads here and manages not to get them tangled. Oh look, see? I'm getting all weaverly just thinking about it!

Carol Ryles

1) Who is your favourite author(s)?
That would be a very long list for which there is not room enough here. So I'll narrow it down to ten and write them as they spring to mind: Octavia Butler, Stephen Baxter, Damien Broderick, Jeanette Winterson, Vonda N McIntyre, China Mieville, Toni Morrison, Charles Dickens, Ursula Le Guin and Colleen McCullough. I guess this means I like variety.

2) What do they do well?
They can all write a gripping, meaningful story. SF that both entertains and challenges, Fantasy that is both beautiful and grotesque. Mainstream fiction that will make a long distance plane trip bearable.

3) What do they do badly?
They're my favourite. I enjoy their work too much to notice if they do anything badly :)

4) Favourite book of theirs and why?
Broderick: The White Abacus -- a stunning tour of human emotion. Beauty in space, with a touch of Hamlet.
Butler: The entire Xenogenesis Trilogy -- Aliens rescue humanity from extinction -- thoughtful blurring of boundaries between benevolence and cultural assimilation.
Baxter: Ring -- the first Baxter book I ever read. A novel that spans 5 million years with a woman who has been genetically engineered to live in the centre of the sun, discovering dark matter Photino birds that feed on stars. Throw in the inscrutable XeeLee, a generation star ship and how could I not like that one?
Winterson: The Passion -- Wow. Beauty in prose and beauty in the tale. A touch of fantasy, love and loss set in Venice and the Napoleonic wars, from the point of view of Napoleon's cook, and a girl with webbed feet who cross dresses and works in a casino.
McIntyre: The Exile Awaiting -- was the first feminist SF novel I read in the '70s. Always enjoy rereading this one about a thief who fights her way out of oppression.
Mieville: Can't decide between The Scar or Perdido Street Station -- Beauty and the grotesque, audacious technology. Fantasy and Steampunk. I'm writing my thesis about it.
Morrison: Beloved -- the best ghost story I've ever read. A baby ghost. Beauty and tragedy.
Dickens: All of Dickens -- Probably Great Expectations -- Miss Havisham, that wedding dress and uneaten wedding cake! Eek
Ursula Le Guin -- The Left Hand of Darkness -- A world with only one gender -- Intelligent World building and culture building.
McCollough: The Thornbirds -- This is the sort of book I can read on a plane, even after being sleep deprived for 20 hours.

Sarah Parker

1) Who is your favourite author(s)?
Lois McMaster Bujold, Anne McCaffrey, Terry Pratchett, Ann Bishop

2) What do they do well?
Lois has a real gift for writing interesting people. She writes vividly and with great care. Anne Mccaffrey had fantastic ideas and worlds, though I mostly only read her Pern series and her Rowan series. Terry Pratchett has become a master story teller, I think, able to make me cry with a phrase or care for the unexpected. Anne Bishop wrote a great story which carried me along.

3) What do they do badly?
I sometimes find Pratchett's Pratchettisms to be more annoying than entrancing. Anne Mccaffrey can't write sex/relationships at all. Lois... I haven't noticed anything annoying about her works! She had bad luck with last books though. I thought the last book of the Curse of Chalion series was lacking in the strength of the other two, and the last book in the Vorkosigan saga really threw away some of the characters I had been attached to since her short stories were published in Analog. I got a bit tired of Bishop's habit of continuing to up the ante every time Jael did something.

4) Favourite book of theirs and why?
Paladin of Souls is my favourite book of Bujold's. It's just awe inspiring that she's managed to take an unusual heroine and made her so popular! Ista is a favourite character of mine. All of them have written such excellent stories, I love tight pacing and a good plot. Every one I have mentioned has what I want, obviously!

You!

1) Who is your favourite author(s)?

2) What do they do well?

3) What do they do badly?

4) Favourite book of theirs and why?

--
Sarah