Gainfully Employed

Well, almost. Next Thursday I'll be attending 'orientation' for an actual, physical day job, one which requires leaving the house for, oh, about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Shocking, I know, but there comes a time in every young writer's life when he must pull up his britches, spit on his hands, etc., etc.

But, bonus: The job is kinda-sorta within my sphere of writing interest, so it's possible for good things to come out of it somewhere down the line. If I can make the right contacts... But now I'm getting ahead of myself.

Hey, how about some free fiction? I've been happy with my recent Elephant Words output, despite the fact (because of it?) that I've been traveling to some pretty dark places with my last few pieces. There's been straight-up reality-based horror, a bit of supernatural horror, a dash of the weird-and-creepy, and even a touch of metaphysical mystery.

But the piece I'm most fond of is this one, a direct sequel to a story I wrote last year while living in Viet Nam. It's no accident that these two are my only interrelated Elephant Words stories -- there's definitely more where they came from. I don't think I've figured out these particular ideas yet. They're still there in my mind, growing larger, moving towards each other and coalescing, like colonies in a petri dish, into something larger and more advanced. Something that would very much like to be written.

But... I still have to finish the first novel, don't I?

Lastly: Is it just me, or is The Onion getting better? First they come out with that hilarious robot overlord sketch. Then we get this fantastic article (granted, the headline's funnier than the actual text, but still). And then, just when they've got you in the comedy mood, ready and waiting for the next belly-laugh, they stab you in the goddamn heart with a genuinely powerful piece of writing.

Election Day Is Tomorrow

But I've voted already.

Yes, they had a voting booth set up at the Australian embassy here in Saigon. Meanwhile, out there on the streets, anyone who so much as loiters in front of an official government building is liable to get carted away by the green-clad police.

They actually do vote here. The people get a say in who's elected to Parliament -- they just all happen to belong to the same Party. Here's where a better (less tired) writer than myself would draw an amusing parallel with the current situation in Australia, what with our two conservative parties, Rudd's apparent spinelessness, etc.

But nevermind that. The whining can wait until after Howard loses. I just wish I could be home by the TV to watch his stammering, hang-dog resignation speech, but hey, that's why god made YouTube.

I should hit 40K on NaNoWriMo (70K on the book proper) tomorrow, and it's all downhill from there, baby. It's been a lot of fun, and scary at times, but I think I'm going to be proud of this thing in the end.

Finally, I am currently obsessed with androids. There, I said it. As if writing about them in my novel every day wasn't enough, they're now making guest appearances in my Elephant Words pieces. Such as this week's (Why breaking up with an android is hard to do) and the one from two weeks ago (In the future, Saigon will be full of androids, apparently). Last week's piece did not feature androids, but if I'd kept going with that concept, it very well might have.

Lifetime Achievement

Last night, I ticked off a very important item on my List Of Things To Do Before I Die.

I played Guitar Hero in a crowded bar (specifically, I played Sweet Child O' Mine on Expert Difficulty), causing spontaneous applause and adulation, followed by free drinks for the rest of the night.

No, seriously. And it was awesome. (Okay, 7 people doesn't really count as 'crowded'. But the rest of it is 100% true.)

Thanks to Joseph, Kevin and Sylvia at Cafe Latin for rockin' out with me. And I finally got to try the just-released Guitar Hero 3! First impressions: I'm not too fond of the new interface, but it has one hell of a tracklist.

Okay, back to work now.

Short Update

I'm in Saigon, and it feels like home.

Do not believe the travel agents and the Lonely Planets. They will tell you Saigon is a big, dirty city, whereas Hanoi is a gorgeous wonderland full of great food and charming French colonial atmosphere.

These are filthy, filthy lies. You could not pay me to go back to Hanoi. Everything here is cheaper, brighter, faster, livelier, and tastier. Not even the Vietnamese want to live in Hanoi -- according to our friends, they all want to move south.

(Also, no I will not refer to Saigon as 'Ho Chi Minh City'. Nobody but bureaucrats, police and foreign guidebooks use the HCMC name. And if I understand the man at all, I'd say Uncle Ho would have been ashamed to find out what they named this place. It was Saigon before the Viets came here, and it'll be Saigon after the communists leave.)

Anyhoo, my latest Elephant Words piece is up, and lo and behold, unlike my last few it does not suck. It's ostensibly inspired by this here image, but it's really based on a friend of ours who has since moved back to the Mekong.

Also. I have a new NaNoWriMo wordcount widget. Check it out there on the right.

In Viet Nam...

...and incredibly tired. Wishing I was in Saigon already -- Hanoi isn't my favourite Vietnamese city.

Really, I had a lot of other stuff to say here about how everything's still mind-bendingly strange, yet it feels like we never left; how this country seems to mean very different things to different people; how good it is to eat this food again, and so forth. There was also going to be some whining about my NaNo wordcount.

But it'll have to wait, because my eyes are drooping and I need the sleep.

NaNoWriMo, And Travel Plans

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

I'm talking about November. It's that time when -- instead of doing something sane and/or productive -- we put aside our daily lives to try and write 50 thousand words of a novel in 30 days. 'We', in this case, meaning myself and 80 thousand other deluded souls around the globe.

I did this last year, and I failed -- I only got halfway to 50K. Looking back, the reason why seems obvious: I was doing very well and enjoying what I wrote. This obviously caused me to overthink, slow down, wonder if I was doing the right thing. If this was going so well, I said to myself, maybe I should stop writing it all on the fly? Perhaps I should take the time to properly plot it out; treat it with some dignity?

So I stopped and, of course, did bugger all else with it for most of the following year.

But this year is different. This year, I'm ready and I'm not going to lose. Because I'm going to cheat.

I'll do this by continuing my novel from last year, rather than writing a new one from scratch. I've been working on it most every day for a month now, so I have a flying start. And I already started last night, thus giving myself a day's buffer on the wordcount. All these things are kinda-sorta considered cheating if you're going by the official rules of the competition, but that's just the sort of cheating bastard I am. Like I said, this year I plan to win.

But here's the twist: I'm flying to Viet Nam in 3 days.

Long story short: My partner happened to have November free from work, and we decided we'd like to go somewhere for a month. We found some very cheap flights, plus we have friends to stay with over there, so it all fell into place. Unfortunately, it adds a bit of a challenge to my writing regimen -- how do you get into a writing groove while travelling around Asia? How do you concentrate on your story when a hundred new sights, sounds and tastes are vying for your attention?

Well, it won't be that bad. We lived in Viet Nam for 3 months last year, so I know Saigon like the back of my hand. I won't have to spend all my time worrying about what food to eat, which sights to see, how to say please and thankyou and all that crap. I already know all the best cafes and wireless spots. So as long as something else doesn't pop up to compete for my attention, I should be able to make it through November with 50k words.

Something like a contract to write a feature film script. Like the one I just received today.

Goddammit.

Oh, and if you're interested in watching me fail in real time, you can check out my wordcount here at my NaNo profile. And if anyone else who reads this is doing NaNo, let me know and I'll add you as a Writing Buddy. God knows we need all the support we can get.