Fiction and Other Business

I didn't manage many posts in November, did I? Ah well, I spent far too long in front of the keyboard and it possible would have tipped me into insanity to have posted much here while I was working on The Delve. But, it is all going rather well, as long as I actually manage to write the end of it. I think that I'm roughly, oh, six-eighths of the way through it, plot-wise, which I'm feeling positive about. I've sort of got a rough idea of how I want to finish it, but the plot keeps taking little unexpected turns. It's actually quite bizarre. And even a little surprising. Aren't I meant to be in control of the characters and what they're getting up to? Shenanigans!

Still, it is coming along well. I think that I'll finish it, and then go back and do quite a big edit before I show anyone. I really only worked out a few things (mostly to do with how the society functions) after I'd written quite a bit, so I'll need to make a few adjustments. I've re-read bits of it, and I think it's quite OK, really, which makes me happy. Certainly something that is worth working on, and I'm even quite proud of some of it.

I listened to quite a bit of Explosions in the Sky and Muse while I was writing it, and I'm sure that some of the themes crept in. Actually, I'm sure that some of themes from The Resistance worked their way in there, which is possibly quite obvious when reading the text. The album has a good feel for the political science-fiction genre, really, especially with all of the 1984 references.

Oh, and music has been consuming me lately - I saw Sia on Thursday and she was amazingly good! Actually, here's the video of her doing Buttons live:



She kicked off the gig with the glow-costumes and was so quirky and affable on stage that I kept laughing at her (especially when she was giggling!) I kind of love a performer who will bounce around in a costume and then tear me to little shreds with her next song. Oh, her voice! My god, her voice. It was so heartbreakingly beautiful that I kept closing my eyes to take it in properly. Soaring and aching and wonderfully controlled. She's really terribly amazing. And she's a self-proclaimed 'Lesbot'. (Just in case you're wondering, Tran refers to me thusly with alarming frequency, although I kind of like it...) So, she's more than welcome to be my celebrity girlfriend. Sorry, Regina Spektor...

Also, apparently, I am now 25. Birthday was roundly excellent - we drank at Section 8 and then came back to find our shed decked out with balloons and Happy Birthday signs and my neighbour made me a triple-level chocolate cake with chocolate and peanut butter icing. Holy hell, it was spectacular. And everyone was here! And James and Louise flew in from Canberra and Sydney respectively. Someone (and now, I can't remember who, because I was drunk) said to me at one point 'People have flown interstate to be here. You're pretty freaking lucky. You have amazing friends'. I fucking do. My friends are the greatest, and I was so happy that so many of them came to hang out with me. Ah! I feel all loved and warm and fuzzy.

So I'm 25, and all I can think of right now is that I've got the love.