Tuesday, August 31, 2010

i saw two birds lost at sea

While this place has collected some dust in the last couple of weeks - the background image is entirely the appropriate texture for dust - I've done a wee bit of guest blogging, as part of the blog tour leading up to the launch of Baggage. A round up of links can be found here and here.

My contributions consist of a long-winded ramble over on that cool frood Jeff VanderMeer's blog: When the Cover Doesn't Match the Story

Exhibit 6: The taxi drivers in Kathmandu see a lot.

“No, I’m not Nepali. I’m half-Chinese.”

“But you are not Chinese.”

“Half-white Australian. I know. I don’t look like anything.”

“Ah,” he said, and nodded knowingly at me in the rear view mirror. He took me to Kathmandu International Airport without further conversation, and three hours later I began my long slog home.

He was the only person in three weeks to be unfazed by my background.


This post also contained a photo collage of my face, and because it is the single most painful graphic I have ever been foolish enough to decide to produce, I'm posting it here too.



I hate my face.

Remember, the Baggage launch is this Thursday, 1pm at Borders in the South Wharf DFO. Given who is overseeing the catering, the food will be awesome. And by awesome I mean "kill you with deliciousness".

My second blog-invasion was over on Deborah Kalin's lovely, neat, concise online cubby house, where I proceeded to blort another long-winded ramble: Tibet is... I tried to be succinct, really I did.

My life is one of close horizons. No horizons at all, in fact. With all the trees, curves and slopes, my sense of distance is heavily skewed. I assume, not wrongly when in context, that if I can see it, it is in easy walking distance. Half an hour max.

Tibet fooled me over and over. Distance and size conspired to slap my suburban assumptions upside the head every time I gazed at the world, which was all day, every day.


There are a few photos of Tibet accompanying that post, one of which I'll filch and shove right here.



This photo contains a perspective-jab. Oh yes, mountains in the distance, lovely-

Until you lean in close to squint at that little rise of dust in the middle pane and realise that is a car, tiny and distant, which means those mountains are...

And hey kids! Deb is launching Shadow Bound this Saturday! 1pm in room 203 of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. There will be books for sale, a Mysterious Door Prize of Mystery, give aways, some more awesome food, and that devastatingly talented author Deborah Kalin herself. She's also reading, signing, and kaffeklatching at Worldcon. All the information you require to stalk her can be found here.

Thank you to Jeff and Deb for letting me mess their blogs up.

Now, it has been brought to my attention that the enigmatic Arthur Miller shall also be attending Worldcon, and has stated his intention to be present at the Baggage launch. He? Is that known for certain? To my knowledge, THE Arthur Miller is deceased, and unlikely to attend, awesome catering or no.

Well.

Actually zombies are really in at the moment. A zombie dramatist playwright is probably inevitable.

Cease, tangent! Anyway! What? Right, Arthur Miller. I do not know who the enigmatic Arthur Miller is, therefore, the enigmatic Arthur Miller could be anyone.

You see what I'm hinting at?

At the end of Worldcon, I'll report back on how many people came and introduced themselves to me as Arthur Miller. You hear that, people? I want more than TEN, got that? If we can get more than ten, I'll, uh...do something probably entirely in keeping with the character of this blog.

Shove a whole lolly snake up my nose and make a comic out of it, probably.

10 comments:

  1. Let me say right now, upfront I AM NOT ARTHUR MILLER. I shall, however, also be at the Bggage launch. I fear the consequences if I miss it...

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  2. ArthurMiller@OUSalesperson31/8/10 10:21

    Actually zombies are really in at the moment. A zombie dramatist playwright is probably inevitable.

    If only I had another day, *sigh*.

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  3. You have a lovely face

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  4. *loves the tessaface in all its myriad contortions* (I'm particularly fond of one you didn't post, giving a wtf look to the Five Fingered Brain Sucker.)

    I am grumpy that I am not in Australia right now. Stupid nose.

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  5. *plots to organize a world being-grumpy-for-not-being-in-australia convention together with Jaime*

    (I did order Sahi to attend the Baggage launch and bring me back plunder, though.)


    Also, fuckit Tessa, that post you made over on Jeff's blog is way too powerful. No fair withholding it from us for so long!

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  6. DaveOOOOO2/9/10 23:42

    CUT'D OUT

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  7. We need squeeing about "Also, three different people who had head starts on the book told me that they can't see Federation Square without Tessa's story overshadowing it."

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  9. Tessa I´d really love to read your story in Baggage (well the other storys too, but mostly yours) but I had to find out that they wont ship to Europe *sadface*
    Can you or some helpfull blogreader point me to an online shop who sell the book and ship to europe?

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  10. Hey Luna! Never fear, I planned for this. I took my payment in copies of the anthology precisely for overseas readers, so if you send me your postal address I'll drop a copy in the mail for you.

    This isn't the first overseas query I've had either, and I have made the publishers aware of interest. For those of you who would like to buy through the publisher, please feel free to shoot them an email and they'll definitely work something out.

    Some official post announcing this will go up, er, in the next couple of days. I'm still catching up everything. Like sleep. Oh my goodness, sleep.

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