My Writing Week: Issue 15 Year 5

Laptops
and Sore Fingers.
I recently
had little choice but to buy a laptop computer due to the lack of quality desktops
on sale in Wangaratta. One of the reasons I have been wary of laptops is that I
had heard that their users were more prone to carpal-tunnel syndrome.  For the past two weeks both my little fingers
have been very sore and prone to pins and needles at night. The only thing I am
doing differently in my life lately is using a laptop.  
So I have re-positioning
the laptop on my desk and raised my seat height.  I hope this does the job because the right-hand
pinky can become very painful. There is less pain now, but I have been using
the laptop less. I may end up getting a wireless keyboard.   
It would seem
that I have manifested a self-fulfilling prophecy with laptops and carpal
tunnel syndrome.  Now if I could only
convince myself that the world is desperate for science fiction written by me…
Ideas
Walking into my Head.
I had been
having trouble coming up with new ideas for articles for Divine magazine.  Although I can pretty much write on any
subject, the articles have to be relevant to people with a disability. I had
come up with one idea about how organisations define a disability, but was
having trouble figuring the approach to take.  
Last Sunday,
while going on my usual Sunday walk, the article’s angle suddenly came to me.  Just as well I always carry a notebook around
with me. I then noticed that I was walking past a particular organisation and
another idea sprang into mind. Yay for walks and the ideas that spring into a
mind not taking in a constant stream of information.
Book
Reviewing Cop-outs.
I heard an
interesting debate on book reviewing the other day on ABC radio. The debaters
said that the Australian literature scene was so small that reviewers were
afraid to give negative reviews that might offend someone they could run into at
the next writing event.
Well, the
Australian science fiction community seems to be very small. George Turner, who
won a Miles Franklin Award way back in the 1950’s and then went on to write
award winning science fiction, thought criticism of science fiction writing in
Australia was woefully inadequate. This is/was probably due to science fiction
writers not wanting to offend their friends. 
Anyway, the
debaters then surprised me by saying that they were not against the personal
reviews of bloggers, especially because there seemed to be very little genuine
criticism in newspaper and other traditional review sources. So maybe my
personal type book reviews on this blog aren’t that bad. 

I have recently bought a half a dozen books as a result of good reviews in The AGE. Of those, the ones I have read have been good. I am yet to find a compelling blog reviewer with similar tastes to mine, so blog reviewers have had little effect on my book buying.

0 Responses

  1. Glad you got some ideas. A bit of exercise is good for the mind.

    Interesting that youre talking about book reviewers. I'm currently researching avenues to try and get my novella reviewed. A tough ask perhaps. If you know of any such place, I'd be grateful.

  2. Anthony,

    No ideas come mind for reviews. Are you a member of Goodreads.com? Its a place that can be used to plug books.

    Tracie,

    I must take a gander at the blog sites you've listed, when I get time.

    Graham.

  3. Tracie, thank you so much for your suggestions. I have looked at them. The only problem is my book won't be available on Amazon and my website I posts peoms etc rather than talking directly about books, but I'll do a little more exploring.
    Thanks again, I appreciate it.

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