Sometimes being a writer is more about reading than writing. Sometimes reading swamps writing entirely, a situation I find myself in at the moment.

I don't mean reading over my own work during the editing process; neither do I mean reading for review or research. During October, I'll be reading as a judge for the Aurealis Awards and the Writers of the Future Contest. I'm assessing grant applications (which includes scrutinising support material by the box-load) for Arts SA. I'm perusing submissions for the ever-expanding Big Book Club. And I'm looking at a galley from a friend in the States with a view to providing a blurb.

All of these things are important. All of them take time. There are days in the middle of writing a novel when I would kill for an afternoon reading a good book (aka falling asleep on the couch with a hardback plopped over my face). Seems all those wishes are coming true at once this month.

I'm not complaining. I'm actually looking forward to it. It counts as input, and I can't let myself nod off while reading this kind of stuff. Any one of these books or stories could inspire me in unknown ways. I might even read something that will change the way I think about fiction forever. It's possible. Isn't that why we let stories into our lives in the first place? To change and inspire us?

It's also a pleasant change of routine. Before I know it, I'll be back to doing what I normally do and wishing for moments like these. By anyone's standards, reading for a living looks very much like luxury.

Earlier this year, at Conflux, I was granted a unique opportunity. I'm not talking about interviewing Sir Arthur C Clarke, although that was another special moment from the same con. I'm referring to the reading of my sci-fi musical, "The Soap Bubble - A Space Opera", by a hand-picked cast consisting of some of this country's greatest writers, artists and editors, all giving up their spare time and energy to the project in a feat of generosity and goodwill for which I will forever be grateful:

Astrogator Jane Foo-Wong - Deborah Biancotti
Morale Officer Alek Maas - Simon Brown
Captain Gabe McKenzie - Richard Harland
Uncle Warren & The Alien - Rob Hood
Corporal Sarah Mravinsky - Cat Sparks
Security Chief Andre Passant - Nick Stathopoulos

Based on my novella "The Soap Bubble", first published in Alien Shores in 1994, the play version was a project fronted by Bluetongue Theatre director and old friend Catherine Adamek. With funding from Arts SA, and the help of dramaturge Sean Reilly and Phil Spruce, we knocked together a working draft in early 2003, then sent it to various places (such as Playlab) for feedback. The draft performed in June was the latest, and could be described as a deep space First Contact story with a reality TV edge.

Music doesn't currently exist for the songs, but a theme for the show-within-a-show does, as written by me and orchestrated for the reading by Jack Reineckie (this version) and Robert Dobson. Other incidental music used in the performance was written by Mirko Ruckels.

I'm a big believe in collaboration and community. The reading of "The Soap Bubble - A Space Opera" was a celebration of both. I will be eternally in debt to everyone involved: the readers, the musicians, Trevor Stafford for giving me a prime slot at his excellent con, and to the audience for coming along and, afterwards, offering suggestions on how the script could be improved. It all added up to a wonderful experience that I doubt will ever be equalled.

It was also fracking hilarious. Hurrah!

So Jonathan Strahan rings me today and tells me that Gary Numan is playing a gig just up the road from the Worldcon hotel the same week we're there. This is a Big Deal for me, and not just because I've recently finished a book that relies significantly on the lyrics of a certain postpunk-then-electro-now-goth legend. Needless to say, I will be buying a ticket.

In newsy stuff: it's been a good week or two. Rob Stephenson published the world's first review ofThe Devoured Earth in aurealisXpress (he liked it; see below). I expect this to be the first of many reviews getting the number of books in that series wrong. :-) Also, Stephen Davenport posted reviews of Geodesica in The Independent and The Program (ditto; and ditto). Being compared to Asimov is, arguably, worth another smiley.

It's also been a good week for finishing mss, with drafts of The Changeling and Saturn Returns in their final-final stages. Both will be delivered early next week so I can get on with the former's sequel. All original thoughts are being pumped into these projects, so I apologise for the blandness of this LJ in recent weeks.

Lastly, some other snippets of good news: both The Blood Debt and Geodesica: Descent have been reprinted by HarperCollins. Also, the wonderful people at Arts SA have generously thrown some cash at the Broken Land series, for which I'm very grateful. And a movie production company has been in touch about one of my older short stories--a possibility I refuse to lose any sleep over, but will report on here in due course...

Reviews:

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