Two Possibly Stupid Questions

[Mouse]

Been making a list of the books coming out in January that I want to put on hold, like Chill Factor by Rachel Caine and Dreams Made Flesh by Anne Bishop, and I was wondering if there was an aussie release date for Crash Deluxe yet? It would be muchly good if I could make a triumverate of it. ;D

Also, was wondering what's involved in the Envision application process?

[marianne]

Not stupid at all Mouse.

CD is out in Oz in July/August AFAIK (June in UK).

Envision has its own website with all the details you need. (www.sf-envision.com.au from memory but I have a link to it on my links page if that's wrong)

Mainly you just need to be able to pay the fee and have a large enough sample (novel) to work on for five days. (no ss). There are usually bursarys available for regional Queenslanders. You can contact Rowena, the director, she will answer anything you want to ask.

We'd love to see you there ;D

MDP

(ps I usually do the sf manuscripts not the fantasy)

[Chirugal]

I have a possibly stupid question for you, Marianne - what was the approximate word count for Nylon Angel? Just so I have a rough novel-length target to aim for with my own stuff...

[marianne]

Hi Amy,

NA is approx. 75k. I found because these books are dense and action orientated (and the fact that I tend to write very spare) that this was a comfortable length for Parrish.

Maxine likes to write about 100k. Then you get extremes like Peter Hamilton who writes BIG books!

I like the 80k - 100k book length myself both as reader and writer. Otherwise you tend to get the saggy belly syndrome. I believe every word should be placed (by final draft at least) not slapped down and left to its own devices.

MDP

[Chirugal]

Thanks Marianne! I'm about 16, 500 at the moment, though a lot of that is complete bollocks that will need extensive rewrites. I guess I'm about a sixth of the way through then... *bounce*