So, I am back from Villa Diodati 6. No volcanoes were spotted during the making of this workshop, which was all to the good. (Stephen Gaskell and I did have a bit of a communication problem because my phone insisted on sending text messages to his phone in binary, but that was sorted out really fast–I stopped sending texts and used the good old-fashioned voice method).

We did the usual crit mornings, the afternoon sessions being devoted to writing questions for Saturday, and a buck-your-habits workshop for Sunday (the goal of the latter being to write an exercise completely at odds with the rest of your writing. If you really want to know what I had to do–I was supposed to write from the point of view of a white angry male. I failed.)

Also, there was gorgeous food: chicken enchiladas, spaghetti bolognese, curry, orange-and-chocolate scones, and Mexican brunch. Mmmm. I always eat too much at those things. I’ll post the recipe for the scones later on (gotta save stuff for another post )

Didn’t write much, though I did solve one important plot point for book 3, and discussed a variety of marketing tactics. Also watched way too much soccer (the Brazil-Ivory Coast match was priceless. Only game I’ve seen where it looked like there would be a riot on the pitch). Soccer isn’t really a sport I enjoy, for a variety of reasons–the first and foremost being that I don’t like the rules (the “no touching another player” combined with the lack of video replay means it encourages players to simulate wounds and damage, which is a disgrace).

Came home refreshed, though that feeling lasted about 1 hour–the time it took me to get my luggage back and exit the airport. Ah, France…

Pictures:

The house

Our crit circle, complete with baby

Group shot: from left to right and top to bottom, Stephen Gaskell, Ralan Conley, Ruth Nestvold, Nancy Fulda, Sara Genge and me.

More pictures here.

Not much to report here, apart from the occasional bout of cooking (Cantonese rice, Vietnamese fashion, courtesy of my grandma; and some sliced marinated beef that went great with the experimental tomato rice).

Research for book 3 continues apace; I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that I need to hit the American Library in Paris and their JSTOR subscription for the info I need. If all goes well, I shall be near Schleswig (in Germany, up near the Danish border) from Friday to Monday, in order to attend the Villa Diodati workshop (aka the retread of the one that lost against the Icelandic volcano). Cross your fingers for me.

The April Villa Diodati workshop, aka Volcanic Dust workshop, has been successfully rescheduled for June.

*happy writer*

I will now go back to the trenches of impending-deadline novel-writing…

So, a quick Villa Diodati report…

The house

This one was a Dutch co-production, courtesy of Floris Kleijne and Rochita Loenen-Ruiz. Floris sadly had to bow out for personal reasons, but he kindly stayed around to ferry us around, and we enjoyed his company for Friday evening and Sunday morning.

The crit room, filled with food

The weekend was, as usual, filled with good food, cooked by Jeff Spock, Benevolent Dictator Ruth Nestvold, and Stephen Gaskell.

Incidents included: a plugged sink (fixed by the heroic Jeff), a rallye outside the house which boxed us for Saturday afternoon (watching cars zoom past the house was somewhat disturbing), and a fall of several tiles following a rather strong storm. Otherwise, though, it was made of awesome. As Ruth remarked, it’s funny how you can throw several writers together and have them get along like a house on fire.

The Surrealist Oracle (random questions, random answers). Highlight: Stephen: “What was your worst pick-up line?” Ruth: “I am the master of the universe!”

The writers present were Floris Kleijne (partially), Ruth Nestvold, Jeff Spock, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Sara Genge (who is steadily taking over the world), Deanna Carlyle, and Stephen Gaskell. We workshopped stories, ate good food, and discussed novel processes. Also, we made a second attempt at producing collaborative fiction, this time with more success (the key, I think, is that the more people there are, the shorter the piece you should try to produce. In this case, a 350-word piece looked about right for 7 of us).

See, the crits aren’t so painful after all…

Overall, tremendous fun, and as usual, looking forward to the next one.

Time for Villa Diodati again: starting from tomorrow, I will be sharing a house with Sara Genge, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Stephen Gaskell, Ruth Nestvold, Jeff Spock, and Deanna Carlyle
(and Floris Kleijne, albeit briefly, as Floris is currently awaiting the birth of his first child and can’t make the whole weekend). As usual, we will eat like princes, share gossip and learn from each other.

However, the house does not come with an internet connection, so expect to see very little of me on the web until Monday (there might be a brief interval of connectivity while I’m in the Thalys, as they have wifi). Blog’s going dark again.

Meanwhile, if you happen to be anywhere near London on Saturday, my publisher Angry Robot is having their UK launch party at Forbidden Planet from 12:30 onwards. Authors like Colin Harvey, Dan Abnett and Andy Remic will be there to sign books and answer questions (the AR crew will be there too, as well).

(I only found out about this after VD was already booked, otherwise I would have had to think long and hard which of the two events I was going to…)

Over at his blog The Willpower Engine, Codex founder Luc Reid interviews Nancy Fulda, creator of AnthologyBuilder, the do-it-yourself anthology website (and writer, editor, and awesome Villa Diodati member). There’s some fascinating stuff about balancing work and family, as well as behind-the-scenes on the creation and maintenance of the website.

Entrepreneurial Motivation and Creating a Business from Scratch: An Interview with Nancy Fulda.

So, first there was the house:

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Misc.:
-revised a story and lobbed it into the aether
-preparing for VD4, the fourth Villa Diodati workshop, organised in England by Steve Gaskell. Mostly working out my shopping list, since I volunteered to be a cook… (yep, stories to crit, I know. As soon as I’ve worked out who brings the fish sauce…)
-Matthieu and I have booked our hotel and bought our memberships for Worldcon. Which leaves the plane tickets, and other hotels for the non-con part of the trip.
After registering, I took a peek at the seemingly interminable list of current members–and suddenly remembered how bewilderingly huge Interaction had been in 2005. (no, I will not panic, but I did waffle about volunteering to be on the programme…)