Built myself a new computer! Left side is the pretty coloured lights of the interior, right side is all the stuff happening in the background. Rather like the way I write, really. (I promise I tidied those cables before I put the case back on.)
November Newsletter
New Computer!
I’m going to be technical, so skip this bit if you’re not interested.
My office computer was starting to fail, so I went to my local parts store and bought all the parts for a new one. It’s the first time I’ve put together a liquid cooled machine, and the difference in temperature is well worth it. I’m not into fancy coloured lights when I’m working on my PC, I want it to be as silent and unobtrusive as possible, but I couldn’t resist setting the lights to this royal blue so that they shine out of the back of the machine at night.
And if anyone’s wondering about the massive size of this case? I have two m.2 SSDs – one for programs, one for dropbox, which contains all my work – and five ordinary magnetic platter HDD’s. I moved all the legacy drives out of the old machine and plugged them into the new one, so that my files were there ready for me.
Interestingly, one of the main causes of the slowdown on the old machine was the cat litter. I use clay clumping litter, and the dust from it had invaded the old PC (it was seriously old, fourth gen Intel) and cooked onto the CPU’s heat sink, covering it with a layer of ceramic.
The cats are having to cope as I move their tray further away. Which is, of course, the end of the world.
November Workshops
There are still places available for my Nerang Workshop on speculative worldbuilding on Saturday, If you’d like to come along, the information is here: https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/libraries/Whats-on?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D155705058
The Self-Publishing workshop at Redcliffe Library is also free, so check it out if you’re interested:
https://www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/libraries/Events/WAMB/WAMB-Introduction-Self-Publishing
Dark Heavens Television
The team over in the US are regrouping after the pitch was rejected by a major studio, and now they’re going to take the television series proposal to the streaming services like Netflix. Before they do, they’d like to engage a showrunner from the Asian diaspora, giving the proposal the cultural cred that this sort of thing requires. Hopefully we can find the right person!
I’ve also handed them the first three episodes of a TV series based on the ‘Minds of Sand and Light’ story, and they’ve sent the first episode out for ‘coverage’ – which is a professional evaluation of the quality and saleability of a screenplay. It’s the first time I’ve done anything like this, so I am very interested to hear what the consultant has to say about my efforts.
Minds of Sand and Light
‘Minds’ has made it to round two with a couple of New York agents, they’ve asked to see more of the manuscript. Wish me luck that I can find enthusiastic representation over in the States, and widen my audience with this new creation.
Dark Heavens Continues
My Patreon patrons are reading the new Dark Heavens novel, ‘The Serpent Empress’, which swaps between Emma’s and Simone’s points of view. I’m glad I spent some time away from that universe to write the Dragon Empire, because I have plenty of story threads to follow.
Now that my new computer is thoroughly working (I lost nearly a day to OneDrive’s hijacking of all my files, goodness that app is a nightmare) I’m back at work, preparing workshops, writing manuscripts, and generally feeling very productive.