Laptastic

You know how I ordered a new laptop, right?

I had last week off work. So I called the store that Monday to see if had arrived, because it would have been good to have a week to play with it. They told me it hadn't, and gave me the standard line that custom built items take 12-14 working days to arrive. Which meant it was due to arrive last Friday, or maybe yesterday.

Dissapointing, but what could I do? I just had to wait. Then I got sick, and spent my holidays with a headcold.

So I come back to work today, and dig through a week's worth of emails. And find one from the store saying my laptop had arrived.

Last Tuesday.

*bangs head on desk*

News.

Spent the weekend at Continuum. Will post more about that later.

But one of my stories won Best Flash Fiction prize in the Australian Horror Writers Association's short story competition.

The story will be published online in the next issue of Shadowed Realms, which is due out soon. I'll let you all know when it's up.

Not really boasting. Not really.

Yesterday morning I got to interview Neil Gaiman for FIEND magazine.

I think it went well.

Photographer piercedvelvet and I met him in the bar of the Westin Hotel at 9 am. We sat in couches around the fire, and drank tea while we talked. And a giant Bill Henson print loomed on the wall behind him.

With his floppy dark hair and bright black eyes, Gaiman looks like an English Sheepdog. Or possibly a nicer version of Severus Snape. He is everything people say he is - charming, intelligent, funny. And professional enough to be all those things even after a three day SF convention.

It was my first ever interview, and Gaiman is one of my heroes. So I was a bit nervous. I spent the week beforehand compiling and recompiling a list of questions. And while I was trying to be relaxed about it, it did feel more like Having An Interview than a laid back and interesting conversation.

When I got home, I had a horrible moment of panic when I thought I'd accidentally erased the whole interview. Then my relief that I hadn't was undermined by the hours of swearing and frustration that followed as I tried to get the sound file off the digital recorder an onto my computer. In the end I had to just play it back and record it on my PC.

Still, it should be a good article. The hard part will be editing down his long, meandering answers to FIEND's tight wordcount. Hopefully they'll publish the longer version on the website.

The article will be in the November issue.