Here's a sneak peek of my story 'Saturday Night at the Milk Bar', which appears in Midnight Echo 7: the taboo issue.

The edition features stories by Graham Masterton, Andrew J McKiernan, Lee Battersby, G N Braun and more.

You can pre-order a limited edition print copy for $10 (+$2.50 postage) in Australia and $20 for overseas buyers (postage included).

More info here: http://midnightechomagazine.com/news/

Sitting on the panel next to Paul Haines, talking about why we're into horror when the real world is so awful (or words to that effect). I said that I generally enjoy reading and writing escapist fiction. Giant cockroaches, zombies, that kinda thing. But that's only partially true. Paul said that writing what he writes is a cathartic experience for him. For me, I can only write when I'm not down (or, I find it hard to write when I'm down). On the plane home I read three stories from Scenes From the Second Story, including Paul's "I've Seen The Man". 

 

When I interviewed Ellen Datlow in 2006 she told me:

 

"When I read a half a dozen really excellent, very strong short stories one after another, it's exhausting. You can't just go straight from one story to another if the first one makes the impact it should. It's difficult to switch gears that quickly."

 

And that's exactly what it was like. I'm not going to go all 'lit' on yer ass or anything like that (well, maybe a little). I like writing over-the-top escapist stuff because it's fun. But reading those stories made me aspire to something else. I want to write stories where the reader needs to take a pause at the end, catch their breath, have a think.

I'm sharing this on my blog because I had a bit of trouble getting my Netgear WN3000RP WiFi Network Extender working. So if you're having problems, read on.

I bought the WN3000RP just before Christmas. I followed the instructions on the box. It all seemed to be going well until I got to the final step, which should have completed the connection. But the forth light wouldn't light up, and when I clicked 'continue' I got an error message saying the extender couldn't connect to the existing wifi network.

Despite this, I could connect to the extender, and the extender was communicating with the router. But it was a local connection only, nothing going out onto the internet. Which didn't make sense. Tried a few times. From a PC, Mac and the Xbox. No good.

Googled. Found people who were so frustrated they just gave up. Found some quite complicated solutions on the Netgear forums, but nothing that seemed to match my specific problem.

Put it on hold and had another go after Christmas. And got it working! Not sure exactly what the problem was, but I can tell you what I did differently this time around.

1. Factory reset. There's a hole for a paperclip in the side. I read on a couple of forums that people got it working after doing a factory reset. Didn't really seem to make sense but I decided to give it a go anyway.
2. Did the initial set-up from a PC. I think the first time around, I tried with the Mac. Don't know if this made a difference. But I went through the instructions again and got the fourth light on, which was progress.
3. 'Diagnose'. It still wasn't connecting through to the internet. So I went into the network settings thing in Windows and I clicked on the 'diagnose' button. Windows gave me a few options. The first one I tried was something like 'automatically assign an IP address'. I tried this but it didn't work.
4. 'Turn off router'. The second thing it suggested was turning the router off for 10 seconds then back on. Again, it's one of those things that I was dubious off, but decided to give it a go.
5. After that, I tried the 'assign IP address' thing again, and it worked.

After getting it up and running, it works on the Mac, PC and Xbox. It's been working solidly for a few days now, although I have to admit I haven't had the guts to turn off the extender, in case it resets or something. :)

My grant year is officially over, as at midnight last night.

As you may have noticed, throughout the year I was tweeting about Skin Deep, as well as blogging, keeping track of my research, taking photos etc.

I've pulled it all together in this Storify.

Take a look here: http://storify.com/garykemble/grant-year-writing-skin-deep

(I haven't embedded it because I don't like the way it keeps expanding on the home page).

Merry Christmas everyone. If you've forgotten the horror-lover in your life, grab them a copy of the Rage Against the Night anthology. All proceeds go to current Horror Writers Association president Rocky Wood, who is battling motor neurone disease.

Featuring Stephen King, Peter Straub and more. (I also managed to sneak a story in there!)

Here's the official spiel:

Under the onslaught of supernatural evil, the acts of good people can seem insignificant, but a courageous few stand apart. These brave men and women stand up to the darkness, stare it right in the eye, and give it the finger. These are the stories of those who rage against the night, stories of triumph, sacrifice, and bravery in the face of overwhelming evil.

Here's where you get it:

Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006P18LM2/
Smashwords (multi-format ebook): http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/116718

Please support this book. I'm honoured to be a part of it, and Rocky really needs a helping hand.

Of all my 'grant year' goals, the one that I've probably failed at most is the weekly blog!

I can live with that.

I don't actually have too much to report, but I feared that with Christmas almost upon us, I'd need to get a blog post in or else leave it all hanging with my last post, which was 'beginning to polish the second draft'.

Here's where I'm at: I finished polishing the second draft. The book is now out with readers. I've even had some feedback. But I haven't looked at it in depth -- what I'd like to do is wait until it's all in and then take a couple of days off work (annual leave -- all the grant money is gone!) read through the comments and figure out what I need to do for the third (and hopefully final) draft.

I haven't been idle in the meantime. Well, not totally idle. I've written an article for Writing Queensland (the magazine of the Queensland Writers Centre) about my grant year. This will appear early next year.

I've also started working on a Storify of my grant year, which pulls together all my tweets, blog posts and photos from the year. It's a work in progress. If you like you can check it out here.

This is also part of the process for my acquittal. It's not part of the formal process, but it's part of getting my head around what I'm going to write in my acquittal. And I'd really like to do a good job with my acquittal because, as I've said before (and will say over and over again) I'm extremely grateful to the Australia Council for investing in my project.

 I've just started polishing the second draft, I'll probably end up changing enough to call it a third draft. :)

The break has been longer than intended, for a range of mostly boring reasons. But looking on the bright side, the extended break will give me a bit more perspective. Just 20 pages in, I've already noticed this. I thought the first 50 pages were pretty solid, but already I've found quite a few typos and clumsy language.

Which brings me to my next point. I don't know what it's like for other writers trying to 'break through' but I find I vacillate between frenzied terror brought on by the fear that I'm missing opportunities ALL THE TIME and lethargy/apathy, thinking that there's no way I'm going to 'make it'.

Somewhere is the sweet spot, where I get my best work done and manage to not make irrational decisions that may damage my real opportunities.

I've been thinking about submitting Skin Deep to the Pac Mac Manuscript Monday, but I want to make sure I send them something that represents the best writing I'm capable. At the back of my mind is the frenzied terror guy, screaming that they could close subs AT ANY MINUTE... but I'm trying not to listen to him. If I send them something crap, it will do more harm than good, right?

However, at the other end of the scale is the guy that's telling me there's no point subbing anything, anytime -- because I suck. So, at some point, you have to make the decision that it's as good as it's going to get, and then send it out. Because if you don't send it out, they can't say 'yes'!

I'm still fairly happy with what I've achieved this year. The schedule has slipped a bit. But I'm still hoping to have something halfway decent in the hands of my beta readers in time for Christmas holidays.

View the story "Brisbane Zombie Walk 2011" on Storify]