New Wrinkles in Thyme

TBS&E Number 66 1 Now available in Century Gothic! Produced by Garry Dalrymple as his contribution towards mailing No. 286, of the Australian and New Zealand Amateur Press Association (ANZAPA). Postal Address: 1 Eulabah Ave., EARLWOOD NSW 2206 Home ph. (best after 7 pm) 02-9718-5827 Email; [email protected] New Wrinkles in Thyme 1 TBS&E Number 66 2 An evening spent with James the venue just did not want to be found! I walked the length of the Randwick shops Bradley, Author of ‘Clade’, held twice, looking for a sign, any sign of a at the Randwick Public Library, Library, or a righteous man to show me the on Thursday May 21, 2015, a way, before in desperation stopping several natives, until |I encountered one, Sydney Writer’s Festival event. who looked literate, who explained to me Source, pages 8 to 12, Garry’s rough notes that it was back that way AND inside the starting April 2015, publication in TBS&E #66 shopping mall. So I went back that way, and concluding Who was there; about 70 people, by my my 40 minutes of walking by located a estimate (counting empty seats etc.) 58 F & discrete sign. There? No not quite. 12 M. Most Ms present were with wife / The Builder of this shopping mall had partner, most Fs present were retired ladies, combined two major fascinations, a many claiming to be writers. journey of Re-birth via the Earth Mother The Set Up – This is worth explaining, as this and Aztec sacrificial architecture. was the first time I had ever been to this Thus I nearly expired while going up the Library and to the best of my understanding, great flight of steps from the street, and I this ‘Off Broadway’ Sydney Writers Festival arrived at the library after passed through event was the only Science Fiction book enough long blind corridors to have had a event on the program this year, as a ‘for re-birth experience while passing the adults’ offering. closed food court, for the library was, like a literary kidney, tucked away deep inside Distributed Responsibilities? - The event the body cavity of the shopping mall in a seems to have been organised and place where the Sun don’t shine. I later catering provided for by the Library, with the learned that there was an undisclosed Festival people there to gather the kudos. entry / exit through a baby health centre There was a swarm of lanyarded and red T- as well. So, my entrance was a bit Shirted Festival volunteers (as a Star Trek breathless, and a very nice library it is too. viewer why does this make me feel On the way in I saw books by two uneasy?), with frankly nothing much to do Australian Speculative Fiction Writers on other than to be present as visible display as new acquisitions (Ben Peek and ‘branding’, of the event, as the Library Traci Harding), which is always a people seemed to have everything under welcoming proposition, and the library has control. There were, as far as I could see, a ~80 seat meeting room. This was no Publisher’s people present to support The definitely a Freecon do-able space, but for Writer, surely a serious omission? the travel duration and those stairs! Of the Festival volunteers, some were retired folk but the younger element were students The first ten people to show up were and recent graduates who were hoping to Women, not what I’d consider to be of SF leverage their Festival volunteer credits into fannish appearance at all, a reminder that paid publishing industry positions or cadet this was a Literary occasion, rather than a ships. I suspect that this oversupply of Science Fiction Book occasion. willing, unpaid labour, greatly aids the The next bloke to show up was a 90 year ‘Festival Industry,’ leaving more money for old bloke with a story to tell and an the champagne end of these events? extraordinary faith in the written word to How did I get there? Well, it wasn’t easy. right wrongs. He was looking for a Writer, In theory, just jump on a 400 bus at Clemton any Writer to take an interest in his plight Park and get off before it passes the and get his story published. Randwick Bus Depot 90 minutes later, walk The story as I understood it was that he was to the indicated street address. However, in business, a multimillion dollar business, 2 TBS&E Number 66 3 with a partner, and this partner had was able to get over this by trusting that squeezed him out of the business – all legal he would find a way of dealing with it, like perhaps, but a great moral injustice. particularly the troubling bit about a child I gave him what advice I could, about self- dying of cancer. He also liked the More publishing, but I regret now that I didn’t ask Fantastical bits. for his card to see if something (an Editor?) Q. Relationship issues? could be done to give the poor old chap A. The greatest of these is the uncertainty some peace of mind, because I could see associated with child bearing during times him going about pestering the Author and of social instability refers to the character’s the Festival Authority figure later. worries. The End of the World is harder to However, on with the show. write about than to live in a world of unpredictable change. Human continuity Barbara Tovis gave a Welcome to Land and under stressful circumstances is worth the Writer was introduced. James Bradley describing is local-ish, a bronzed (or verdigrised?) Q. Boiling the Frog? (I.e. are gradual beach suburbs boy, with four novels and changes becoming inevitably many poems published. Baptised by the catastrophic?) surf and with roots deeply sunk into the A. James suspects that society is ill- beach sands, like some kind of literary equipped to deal with climate change mangrove, he was awarded a Young Writer and offered a monologue about people of the Year award (1997) and also a Pascal wanting change but can’t get it – prize for literary criticism. borrowed from the literature on cold He has also been a book reviewer for the ocean Methane ice (Clathrate) deposits Sydney Morning Herald. Incidentally, the and he noticed events occurring in real life best recent mention of this Writer occurred after he had written them as speculation. not in the Spectrum section of the paper, He believes that we will get excited, but the bit which largely ignores SF themed will end up doing nothing much. books, but in the travel section of all places. He wants this book to help join the dots As our American cousins say, ’Go Figure?’ about Climate Change theoretical and ‘Clade’ is a story set in the future running the predictable future in the minds of through three generations of a family living readers, where this is not occurring in with the effects of Climate Change. public debate. Sooo… instead of getting a Speculative The Deep Time consequences of some Fiction Writer, or book editor, someone who contemporary trends are examined in can understand the difficulty of translating ‘Clade’, via a community’s response, after ideas into a story and then writing the story Nation States have ceased to be useful, in a way that is comprehensible, they set this is based on a hope that communities him up to be interviewed by the local can do what states are currently unable to Greens Candidate Adam, coz it was about do when it comes to survival issues Bees wasn’t it? (I mean REALLY, I also stood He is uneasy with the view that the book is for Parliament this year and that doesn’t get a ‘message based’ text, but there are me any literary pontification rights). apocalyptical predictions as to the effects The result – a string of inane questions that on future global carrying capacity of Bradley did well to re-interpret into Climate Change, and presumably something about his book. something must happen to the ‘spare’ billions of people that sea level rises will Q. What was your favourite part of the create, with his hopes resting on human Novel? ingenuity to come up with something. A. Resolving the Mid-story anxiety over whether the story you have written is ‘good’ Rich World Poor World Dichotomy enough and whether you can satisfactorily and the Bees! fill out the story arc to get to the End. He 3 TBS&E Number 66 4 In the US there has been a population versions of them, as bespoke friends collapse of Bees, the essential pollinators of rather than relying on flesh and blood? food crops. Genetically Modified crops, Already people seem to prefer to Parasites, Pesticides or management issues exchange text messages than to meet and may be at fault, if this became universal, a engage in face to face communication, food shortage apocalypse could result. possibly because of the impression that James uses the bees in ‘Clade’ as a you can have one to one communication metaphor, but while writing, his concerns with thousands on line? have moved out into the journalistic Q. Alien Communications, is E.T. Calling? mainstream. A. Any study of the Universe suggests that New Nature Writing, living with bio-change – life beyond our Solar System seems likely, the experience of ‘Moby Duck’ where a the data piling up suggests when, rather container load of rubber ducks, lost at sea, than whether contact will be noticed with has ridden the oceans currents to turn up other intelligent life, so, would we ignore it, everywhere.

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