stephen-turner.net

I gave blood today. It was a first for me, and while I felt good about doing it, the actual act of giving it was a little odd. And apparently I had a slightly odd reaction physically – which worries me slightly

First of all, we ended up having most of the afternoon off work from this – one reason right there. I went with some work colleagues who roped me into this, but surprisingly there was only 6 of us – we’re not a small company! So I felt like a good guy anyway.

We waited for a while, filled out a form in which answering no to everything is a good thing, then did an interview and a small pin-prick blood test. Apparently my iron level is a little low, but still within normal…

Then the blood giving itself. It all seems fine at first – the needle goes in fine. Then after about 5-7 minutes I guess I feel a little light headed. Then nauseous. So they stop. Then I get the special treatment: fan, wet towel, lots of attention. In the end, the attention was worrying me more than my condition. I can’t tell if they were just being nice or if they’re attention was really warranted.

Anyway, after a rest period, I get into the after-room with the rest of my work colleagues. Everyone seems to have taken it better than me, but at least we get the milkshakes now. That’s the other incredibly good thing about the whole process – free food. You HAVE to have a lot of fruit juice and cheese/biscuits beforehand, and then you can have milkshakes along with more of everything else after that. In the end, my biggest worry was being so full

I was fine after a short while. Apparently this was at least partially a first timers reaction – the last time I had blood tests was when I was in hospital as a kid, so maybe there were too many bad connotations in it for me. Anyway, all is good, I have a bandage on my arm for the night, but no problems.

Everyone should give blood, if at all possible. It’s incredible the list of things that can strike you off the register now, so it’s even more important that those eligible do it. It’s not that bad, and once you get used to it it’s even easier. I’ll probably do it again regardless of where I’m living in 3 months time. Sure I was motivated partially because of the Bali thing, but blood is needed all the damn time. So do it!

This was apparently a public service message brought to you by me… !

Comicfest is all over for another year – (well obviously by now!) I had a great time, met a lot of people I already knew online, and showed off MEENA to everyone. Sold about 30 copies, which wasn’t bad for a first effort, and it was apparently a slow convention for sales as well (at least according to people who’ve done this more than me.)

Plan now is to get it out to some overseas people – reviewers and so on, and probably put copies in the various submission packages that I’m sending out. Show I can write and all that (though this will be even better after I’ve got some critics words.) It was good to do it as a little project – but I’m glad I didn’t overdo it on printing costs. It just doesn’t seem worth it to go all out as a mad self publisher unless you really aim it at the existing market, and you really have access to the whole thing (ie: Diamond distribution.)

Otherwise, I’m writing up some submissions to other companies, complete short works to one company, and a couple of ongoing series to another one. This is in addition of course to my new novel, which seems to be progressing woefully at the moment, but I know I can get back on track.

And as for the day job, there’s definitely some moves towards changing that. If I can get what I’ve currently applied for, I’ll move towns in a minute. This should be a good one if I can get it.

Well, I’m off to Comicfest today. Should be a great time – people to meet, things to do. And I’ll be selling copies of MEENA while I’m there.

If you want a copy, you’ll probably find me there, but if you can’t make it (say, you’re not in this country!) then just email me and we’ll sort something out. Retailers are especially welcome.

If you haven’t seen a preview for MEENA yet then check it out at Ozcomics.

One other thing that I’ve discovered – it seems that the Afterword that I’ve written at the end has been cut off slightly by the printing. It should still be readable for the most part, but if there’s any confusion, here’s the complete text:

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Something you might like to read:

First of all, I just want to say that Abdul Haq is not a terrorist. It’s a strange thing to say outright, I know, but in this world where terrorist suddenly means “brown person who attacks white people” and apparently nothing else, it’s just something I want to make clear. Abdul Haq is obviously an angry, bitter and violent character, but what he did was about revenge, not terrorism. He had no links to terrorist organisations, and no terrorist motivations, or even political motivations, for his crime.

Of course, that’s not the point really. Abdul wasn’t the victim, or the tragic figure in this story. That’s Meena of course. To me, Meena is emblematic of the tens of thousands of children killed every year in pointless conflicts that erupt around them. Children died in the bombing of Afghanistan. Thousands have died in the sanctions against Iraq. Thousands more will die in an invasion. To completely reverse that, yes, children died in the Bali bombing and in other attacks perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists. The children are always the victims in these pointless acts of violence. That’s the only real message I want people to take from this story.

For the technical and creative minded, you might like to know a few things behind how I created this book. Honestly, it’s the first comic I’ve ever done. It was written over a period of a few weeks earlier this year, and it took a couple of months to find an artist. Then it took quite a bit longer for Isaac to create the art – I never had a problem with that since I think he’s done a fine job. He used a combination of traditional, photographic and digital art to create the images. Scanned back into the computer, I assembled the pages then did the lettering. That was all done with Paint Shop Pro – no PhotoShop here (that’s only because of money though.) But PSP is surprisingly good for lettering, with an excellent set of speech balloon shapes available. And for only AU$200, it’s a hell of a lot more affordable than PhotoShop or Illustrator, the tools most people use. The font is “Digitalstrip”, from the excellent Internet resource blambot.com. A great site for comic fonts – and they’re free if you’re not a pro.

Hopefully you liked what you just read. Maybe it horrified you, maybe you enjoyed it. Hopefully it made you think. And in case you’re wondering, I don’t under any circumstances want Howard or Ruddock dead. I truly believe that John Howard is a disgusting individual and is the Prime Minister of hatred, xenophobia and fear, but this sort of end would be both enormously damaging to the country and elevate him to a position he would never deserve.

Finally, if the world out there is worrying the shit out of you, then you’re not alone. Remember though, some people still do care, some people can see the wrong in the way the US, Britain and Australia are behaving and some people and some people want alternate paths followed to achieve peace.

Sure, we certainly have to stop Al Quaeda and bring the threat they pose to an end, but how have the current totalitarian policies of our government done this? Bombing the crap out of Afghanistan didn’t stop the Bali bombing, and invading Iraq certainly won’t stop another terrorist attack (if you really think about it, it will only increase the likelihood of one.) It’s about time more people opposed the coming war that is more about corporate greed for power and oil than it is about stopping terrorists and making our world safer.

And if you think that none of this political stuff has a place in comic books, then why are you still reading this?

Steve Turner. November, 2002.

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That’s all for now. Off to Comicfest. I’ve got my digital camera, so I’ll be posting some pictures here and on other sites.