writing

by

Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror – shameless plug dept

australian dark fantasy and horror #3

australian dark fantasy and horror #3

Tis good to read at the HorrorScope that Brimstone Press’s Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror #3 is on its way to bookstore shelves and cyber shops. The ‘best of’, which has suffered some delays in production, collects the editor’s pick of Aussie stories published in 2007, which I’m chuffed to say includes my story ‘Kadimakara and Curlew’, which first appeared in the excellent Daikaiju #2 Revenge of the Giant Monsters. Being accepted for the Daikaiju collection was a real buzz — it’s pretty cool getting a giant monster story into print, especially one that includes a swipe at our treatment of Aboriginal Australians, my memories of Uluru and the childhood experience of having the curlew’s cry curl the hairs on the back of my neck … Anyway, it’s awesome to see this yarn given fresh legs, again sneaking its way into the company of some very good writers indeed.

by

Aurealis Awards addendum

I am so completely knackered.

This was, quite possibly, the most fun Aurealis Awards yet. The results I blogged earlier, but here’s a bit of the social stuff:

The Judith Wright Centre was packed — I heard talk of there being only two spare tickets left on the morning of, and the auditorium certainly seemed to support that. When all those folks, dressed in everything from gowns to suits to t-shirts, milled around in the foyer, it was a real feat crossing the room, let alone getting to the bar.

They came from as far away as Perth and Tasmania, and if we include the Clarion South students in there, from overseas as well — the US that I know of for sure.

What a great crowd. What a great mingle. Unfortunately, I had a wee blowout in my schmoozing plans, on account of having left tickets at home. So instead of attending Trudi Canavan’s pre-awards book launch, I was dashing home and getting back just in time for the awards ceremony.

To compound my errors, I managed to leave my camera in the car. The bad news — no photos. The good news — the camera was still in the car when we got back.

So why am I knackered? All of this running around meant I had only a single Carona before the ceremony, and that was at an early dinner with friends. So naturally, all this catching up is thirsty work, and I had lost time to be made up. So from the foyer we moved to the bar to a room party to … and so on, and got home around 930 this morning, in time for a shower and a change of clothes before heading out to brunch. Thank goodness I’ve got tomorrow off!

Anyhoo, the ceremony was a blast with Alison Goodman and Simon Higgins co-hosting with their repartee — Simon, I believe, gave Alison sword lessons as part of her preparation for writing Two Pearls of Wisdom (which won the award for best fantasy novel, pipping my other favourite Aussie fantasy of 2008, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan). There was no swordplay on the night, but an efficient and enjoyable audio-visual display — Damon owes me bigtime for including the video footage of me talking about my high school musical in which I played Dracula, and no, I cannot sing the songs (I couldn’t then, nothing’s changed!) — and some wonderful speeches and a few surprises as well.

A standout for me was Sean Williams’s acceptance of the inaugural award for best collection. The only competition his collection, Magic Dirt, had in the finalists was Robert Hood’s Creeping in Reptile Flesh. Sean gave a lovely kudos to Rob, as both friend and mentor, that really demonstrated the sense of community in the Aussie spec fic world.

There some lovely expressions of surprise from winners Alison, who hadn’t had time to consider winning let alone a speech during her hosting preparations, and Melina Marchetta, who won the award for best young adult novel for Finnikin of the Rock.

And possibly the loveliest was to see Jack Dann collect the Peter McNamara award for his superb career. Jack has acted as mentor for my Edge writing group, as has Sean and Rob, and Jack also saw some ‘juice’ in my short story, Smoking, Waiting for the Dawn, for his grand Dreaming Again anthology, so I had a very personal delight in seeing him slightly flabbergasted at the announcement. He was sitting behind me, so I heard his expression of surprise.

Another expression of surprise I took devilish delight in was from Kirstyn McDermott, nominated in the horror short story category for her gorgeous and brutal Painlessness. I by chance ended up sitting next to Kirstyn during the dash to find a seat, and having her lean over to me and whisper who she thought was winning was priceless. I earned an elbow in the ribs for my poker face. I had helped judge the category 🙂

Anyway, last year could be the last year the awards are held in Brisbane. The Fantastic Queensland team who have advanced the awards to being a standalone highlight of the calendar have almost used up their contract with the awards founders, Chimaera Publications, and a new team is being sought to take over the running from 2011. We’re promised something special for next year’s ceremony. I have no doubt it will be.

by

Aurealis Awards 2008

It was a big night for Perth’s Adrian Bedford at the Aurealis Awards in Brisbane last night.

Bedford, writing as KA Bedford, has had all four of his novels published by Edge in Canada make the finalist lists of the awards, and last night he scored his second win: for best science fiction novel, Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait. The novel is also a finalist for the Philip K Dick award.

The awards, recognising excellence in Australian speculative fiction, were presented in a sold-out Judith Wright Centre, with Queensland Governor Penelope Wensley in the audience.

Other winners were:

Children’s fiction

Illustrated work/picture book: Richard Harland and illustrator Laura Peterson, The Wolf Kingdom series
Novel: Emily Rodda, The Wizard of Rondo

Illustrated book/graphic novel: Shaun Tan, Tales from Outer Suburbia

Young Adult
Short story: Trent Jamieson, “Cracks”, Shiny #2
Novel: Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

Collection: Sean Williams and Russell B Farr (ed), Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams

Anthology: Jonathan Strahan (ed), The Starry Rift

Horror
Short story: Kirstyn McDermott, “Painlessness”, Greatest Uncommon Denominator #2
Novel: John Harwood, The Seance

Fantasy
Short story: Cat Sparks, “Sammarynda Deep”, Paper Cities
Novel: Alison Goodman, The Two Pearls of Wisdom

Science fiction
Short story: Simon Brown, “The Empire”, Dreaming Again
Novel: KA Bedford, Time
Machines Repaired While-U-Wait

Peter McNamara Convenors Award: this special award was presented to Jack Dann for his incredible lifetime of achievement in the genre.

This was the first year that prizes were awarded for best collection, anthology and illustrated book/graphic novel.

Fantastic Queensland chairman Damon Cavalchini announced that 2010 would be the last year that FQ would host the awards as their contract with awards founders Chimaera Publications will expire, and a new team to organise the awards for 2011 and onwards is needed.

by

Happy birthday, Edgar Allan Poe

January 19, 2009, is the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth. And what a talent he was, with a life so tragic and twisted and mysterious even that continues to tantalise, as if his incredible oeuvre was not enough.

To find out more about dear old Edgar, check out this site which not only has an extensive bio, but most if not all of his works available to read online.

And while I’m lamenting lost talents, it’s worth a second moment of introspection for Vincent Price, who played so many roles based on Poe’s work and gave them a certain, haunted, insane, camp rendition.

Gentlemen, I owe you one.

by

voices in my head

After months of nothing, finally this week I wrote something. Something fictional. Creative, even. And it felt *good*. For the first time since, hm, September maybe, I’ve got voices in my head unveiling their lives to me, piece by piece, and I’ve got more than seven pages of notes and assorted scene grabs to show for it. Not a lot, but it’s a start, a blessed start. I hadn’t realised how lonely I was without them, these people in my head. I don’t know where they come from but I’m sure glad they’re back.

I think perhaps we all need downtime. A recent article brought this home to me, the importance of giving oneself permission to do nothing. To recharge and revitalise. And then there’s this piece from Cory Doctorow in Locus about maximising writing time amid the distractions. Great advice, especially the bit about leaving something for tomorrow, leaving something for you subconscious to niggle at while you do other things. Resting included.

I figure a little bit of crop rotation in the fertile fields of the mind can’t hurt.

Now I should go write something. The voices are calling.

by

author readings

sean williams and margo lanagan

sean williams and margo lanagan

Good news received today is that some of the tutors in Brisbane for the Clarion South workshop will also be doing readings.

The list is:

  • Sean Williams, Thursday, January 15, 6:30pm
  • Margo Lanagan, Sunday, January 25, 3pm
  • Jack Dann, Thursday, January 29, 6:30pm
  • Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, Thursday, February 5, 6:30pm

    • These all take place at Avid Reader Bookstore, 193 Boundary Street, West End.

    by

    ticonderoga lives!

    Ticonderoga is a small press in Western Australia that has done some brilliant stuff in recent years, anthologies and collections mostly. It went on a wee hiatus but now it’s back with an online presence at ticon4.com. You’ll find short fiction and book reviews there; it’s worth keeping an eye on.

    Dreaming Again

    Dreaming Again

    And in other online news, the HorrorScope has provided a recommended list of the year’s best dark fiction. Good to see so many from Dreaming Again included, and very good to see my story, Smoking, Waiting for the Dawn, among that number. A friend described it as a “melancholy vampire story” – I like that 🙂

    by

    parallel importation

    Ever so slowly, it seems, the threat facing Australia’s writers, and publishing industry, is creeping into the public domain eg Emily Rodda’s warning about the Americanisation of Australian English AND content. If only this was an issue involving sport! There’d be headlines for sure. But no, it’s just writers, those slackers and elitists who contribute so little to the economy and national character… right?

    Best I can figure, the Australian Government is considering a change to our copyright laws that currently offer a degree of protection ot the domestic publishing industry by requiring local content to be published here. A more accurate appraisal of the issue can be accessed through this Queensland Writers Centre blogpost.

    The upshot of the changes is, that instead of Australian stories being published in Australia, for Australians, they’ll be published overseas, altered for overseas readers, and dumped into our market place at cheap prices thanks to overseas economies of scale. This goes deeper than having your pal’s mom bake you some cookies, as opposed to having your mate’s mum bake you some Anzac bikkies. It means, worst case scenario, fledgling writers such as myself will have even less chance of getting a break in our own home market.

    The Australian Association of Authors has more information, as well as links to have your say, should you so be inclined.

    by

    Aurealis Awards

    The Aurealis Awards’ list of finalists have been announced and it’s very exciting. Some highlights include seeing Sean Williams in four categories and Trent Jamieson in three, and a bunch of stories from Dreaming Again — and the anthology itself — being nominated.

    There’s a summary story here and the full details here.

    I was a judge on the horror division so can’t say too much, except I feel the finalists’ list, from what I know of the stories involved, is a very strong one. The ceremony on January 24 coincides with the running of the Clarion South writers workshop; having some of the tutors and the Clarion young guns at the ceremony should add some extra energy to the night.

    I’m glad I wasn’t on the fantasy novel panel. Trying to decide on a winner when the field includes Two Pearls of Wisdom and Tender Morsels would’ve been way too hard! (Read my review of Tender Morsels and Two Pearls.) 

    I’d encourage anyone interested in Australian spec fic to attend the awards. There’ll be plenty of writers from around the country there, and no doubt some agents and publishers as well.