Ian Mond, one of my fellow Snapshotters, has posted a Q&A with yours truly. Thoughts on the horror scene, the new book and — most importantly — some tips on great Aussie stories worthy of your attention. Meanwhile, Ben Payne has been collecting excerpts from our interviews — great snippets — and I’ll be posting a minimum of four snapshot interviews here all week in the lead-up to Continuum. Stay tuned!
continuum
Snapshot 2012: Australia’s speculative fiction scene
The Aussie Spec Fic Snapshot has taken place three times over the past eight years. In 2005, Ben Peek spent a frantic week interviewing 43 people in the Australian spec fic scene, and since then, it’s grown every time, now taking a team of interviewers working together to accomplish! In the lead up to Continuum 8 in Melbourne, I will join Alisa Krasnostein, Kathryn Linge, David McDonald, Helen Merrick, Ian Mond, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Tehani Wessely and Sean Wright in blogging interviews conducted over the past couple of weeks. To read the interviews hot off the press, check these blogs below daily from today to 7 June 2012.
As we celebrate the breadth and depth of the Australian spec fic scene, 2012 Snapshot is also a bittersweet time and we take the opportunity to remember two well-loved members of the community who sadly passed away in the past year; Paul Haines and Sara Douglass.
You can find the past three Snapshots at the following links: 2005, 2007 and 2010.
Salvage launches on June 8!
The time has been confirmed! Salvage will join the Twelfth Planet Press flotilla being celebrated in Melbourne at Continuum at 7pm on Friday 8 June. And the good news: the convention is entry by gold coin donation on Friday. Also on the hot release list: Kaaron Warren’s Through Splintered Walls and Margo Lanagan’s Cracklescape, two of the latest Twelve Planets series by Aussie women writers. Twelfth Planet is a dynamic press with a real commitment to quality: it’s a pleasure to be working with them on Salvage. Come join us: there will be books and there will be … cupcakes!
You can read more about Continuum here!
Meanwhile, I’m down for four panels — Australian settings, vampires, awards, e-publishing — a reading and an ‘in conversation’ with Aussie guest of honour Alison Goodman.
Other launches to keep an eye out for: fellow TPP author Narrelle M Harris’s sequel to The Opposite of Life (I’m launching Walking Shadows, published by Clan Destine Press, on the Friday night — busy and wonderful!), a belated Ishtar party, Felicity Dowker’s collection and an ASIM 10th birthday party bash.
It’s also pleasing to see time set aside to remember our recently lost Paul Haines and Sara Douglass.
If that wasn’t enough, Kelly Link is international guest of honour, and Lucy Sussex gets to practise for her guest turn at next year’s Swancon by being an invited guest this year. It’s gonna be HUGE.
Ditmar shortlists announced
The shortlists for the Ditmar awards, fan nominated and fan voted, have been announced. Interesting to note that, outside of the novel realm, small press dominate almost exclusively, and that fan publications has four podcasts to one paper newsletter; the Atheling, too, is heavy on the blogs. Hilarious and also exemplary is that Robin Penn’s ‘Ballad of the Unrequited Ditmar’ is in there, summarising pointedly yet with tongue in cheek a stoush in the community about, wonderfully, the Ditmars. The novels show a wide spread of genres and the novellas are particularly strong, showing perhaps a resurgence in the form. With e-publishing’s growth, I’d expect that to continue. The winners will be announced at Continuum 8 in Melbourne in June. Here’s the shortlist:
Best Novel
(HarperCollins)
Best Novella or Novelette
of Kali Yuga (Brimstone Press)
Ishtar (Gilgamesh Press)
Love and Romanpunk (Twelfth Planet Press)
Best Short Story
More Scary Kisses (Ticonderoga Publications)
Cravings (Tor)
Planet Press)
Best Collected Work
(Brimstone Press)
Press)
Planet Press)
Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
Best Artwork
Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (Candlewick Press)
Best Fan Writer
Speculative Fiction in Focus! and Not If You Were The Last Short Story
On Earth
Speculative Fiction in Focus!, Not If You Were The Last Short Story On
Earth, and Randomly Yours, Alex
series in Adventures of a Bookonaut
Fanzines is Now”, and SF Commentary 81 & 82
Best Fan Artist
Time, SF Commentary and Scratchpad
including “The Dalek Game”
Best Fan Publication in Any Medium
Pierce
Best New Talent
William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review
Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010 (Ticonderoga Publications)
Best of Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature (Borgo Press)
New Who” series, in A Conversational Life
in Randomly Yours, Alex
Norrell by Susanna Clarke”, in Metamagician and the Hellfire Club
Ditmar Award nominations open
The Aussie spec fic fan-voted Ditmar Awards are now open for nominations, using a handy online form, post or email — see the rules page for details about who and how. There’s also a massive list of eligible works that is admittedly not totally comprehensive but is a fine place to start for memory jogging! The awards will be presented at Continuum in Melbourne in June. Electronic nominations close on April 15.
Aurealis Awards tickets on sale, Chronos nominations open
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, tickets for this year’s Aurealis Awards ceremony are now on sale. The ceremony will be held at the Independent Theatre in North Sydney on Saturday May 12. Last year’s awards, organised by the same organisation, SpecFaction NSW, and held in the same venue, were enormous fun. It’s a great opportunity to catch up with friends from across the country, rub shoulders with some damn fine writers, maybe meet some editors, agents and publishers … The staff at the nearby Rydges, which became the default ‘con hotel’, were wonderfully accommodating when it came to the post-awards ceremony. They might have a few more bar staff rostered on this year. Heh.
WHILE we’re on awards, the Chronos Awards are calling for nominations. The awards recognise excellence in speculative fiction arising from Victorian residents. A fairly comprehensive list of eligible works is available, and welcomes additions. I take my hat off to the person/s who assembled this list! (I note that Paul Haines’s The Last Days of Kali Yuga and his short story from that collection, ‘The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt’, is absent, and I’ve let the organisers know that my listed story ‘Mending the Fences’ isn’t in fact eligible — it’s publication has been delayed till next month.) Nominations are due by March 18 and will be voted on by members of Continuum 8, the national science fiction convention being held in Melbourne in June.
Continuum’s dark fairytale magic
Continuum is over, my throat is sore, I’m a little tired: standard convention hangover, then. Kirstyn has a new Chronos award — for Madigan Mine. There was much talk of vampires, fairytales and steampunk. A debate about the pros and cons of immortality…
In short, it was an excellent con, with long dinners and impromptu panels at the bar, great company, some slivers of inspiration amongst the panels. Catherynne M Valente was an amazingly giving and erudite and witty guest who cut a hell of a rug on the dancefloor. Her comments about reviewing, made during a Writer and the Critic podcast, are worth catching up with.
Two of the most affecting panels I attended were both, not surprisingly, darkly themed, and I’ll single them out from what was a very strong line-up.
The first was late on opening night, Friday, and involved the attraction between horror and beauty. Kyla Ward read a superb poem in her inimitable, theatrical fashion; Kirstyn read from her spooky-sexy short story ‘Monsters Among Us’; and Talie Helene lifted the roof with an acapella rendition of a ghost folk song. Discussion was informed and interested and on-topic and reluctant to stop.
The next morning, Talie and Kyla backed up on a dark poetry panel with Earl Livings and Danny Lovecraft. Kyla blew the room away with an excerpt from ‘The Raven’ and Talie pretty much felled anyone left standing with some truly wrenching World War I poems. Great stuff. And do note that P’rea Press is releasing a collection of Kyla’s poetry later this year!
In my absence, the last short story I had roaming in the wild found a home — very happy about that! — and Devil Dolls and Duplicates in Australian Horror received a fetching review. Add in a splendid night last night with friends from up north and the good time vibe has definitely lingered…
We’ve already bought our memberships for next year’s Continuum, which is the natcon and boasts the awesome paring of Kelly Link and Alison Goodman as guests of honour. And then there’s the bid from Canberra for the 2013 natcon (at Anzac weekend) and London’s push for the 2014 Worldcon … Let the good times roll!
Chronos winners
(the awards are for Victorian residents)
Best Long Fiction: Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott (Pan MacMillan Australia)
Best Short Fiction: ‘Her Gallant Needs’, Paul Haines (Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press)
Best Artwork: Australis Imaginarium cover, Shaun Tan (FableCroft Publishing)
Best Fan Writer: Alexandra Pierce
Best Fan Written Work: Review: The Secret Feminist Cabal by Helen Merrick, Alexandra Pierce
Best Fan Artwork: Continuum 6 props, Rachel Holkner
Best Fan Publication: Live Boxcutters Doctor Who at AussieCon IV, Josh Kinal and John Richards
Best Achievement: Programming at AussieCon IV, Sue Ann Barber and Grant Watson (lovely to hear these guys pay tribute to the non-Victorians who also contributed to the programming, an awesome effort all-round)
Note: the amazing Conquilt of signatures is up for grabs on eBay till 20 June.
Continuum: sex, violence, vampires
It’s almost Continuum time, the great gathering of the clan in Melbourne to celebrate all things speculative and often fictional, and there will be vampires. On Saturday, I’ll be talking sex and the undead with Emily Derango, Narrelle Harris and Peter Marz. On Sunday, I’ll be discussing the role of the rest of the supernatural horde in the ‘vampire circus’ (but are they invited guests, or are they gate crashers?), with a bumper panel of Narrelle, Kirstyn McDermott, Heath Miller and Julia Svaganovic.
Also on Sunday, I’ll be giving a wee reading, though whether it’s sex from More Scary Kisses or violence from Dead Red Heart I haven’t decided yet.
The official guests for the convention are Catherynne M Valente, who had most interesting things to say about writing, publishing and moral sensibilities at last year’s Worldcon, and local Dave Freer, who certainly knows his way around the publishing landscape (a sense of direction being a valuable asset when one lives on an island).
Also worth noting is that A. Friday night attendance is FREE and B. the Conquilt, bearing 100 signatures from Worldcon attendees including, well, all of the folks below, comes up for auction on ebay on Friday night, closing on June 20.
Alan Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Alisa Krasnostein, Alison Croggon, Amanda Pillar, Andrew J. McKiernan, Angie Rega, Bill Congreve, Bob Eggleton, Carrie Vaughn, Cat Sparks, Catherynne M. Valente, Charles Stross, China Mieville, Chris Miles (an associate of H. I. Larry), Chuck McKenzie, Cory Doctorow, Deborah Biancotti, Delia Sherman, Dirk Flinthart, Duncan Lay, Fiona McIntosh, Foz Meadows, Gail Carriger, Garth Nix, George Ivanoff, George R. R. Martin, Gillian Polack, Glenda Larke, Grace Duggan, Howard Tayler, Ian Irvine, Ian Nichols, Jane Routley, Jason Nahrung, Jay Lake, Jean Johnson, Jenner, Jennifer Fallon, Jetse de Vries, John Scalzi, Jonathan Strahan, Juliet Marillier, K. A. Bedford, K. J. Taylor, Kaaron Warren, Kaja Foglio, Karen Haber, Karen Healey, Kate Elliot, Kate Paulk, Kathleen Jennings, Keith Stevenson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kirstyn McDermott, Kyla Ward, Lara Morgan, Leanne Hall, Lisa L. Hannett, Lucy Sussex, Marianne de Pierres, Mary Victoria, Matthew Hughes, Michael Pryor, Michelle Marquardt, Narrelle M. Harris, Nick Stathopoulos, Nicole R. Murphy, Paul Collins, Paul Cornell, Paul Haines, Peter M. Ball, Peter V. Brett, Phil Foglio, Richard Harland, Rjurik Davidson, Rob Shearman, Robert Hood, Robert Silverberg, Russell B. Farr, Russell Blackford, Russell Kirkpatrick, Seanan McGuire, Shane Jiraya Cummings, Shaun Tan, Sue Bursztynski, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Tehani Wessely, Tracey O’Hara, Trent Jamieson, Trudi Canavan.
Chronos Award voting opens
Victoria’s popular-vote awards for locals, the Chronos Awards, have opened. Details at this LJ site. The awards are to be presented at Continuum 7, in Melbourne at June. Continuum members are eligible to vote, and voting memberships are available for $5 if you aren’t attending the con.
It’s worth noting that the con is appealing for panellists if you’d like to get involved.
Out and about
A couple of bookish outings coming up, with options for the signing of books and drinking of wine for those so inclined:
Also, there’s a bit of pre-Halloween fun to be had at a trivia night in support of the excellent Continuum convention (next year, June 10-13).
When: Saturday 30th October, 8pm
Where: Brian Boru Function Room @ The Celtic Club
316-320 Queen Street, Melbourne
Cost of Entry: $5
For more information or to RSVP send an email with the subject line
‘trick or trivia’ to events AT continuum.org.au
Costumes optional but a prize for the best one will be awarded by the
Headless Chair.
Prizes also given out for arriving in a lucky manner!
Many awesome raffle prizes!