D1sc0r0b0t

Writing in the margins

2012-01-01T21:47:00.000+13:00

It's funny. I sit here in 2012 and think that 2011 was all bad, but it had a few sweet moments. My first pro sale. Writing Steampunk for the The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. Having a poem published by the Science Fiction Poetry Association. A tiny little story down the back of The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities.

But for all that, 2011 felt pretty flat for me. A big part of that was being stuck in a day job that went from being fresh and interesting to flat out soul-destroying. I spent far too many months last year being miserable about the nine-to-five, which resulted in me not sleeping particularly well and, most of the time, in no state for writing.

So I did something about it.

A few months ago I started a new job, at a much larger company. Nothing on the technical side is particularly challenging, but I'm working with (and for) some very smart people. I like going to work in the morning and when I come home at night I don't worry about it.

Quite deliberately, the new job is in Auckland city. Which means if I don't want to sit in traffic for hours every day, I have to take the ferry. 35 minutes each way. That's an extra hour of writing, five days a week. Since I started the new job, armed with a fancy new netbook, I've been writing up a storm. Finished a couple of short stories that had languished for too long. Working on finishing another couple now. Added more words to the very ambitious was-a-short-story-is-now-a-novella-might-end-up-a-novel collaboration. And I wrote a couple of children's books, which could be the hardest thing I've ever attempted.

But all of that? That's all just a warm up for 2012. This year, I'm writing a novel. How hard can it be? Well, probably very hard. But it's time.

I don't know if I'll be blogging much as I put the thing together, but I might put up the odd update. I've always been a seat-of-the-pants writer, but for this one I'll be trying to plan as much as I possibly can in advance. I'll be collecting metrics so I can measure how long it all takes. And stealing some ideas from the dayjob, I'm thinking of using a burn down chart to plot my progress. So the blogging's going to be light. But by the end of this year (and hopefully a lot earlier), I'll have a finished novel.

That's not a New Year resolution.
That's a promise.

Ruby, Tales and Wood.

2011-05-18T21:49:00.000+12:00

Several things:

My story A Ruby in Rain is now online at Tales from the Archives, the official Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences anthology.

From the farthest edge of the Empire, New Zealand agents Lachlan King and Barry Ferguson are called to interview a recent arrival to Auckland’s prisons. An infamous gambler has turned himself into their custody, not for the safety of society but for his own. The Ministry steps in to uncover a man’s story of impressive luck, and more incredible vision.

Opium dens, clockwork eyes and exploding sheep: just another night in Auckland. Check it out.

Phoenix Rising, the first Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novel by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris is available right now. Huge thanks to Pip and Tee for letting me play in their universe.

Tales for Canterbury is now at the printers! You already know it's an amazing bunch of stories by even more amazing people. If you haven't already ordered your copy, just go do it now, OK? I'll wait.

And finally - I can't believe I haven't blogged about it earlier (blame Twitter) but my story 'Wood' will be included in Ticonderoga Publications' Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror. The full list of stories:

RJ Astruc: “Johnny and Babushka”
Peter M Ball: “L’esprit de L’escalier”
Alan Baxter: “The King’s Accord”
Jenny Blackford: “Mirror”
Gitte Christensen: “A Sweet Story”
Matthew Chrulew: “Schubert By Candlelight”
Bill Congreve: “Ghia Likes Food”
Rjurik Davidson: “Lovers In Caeli-Amur”
Felicity Dowker: “After the Jump”
Dale Elvy: “Night Shift”
Jason Fischer: “The School Bus”
Dirk Flinthart: “Walker”
Bob Franklin: “Children’s Story”
Christopher Green: “Where We Go To Be Made Lighter”
Paul Haines: “High Tide At Hot Water Beach”
Lisa L. Hannett: “Soil From My Fingers”
Stephen Irwin: “Hive”
Gary Kemble: “Feast Or Famine”
Pete Kempshall: “Brave Face”
Tessa Kum: “Acception”
Martin Livings: “Home”
Maxine McArthur: “A Pearling Tale”
Kirstyn McDermott: “She Said”
Andrew McKiernan: “The Memory Of Water”
Ben Peek: “White Crocodile Jazz”
Simon Petrie: “Dark Rendezvous”
Lezli Robyn: “Anne-droid of Green Gables”
Angela Rega: “Slow Cookin’ “
Angela Slatter: “The Bone Mother”
Angela Slatter & Lisa L Hannett: “The February Dragon”
Grant Stone: “Wood”
Kaaron Warren: “That Girl”
Janeen Webb: “Manifest Destiny”

And that's it for news. Now I'd better retreat into my cave and write some more stories. Thank you and goodnight!

Young Love on the Run from the Federal Alien Administration New Mexico Division (1984)

2011-05-11T22:23:00.000+12:00

My family lived in Christchurch. Every summer we'd make the trip up to Marahau, a camp at the entrance of the Abel Tasman National Park.

Far more eloquent people than I have written about the eyes of youth. All I know is the summers lasted forever, the sky was bigger than God and the air was so rich with energy I'm still running on it now. To walk barefoot on a burning road, then to sink your toes into the sand at the edge of the bluest sea - I can't see how Heaven can be any better than being thirteen years old in 1985.

I wanted to write a story that celebrated everything I loved about the Eighties. Not the reality: the dirt and the politics and the poverty of it. But about all that music, all those movies, all that television I soaked up. And that unending sun. Live Aid and 12" Singles and Rocky 4 and Apple IIs and riding away on a luck dragon after saving the princess.

So, this week at Strange Horizons: Young Love on the Run from the Federal Alien Administration New Mexico Division (1984). Think of it as E.T., as directed by John Hughes. Hope you like it.

Huge thanks to Karen Meisner, whose amazing editing skills hit me like an after school special. Karen helped to solve problems that had stumped me worse than a Rubik's Cube. And I couldn't even peel the stickers off.

And I don't suppose they'll ever read this, but I also need to thank Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. This story would not exist without them.

Postscript: The same week my story appears at Strange Horizons, they run a review of My Little Pony. Not only is this entirely appropriate for an Eighties story, but I don't think there's anything I can ever do to impress my daughters more than appearing on a website with Pinkie Pie.

Driving by

2011-03-13T22:20:00.000+13:00

This is one of those posts where I cram a whole bunch in. Ready?

My story 'The Salt Line' is featured in Night-Mantled: The Best of Wily Writers (Volume 1). I'm in good company: Nathan Crowder, Jennifer Brozek, Seanan Mcguire and many others including the mighty Ripley Patton. It's available at Amazon and Smashwords. Check it out.

Ripley of course, lives down in Christchurch, my home town. I've tried several times to write something meaningful about the earthquake and failed. Emily Perkins covers it better than I ever could in The Guardian.

My story 'When Her Wings' is included in Tales For Canterbury, organised by the amazing J.C. Hart and Anna Caro, with all proceeds going to help Christchurch. It's going to be available soon, in both ebook and paper versions. Seriously people, you're going to want to buy a copy of this one. Check out the list of contributors! I'm going to ask everyone to make a real big noise when it comes out.

If you're in Auckland on March 25th, get yourself to a library for the Auckland Writers and Poets benefit for the Christchurch earthquake. Which library? Pretty much any of the 30+ libraries around Auckland. Looks like most are kicking off at either 6PM, with a few at 1PM. Check your local library for more details. I'll be reading something at the Highland Park library.

Just one more piece of news. I've just learned that my poem 'Dead Air' from Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #46 received an honorable mention in Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year! And it wasn't just me: John Dixon & Adam Browne's 'The Laughing Girl of Bora Fanong' and Christopher Green's 'Linger' also got nods. If you haven't checked out Andromeda Spaceways before, consider that your invitation.

OK, one more. b0t #2 is late but it's coming. Soon. For serious.

The one about the year

2011-01-04T22:30:00.000+13:00

It's the time of year when people write posts summing up writerly activities.

2010 was odd year for me. The day job kicked my arse. Then, when I managed to get myself up off the canvas, kicked me again. Repeatedly. I just didn't seem to be able to manage my time particularly well.

Only two new stories saw print this year, both in Semaphore. March saw the publication of Starting Over, where our hero only wants to stop the assasination of John Lennon. Perhaps. Then in September, Wood, which I like to think of as Dawn of the Dead, with puppets.

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #46 contained my first published poem, Dead Air. If you'd told me a few years ago I'd see one of my poems in print, I wouldn't have believed you. I've never thought of myself as a poet. Still don't really. But apparently, somehow, I kind of am.

The Salt Line was reprinted over at the World SF Blog and in doing so becomes my most reprinted story.

So my writing wasn't on fire this year, but a whole bunch of other stuff was going on. I was proud to play a small part in the creation of SpecFicNZ. It launched at Au Contraire in August and now has 68 members. Hard to believe a few years ago I didn't know any other Kiwis writing spec fic. Meet ups are happening in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and they're great. The Internet's great and all, but meeting people face-to-face is still so much better.

Also at Au Contraire I was honored to win another Sir Julius Vogel award for the story I still can't look full in the face, The Living Dead Boy. Even better, I tied with Ripley Patton, my friend and hero. I've never read anything from Ripley that hasn't been amazing. In fact, you need to check out Broken Water", just published today. It's really rather brilliant.

Then there was Worldcon. Liz and I took our first trip overseas for years, just so I could go to a scifi con? Yep. And was it ever worth it. To meet so many people I'd only ever communicated with online was great. To be able to represent StarShipSofa was beyond amazing. I think I'm kind of addicted to Worldcons now. Will I be at the next one? Yeah, no. Unless you'd like to pay?

Even though I complained about finding time to write I still managed to find time to keep up with the Electric Velocipede slush and StarShipSofa deck swabbing. And because I clearly didn't have enough to do, I went and set up my own fanzine. Issue #1 of b0t is available right now. Issue #2 is going to be even better and I'm working on making it available on the Kindle and other formats.

So that was 2010. What happens in 2011?
Good things.

I've written more in the past three days than I think I did over the past two months. And it seems to be good stuff. I've already got two stories slated to appear this year. Look for me at Strange Horizons. Yes, this is my first pro sale. Yes, I'm still smiling about it. And I've got an absolutely tiny story appearing in The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, which amazingly, already has a page up on Amazon.com. Sure, my story is microfiction at the back, but I'll be between the covers with some of my heroes. Garth Nix. China Mieville. Michael. Freaking. Moorcock. I have no words for that.

2011 is going to rock. Say it with me kids. I'm going to find some time somewhere and do amazing things. So are you. The dog days are over.

Let's do it.

Introducing b0t.

2010-11-15T21:39:00.000+13:00

So I've just uploaded issue #1 of b0t, a new fanzine. For fans. It's designed to be read on your iPhone, iPod, Android phone, whatever. It might even work on a plain old PC.

Check it out.

I'm already thinking about content for issue #2. If you want to join the fun, check out the submissions page for more details,

Robot. Not disco.

2010-09-15T21:33:00.000+12:00

So I was going to write up an entry about the connections between science fiction and hip hop. Sure, metal and prog own fantasy, but if you really want to get your scifi on, it's hip hop you're gonna be calling. From Del tha Funkee Homosapien to Kool Keith to Gorillaz to Madvillain to the Beastie Boys, scifi and hip hop go together like peanut butter and jelly. And that's leaving out all of Nerdcore.

Problem with that subject is it's not very kiwi. And this being NZ speculative fiction blogging week, that just wouldn't do.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present, coming straight outta Wellington, Tommy Ill. His debut album came out a couple of weeks ago. Grab it from iTunes, emusic, or even one of those record store things, if there's still one of those somewhere near you. He's touring NZ right now, so keep an eye out. Maybe buy him a pie or something.

Here's the video from his first single. And I don't care how much it messes up the layout of the blog. Because suddenly this whole post fits perfectly in NZ spec fic blogging week.

Therefore. A Robot.

Remembering Sunshine

2010-09-14T22:21:00.000+12:00

My second post for New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging week (Sep 13-19).

I read a lot of books when I was a kid. Watched a lot of TV, too, and spent a surprising amount of time drawing maps of fantasy kingdoms. All of that was secondary though, to what I was obviously put on this earth to do.

Read comics.

It was obvious that reading comics was my destiny. I knew exactly how to whine when my mother took my brothers and I into the local newsagent. It paid off - they reserved a copy of Whizzer & Chips for my brother every week. I got Buster . They were OK, but really just kids stuff.

Then finally, for 22 glorious issues, Starlord! Here was the good stuff - Strontium Dog, Ro-Jaws & Hammer-Stein (Ha! Only just now did I get that!), Planet of the Damned. These were the stories that set up residence in the empty and still-growing hall of ideas, the ones that would form the foundation that everything and everyone else - Marvel, DC, Stephen Donaldson, Stephen King, Dungeons & Dragons, would build on top of. It could be said that without Strontium Dog I wouldn't be the man I am today.

Later on I discovered the treasure house that was the Church Corner Book Exchange. Here was where I could stock up on my Marvel favorites - Thor, Captain America, Power Man and Iron First! Sure, some of them were torn, some were years out of date and there was no way to read them in order, but they were cheap enough that even with my meager pocket money I ended up with an impressive collection. No, I don't know where they are today. Probably hanging out with my Star Wars Lightspeeder and my D&D basic box set (come back guys).

Apart from the Fleetway funnies, comics were something my parents weren't that interested in. They certainly didn't buy many for me, nor the Christmas Annuals (although I do seem to remember having a Starsky & Hutch annual, even though I'd never seen the show).

Then one evening Dad came home from work with a brown paper bag under his arm. "You'll like this one," he said. "It's a New Zealand comic. And it comes with a watch!"

It was Captain Sunshine.

The watch? It was solar powered, I think. Had a sundial on it. I don't think I ever figured out how it worked. And it was a pretty good comic, from what I can remember. Certainly I remember waiting eagerly for the next issue. And waiting. And waiting.

And here's where Google can really mess with your childhood. I didn't know until I started researching this post that the sundial wasn't some small giveaway, the kind they'd have with 2000AD every six months or so. Actually, the comic was designed to sell the watch. Apparently 100,000 copies of issue one were printed, but funding ran out before issue two was completed.

There's a little more information at comics.org.nz, but not much. Bob Temuka's blog has a little more and his memories are eerily similar to mine. Even after all these years, I can still recall lying on the carpet, on a summer morning, reading New Zealand's first superhero comic.

The creator, Colin Wilson, went on to draw Judge Dredd for 200AD, along with many other things. Captain Sunshine, however, remains lost in time, like Captain America frozen in Alaskan ice. Hardly any images online, no scans of the pages - he's practically ungooglable.

But he was there. I remember. You do too.

Welcome to NZ Spec Fic Blogging Week

2010-09-13T16:57:00.000+12:00

Tēnā koutou katoa.

It's time once again for NZ Spec Fic Blogging week, when that shiny new organisation SpecFicNZ makes a big noise at the bottom of the world.

Not sure what I'll be putting up here the rest of the week, but today's an easy one. Over at the World SF blog, you can read my interview with Ripley Patton about SpecFicNZ. If you live in New Zealand and you're writing anything speculative, you really need to check it out.

I'm in the cabinet!

2010-09-12T20:57:00.000+12:00

Got news today that my micro story/entry/thing, "Kepler The Clock" was accepted for The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. I'm outrageously thrilled by this - it's a really cool project and I'll be sharing a book with some of my heroes. They're in first class and I'm way back in coach, but still. I've been smiling about it all day.

I wrote the story on my iPod, while Liz and I were taking a tram to the Melbourne museum. This isn't a writing technique I'll be using again - it's murder on the thumbs. When I handed it over to Liz, she complained about all the words that didn't fit. Thanks iTunes auto-correct.

The micro stories were submitted on Jeff's blog and they're still there. Worth checking out - there are some absolutely insane entries there. I'm looking at you, BEAR GUN.

Not the best Worldcon wrap up. But it's mine.

2010-09-12T20:43:00.000+12:00

So this is supposed to be the big Worldcon wrap-up post. Except it's not something I can really encapsulate as simply as that. This was only the second con I'd ever been to. So. Very. Big.

Highlights? Too many. But if I attempt a list:

The live recording of Galactic Suburbia. GS is a truly excellent podcast and it was great to finally put faces to the voices I've been hearing.

The panels on mysteries and westerns. Unfortunately, I've ended up with an even larger list of books I need to read/ films I need to see.

The Steampunk panel. I started smiling every time Charlie Stross reached for the mic. Great entertainment, but Stross made some very good points. The surface of Steampunk may be all clockwork and parasols, but I'd really like to see more of it that addressed the underlying issues of Empire. Moorcock did it in The Warlord Of The Air, so did (IIRC) Gibson and Sterling. I'm all for fur coats and Zeppelins. But there's so much more to unpack there.

The Hugos. Yeah, the Hugos were freaking awesome. I knew I'd mess up an acceptance speech if I got called up, so I stuck with the plan of just reading it from my iPod. The whole thing's just a blur. Can't wait for someone to upload the video so I can see it all again.

At the after party, after a while I just gave up and watched everything happening around me. I was watching the contents of my bookshelf walking around talking to each other.

There's more. There's so much more. Mostly I just walked around with a big dumb smile on my face.

It really was a privilege to accept the Hugo for StarShipSofa. There were other benefits too. I might talk a good game on Twitter, but my true self is more like a frightened little mouse. So if I didn't talk to you, I wasn't being a snob. That was just my usual petrified self. But when I could introduce myself as being with the Sofa, that all went away. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

Not the most complete review of Worldcon, or the most insightful. But there you go.

The Christchurch Quake

2010-09-08T22:17:00.000+12:00

Christchurch is my home town. It's been completely surreal to see the pictures over the past week. Liz and I were in Melbourne when it hit. I was planning another day and Worldcon, turned on the TV over breakfast and there it was.

Far as I know most of my friends and family are shaken, but OK. My brother ended up needing a new water tank, but he's out in the country and apart from the mess, seems OK.

At the moment I'm most concerned about my friend and fellow author Ripley Patton. Her house deteriorated through successive aftershocks. According to her Livejournal they have found another place nearby, but I can only imagine how hard it must be to pack up a house that's falling apart around you. Thinking of you, Ripley.

Please consider donating to one of the earthquake appeals.

And also

2010-09-03T16:22:00.000+12:00

Before I forget (and there's so much on at Worldcon that's a real possibility), two new me things:

My poem "Dead Air" is now available in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #46. Yep, a poem. Who knew?

My story "Wood" is now available in the September issue of Semaphore. It's kind of like Dawn of the Dead. But with puppets. I guess.

Worldcon: 1

2010-09-03T11:28:00.000+12:00

Some quick notes from Thursday.

Worldcon is big. And I'm guessing most people hadn't arrived on Thursday. It's going to get bigger.

The Stephen King lecture didn't happen. After 15 minutes I wandered next door to the panel on balancing speculative fiction and comedy with Tee Morris, Richard Harland and Howard Tayler. I thought it would be a fairly lightweight panel, but there were some very intelligent things said about the nature of comedy that I'm still thinking about.

It was fantastic to finally meet Tehani Wessely and two thirds of the Galactic Suburbia team. Really looking forward to the live podcast recording this morning.

OMG Hugos! There's a whole table of Hugo awards from over the years in the dealers room. They're much larger than I expected.

Worldcon: 0

2010-09-02T11:27:00.000+12:00

So here we are in Melbourne. Arrived yesterday morning. Air New Zealand's service was, as always, excellent, although I can't help thinking the seats are a little smaller every time I fly. They're shrinking the seats, right? It's not me getting wider. Ran into Kevin Maclean at Auckland airport who assured me that yes, the NZ Worldcon bid in 2020 is very much real. So this is me putting my hand up to volunteer for - well, whatever I can to make that happen. Worldcon in New Zealand would rock.

Because everything is bound to go wrong just before our first overseas trip in years, we don't have a camera. Liz turned it on a few days ago and something's broken inside. There's a big crack on the display but it's not a crack, it's a picture of a crack. I don't know. So we're reduced to using the cameras on our phones. They're better than the previous phones but still the photographic equivalent of paintings on a cave wall.

Oh but yesterday was long. I shouldn't complain - it's not like we've come all the way from the US, but Liz and I were both exhausted from getting the kids (and the house) ready before we left. Couldn't check in to the hotel until 2, so we went for a wander round the shops. Melbourne looks beautiful. I'm expecting it to be even nicer now the rain's stopped.

Internet access is, of course, ridiculously expensive in the hotel. But McDonald's has free Wifi that seems to work pretty well. I think we'll be having McDonald's for breakfast quite often. Seriously though - why doesn't McDonald's offer free Wifi in New Zealand? The restaurants are absolutely packed here and every single person has a laptop or smartphone. They're not there for the burgers, but they're still selling. Apparently Gloria Jeans and Starbucks also offer free wifi. Guess you have to pick your faceless foodcorp of choice. And I don't know what it's like here, but in New Zealand a McCafe coffee absolutely kills a Starbucks one every time.

Our mobile phones are working as advertised. Thanks Telecom. Calls are expensive, as is texting, but it's great to be in contact. We spoke to Emily while sitting at a restaurant last night and we've got a phonecard for cheap calls in the hotel. We're missing the kids terribly, but it shouldn't be too hard to keep in touch now. I have wondered about getting a prepay SIM for my phone and tethering it to the netbook. The hotel Internet is so expensive, I wouldn't be surprised if I could do it cheaper with a mobile solution. Might look into that today. If anyone's got any other communication advice, let me know.

So today's the start of Worldcon. I really have no idea what to expect, having only been to one tiny con before. Adfer our delicious McDonald's breakfast (Hm. Wonder how healthy I'm going to feel after a week of doing that) Liz and I will wander over the Yarra. I'll hopefully sign in, then we head to the art gallery. There's an exhibition of old masters. Don't know what sessions I'll be attending this afternoon, though after reading all 3700 pages of The Dark Tower this year, I will have to go to the Stephen King lecture.

We're at the Medina Grand, way up on the 17th floor. Small room, but a nice place to be. There's a pool and a gym and I think I'm going to have to take advantage of both, especially if I'm hitting the McDonald's so much.

If you want to get hold of me, my mobile is +64275373061. Texting seems to be the cheapest method at the moment.

And here we go!

AuContraire --> Worldcon

2010-08-30T21:21:00.000+12:00

So Au Contraire has come and gone. From what I could tell, peering at the sparse tweets, it was one of the largest and most enthusiastic cons round these parts for many a year. So enthusiastic that there seems to be a New Zealand bid for Worldcon 2020. Well OK then. Let's do that.

The SpecFicNZ launch went great by the sound of it. If you haven't joined yet, what's stopping you?

I was, of course, thrilled to win the Julius Vogel for 'The Living Dead Boy'. But I was even more pleased to be sharing that honour with Ripley Patton. Ripley's an amazing storyteller and it's not going to be long at all before her books are flying off the shelves. Though I would have loved to have been there, I was fortunate that Dan Rabarts agreed to stand in for me and did an excellent job.

We're still not properly packed for Worldcon. The kids have been sick, which has made the past few days pretty chaotic, with trips to the doctor at all hours of the night. The house is tidy at least, and we have some suitcases sitting on the bed, so that's something at least. I'm trying to get all my writing stuff in order before I go and I've got three stories printed out for revision in all that spare time I'm going to have. I'm kidding myself, aren't I?

This->Reset()

2010-08-28T21:10:00.002+12:00

Yeah, I know. The blog. The tumbleweeds.
It ends now.
If you can read this, I've got blogging from the iPod working. And just in time for the trip to Worldcon. The content. It's coming.
So tonight was the official launch of SpecFicNZ at Au Contraire. It's going to make a big noise. And you're going to want to be part of it.
Now to see if the post works. Allons-y!

Sir Julius Vogel Awards

2010-04-24T23:26:00.000+12:00

The final ballot for the Sir Julius Vogel awards was released today and includes my story 'The Living Dead Boy'. Of course I'm thrilled. Thank you to everyone who voted.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about. Go and take a look at the ballot. I'll wait.

Seriously, how good is that ballot? Great to see Paul Haines there. I still think 'Wives' should have been on the Hugo ballot. He's in the short story and collected work category as well.

Andromeda Spaceways has always featured prominently in the SJVs and does again this year, with three nominations across novella and short story (mine included). But it's interesting to see other magazines featured as well. I think nods for Kevin Veale's Twisted from Weird Tales and Simon Petrie's Downdraft from Sybil's Garage in particular might gain the awards some notice from overseas.

Voyagers contained some of the best poetry I've read in a long time. If you haven't read it, check it out now.

Dan Rabarts' excellent article on Hugh Cook is there. More, Hugh is up for an award himself, for services to SF, Fantasy and Horror. But so is NZ Spec Fic blogging week, run by Anna Caro and the specficnz team, many of whom are included in other categories. And Semaphore Magazine!

...I could go on, but I won't. It's great to see NZ spec fic in such rude health. And I'm proud to be in such excellent company.

Starting Over

2010-03-05T22:22:00.001+13:00

My story 'Starting Over' is in this month's Semaphore, along with some other very fine stories by Wade German, Simon Petrie, Sherry D. Ramsey, Mary Jones and J. L. Halliburton. And don't forget the fantastic cover by Kyle Cassidy.

Like the protagonist of Starting Over, I have worked at TV Centre, Lived in Ealing and stood outside the Dakota Building. But there's some other stuff in the story I've never done and nobody can say otherwise except perhaps...

Ah, but he's not around.

This is how the Internet works.

2010-02-26T22:06:00.000+13:00

Neil Gaiman tweets cryptically.
I click on @waitwait to see what it is. Discover it's a radio quiz show. I'm a fan of The News Quiz, so this might be my sort of thing.
One more click and I'm streaming the latest episode. One further click and I've subscribed. It'll be on my iPod next time I'm in the car.

When it emerged last week that StarShipSofa could be eligible for a Hugo, in the best fanzine category, some sofa fans got excited. Put up a bunch of posts, tweets, recorded audio. There was some complaining that it was not the done thing to make such a noise about eligibility, especially when many of the people doing the shouting had links to the show. I suspect the people complaining have missed a fundamental nature of the internet.

The Internet? Is a series of tubes. On one end of one tube is you. On the end of most of the other tubes is people talking about last night's episode of Survivor Samoa. Or porn. But on the end of one tube, on the other side of the world, is someone who's enthusiastic about the same stuff you are. Actually, there's probably more than one tube. Which means, if you're into radio news-based quiz shows, or science fiction, or the Apple II, you can connect with other people who feel the same way. Fans. Fans have always made noise about whatever it is they're fanatical about. Only now, they're shouting their enthusiasm into the tubes.

If you've got a fanzine on paper? I'm not going to see it. I don't go to the same cons as you. I'm in a whole other country. Which is a shame, since it might well contain something I'd be interested in. But if you put that fanzine up on a blog, podcast, hell, even a YouTube video, then put the message that you've done it into the tubes?

You might have found a new reader.

And if I can communicate with you over the Internet, you might have found a new contributor too.

StarShipSofa is eligible for best fanzine.

I Should Be Writing is eligible for best related work. So is Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing.

Escape Pod, is eligible for best semiprozine.

Clarkesworld, which has an excellent podcast, is eligible for best semiprozine.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies, (which not only boasts a podcast but is available in epub format FTW!) is eligible for best semiprozine.

Back and forward

2010-01-22T21:52:00.001+13:00

It's most of the way through January and I'm only now getting around to a summary of 2009. Which pretty much sums it up. I had some pretty big writing plans for 2009 and achieved exactly none.

So what happened?

The day job went from being a day job to being day, night, weekends... It happens, sometimes. And I am proud of what I achieved. I built something pretty damn impressive, in a far shorter timeframe than I would have expected. Full credit to Microsoft for that. The .NET stack in general and Silverlight in particular have been a huge force multiplier for me. Any other technology wouldn't have got me as far so quickly.

But those long hours still killed me. Rushing to meet deadline after deadline was not cool. By the end of the year I was a tired and grumpy, insomniac. I still am. Hoping I'll get back to some decent energy levels soon.

OK, enough complaining. There was a lot of good stuff to celebrate this year.

Starting in March I took part in the Australian Horror Writers Association mentor program. The AHWA are kind enough to consider Kiwis honorary Aussies, so I was able to work with multi-award winning author Lee Battersby. He took some of my stories, pulled them apart, and when we put them back together they were so much better than when I started. If you're in NZ or Australia, you should check out the AHWA. They're a great bunch of people.

Queen's Birthday weekend I attended my first con, Conscription, where I met fellow writer (and the driving force behind Spec Fic NZ), Ripley Patton. Ripley really did make the con for me - I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much without her. The weekend passed in a blur and by the time it was done I'd ended up winning the Julius Vogel. I'd be lying if I didn't say that was hella cool.

NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week. How good was that, ay? Want to bet it'll be even bigger next year?

Other nice things. Had my first reprints:Dick Whittington's Blues in the Semaphore anthology and The Salt Line at Wily Writers. The Salt Line was also the first of my stories to be podcast, with an excellent narration from Tim Jones.

That was last year. So what's next?

That work overload killed my writing. So this year, all I'm planning on doing is getting my mojo back. I'm just going to stick to the basics - words on paper. This is the equivalent of me jogging round the streets of Philadelphia, pounding on carcases in the freezer, climbing up the art museum steps. I've got some big plans for later, but I won't get anywhere unless I can get that muscle mass back. Blunt Force Trauma. Various other boxing cliches.

I don't know if I'll be blogging here very much - I want to put as much energy into fiction as I can. If this affects my chances of winning some sort of journalism prize then I'm OK with that.

The Sir Julius Vogel Awards nominations now open

2010-01-02T21:36:00.001+13:00

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, a blissful week away from that Internet thingy. But just before I go:

The Sir Julius Vogel sub-committee of SFFANZ is currently accepting nominations for science fiction and fantasy works first published or released in the 2009 calendar year.

Nominations open on 1 January 2010 and close on 31 March 2010 at 8pm.

For more information about SFFANZ and the SJV Awards, please go to the SFFANZ web-site http://sffanz.sf.org.nz/

To make a nomination please email sjv_awards@sffanz.sf.org.nz.. Anyone can make a nomination, and it is free of charge.

Please send one nomination per email and include as many contact details as possible for the nominee as well as yourself.

You can find full details about the nomination procedures and rules, including eligibility criteria at http://sffanz.sf.org.nz/sjv/sjvAwards.shtml

A detailed nomination FAQ can be found at http://sffanz.sf.org.nz/sjv/sjvAwardsNominationGuidelines.shtml

The voting will occur at Au Contraire, http://www.aucontraire.org.nz/ - the national science fiction convention being held in Wellington, New Zealand over the weekend of the 27 - 29 August 2010.

For your consideration, some eligible works. This list is in no way complete and possibly more than a little biased.

Novella or Novelette

"Over the Rim", Ripley Patton, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 42

Short Story

"Corrigan's Exchange", Ripley Patton, Semaphore June 2009

"Dick Whittington's Blues", Grant Stone, Semaphore March 2009

"The Living Dead Boy", Grant Stone, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 41

Collected Work

"Voyagers: science fiction poetry from New Zealand", Mark Pirie & Tim Jones (editors)

Production/ Publication

Semaphore Magazine, Marie Hodgkinson (editor)

Best Fan Writing

"Hugh Cook - The Wordsmith and the Warrior", Dan Rabarts. Produced as part of NZ spec fic blogging week and published here, here and here.

Best Fan Production

"Digital Magic" - Podcast, Philippa Ballantine (available here )

What's really cool about that list is that it's by no means complete. There's some great work out there - check your favorite kiwi sf blogs for more.

Right. That's me off on holiday. See you in a week!

Update
Another eligible work, in the Novel category: Pat Whitaker's Returning.

StarShipSofa's Spider Robinson Fundraiser

2009-12-30T22:57:00.000+13:00

What I should be doing is writing a post about StarShipSofa's fundraiser for Spider Robinson. Thing is, my buddy Matthew Sanborn Smith has done a better job than I could. So I'm going to copy his post here. That's right, I'm plagiarizing - for charity! Then I'm heading over to the Sofa to get my copy of Lord Dickens's Declaration.

You should too.

(If this was BoingBoing, this line would say "Matt Sez,")

Click here to help Spider and Jeanne Robinson!

Today's the big day! I hope that all of you are out there blogging about StarShipSofa's fundraiser for Spider and Jeanne Robinson. We had a fantastic response on Twitter yesterday. Thanks to all of you who tweeted and re-tweeted. I saw something like two-hundred tweets about the fundraiser. That's fantastic. I got a couple of notes during the day from Tony at the Sofa saying how he could see donation traffic picking up yesterday. I'm hoping we'll see even more traffic today.

Why? Because if people are actually blogging about it today, like we've asked, the message will reach people that it didn't reach on Twitter. We'll reach science fiction fans who don't use Twitter and we'll reach non-science fiction fans as well.

Why should you donate?

THE SHORT VERSION
1) It's a good cause, you big silly!
2) It only costs about $5.00, American.
3) You get an awesome e-book!

THE SLIGHTLY LONGER VERSION
1) From Spider's Blog: Earlier his year a brilliant surgeon, Dr. Andresz Busczowski, helped Jeanne Robinson beat back a rare and virulent form of biliary cancer. But it’s so rare even he can’t say how much time he‘s bought her, how soon it might recur—and her latest blood tests have been so discouraging they’ve now decided she needs to start chemotherapy as soon as possible. Besides the prescription drugs to counteract the chemotherapy, she needs special therapies and supplements, counseling, and extensive diet and lifestyle changes, to reduce her stress level and the strain on her liver to as close to zero as possible. All those things are expensive...and like many artists today the Robinsons were already running on fumes financially.

2) ONLY FIVE BUCKS! (More if you want to give more!)

3) You get Larry Santoro's excellent e-book novella, Lord Dickens's Declaration. Listen folks, a lot of you don't know Larry Santoro's work. In fact, most of us Sofanauts hadn't even heard of him until his stories began appearing on StarShipSofa's Aural Delights podcast. But let me tell you . . .

Wow.

That's Larry's work in a nutshell. I didn't know this guy from Adam a couple of years ago and now he's one of my favorite writers. He's been hiding out in the theater world and in Horrorland, sharpening his pen and now he can slice atoms with it. Larry controls his words, they don't control him, and at the same time he feeds them out like ten-thousand feet of kite string to play in the sky. They think they're running free, they don't know. All the while he knows where every one of them runs and what they're going to do next.

And Lord Dickens's Declaration is an absolute blast. Alternate history, steampunky, put-your-brain-in-a-box-and-don't-stop-shaking-it cool. The story features a world in which historians are the big guns and a computer which stretches across hundreds of acres (sometimes), called The Beast, sends those historians back in time. And let me ask you, have you ever known historians to put things back where they found them? Me neither. And that's what drives this mad world. It's 1902 in a world where Jesus ran the Roman Empire and a ninety-something Edgar Allen Poe runs North America. Occam is the man and who the hell is Charles Darwin?

Buy this book. Read this book. Enjoy, enjoy this book. Rest the rest of the righteously smug, knowing that your pleasure is also a Karmic write-off, all 100% of your electronic money is helping good people who are seeing a rough time.

GO NOW:

http://www.starshipsofa.com/shop/lord-dickenss-declaration/

THERE'S ONLY ONE DAY LEFT!

And then tell all of your big-hearted friends to pick up a copy as well. Thanks!

The Living Dead Boy

2009-11-03T20:43:00.000+13:00

My story The Living Dead Boy is now available in the latest issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Despite the title, it's got nothing to do with zombies. It may be partially autobiographical but I can't be sure. Some stories you don't want to look directly at them when you're putting them together.

While I was writing this one, I was listening to American Music Club's The Golden Age and The National's Alligator on endless repeat. So it's partially their fault.

Shiny things at Prima Storia

2009-10-19T09:23:00.000+13:00

Over at Prima Storia, you can find my interview with Jeff VanderMeer about Finch and Booklife.

While you're there, be sure to check out Ripley Patton's story The Comfort of Cabbages. Ripley's an amazing writer and you won't be disappointed. But you might cry.