News & Upcoming Events

The latest news regarding my writing, work with the Australian Writer’s Marketplace, and any upcoming events or workshops I’m involved in.

Twelfth Planet Press Mother’s Day Sale

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The folks over at Twelfth Planet Press have just upgraded their webstore and they’re celebrating with Mother’s Day Sale where you can pick up two or more books for a nice, cheap, wallet-friendly price prior to May 7th.

There is some bad news for those of you thinking you know, my mother really digs noir stories with a squicky unicorn filling* and looking for a copy of Horn as a result – it’s out of stock at the moment, and while I don’t know the particulars of when the reprint will happen I’m pretty sure it won’t be in time to show your appreciation for the maternal figure/s in your life on mothers day itself. Of course, you can pre-order yourself a copy of the second printing and pick up a copy of either the Siren Beat/Roadkill double (which delivers Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Hobart noir novelette with a tentacle-squick filling and Robert Shearman’s novelette of desperately uncomfortable, captivating weirdness in one convenient package) or Dirk Flinthart’s Angel Rising (which includes warrior nuns – need I say more?) to cover Mother’s Day itself.

Or, you know, you could just pre-order a copy of Horn and give it to your mum when it’s finally released. Because you don’t actually need mother’s day to tell your mother you love her, dig?

In any case, there’s more details below. Go forth and do with this information as you will.

*Mine doesn’t, for what it’s worth. She hasn’t read Horn at all, and I’m at peace with that**.
** My grandmother, on the other hand, really enjoyed it. That surprised me a little.

*************** 

TPP Mothers Day Sale!

1. Preorder Glitter Rose* and/or Horn and buy Roadkill/Siren Beat or Angel Rising for $6 plus postage.

OR

2. Buy any 3 books** and buy Roadkill/Siren Beat or Angel Rising for $6 plus postage.

Offers till May 7, 2010

* All prior preorders of Glitter Rose will be honoured.
** Cost of postage will be corrected on payment.

Years Best SF 15

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Kathryn Cramer’s just posted the TOC for the Year’s Best SF 15 (edited by Kathryn Cramer  and David Hartwell, available soon from HarperCollins). On the list of included works, amid stories by Bruce Sterling and Alistair Reynolds and Nancy Kress and Geoff Ryman and many other folks, is this: On the Destruction of Copenhagen by the War Machines of the Merfolk.

There might have been squee about that around these parts. The spokesbear gets excitable. You know how it is.

What I did With My Weekend, and part of the week thereafter

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1. So it’s three five-day-old news by now, but Clockwork, Patchwork and Raven won the 2009 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story and I now have a shiny glass trophy kicking around the flat. The Spokesbear demanded I photograph him with the newly acquired, but it’s remarkably hard to photograph a curved glass trophy with a bear looming over it. Instead I’ll just mention that a hardcopy of the story is available in Apex’s Descended from Darkness anthology and sales of the book go towards keeping Apex Magazine running.

The weekend itself was freaking awesome and laden with opportunities to catch up with folks I don’t get to see anywhere near enough (the redoubtable Jason Fischerand Best-Fantasy-Short-Story-Co-Winner Christopher Green among them).

2. Finally sat down and indulged my inner Charlie Kaufman fan by watching Synecdoche New York. It felt rather like someone had cut the last twenty minutes off Adaptation and left us with the confused muddle of stuff, but it also replaced Nicholas Cage with Philip Seymour Hoffman which helped keep me watching once I realised the plot-compass was set somewhere between “meander” and “Plot? Who do you think you’re talking to, buddy?” Overall it seems to be one of those big, muddled films you can primarily admire for their ambition and the quality of the parts. I’m sure it would reward me for putting the effort into puzzling out its metaphors and meanings, but at the same time it doesn’t actually inspire me to do so.

3. There’s a partial TOC for Twelfth Planet Press’ suburban fantasy anthology, Sprawl, making its way around the internets. It runs something like this:

Liz Argall – Seed Dreams (comic)
Peter Ball – One Saturday Night, With Angel
Deborah Biancotti – Never Going Home
Simon Brown – Sweep
Stephanie Campisi – How to Select a Durian at Footscray Market
Thoraiya Dyer – Yowie
Dirk Flinthart – Walker
L L Hannett – Weightless
Pete Kempshall – Signature Walk
Ben Peek – White Crocodile Jazz
Tansy Rayner Roberts – Relentless Adaptations
Barbara Robson – Neighbourhood Watch
Angela Slatter – Brisneyland by Night
Cat Sparks – All The Love in the World
Anna Tambour – Gnawer of the Moon Seeks Summit of Paradise
Kaaron Warren – Loss
Sean Williams – Parched (poem)

4. I am so totally over summer.

5. It’s lunchtime. I’m off to scrounge up some food.