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Wefting the Warp online

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I recently blogged that my story, Wefting the Warp, had been purchased and published by Robot and Raygun, a UK based speculative fiction magazine. The first publication was done through eBook form, available through Amazon and other fine eBook retailers.

For those not wanting to purchase the eBook version, good news. Robot and Raygun progressively publish each month’s stories on their website. My story is now freely available. Go and check it out. While you’re there, why not read the other fine fiction Robot and Raygun have been publishing?

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Dimension6 launches

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Dimension6

I’m very excited to see a new speculative fiction magazine launch in Australia. It’s Dimension6, Keith Stevenson’s latest venture through his publishing house Coeur de Lion.

Long time readers might recall that I interviewed Keith for GalacticChat a few months back. Keith is a mainstay of the Australian speculative fiction scene and one of its true innovators. I’m excited to see what he’ll do with Dimension6.

Go and check it out – can’t argue with the price (free!).

This website is also an affiliate for Dimension6 – you can download each issue’s copy from this page.

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Galactic Chat – 2014 season off and running

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After a bit of a hiatus over the summer break, the Galactic Chat podcast is off and running again for 2014.

David McDonald kicked off the  year with a fascinating interview with one of my favourite authors, Kaaron Warren. Warren is a stalwart of the Australian horror scene, with some truly disturbing tales. I’ve reviewed a few of her works over the last couple of years, including Through Splintered Walls, Mistification and Ishtar. It’s a great listen.

Alex Pierce then moves the year along with an interview with Tehani Wessley. Wessely is the principal of Fablecroft, a small independent press here in Australia. While Galactic Chat tends to focus on authors, I love the interviews with people involved in other aspects of the publishing world. Well worth a listen, especially if you’re keen on understanding the Australian speculative fiction publishing scene.

At the time of writing this post, Wessely’s Pozible project Cranky Ladies of History, is still active here.

To top off this brilliant start to the broadcasting year, Sean, our stalwart leader and driving force behind Galactic Chat, has started  a Facebook competition where you can win copies of Jonathan Strahan’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year. Go to our Facebook page for details.

If you like to keep up with the Australian speculative fiction scene, Galactic Chat is the place to do it. Do your ears a favour and download one of the podcasts.

(You could even vote for it in the Ditmars, but only if you want to :-)

 

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Short story sale – Robot and Raygun

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Well, good news in the Webb household as I celebrate my first short story sale for actual money. Wefting the Warp is a 4,300 word science fiction story and has been bought by Robot and Raygun, a new UK based online and print magazine. From their blurb:

Robot and Raygun features all kinds of science fiction, from post apocalyptic worlds to starships travelling through the voids of space and all that lies between.  It is our aim to help fire your imagination and to envision the many futures that lay before us.

Each issue is made up of a selection of short stories to help you discover great new writers of science fiction.

R&R put out their first edition in March 2014, and my story appears in Issue 2, April 2014 which has just been released.

It is a great feeling to have someone like your work enough to pay for it. This is also my first short story length piece to be published (previous publications have been flash fiction).

As always, my bibliography page has details on where you can find all my published work.

Several people have given editorial feedback on the story, and to them I’d like to offer my sincerest thanks. The story wouldn’t have made it without you.

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2014 Ditmar Eligibility Post Roundup

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Last year I produced a roundup of all the Ditmar eligibility posts I could find.  The Ditmar awards are the Australian national awards for speculative fiction that are voted on by members of the speculative fiction community. The awards are usually attached to the National Convention, which is being held this year in Melbourne at Continuum X.

The nomination process for the 2014 Ditmars is open until 30th March, and can be found at this online form.

While there is a wiki site that contains a pretty comprehensive list of works that are eligible for the Ditmars, I also thought it would be useful to keep track of all the eligibility posts I read around the traps. Will keep adding in items as I come across them – feel free to suggest authors/posts in the comments below.

In no particular order (or rather, the order I happened to come across them):

I’m struggling to find other posts this year – seems to be less than normal. Perhaps people are relying on the Wiki to get the word out.

 

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Ditmar eligibility 2014

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The Ditmar awards are the Australian national awards for speculative fiction that are voted on by members of the speculative fiction community. The awards are usually attached to the National Convention, which is being held this year in Melbourne at Continuum X.

The nomination process for the 2014 Ditmars is open until 30th March, and can be found at this online form.

Follow the following link to a wiki site that contains a pretty comprehensive list of works that are eligible for the Ditmars. Well worth a look if you’re stuck trying to remember what culture you consumed last year.

Some artists agonise over whether to publicise their own eligibility for awards, concerned that it may be considered crude and self serving by the community at large. I hold no such sensibilities, so here goes.

Best Short Story

I have two stories that are eligible under the short story category:

You can still read both stories online in the Antipodean SF archive site – just follow the links.

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium

Last year I was lucky enough to be involved with Galactic Chat, a podcast which interviews people involved in the Australian speculative fiction scene. It was (and continues to be) a great experience. Sean Wright is the anchor that holds the podcast together, and I’d love to see him (and all my podcast colleagues) get acknowledged for the work that they do.

  • Galactic Chat Podcast, Sean Wright, Alex Pierce, Helen Stubbs, David McDonald, Mark Webb and Sarah Parker

Best Fan Writer

Well, theoretically you could nominate me for this award as well. But I’ve been looking through the eligibility list and frankly there are a lot more talented, and prolific, fan writers out there. But for completeness:

William Atheling Jr Award for Review or Criticism

I was quite happy with my reviews as a part of the 2013 Australian Women Writers’ Reading Challenge. So, if you wanted to nominate me for anything here:

That’s about it for my contributions to the field in 2013, meagre as they were. Stand by for more posts about excellent stuff I’ve seen and enjoyed elsewhere in the Australian scene. And get voting!

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2013 Australian Women Writers’ challenge – wrap up

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Well, another year another Australian Women Writers’ challenge.

The 2013 Australian Women Writers’ Challenge was another great experience. Challenging the lack of critical attention for Australian women authors is a worthy cause and once again I had the chance to expand my exposure to interesting authors.

In 2013 I undertook the Franklin challenge (read 10 books, review at least 6) and all those books were in the speculative fiction field.

2013 was not a great reading year for me – I did not get through many books at all. However I was able to meet my challenge goal, with reviews posted for the following books:

  1. Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott - complete: review here
  2. A Trifle Dead by Livia Day - complete: review here
  3. Suited by Jo Anderton - complete: review here
  4. Dark Space by Marianne de Pierres - complete: review here
  5. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina - complete: review here
  6. Black Glass by Meg Mundell - complete: review here
  7. The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills - complete: review here
  8. Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer - complete: review here
  9. New Ceres Nights edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Tehani Wessely - complete: review here
  10. Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott – complete: review here
  11. Witches Incorporated by K. E. Mills – complete: review here
  12. Wizard Squared by K. E. Mills – complete: review here
  13. Wizard Undercover by K. E. Mills – complete: review here

Highlights for me included Perfections by Kirsten McDermott (I’m a big fan of her work) and discovering the New Ceres shared world project (that was undertaken several years back). There were quite a few books that I’d planned to read in 2013 that I’ll have to carry forward to 2014 (including Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. Hannett, The Ambassador’s Mission by Trudi Canavan, Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth and Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier to name a few).

I’ll be supporting the 2014 challenge (stand by for my commencement post) and I’d encourage everyone to pick up a speculative fiction book by an Australian Women author and give it a go.

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Very poorly updated blog

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Hi all and happy new year.

This blog has been very quiet of late. In the last 2 months I’ve changed jobs and taken the family off on holiday for a few weeks, and I’m afraid that has left very little time for blogging.

On the plus side, I have a pile of books that I’ve read which I’ll hopefully be posting reviews for over the next couple of weeks, including the last of my 2013 Australian Women Writers’ challenge books (a series by K. E. Mills) as well as some other Australian books by Jason Franks, Dirk Flinthart and Jason Nahrung.

I’ve also been indulging my nostalgia by reading a lot of the Wild Card series of books.

I’ll  be giving some updates on my own writing (which has suffered from a lack of attention in 2013) and plans for 2014.

I hope everyone has had a great festive season – look forward to catching up with people in 2014!

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Very short flash fiction piece

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Hi all. Antipodean SF has been kind enough to publish another one of my flash fiction pieces. This one is a very short piece called Hindsight is a Bitch and it comes in at around 100 words (I said short, didn’t I?).

You can also read it on the ePub or mobi version of issue 185 available at the e-Reader page of the Antipodean SF website.

I originally wrote this very short story for an online competition, but submitted it to Antipodean SF when I inexplicably failed to win. I hope you enjoy.

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Have you been keeping up with Galactic Chat?

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Sean Wright has been interviewing up a storm lately on Galactic Chat, a podcast that I (too) occasionally help out with.

Since I last posted about Galactic Chat there have been a LOT of new episodes. Sean is an interviewing machine, there is no doubt about it. Interviews have included:

  • Episode 29: Narelle Harris (horror and romance writer) chats to Alex
  • Episode 30: Tansy Rayner Roberts (fantasy writer) chats to Sean
  • Episode 31: Tracey O’Hara (paranormal thriller writer) chats to Helen Stubbs
  • Episode 32: Stephen Ormsby chats to Sean about his new publishing venture, Satalyte Publishing
  • Episode 33: Sean Williams (New York Times best selling speculative fiction writer) chats to Sean
  • Episode 34: Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (Filipino speculative fiction writer) chats to Sean
  • Episode 35: Julia Rios (fiction editor for Strange Horizons, host and producer of the Outer Alliance Podcast) chats to Sean
  • Episode 36: Devin Madson (self published author) chats to Sean

You’ll notice the heavy load that Sean is lifting. I’ve only done two interviews since the podcast was rebooted – both were excellent fun, but I’m going to have to pick up my game!

So, listen, subscribe, comment – the podcast is a ball to do and we’d love to have more audience participation!

If there is anyone in the Australian speculative fiction scene that you’d like to see us interview on Galactic Chat, leave a comment here or on the Galactic Chat website.