Continuum 8 Program
The Continuum 8 program is up, and I’m delighted to be part of some awesome panels and reading sessions. If you’re in Melbourne for the long weekend and are up for some Natcon excitement, swing past the Rydges on Swanston — Friday’s admission is a mere gold coin donation! Bargain!
In case any of you want to drop in and say ‘hi’, or if you want to avoid me altogether, my sessions are:
Friday, ‘Splicing Genres’ 16:00
with Jane Routley, Jenny Blackford, Lisa Hannett, Claire Corbett, Rjurik Davidson
Fantasy murder mysteries, horror spy novels, science fiction romance… do the best stories defy genre boundaries?
Friday, ‘Tales as old as time’ 18:00
with Angela Slatter, Lisa Hannett, Jenny Blackford, Kirstyn McDermott, Jane Routley
Fairytales are in vogue again, all over TV and movie screens and for years collected by Ellen Datlow in retold anthologies. Why are we so fascinated with these stories? And with so many retellings and versions out there how do writers make them new again?
Saturday, ‘Readings’ 16:00
with Claire Corbett, Angela Slatter, Lisa Hannett, Felicity Dowker
The program is packed with lots of excellent sessions, and though I haven’t yet had a chance to decide which panels I’ll attend (other than the ones I’ll be on, of course!) I will certainly be there to cheer everyone on at these events:
Friday, ‘Twelfth Planet Press Hour’ 19:00
Ever wondered how your favorite Twelve Planet collection would taste like in cupcake form? Then come along to the Twelfth Planet Cocktail hour, to celebrate the launch of the newest Twelve Planets, Through Splintered Walls, by Kaaron Warren, and Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan, plus the new TPP novella Salvage by Jason Nahrung and a surprise announcement! Each book will be lovingly interpreted as a cupcake by master baker, Terri Sellen. Your cocktail choice is entirely your own…
Saturday, ‘Ishtar Launch’ 14:00
Launch of Ishtar, edited by Amanda Pillar and KV Taylor (includes novellas by Deborah Biancotti, Cat Sparks, and Kaaron Warren)
Sunday, ‘Bread and Circuses Launch’ 16:00
Ticonderoga Publications launch of Bread and Circuses by Felicity Dowker
And of course the Ditmar / Chronos Awards on Sunday evening — I love a good awards show!
Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror, Vol 2
Hooray! SO happy to see ‘Forever, Miss Tapekwa County’ on this awesome ToC! And the cover art for this volume is so pretty!!!
Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene have compiled 32 fantastic stories and poems first published in 2011, from New Zealand’s and Australia’s finest writers.
The contents are
- Peter M Ball “Briar Day” (Moonlight Tuber)
- Lee Battersby “Europe After The Rain” (After the Rain, Fablecroft Press)
- Deborah Biancotti “Bad Power” (Bad Power, Twelfth Planet Press)
- Jenny Blackford “The Head in the Goatskin Bag” (Kaleidotrope)
- Simon Brown “Thin Air” (Dead Red Heart, Ticonderoga Publications)
- David Conyers and David Kernot “Winds Of Nzambi” (Midnight Echo #6, AHWA)
- Stephen Dedman “More Matter, Less Art” (Midnight Echo #6, AHWA)
- Sara Douglass & Angela Slatter “The Hall of Lost Footsteps” (The Hall of Lost Footsteps, Ticonderoga Publications)
- Felicity Dowker “Berries & Incense” (More Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)
- Terry Dowling “Dark Me, Night You” (Midnight Echo #5, AHWA)
- Jason Fischer “Hunting Rufus” (Midnight Echo #5, AHWA)
- Christopher Green “Letters Of Love From The Once And Newly Dead” (Midnight Echo #5, AHWA)
- Paul Haines “The Past Is A Bridge Best Left Burnt” (The Last Days of Kali Yuga, Brimstone Press)
- Lisa L Hannett “Forever, Miss Tapekwa County” (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
- Richard Harland “At The Top Of The Stairs” (Shadows and Tall Trees #2, Undertow Publications)
- John Harwood “Face To Face” (Ghosts by Gaslight, HarperCollins)
- Pete Kempshall “Someone Else To Play With” (Beauty Has Her Way, Dark Quest Books)
- Jo Langdon “Heaven” (After the Rain, Fablecroft Press)
- Maxine McArthur “The Soul of the Machine” (Winds of Change, CSFG)
- Ian McHugh “The Wishwriter’s Wife” (Daily Science Fiction)
- Andrew J McKiernan “Love Death” (Aurealis #45, Chimaera Publications)
- Kirstyn McDermott “Frostbitten” (More Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)
- Margaret Mahy “Wolf Night” (The Wilful Eye – Tales From the Tower #1, Allen & Unwin)
- Anne Mok “Interview with the Jiangshi” (Dead Red Heart, Ticonderoga Publications)
- Jason Nahrung “Wraiths” (Winds of Change, CSFG)
- Anthony Panegyres “Reading Coffee” (Overland, OL Society)
- Tansy Rayner Roberts “The Patrician” (Love and Romanpunk, Twelfth Planet Press)
- Angela Rega “Love In the Atacama or the Poetry of Fleas” (Crossed Genres, CGP)
- Angela Slatter “The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter” (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
- Lucy Sussex “Thief of Lives” (Thief of Lies, Twelfth Planet Press)
- Kyla Ward “The Kite” (The Land of Bad Dreams, P’rea Press)
- Kaaron Warren “All You Can Do Is Breathe” (Blood and Other Cravings, Tor)
The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2011 is scheduled for publication in July 2012 and can be pre-ordered at indiebooksonline.com. The anthology will be available in hardcover, ebook and trade editions.
Aurealis Awards Finalists Announced!
The internets are abuzz this evening because the Aurealis Award Shortlists have just been announced!
There are so many awesome stories on these lists, I honestly don’t know how the judges narrowed it down. And I’m so stoked to see my work nominated in two categories: Best Collection (for Bluegrass Symphony) and Best Horror Short Story (for ‘The Short Go: A Future in Eight Seconds’). Wow!!!
Without further ado, here are the finalists:
2011 Aurealis Awards – Finalists
FANTASY NOVEL
The Undivided by Jennifer Fallon (HarperVoyager)
Ember and Ash by Pamela Freeman (Hachette)
Stormlord’s Exile by Glenda Larke (HarperVoyager)
Debris by Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
The Shattered City by Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperVoyager)
Tuesday Therapy: Keep Running
Deborah Biancotti is the author of over 30 short stories (her first published story won an Aurealis Award!), five of which appear in her new collection, Bad Power, the most recent volume in Twelfth Planet Press’s fantastic Twelve Planets series. Her first collection, A Book of Endings, was shortlisted for the William L Crawford Award for Best First Fantasy Book and her work has been nominated for — and won — a slew of awards. In short, Deborah writes awesome stories. Gripping, visceral, engaging pieces told in a unique voice that you just want to keep reading.
This week, Deborah shares some advice that, seriously, we should all print off and keep beside our computers (or notebooks, if you prefer).
Run your own race.
You’re a writer, so I’m just going to assume you’ll be hearing a lot of advice about how and when and what to write. This will often appear be based on your success/pending success/unlikehood of success as perceived by the advisor – or it may just be random. Something you’ve come across online, say. Either way, you may find yourself tempted to take it to heart. ‘Oh, I’m not talented or disciplined or smart enough, I’m too derivative to be respected or too lyrical to be popular.’ You know. Stuff like that.
But here’s what you have to remember:
You’re running your own race.
This means you set the pace & the direction. YOU do. Both. Pace AND direction.
Your starter’s pistol was that thing inside you that called or pushed or lead you to write (left you to write, maybe, when nothing else was going right). Writers call it a compulsion/ache/need/ambition – or voice. ‘Something spoke to me’ or ‘I had to, for the sake of my sanity’. That’s how it’s often described. Whatever you call it, it’s uniquely yours, & it’s going to be your coach.
So when you find yourself rubbernecking, looking at all the writers who are “passing you by”, remember: they’re not in your race. Whatever they’re doing doesn’t affect what you’ve been called/forced/pushed to do by that internal starter’s pistol. Your race is still your own & it will always be your own.
And even if you’re just minding your own business, putting one foot in front of another, someone will come along – someone always does – to advise you that you ‘should’ ditch short form & only write novels, or you ‘should’ forget novels & build a career in shorts. Or should write only what-you-know, every-day, the-next-big-thing, something-for-Hollywood (twice in two months I’ve been told this), screenplays, literature, ‘something that someone might actually want to read’ (I’ve had this one, too), ‘some REAL writing’ (i.e. ‘not what you’ve been doing’) – or the ever popular ‘something else’. Someone will tell you, ‘I can’t see you succeeding at that’.
They think they can foresee the shape of the racetrack you’re on.
I’m not even sure WE can see the racetracks we’re on.
All we can do – all we HAVE to do – is run our own races.
And, for God’s sake, keep running.
Deborah Biancotti is a writer based in inner-city Sydney, Australia. She is currently working on her first novel. You can visit Deborah online at her website, and she blogs (and offers insightful reviews and more great writing advice) here. She continues to write short stories and refers to herself as a ‘tired idealist’.
An Introduction to Australian Horror
In honour of Australia Day, I was asked to write an article about Australian horror for This Is Horror in the UK — and it’s now up! The article surveys some of the standout horror published in the past two years by Australian independent presses: so much to talk about, so much incredible talent!
Australia is a land of extremes. One minute the country is ravaged by drought and bushfires, the next it’s drowning in devastating floods. The continent is a combination of enormous red deserts meeting sprawling metropolises meeting ancient tropical rainforests meeting endless coastlines. Some of the largest — and tiniest — deadly predators on the planet are hidden out in the wilds, but are also unearthed in suburban backyards. Over it all, the harsh Australian sun beats down. Casting the longest, darkest shadows.
And right there — right where the glaring light gives way to shade — a population of Australian horror writers thrives. It’s a great position to be in. Looking at stories published by independent presses in the past two years, we find that Australian horror can plunge wholly into the black, even more tragic and disturbing by contrast to the brightness left behind; it can be light-hearted but nuanced, love and joy limned in darkness; or it can tread both worlds, supernatural and terrifying and endearing all at once…
Read the rest here — and enjoy!
Twelve Planets (and we wants them all, precioussss)
Exciting news from the Twelfth Planet Press website: Margo Lanagan, Lucy Sussex, Rosaleen Love, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Deborah Biancotti, Kaaron Warren, Cat Sparks, Sue Isle, Kirstyn McDermott, Narrelle M Harris, Thoraiya Dyer, and Stephanie Campisi have been announced as the lineup for the Twelve Planets project! I’m a great fan of many of these authors, so I can’t wait to get my hands on all twelve of these books!
I’ve snurched the blurb from the TPP website so that you, too, can see how cool this concept is:
The Twelve Planets are twelve boutique collections by some of Australia’s finest short story writers. Varied across genre and style, each collection will offer four short stories and a unique glimpse into worlds fashioned by some of our favourite storytellers. Each author has taken the brief of 4 stories and up to 40 000 words in their own direction. Some are quartet suites of linked stories. Others are tasters of the range and style of the writer. Each release will bring something unexpected to our subscriber’s mailboxes.
The Twelve Planets will spread over 2011 and 2012, with six books released between February and November each year. The first three titles will be Nightsiders by Sue Isle (March), Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts (May) and the third collection will be by Lucy Sussex (July).
