Category: Uncategorized

Twenty-first century beauty: Piccinini and ‘Once Upon a Time’

It’s an elusive thing, beauty. Artists and scholars have devoted forests of paper, kilometres of canvas, gallons of paint – not to mention years, and often lives – to defining and capturing ‘the beautiful’. Is a litter of mutant babies beautiful? How about a single babe with flippers instead of feet, an elephant’s trunk instead…… Continue reading Twenty-first century beauty: Piccinini and ‘Once Upon a Time’

Holy. Crow. It’s all happening.

Bluegrass Symphony was reviewed by Publishers Weekly today! Whoa. It’s actually happening: I’ve written a book and now people are reading it. I know that’s how it usually works, but still. It seems like such a long process, between writing and publishing, that to realise that strangers are going to read and comment on what…… Continue reading Holy. Crow. It’s all happening.

Paisley Stitchington’s Speculative Buggle

Hot off the WordPress! New Australian Spec-fic webzine, with a pitch that goes a little something like this: “Paisley Stitchington’s Speculative Buggle is an online journal publishing fiction and “not fiction” from Australian authors. No longer will you have to go on uncomfortable journeys to the local haberdasher just to acquire an underhand copy of…… Continue reading Paisley Stitchington’s Speculative Buggle

So much fun, I lost my voice

I arrived in Sydney late on Friday evening after a full day’s work — a full week’s, really — ready for a weekend of fun, friends and celebration. This was my third Aurealis Awards, but the first time I’d been nominated, so I was pretty excited. Angela (aka Brain) had a barrowload of nominations this…… Continue reading So much fun, I lost my voice

Bluegrass Symphony: Auction for a great cause!

Russell B Farr, editor extraordinaire at Ticonderoga Publications, has organised an auction of some special copies of Bluegrass Symphony to help fundraise for a really worthy cause. Lezli Robyn — an award-winning science fiction writer, Mike Resnick’s collaborator, Cambell Award finalist, Ticonderoga author, and all-around lovely gal — is raising funds to help her fiancé…… Continue reading Bluegrass Symphony: Auction for a great cause!

Great review of Shimmer #13…

…in which Jessica Barnes at The Portal has some lovely things to say about my story, ‘Gutted’: One of the best stories in this issue is “Gutted,” by L.L. Hannett. Erl doesn’t believe in selkies, but everyone around him does, and when his wife goes missing after confessing to an affair, Erl is pulled into…… Continue reading Great review of Shimmer #13…

Fairy Tale Girls Should Always and Never Do What They’re Told

Lately, I’ve been thinking about fairy tales. There was a fantastic panel at Swancon – with Ellen Datlow, Richard Harland, Jenny Blackford, Amanda Pillar, and Brain (aka Angela Slatter) – in which the panelists were kicking around many ideas about fairy tales: the evolution of the form; classics and modern retellings; questioning the theory that…… Continue reading Fairy Tale Girls Should Always and Never Do What They’re Told

Loves, New and Old

 1)      Podcasts  So, I’d listened to the first two episodes of ‘The Writer and the Critic’ (aka Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond sharing news, opinions and reviews about mostly-speculative-fiction books) and then in the madness of finishing the PhD of Doom I apparently forgot about anything that wasn’t directly related to medieval Icelandic literature. However.…… Continue reading Loves, New and Old