Tim Jones's Blog, page 49

Getting Science Fiction And Fantasy Published In New Zealand. Part 1: Short Fiction

This is a post for NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week.

At Au Contraire, I gave a talk about getting speculative fiction published in New Zealand. This and the following post are an attempt to capture what I said at the workshop, and later said I would write up for SpecFicNZ. Part 1 focuses on short fiction. Part 2 will look at novels.



I am sure to have missed various things, so please give details of additional publishers and markets in the comments.



I'm in no way suggesting that...

Tuesday Poem: Love In A Nutshell, by Renee Liang

This follows my interview with Renee Liang last week.

Love in a nutshell



For Roseanne and Stephen



I wanted to tell you how love grows from a tiny seed

sown at random

like drifting seed pods in summer

you catch and wish upon



how the clash of swords in a gym

sometimes sounds like sudden laughter

and why taking the hit

is better than ducking



I wanted to say

why losing car keys on a black sand beach at midnight

is no problem

if you have each other



and of the warmth of the moon

embraced by p...

An Interview With Renee Liang

Renee Liang likes to call herself a 'writer' as the best description for her disparate activities, which so far include poetry, plays, fiction and non fiction, blogs (for The Big Idea and The Tuesday Poets), librettos and recently, screenplays. She has been part of the Auckland poetry community for a number of years, serving from 2005-9 as a Poetry Live MC. She also organises other arts initiatives focussing on community building and collaborations.

Renee, what impresses me most about...

Tuesday Poem: Down George Street In The Rain

Down George Street In The Rain



I talked to the shop signs

down Cuba Street

down Cashel Street

down George Street in the rain.



I sidestepped the shoppers.

Take that, Phil Bennett!

Take that, old lady with a limp

and orthopaedic shoes.



We were as Gods

as eighteen-year-old Gods

who wore our Gore High jerseys to the bottle store —

they wouldn't let us in.



We smiled upon our people.

People, we said, we walk among you.

Don't bow, don't scrape, don't even step aside.

In gratitude, in wonder...

Short Reviews: Enamel 2, Bravado 19, and "You And Me And Cancer Makes Three", by John Irvine

It's review time again, with two literary magazines and a poetry chapbook to consider: all three of which I enjoyed.



Enamel 2






which concentrates on the poetry, and lists the contributors, so instead I want to say a little bit about the t...

News From A Foreign Country

I've already blogged about new NZ short story collection

A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction, edited by Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan. But now there's more news worth sharing, courtesy of the anthology's indefatigable publishers Random Static:



Au Contraire Competition



Many of the stories in A Foreign Country were selected via the open competition run in conjunction with Au Contraire.* Entries were judged by author and Au Contraire Guest of Honour Sean Williams, who...

Blogging Au Contraire: Day Three, Part 2: So Many Panels So Close To Home

Normally I'd be posting a Tuesday Poem around this time - but I've decided to get my Au Contraire blogging finished instead. Normal poetic service will be resumed next Tuesday.

I put up a rather bleary-eyed post in the early hours of Monday morning expressing my happiness at Voyagers winning a Sir Julius Vogel Award - but a whole lot of other good stuff happened on the Sunday of Au Contraire. Here are some personal highlights from the day:



Jay Lake Kaffeeklatsch



Though I moderated two...

Blogging Au Contraire: Day Three, Part 1: The Sir Julius Vogel Awards

I'm a tired but happy little Tim tonight, 'cos I got one of these on the mantelpiece.



Of course, I can only keep it for six months: it's the Sir Julius Vogel Award for "Best Collected Work" which the anthology Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand won at Sunday night's awards ceremony at Au Contraire. Voyagers was co-edited by Mark Pirie and I, so Mark gets to share the award - as should all the poets whose work is included in Voyagers.



For all the Voyagers winners and nominees...

Blogging Au Contraire: Day Two: SpecFicNZ launch, Getting Published in NZ Panel, Why I'm Not A Bookseller

Plenty of highlights at Au Contraire today - some of which I attended, and others of which I heard about - but a diminishing level of energy to blog about them. So hey ho, let's go.



SpecFicNZ



The new Speculative Fiction Writers of New Zealand organisation, best known as SpecFicNZ, was launched this evening by Ripley Patton and other members of the SpecFicNZ team. As the organisation's web page says,

SpecFicNZ is the association for creators, writers and editors of speculative fiction in...

Blogging Au Contraire: Day One: "A Foreign Country" Book Launch

I'm pushing it a bit when I say that I'm blogging Day 1 of Au Contraire, since all I attended today was the launch of new short fiction anthology A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction. I'll be much more thoroughly present at the Con tomorrow and on Sunday.



But here are some quick observations:



* The book launch was short but sweet. Anna Caro introduced the book, Claire Brunette read her story from the collection, "Beneath The Trees", and then much signing and photographing was ...