Alan Baxter's Blog, page 83

Yog-Blogsoth

Yog-Blogsoth is a website well worth your time. Thanks to Michael for pointing me in the direction of this one.

From TheLovescraftMan.com:

Michael Bukowski is admittedly obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and has spent the last year posting drawings of Lovecraft creatures on his blog Yog-Blogsoth. (Side note: Don't we Lovecraft bloggers come up with fun blog names?) His ultimate goal is "to draw EVERY creature he ever describes (sticking to Lovecraft only so far) from Elder Things and and The Great Race (who are described in immense detail) to Vooniths and Wamps (who are only mentioned).

Have a look. It's great!

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Conquilt from Aussiecon 4 going up for auction

At Worldcon last year, which was Aussiecon4, nearly 100 authors, illustrators, publishers and editors who were present signed a square of fabric. Each piece of fabric was worked into a quilt to celebrate the SF community. Click on the picture for a larger version. This is Conquilt.

Now, Conquilt is being auctioned on eBay as a fundraiser for the local Melbourne convention, Continuum. International bidders are encouraged and worldwide postage is available (at cost to the auction winner). The quilt will be on display at Continuum 7, 10th June to the 13th June 2011, and the auction will run on eBay from 10th June to 20th June.

My signature is on there, but don't let that put you off. Look at this list of amazing names:

Alan Baxter Alastair Reynolds Alisa Krasnostein Alison Croggon Amanda Pillar

Andrew J. McKiernan Angie Rega Bill Congreve Bob Eggleton

Carrie Vaughn Cat Sparks Catherynne M. Valente Charles Stross

China Mieville Chris Miles (an associate of H. I. Larry) Chuck McKenzie

Cory Doctorow Deborah Biancotti Delia Sherman Dirk Flinthart

Duncan Lay Fiona McIntosh Foz Meadows Gail Carriger

Garth Nix George Ivanoff George R. R. Martin Gillian Polack

Glenda Larke Grace Duggan Howard Tayler Ian Irvine Ian Nichols

Jane Routley Jason Nahrung Jay Lake Jean Johnson Jenner

Jennifer Fallon Jetse de Vries John Scalzi Jonathan Strahan Juliet Marillier

K. A. Bedford K. J. Taylor Kaaron Warren Kaja Foglio Karen Haber

Karen Healey Kate Elliot Kate Paulk Kathleen Jennings Keith Stevenson

Kim Stanley Robinson Kirstyn McDermott Kyla Ward Lara Morgan

Leanne Hall Lisa L. Hannett Lucy Sussex Marianne de Pierres

Mary Victoria Matthew Hughes Michael Pryor Michelle Marquardt

Narrelle M. Harris Nick Stathopoulos Nicole R. Murphy Paul Collins

Paul Cornell Paul Haines Peter M. Ball Peter V. Brett Phil Foglio

Richard Harland Rjurik Davidson Rob Shearman Robert Hood Robert Silverberg

Russell B. Farr Russell Blackford Russell Kirkpatrick Seanan McGuire

Shane Jiraya Cummings Shaun Tan Sue Bursztynski Tansy Rayner Roberts

Tehani Wessely Tracey O'Hara Trent Jamieson Trudi Canavan

I've randomly bolded a few of the bigger names to give you an idea.

Conquilt was assembled by Rachel Holkner and award-winning quilter Jeanette Holkner. It is based on the pattern 'Tribble Trouble' by Martha Thompson. It measures 152 cm x 192 cm with a 5cm diameter rod pocket on the back for easy display. More details here.

This strikes me as a fairly bizarre item, but certainly a unique one and something that is likely to become more valuable over time and a true collector's item. So get bidding!

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ThrillerCast Episode 18 – getting noticed as a writer

Episode18 of the podcast I host with David Wood is now up. In this episode we talk about what it takes to get noticed as a writer. We discuss short fiction as a means of promotion as well as a means of creativity in itself. We talk about the difference between having a large body of work and a large online presence. Whether one or the other is better and so on. Go and have a listen, share it with your friends and anyone else you think might like it and feel free to comment or email.

All the details here.

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Slut is a powerful word

Cities across Australia and the world are meeting points today for thousands of people who plan to take part in a SlutWalk. There have been many walks already and many more are planned. The idea was born when one Canadian policeman said women needed to take responsibility in the prevention of sexual assaults by not dressing like sluts. The reaction was, understandably, outrage. The walks are, in essence, women reclaiming the word slut and marching for their rights to dress how they please and never be at risk of sexual assault, abuse and rape.

Gay people have done a great job in reclaiming the word queer. Black people have managed to make nigger a part of their own vocabulary while it's completely taboo for anyone else to say it. But they're just words. Words on their own have no power. It's how they're used and how they're directed that make them powerful. I just said nigger above – look, I did it again! – but it's simply a word, used to convey a point. Using it in description of someone is universally recognised as an abusive, racist act and that's wrong.

I've known girls that will greet each other with, "What's up, sluts?" and all laugh about it. But if I were to call any one of them a slut they would be justifiably outraged and offended. It's not the word that's the problem, it's the intent. It's the baggage that comes with the word. It's the sneakily "disguised" position held by the person using the word that has the power.

That Canadian policeman said to ten college students in April, "I've been told I'm not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised." The guy is clearly a dickhead. Dressing "like a slut" doesn't make people sexually assault you, any more than heavy metal makes you suicidal or video games make you a mass murderer. People are already suicidal, homicidal or sexually sociopathic and any excuse will do. Women can dress however they like and should be able to do so without ever feeling at risk. They might attract some appreciative glances, but they should never be told they're attracting attack.

I don't know whether reclaiming the word slut is really going to work in the same way as queer or nigger or other reclamations have worked. But I do know this:

No woman should ever be the victim of sexual abuse or assault for any reason. There is never an excuse, whether it be alcohol/drugs made me do it, the way she dressed means she was asking for it, or the little voices in my head told me to. Any victimisation of anyone is wrong and only the fault of the attacker.

So walk with pride, and know that most men I know agree that a women is never a fair target of abuse or assault.

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Emerging Writers' Festival 2011 TwitterFEST

The Emerging Writers' Festival is an independent arts organisation based in Melbourne's Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, that exists in order to promote the interests of emerging writers – to improve their opportunities for professional development as well as their engagement with the broader public. Each year the Emerging Writers' Festival brings writers, editors, publishers and literary performers together with the reading public for a festival that is fast becoming an essential part of Australia's literary calendar.

This year it's held from May 26th (that's tomorrow!) until June 5th, and there's loads going on. You can learn all about it and find out what's happening at the website: http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/

But you don't have to be in Melbourne to get involved. There's an online component and I'll be part of that. The EWF this year includes TwitterFEST. From the site:

TwitterFEST is a series of festival discussions featuring… you! It's social media mixed with literary debate, so get those #ewf11 hashtags happening and get ready to bounce ideas off some of Australia's best writers and thinkers.

Follow @emergingwriters on Twitter, watch the #ewf11 hashtag and show up at 2pm each day to join in. I'm hosting the TwitterFEST on Wednesday, June 1st. Here are the TwitterFESTs in order:

Mon 30 May, 2pm – 3pm

Do you play? with Paul Callaghan (@paul_callaghan)

How important is experimentation and play to the creative process?

Tues 31 May, 2pm – 3pm

Writing vs Sport with Soph Langley (@sophlangley)

Can physical fitness play a role in our writing lives?

Wed 1 June, 2pm – 3pm

Can Genre Fiction Be Literary? with Alan Baxter (@alanbaxter)

Why is genre fiction so often spoken about separately from literary fiction?

Thursday 2 June, 2pm – 3pm

Writing about Place with PM Newton (@pmnewton)

How do you create a strong sense of place in your work – and do you need to visit somewhere to be

able to write about it?

Friday 3 June, 2pm – 3pm

Are we living in a post-publisher world? with If:Book Australia (@ifbookaus)

How is the role of publisher evolving since the digital revolution, and what does it mean for writers?

So get involved. Tell your friends, spread the word and let's get some lively debate happening. See you there!

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Of readers and gatekeepers – a call to arms

Are you reading this? Then I'm talking to you. You're a reader and you have a new responsibility. I'm including myself in this. I'm a writer, but I'm a reader too. Any writer worth his or her salt should be a voracious reader, and we've got a new responsibility as well. We're all the New Gatekeepers. No, not extras in a Doctor Who episode, don't get over-excited.

There's so much talk about the changing face of publishing, and justifiably so. It's an exciting time and writing and publishing is going through a renaissance brought about by new technologies. That means there are options out there for pretty much everyone to get their writing out into the world, and a lot of people are taking up the opportunity. Some people are doing seriously well out of it, like Amanda Hocking. Others are doing rather less well, like the poor woman that immolated her career with one online review – you know who I mean. But one of the net results of this revolution in publishing is that readers have been saddled with a massive new responsibility.

Gatekeeping is important. In the good old days of the late 90s and early 2000s, and since forever before that, the gatekeepers were the publishers. Writers would approach publishers, either directly or through agents, and publishers would decide what was published and what wasn't. They essentially filtered what everyone got to read. The upside of this was, largely, the stuff that made it into print was generally well written and worth reading. Generally. We all know publishers are quite capable of turning out reams of utter shite too. But on the whole they ensured a general level of quality control. The downside, apart from the afore-mentioned shite, is that they also ensured that anything risky or unusual, something strangely cross-genre, something not immediately saleable, was unlikely to see the light of day. There were self-publishing and small press success stories, where the unlikely became massive, but those hits were very, very rare.

Now, with the advent of Print On Demand and ebook technology, publishers have found those gatekeeping responsibilities ripped away. Writers are still keen to be published by the big guys – there's a definite advantage to it, both in terms of credibility and distribution, hence readership. But literally millions of people are circumventing the publishers and self-publishing. Millions more are scoring smaller deals with small press. The volume of stuff out there is staggering. And a lot of it is complete shit.

Remember, the publishers themselves have turned out many stinkers over the years, but the strike rate for quality – in editing, formatting, production and so on, as well as writing ability – has generally been kept high even if the stories were rubbish. Not always, but often. Nowadays people think it's easy to write and be "published" and there's loads of stuff out there that really shouldn't see the light of day. Poorly written, poorly edited, poorly formatted – just poor. And that's where we as readers come in. This is why we are the New Gatekeepers.

Success in writing has always relied on word of mouth. When a big publisher puts the might of the marketing machine behind a new release that word of mouth gets a massive head start, but it's still the reviews and recommendations of critics and readers that determine whether a book is truly successful or not. That's still the case, but the mainstream reviewers can't keep up with the tsunami of words constantly bearing down on them. Along with all the newly published writers, a whole bunch of new reviewers have cropped up, and many book review blogs are developing considerable power. This is a very good thing, as it helps to strim out the crap and let the quality stuff rise to the top.

But you don't need a review blog to wield power in this new world. You're a reader – you have enormous power. If only you'd use it. By the Power of Yourskull! Or, more accruately, the brain within it. If you read something you like, tell people all about it. Recommend it to your friends, buy it and gift it to people. You can gift ebooks now as well as print books. There is no better result for a writer than a reader enjoying the book and recommending it. But don't stop there – there's so much more you can do, very easily.

You don't need to be a talented reviewer to review books. Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Goodreads, Smashwords – all these places and more make it very easy for you to leave a review and rate a book. Or just rate it. Your review doesn't have to be anything lengthy to have an impact. For example, look at this review of my second novel, MageSign, that a reader called Joefredwheels left on Amazon.com (Yes, I'm going to use my own work as reference. Sue me.):

excellent follow up – great story continuing adventure of first book protaganist. hoping for more stories in this world. Baxter is an excellent writer of a fast past exciting plot. THIS IS WORTH THE MONEY. BUY THE BOOK

He also rated it five stars. Brilliant. It's very short, it's not worrying about being good writing in itself, it's simply conveying the person's enjoyment of the book. Sure, it's cool when readers take the time to write a few paragraphs of carefully thought out critique when they review, but the review above is just as valuable.

Here's another example, this time a review of RealmShift, left on Amazon by Cathy Russell "Ganymeder":

a well thought out tale – I liked that this story had believable characters and explored faith (or lack of), it's origins, etc. It had a lot of deep themes. The characters were well thought out. The plot was engaging, and I liked the whole idea of a superhuman who could kick the devil's ass. While reading this, I kept thinking it would make a great action movie or comic book too. I'd recommend this. 4 stars.

That wouldn't have taken long to write, but in a single paragraph she recommends the book and gives some basic reasons why. Again, brilliant.

I can't express how grateful I am when people take the time to do this. And it's something we can all do, for any publication, anywhere on the web.

I tend to review books I enjoy here on my blog, but I'm a regular blogger anyway. I always rate them on Goodreads. I'm also planning to copy my reviews over onto Amazon and Goodreads – I wish I'd done it as I wrote them, as now it's going to take a while and a concerted effort. But I'll do it, because I plan to put my reviews where my mouth is.

So we, as readers, are the new gatekeepers. It's our responsibility to help spread the word about the good stuff we read, and the bad. You don't have to leave negative reviews on anything – just don't review them. But it's an act of true benevolence to leave good reviews of stuff you enjoy, or drop by websites and leave a star rating. You can write a single line or single paragraph review and copy that to all the sites you visit or shop at. If you do blog, then reviewing a book on your site is fantastic. But whatever you do, do something. Help spread the word. As writers, nothing is more valuable to us than the recommendations of readers. It's always been that way, and now it's more true than ever. Readers can make sure the good stuff out there gets noticed and more writers get themselves a well-earned career. Power to the people!

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2010 Aurealis Awards results

Last night I attended the Aurealis Awards presentation, held for the first time in Sydney. Now I'm very tired and recovering from a hangover, so this won't be a long post. It was great to catch up with so many friends again and celebrate the strength of speculative fiction in Australia. I'll post a list of the winners below.

I had an additional honour in that I got to receive an award on behalf of someone that couldn't be there. The Kris Hembury Encouragement Award this year went to Jodi Cleghorn, writer and publisher. You might recognise the name as I've blogged here a fair bit about 100 Stories For Queensland, that Jodi was instrumental in organising and publishing through her eMergent Publishing label. She also has a story of her own in Dead Red Heart, the anthology of Australian vampire stories from Ticonderoga Publications, which I've also blogged about as I have a story in there too. So I've been crossing paths a fair bit with Jodi over the last couple of years and it was my absolute pleasure to be able to receive the award on her behalf last night. She really deserved it. She didn't know anything about it, and came back from a camping trip this morning to a flood of congratulations that completely spun her out. That's what awards should be like!

The full winners list is as follows:

KRIS HEMBURY ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD: Jodie Cleghorn

PETER MCNAMARA CONVENORS' AWARD: Helen Merrick

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL: Transformation Space by Marianne de Pierres

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY: "The Heart of a Mouse" by K.J. Bishop

BEST FANTASY NOVEL: Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts

BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY [TIE]: "The February Dragon" by L.L. Hannett & Angela Slatter and "Yowie" by Thoraiya Dyer

BEST HORROR NOVEL: Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott

BEST HORROR SHORT STORY: "The Fear" by Richard Harland

BEST ANTHOLOGY: Wings of Fire, Edited by Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon

BEST COLLECTION: The Girl With No Hands by Angela Slatter

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/GRAPHIC NOVEL: Changing Ways: Book 1 by Justin Randall

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL: Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY: "A Thousand Flowers" by Margo Lanagan

BEST CHILDREN'S FICTION(told primarily through pictures): The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator)

BEST CHILDREN'S FICTION (told primarily through words): The Keepers, Lian Tanner

You can find out more about the awards and a full list of this year's nominees at the Aurealis Awards site. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

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The SF & F Short Story Collection Meme

I was watching on Twitter while Charles A Tan (of Bibliophile Stalker fame) chatted with all sorts of people about short story collections. Not anthologies, with multiple authors, but single author collections.

I'm a fan of short stories, I love writing and reading them, but I read most of my short fiction in magazines and anthologies – I have very few single author collections. I am keen to get more and Charles has created a meme to help us along the way. With people like Ellen Datlow, Jonathan Strahan, Kaaron Warren and others helping with their suggestions this is one serious quality list of science fiction and fantasy single author collections of short stories.

As Charles says:

I love the short story format and the problem with a lot of the book memes circulating is that they exclusively focus on novels. I've done some crowd sourcing (and some personal recommendations of course–this list isn't meant to be objective) and I've come up with a list of 166 short story collections.

So you can use this list as a fantastic resource of great collections, or you can play along with the meme. In that case, the usual rules apply: bold those that you've read and italicise those that you own but haven't read.

I know that my bolding and italicising would be woefully sparse, for the reasons mentioned above, so I won't bother, but here's the list:

1. The Monkey's Wedding and Other Stories by Joan Aiken

2. Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

3. The Kite of Stars and Other Stories by Dean Francis Alfar

4. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

5. Black Projects, White Knights by Kage Baker

6. The Best of J. G. Ballard by J.G. Ballard

7. Perpetuity Blues and Other Stories by Neal Barrett, Jr.

8. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron

9. Occultation by Laird Barron

10. Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle

11. The Collected Stories of Greg Bear by Greg Bear

12. The Chains That You Refuse by Elizabeth Bear

13. The Girl With The Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender

14. Lord Stink & Other Stories by Judith Berman

15. Trysts: A Triskaidecollection of Queer and Weird Stories by Steve Berman

16. A Book of Endings by Deborah Biancotti

17. Blooded on Arachne by Michael Bishop

18. One Winter in Eden by Michael Bishop

19. The Poison Eaters & Other Stories by Holly Black

20. Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges

21. From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes

22. Streetcar Dreams by Richard Bowes

23. The Stories of Ray Bradbury by Ray Bradbury

24. Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories by Gary Braunbeck

25. Home before Dark: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories by Gary Braunbeck

26. Particle Theory by Edward Bryant

27. Tides from the New Worlds by Tobias S. Buckell

28. Bloodchild and Other Stories By Octavia E. Butler

29. Dirty Work: Stories by Pat Cadigan

30. The Night We Buried Road Dog by Jack Cady

31. The Panic Hand by Jonathan Carroll

32. Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories by Angela Carter

33. Fireworks: Nine Stories in Various Disguises by Angela Carter

34. The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories by Angela Carter

35. The Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

36. The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke by Arthur C. Clarke

37. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

38. Novelties & Souvenirs, Collected Short Fiction by John Crowley

39. The Avram Davidson Treasury by Avram Davidson

40. The Enquiries of Dr. Eszterhazy by Avram Davidson

41. Driftglass: Ten Tales of Speculative Fiction by Samuel R. Delany

42. We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick

43. Strange Days: Fabulous Journeys with Gardner Dozois by Gardner Dozois

44. Beluthahatchie by Andy Duncan

45. What Will Come After by Scott Edelman

46. Axiomatic by Greg Egan

47. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

48. The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World by Harlan Ellison

49. Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison

50. The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller by Carol Emshwiller

51. Dangerous Space by Kelley Eskridge

52. Fugue State by Brian Evenson

53. Harsh Oases by Paul Di Filippo

54. The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories by Jeffrey Ford

55. The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford

56. The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford

57. Returning My Sister's Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice by Eugie Foster

58. Artificial Things by Karen Joy Fowler

59. What I Didn't See and Other Stories by Karen Joy Fowler

60. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

61. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

62. Burning Chrome by William Gibson

63. In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss

64. Take No Prisoners by John Grant

65. The Best of Joe Haldeman by Joe Haldeman

66. Last Summer at Mars Hill by Elizabeth Hand

67. Saffron & Brimstone: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand

68. Things That Never Happen by M. John Harrison

69. The Past Through Tomorrow by Robert Heinlein

70. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

71. Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson

72. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard

73. The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

74. Unexpected Magics: Collected Stories by Diana Wynne Jones

75. Minor Arcana by Diana Wynne Jones

76. Grazing the Long Acre by Gwyneth Jones

77. The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly

78. The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories by John Kessel

79. Night Shift by Stephen King

80. Different Seasons by Stephen King

81. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King

82. Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages

83. Scenting the Dark and Other Stories by Mary Robinette Kowal

84. Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories by Nancy Kress

85. Nine Hundred Grandmothers by R.A. Lafferty

86. Objects of Worship by Claude Lalumiere

87. Black Juice by Margo Lanagan

88. Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

89. Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan

90. Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters by John Langan

91. The Best of Joe R. Lansdale by Joe R. Lansdale

92. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin

93. The Compass Rose by Ursula K. Le Guin

94. The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

95. Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer by Tanith Lee

96. The First Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber

97. The Second Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber

98. The Nightmare Factory by Thomas Ligotti

99. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link

100. Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

101. Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors by Livia Llewellyn

102. H. P. Lovecraft: Tales by H.P. Lovecraft

103. Breathmoss and other Exhalations by Ian R. MacLeod

104. You Might Sleep by Nick Mamatas

105. Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective by George R. R. Martin

106. The Invisible Country by Paul McAuley

107. Harrowing the Dragon by Patricia McKillip

108. The Bone Key by Sarah Monette

109. The Best of Michael Moorcock by Michael Moorcock

110. Black God's Kiss by C.L. Moore

111. The Cat's Pajamas and Other Stories by James Morrow

112. Dreams of the Compass Rose by Vera Nazarian

113. Unforgivable Stories by Kim Newman

114. The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club by Kim Newman

115. The Original Dr. Shade and Other Stories by Kim Newman

116. Monstrous Affections by David Nickle

117. The Best of Larry Niven by Larry Niven

118. I Am No One You Know: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates

119. The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor

120. Zoo by Otsuichi

121. Lesser Demons by Norman Partridge

122. Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales by Norman Partridge

123. Night Moves and Other Stories by Tim Powers

124. Little Gods by Tim Pratt

125. Map of Dreams by M. Rickert

126. Holiday by M. Rickert

127. The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson by Kim Stanley Robinson

128. The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum

129. Unacceptable Behaviour by Penelope Rowe

130. The Adventures of Alyx by Joanna Russ

131. Long Walks, Last Flights, and Other Journeys by Ken Scholes

132. Filter House by Nisi Shawl

133. Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Rob Shearman

134. The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard

135. Trujillo and Other Stories by Lucius Shepard

136. Phases of the Moon: Stories from Six Decades by Robert Silverberg

137. Are You There and Other Stories by Jack Skillingstead

138. The Girl With No Hands and Other Tales by Angela Slatter

139. Crystal Express by Bruce Sterling

140. Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling

141. Houses Without Doors by Peter Straub

142. Magic Terror: 7 Tales by Peter Straub

143. Absolute Uncertainty by Lucy Sussex

144. The Best of Michael Swanwick by Michael Swanwick

145. Gravity's Angels: 13 Stories by Michael Swanwick

146. Monterra's Deliciosa & Other Tales & by Anna Tambour

147. The Ice Downstream by Melanie Tem

148. The Far Side of the Lake by Steve Rasnic Tem

149. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.

150. Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home by James Tiptree, Jr.

151. In the Mean Time by Paul Tremblay

152. My Pathology by Lisa Tuttle

153. Ventriloquism by Catherynne M. Valente

154. The Jack Vance Reader by Jack Vance

155. City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer

156. The Third Bear by Jeff VanderMeer

157. Strange Things in Close-up; the Nearly Complete Howard Waldrop

158. Dead Sea Fruit by Kaaron Warren

159. Everland and Other Stories by Paul Witcover

160. The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories by Gene Wolfe

161. The Very Best of Gene Wolfe by Gene Wolfe

162. Impossible Things by Connie Willis

163. Fire Watch by Connie Willis

164. The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth and Other Stories by Roger Zelazny

165. Impossible Stories by Zoran Zivkovic

166. The Writer, The Book, The Reader by Zoran Zivkovic

That really is a tremedous list of authors and I'm going to be seeking out some of those. I was surprised that there are actually a fair number on there that I have read, but still not enough to warrant bolding anything! I would also add one – Charles included The Girl With No Hands & Other Tales by Angela Slatter. I would include Slatter's Sourdough and Other Stories too, which is one of the best books of any format that I read last year.

So, how many have you read?

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100 Stories For Queensland – please buy it tomorrow

When something drops out of the news cycle it's easy to forget about it. But just because the purveyors of sensationalised pictures have got bored with an event, it doesn't mean people aren't still suffering. The devastating floods in Queensland might seem like a long time ago to most of us, but they're still very real to lots of people. People that have lost everything and are suffering. eMergent Publishing put the call out to collect 100 stories, donated from writers around the world, and publish them in an anthology to raise money to directly help those people. Jodi Cleghorn, editor and owner of eMergent, has done an incredible job with her team getting this book together and I'm really proud to be one of the 100 authors included. Now it's time to buy the book.

In order to raise awareness about the book's existence, therefore sell more copies and therefore get more money to the people in need, the paperback edition is being promoted with a Chart Rush. What is a chart rush? Readers are invited to purchase a book on Amazon, in a nominated 24-hour period, with the intent to capitalise on the volume of sales to move the book up the Amazon best seller list. The higher up the chart it is (we're aiming for a spot in the top 100) the more visible it becomes to other readers who may go on to purchase it. It's all about exposure and the more people who come across 100 Stories for Queensland, the more books we sell and the more money we raise. If you can't buy on the day, you can add it to your wishlist. Every little bit counts.

100 Stories for Queensland is listed at Amazon and Amazon UK.

You can join the Amazon Chart Rush Facebook event or official fan page for updates on our progress up the charts. Also tweets at @100stories4qld and 100 Stories for Queensland is listed at Goodreads.

This is a fantastic book, full of stories from some great authors, that will directly help the survivors of the floods, with all proceeds going to the Queensland Premier's Flood Appeal. Please buy the book tomorrow, Tuesday 17th May (but late if you're in Australia to stay tight to the 24 hour window), and do your bit to help. You'll get a sweet book out of it.

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The May Australian Speculative Fiction Blog Carnival now on NecroScope

The May edition of the Australian Speculative Fiction Blog Carnival has been posted to NecroScope. Take a peek, and find out what's been happening in your community this past month.

http://zombiefictionreview.blogspot.com/2011/05/news-australian-speculative-fiction.html

There's some good stuff, so make yourself a cuppa and have a browse.

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