I Don't Know How I Missed This.

I don't know how I missed this. I guess life was a bit on top of me - there's been a lot of that lately - but the Table of Contents has been released for The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror edited by Liz Gryzb and Talie Helene to be published by Ticonderoga Publications in June, 2011. Included, among an impressive list of talented Australian writers, are stories by three of my Clarion South mates - Peter M. Ball with L'esprit de L'escalier, Jason Fischer's The School Bus and Christopher Green with Where We Go To Be Made Lighter. I've read a number of the stories on this list and they were all gripping so I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

Edited to fix the kitty caused - and unnoticed by me - typo.

The Tangled Bank

Talking of Christopher Green in my last post reminded me that Chris Lynch (yet another Clarion South mate) of Tangled Bank Press has released the anthology The Tangled Bank. Christopher Green features, along with fellow Clarion Southers, Ben Francisco and Chris Lynch, among an impressive list of contributors. To give you a taste of the anthology you can read Christopher Green's story Darwin's Daughter on the website here.

Rejection Report

Hmm, you may remember that I started the year trying to match my Clarion South mate, Christopher Green. Chris aimed at having one hundred rejections by the end of the year. The idea is that to have that many rejections you have to be sending out work - which is how you get the acceptances you want. Simple and logical. My only variation from that plan is, because of my focus on completing my novel, I have modified it a little and I am aiming at fifty rejections.

Unfortunately - and somewhat embarrassingly - so far I have had only two rejections. There are a whole lot of excuses (all valid)I could offer but the truth is I haven't sent out enough. I'm setting the grindstone a-spinning now. Can you hear it? "I must do better. I must do better. I must do better."

Aurealis Winners Announced

Out of my sick bed for just long enough to check this out.

The Aurealis Awards were announced last night and I'm delighted to see among them two of my Clarion South mates.

Peter M. Ball Best Science Fiction Short Story for 'Clockwork, Patchwork and Ravens' Apex Magazine May 2009.
Christopher Green joint winner Best Fantasy Short Story for 'Father's Kill' Beneath Ceaseless Skies #24 Congratulations.

Others include fellow West Australian Jonathan Strahan (ed) Eclipse 3 Night Shade Books for Best Anthology and Cat Sparks receiving a very well deserved Best Young Adult Short Story for her haunting tale 'Seventeen' in Masques CSFG.

The rest of the list is a catalogue of good writers which you can see here. Congratulations to all.

The Tangled Bank

The Table of Contents of The Tangled Bank e-anthology - to be launched on Darwin Day 12 February 2010 by Tangled Bank Press - has been announced. I am delighted to see, among a very impressive list, my Clarion South 2007 fellows Ben Francisco, Christopher Green and Chris Lynch as well as Brendan Carson who, I believe, attended Clarion South 2009. Chris Lynch is also the editor.

The idea of celebrating Darwin's achievements attracts me and I'm looking forward to reading this.

More Awesomeness

This time it's my Clarion South mate, Christopher Green, whose story Father's Kill is in this edition of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Chris also has a blog Open Water/Open Air where he has made some insightful entries recently on what it means to be a writer and how you get from aspiring to selling. Have a look. You won't see his legendary boots - you had to be at Clarion South for that - but you will see a writer hard at work with something worthwhile to say.

More Clarion South Goodies

Sadly they're not mine.

First Christopher Green's story A Hundreth Name is up at Abyss & Apex. Why don't you drop over there and try it for yourself. As with anything Chris writes it is worth reading.

Then there's Laura E. Goodin, who, creative person that she is, between writing plays, stories and much else, has set up Outlandish Voices, podcasts showcasing writers from the Wollongong area. The first three stories are by Richard Harland, Robert Hood and Cat Sparks and you'll find them here.

It's been a pretty messy year for me and mine so far and as a result I think I might have missed mentioning that Peter M. Ball's novella Horn published by Twelfth Planet Press is also out in the wide world.

I do try to keep up with all my Clarion South mates but I have a horrible feeling that sometimes I miss one. If I have missed you it wasn't intentional so let me know if you had something published and I'll add you to the ever growing honour roll.

And it's already February!

Where has January gone, that's what I'd like to know. There was much barking at the front door this morning with Jaz getting highly stressed. When I went to look out there was a bunch of kids in school uniform and on bikes. You know what this means, don't you? School has gone back. School Has Started Again! Do you wonder why I wonder where January went? Scary, that's what it is - especially as not very much seems to have happened during the month.

Well some things have, I guess. Some of it good, some bad. As the bad is connected to the global economy I can hardly do anything about it. The good on the other hand is a series of small joys - a bundle of books bought with my Christmas and birthday money. It's taken years but I've finally convinced most of my family that book vouchers or money are the way to go for me. That gives maximum pleasure in the browsing, the choosing and the reading - and, of course, is where much of my time has gone, it being too hot to be outside.

This year the list is (plus some supplementary purchases that I am not convinced Pisces believes were essential):

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. What can I say? Wow!

The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller. Another Wow!

The New Space Opera ed by Gardiner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. Thoroughly enjoyed it

The Awakening by Bevan McGuiness. I'll be interested to see the rest of this series.

The Aware by Glenda Larke. The first book in the trilogy The Isles of Glory. I missed it when it first came out and so came back to read it after I had enjoyed the following two books. I'm glad I did.

Dreaming Again ed. Jack Dann. A collection of speculative fiction stories well worth reading including several by some of my Clarion South mates - Ben Francisco, Chris Lynch, Christopher Green, Jason Fischer and Peter M. Ball.

On the still to read pile are:

The Daughters of Moab by Kim Westwood

Cosmic Logos by Traci Harding

Royal Exile by Fiona McIntosh

A Forest of Stars by Kevin J. Anderson

The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills

And just to show I do read other than speculative fiction sometimes:

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

On Dog Versus Sandwich and Dreaming Again

Until I came across Lyn Battersby's story, Lily's Song, I hadn't really had a look at Dog Versus Sandwich which has been my loss. There are some neat stories here by writers who can really write. I discovered, in my wanderings through the site, stories by Jason Fischer and Peter M. Ball, both fellow Clarion South attendees but even more impressively both also have stories in Jack Dann's recent anthology, Dreaming Again, along with writers of the calibre of Margo Lanagan, Lee Battersby, Kim Wilkins and Rowena Corey Daniels to name only a handful.
Christopher Green, Ben Francisco and Chris Lynch are others from Clarion South 2007 in Dreaming Again too and I was delighted to see Cecily Scutt, a fellow West Australian, has a story in there as well.
Dreaming Again combines so many great writers that all I can say is "Go and read it" but while you're waiting to get to the bookshop try out Dog Versus Sandwich.