Wise Words from Peter M. Ball

Peter is one of my Clarion South mates and a wonderfully gifted writer. He's been answering questions on writing on his blog recently. His latest post is called Everything I Know About Writing in 1069 Words or Less and all I can say is that it is the best summary of how to plot I've read in a long time. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels like this. Angela Slatter has linked to it on her blog too saying she intends to print it out and put it above her desk. I'll be doing the same.

While you're visiting his blog have a delve around. There's a lot more of interest too.

Locus 2011 Recommended Reading List

is up on the Locus On-line website.The list is put together by a consensus of the magazine's editors and reviewers. There's a strong field and I'm pleased to see among them a number of Australian authors, editors and publishers, including one of my Clarion South fellows, Peter M. Ball, who features twice. Three of our Clarion South tutors appear as well - Margo Lanagan, Kelly Link and Gardner Dozois. Congratulations to Western Australian publishers, Ticonderoga Publications and Twelfth Planet Press, too, on the list for story collections, and local editor, Jonathan Strahan.
Other Aussies on the list include Jo Anderton, Terry Dowling, Thoraiya Dyer, Greg Egan, Alison Goodman, Ian McHugh, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Lucy Sussex, Kaaron Warren and Kim Westwood. Congratulations to all.

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.

It's Nice to Know Such Talented People...

Peter M. Ball (one of my Clarion South mates you may remember and a writer of elegant, imaginative stories which have been garnering awards lately) has had his story, On the Destruction of Copenhagen by the War Machines of the Merfolk, included in the Year's Best SF 15 edited by Kathryn Cramer and David Hartwell. The Table of Contents is here.

If you'd like to read Peter's story it was originally published by Strange Horizons 6 July 2009.

Way to go, Peter.

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.

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

More Clarion Good News

During Clarion South we were warned that an incoming tutor did not like stories about unicorns or other fantasy creatures so, of course, several Clarionites saw this as a challenge. Peter Ball then proceeded to subvert all the tropes and place his unicorns in a world so far distant from knights and fair maidens that it took your breath away. He's been working on it since and it has now grown into a novella which has been picked up by Twelfth Planet Press to be published as part of their novella series.

This is no surprise to anyone who has read his work. Peter is one of those writers whose stories get under your skin. Since Clarion South he has been published in Dreaming Again and other places and I can't wait to read the expanded version of his unicorn tale.

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.