Raymond E Feist in Auckland 19 June

Further to yesterday’s post, there is also going to be a Raymond E Feist event in Auckland.

Don’t miss your chance to meet Raymond E. Feist and hear what it is like to write The Magician’s End, the final book of a series that has occupied his life for more than thirty years.

Entry to this event is free and every person who attends is in with a chance to win an advanced proof signed by Raymond E. Feist himself!

WEDNESDAY 19 JUNE
Whare Room, Auckland City Library,
46 Lorne Street.
Doors open at 6pm.

Raymond E Feist in Wellington 20 June

Repeated from over at the Au Contraire site

Raymond E. Feist is one of the world’s best-selling fantasy authors, and after more than thirty books, his Magician series is coming to an end. Au Contraire, HarperCollins New Zealand, and Arty Bees are proud to bring Mr Feist to New Zealand for this exclusive pre-convention event.

Don’t miss your chance to meet Raymond E. Feist and hear what it is like to write The Magician’s End, the final book of a series that has occupied his life for more than thirty years.

Entry to this exclusive event is free and every person who attends is in with a chance to win an advanced proof signed by Raymond E. Feist himself!

THURSDAY 20 JUNE
Mezzanine Room, Wellington Central Library,
65 Victoria Street.
Doors open at 6pm for 6.30pm start.

Phillip Mann event at Unity Books Wellington

You are warmly invited to a midday event with Phillip Mann.

Phillip Mann will discuss his latest book The Disestablishment of Paradise followed by a reading and Q&A session.

Thursday 30th May – 12 noon – 12.45 pm.
Unity Books
57 Willis Street
Wellington

Phoenix SF Society – May Calendar

Phoenix is a Wellington based SF/F/H club catering to fans of all fandom persuasions. The main meetings are held monthly on the second Wednesday of the month. Other regular events also happen during the month.

Main Meeting – 8th May, 7.30pm – Annual General Meeting. Venue:  Brian Davis Room, Cathedral of St Pauls, Hill Street.

Special Interest Groups:

• Biblio – 13th May, 5.30pm – Discussion group for readers – D4, Featherston Street
• Writers – 18th May, 1.30pm – Writers support group -Miramar
• Board Gaming – 18th May, 6.30pm – Newlands
• PIG – 25th May, 7.30pm – Regular monthly social gathering – Kelson
• Video – 7th Jun, 7.30pm – Tawa

Note that some events are held at the homes of Phoenix members. For privacy reasons, these are not shown in full here. If you wish to attend these events or simply find out more about Phoenix, please email enquiries@phoenix.sf.org.nz.

GUFF Delegate in Wellington – Social Gathering

Mihaela Marija Perkovic is a Croatian science fiction fan who is also the GUFF Delegate Downunder for 2013. She has been travelling around Australia, attending Swancon & Conflux, and is arriving in Wellington today hoping to spend some time getting to know local SF fans. We are going to host a get together on Thursday evening (2/5/2013) to welcome her to Wellington and would like to invite you to join us.

To help you decide, a little more that you should know about Mihaela. She is from Croatia – a country of about the same population (4M) as New Zealand. Yet they manage to get 1300+ people to their national convention without turning it into an expo – a con for which Mihaela is the PR manager. She can also talk about the youth outreach programmes she runs there to successfully attract new young fans to their conventions and clubs. Or if you prefer she can talk about how fans have become successful publishers. Mihaela was very well received at Swancon and Conflux where she proved a friendly and chatty delegate. For more info, have a look at her web site (rantalica.com) or on twitter @rantalica.

Details: The venue is Avida – 132 Featherston St – on the corner with Johnston st. (That is the same corner as the Featherston and Leuven – our backup venues). The plan is to meet there after work on Thursday 2nd – say 6pm onwards and have a drink and possibly a meal while we chat.

DUFF Race voting is now open

The DUFF race is now on. There are two candidates for the Down Under Fan Fund this year, so please download the PDF form and vote.

Founded in 1972, and supported by contributions from all over the world, DUFF sends a delegate from North America to Australia/New Zealand, or the other way in alternating years, attending the World Science Fiction Convention if it is on the receiving side or otherwise at least one national convention.   This year, the winning down-under delegate will travel to the 71st World Science Fiction convention which will be LoneStarCon 3, to be held in San Antonio, Texas.

Note that there is a cost to vote. This money is a donation to the fund to help cover the cost of the travel.

Phoenix SF Society – April calendar

Phoenix is a Wellington based SF/F/H club catering to fans of all fandom persuasions. The main meetings are held monthly on the second Wednesday of the month. Other regular events also happen during the month.

Main Meeting – 10th April, 7.30pm – Apocalyptica 101.    Venue:  Brian Davis Room, Cathedral of St Pauls, Hill Street.

Special Interest Groups:

• Biblio – 15th Apr, 5.30pm – Discussion group for readers – D4, Featherston Street
• Writers – 20th Apr, 1.30pm – Writers support group – camborne
• Board Gaming – 20th Apr, 6.30pm – Hatitai
• PIG – 27th Apr, 7.30pm – Regular monthly social gathering – Newlands

Note that some events are held at the homes of Phoenix members. For privacy reasons, these are not shown in full here. If you wish to attend these events or simply find out more about Phoenix, please email enquiries@phoenix.sf.org.nz.

Wellycon 2013 – Boardgame Convention

Wellycon is a board gaming convention run in (not surprisingly) Wellington. The 2013 edition will be run on 1-2 June on the Massey University Wellington campus. This is the 6th Wellycon and they claim to be the largest boardgame convention in the nation.

Visit their web site or facebook page for all the details.

Note that SFFANZ News is happy to publicise major events which have a strong overlap with SF/F/H fandom such as board gaming, RPG, LARP etc. Drop us a line or use our submission page if you have an event you want to tell us about.

Awards Watch – Hugos and Ditmars

While we await the publication of the final ballot for the SJVs, we can offer you a couple of links to other recently announced award ballots you may be interested in. As usual, we are keeping an eye out for Kiwis who have made it into award-space.

The Ditmar Awards are the Australian national SF awards. Keep an eye out for Kiwi Simon Petrie’s name which appears twice.

The Hugo Awards are the World SF awards. If you look at the best dramatic presentation section, you will see the names of New Zealanders: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson.

Please let us know if we have missed anybody.

ARA – An SF Movie – Crowdfunding request

SFFANZ received the following info about a crowdfunded project. We don’t know anything more about the project other than what is on the web site links below. But it is worth having a look to at least check out the pictures of what they are up to.

“ARA, a sci-fi thriller set in Auckland New Zealand, locally made for international audiences is currently in production. This is an independent film and the ARA team are fundraising via indiegogo to support their film. Have a look at their fundraiser page, please contribute if you can, all contributors get perks.
Check out their fundraiser page: www.indiegogo.com/projects/ara-sci-fi-movie
Check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ARAMOVIE“

Reminder: Words on the Wind

A reminder that Words on the Wind : Wellington is on tonight (Wed 20th) at the Central Library at 6pm. Local Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror read by local authors. More details here.

Phoenix SF Society – March calendar

Phoenix is a Wellington based SF/F/H club catering to fans of all fandom persuasions. The main meetings are held monthly on the second Wednesday of the month. Other regular events also happen during the month.

Main Meeting – 13th March, 7.30pm – “Outer Planets”.  Wishful Journeys.  Tom Watson from the Astronomical Society of NZ  Venue:  Brian Davis Room, Cathedral of St Pauls, Hill Street.

Special Interest Groups:

• Writers – 16th Mar, 1.30pm – Writers support group -Eastbourne
• Biblio – 18th Mar, 5.30pm – Discussion group for readers – D4, Featherston Street
• Board Gaming – 23rd Mar, 6.30pm – Tawa
• PIG – 30th Mar, 7.30pm – Regular monthly social gathering – Upper Hutt
• Video – 5th Apr 7.30pm – Lindenvale

Note that some events are held at the homes of Phoenix members. For privacy reasons, these are not shown in full here. If you wish to attend these events or simply find out more about Phoenix, please email enquiries@phoenix.sf.org.nz   or Facebook.

Words on the Wind – Auckland

Further to the announcement of the Wellington Words on the Wind event, there is also an Auckland version of the event.

What – 5 Local Specfic authors introducing their work
When – Thursday, March 7, 2013, 6:30pm until 8:00pm
Where – Mangere Bridge Library
Entry – Free
Info – Facebook Page.
Who
   - Grant Stone
   - Lila Richards
   - Grace Bridges
   - Darian Smith
   - Elaine King

Words on the Wind

Local Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror read by local authors. Part of NZ Book Month.
Featuring:
- Tim Jones
- Sally McLennan
- Matt Cowens
- Paul Mannering
- Michael Parry
- Anna Caro

When – Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 6:00pm until 7:30pm
Where – Wellington City Library (Central Library)
Entry – Free
Info – Facebook Page

Please drop us a line if you know about other genre related events for NZ Book Month so we can publicise here.

Phoenix SF Society – February calendar

Phoenix is a Wellington based SF/F/H club catering to fans of all fandom persuasions. The main meetings are held monthly on the second Wednesday of the month. Other regular events also happen during the month.

Main Meeting – 13th February, 7.30pm – It’s 2013 already.  So where’s my flying car?  Venue:  Brian Davis Room, Cathedral of St Pauls, Hill Street.

Special Interest Groups:

• Writers – 16th Feb, 1.30pm – Writers support group -Miramar
• Biblio – 14th Feb, 5.30pm – Discussion group for readers – D4, Featherston Street
• Board Gaming – 23rd Feb, 6.30pm – Kelson
• PIG – 2nd Mar, 7.30pm – Regular monthly social gathering – Newlands
• Video – 1st Mar 7.30pm – Lindenvale

Note that some events are held at the homes of Phoenix members. For privacy reasons, these are not shown in full here. If you wish to attend these events or simply find out more about Phoenix, please email enquiries@phoenix.sf.org.nz.

Wizard’s Guide Book Launch and the Magic of Wellington Art Exhibition

The launch for the Wizard’s Guide to Wellington is at the Rona Gallery, Eastbourne on Thursday 14th February (6.30pm). The organisers promise “there’s going to be plenty of exciting art on the walls from artists young and old, spot prizes and nibbles – be there or be lost in dangerously magical Wellington and somehow miss out on all the fun”.

More information can be found over at the Wizard’s Guide Blog. A book summary is here.

Details: Launch and Art Exhibition is at 6.30 Thurs 14 Feb, 151 Muritai Rd, Eastbourne, Lower Hutt.

DUFF Nominations now open for LoneStarCon trip

Hot on the heels of the FFANZ nomination announcement comes news that DUFF Nominations are also open!

DUFF is the Down Under Fan Fund which transports science fiction fans from North America to Australasia, and vice versa. Nominations are now open for the 2013 race, which will be a northbound race, to transport a fan (or fans) from Australian or New Zealand to LoneStarCon 3, the 71st World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in San Antonio, Texas, in the USA, from August 29th to September 2, 2013.

The winner may also wish to attend other conventions, and meet other fans, from North America, as they are able. The winner will also be required to take over the administration of the fund for the next northbound and southbound races.

If you wish to stand, please contact us at the postal or email address below. You will then need three Australasian nominators, and two North American nominators (who will each need to confirm their nominations), a 100-word platform to appear on the ballot, and a bond of £15/€20/AU$25 guaranteeing to attend the 2013 Worldcon if you win. If you are interested in running for DUFF, but either need help with some aspect of your nomination, or simply wish to learn more about DUFF and what is required of delegates and administrators, please feel free to contact the current Australasian DUFF administrator, David Cake, with any questions.

Nominations are open until March 31. The winner will be announced as soon as practical after that.

Nominations should be sent to David Cake, via email at dave@difference.com.au or by post at David Cake, 6 Florence Road, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009.

Phoenix SF Society – January Calendar

Phoenix is a Wellington based SF/F/H club catering to fans of all fandom persuasions. The main meetings are held monthly on the second Wednesday of the month. Other regular events also happen during the month.

Main Meeting – 9th January, 6.30pm – “Mayan Culture, Predictive Behaviour and Dinner”.    Or alternatively, it is time for the annual Phoenix “pub meeting”.  Come along the the Thistle Inn (3 Mulgrave st) and have join in the social chit chat over a meal or a drink.

Special Interest Groups:

• Biblio – 14th Jan, 5.30pm – Discussion group for readers – D4, Featherston Street
• Writers – 19th Jan, 1.30pm – Writers support group – Johnsonville
• Board Gaming – 19th Jan, 6.30pm – Upper Hutt
• PIG – 26th Jan, 7.30pm – Regular monthly social gathering – Kelson
• Video – 1st Feb 7.30pm – Tawa

Note that some events are held at the homes of Phoenix members. For privacy reasons, these are not shown in full here. If you wish to attend these events or simply find out more about Phoenix, please email enquiries@phoenix.sf.org.nz.

Discover the gods of gaming at Te Papa

Given the overlap between SF fandom and gaming we thought you would like to be reminded that a new exhibition at Te Papa has just opened. Called “Game Masters”, it features over 100 playable games from some of the world’s most influential video game designers – including Peter Molyneux, Warren Spector, Tim Schafer, and Hideo Kojima.

“Play your way through 40 years of gaming history over three spectacular interactive zones.” More information at the Te Papa site.

The exhibition runs 15 December 2012 – 28 April 2013 in the Visa Platinum Gallery, Level 4. Admission charges apply.

Epic Giveaway for NZ & Australian Readers

Courtesy of Hachette NZ, Helen Lowe has three copies of A Memory of Light, the fourteenth and final novel in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, to give away to NZ & Australian readers. Click on A Memory of Light Giveaway to enter.