Helen has been awarded the Ursula Bethell Creative New Zealand Residency in Creative Writing 2012 jointly with David Eggleton, a leading New Zealand poet, editor, critic, writer, and filmmaker. Read Helen’s blog post here.
Brandon Sanderson has been one of the exciting new names of international Fantasy/Science Fiction over the past eight years, most notably as a relative newcomer being asked to complete Robert Jordan’s hugely popular Wheel of Time series in 2007, following the author’s death. Most recently, he won this year’s Gemmell “Legend” Award for Best Fantasy Novel of the Year with his own epic fantasy, The Way of Kings. Fellow author, Helen Lowe, caught up with him between book tours to ask about completing seven major novels in six years and discuss his latest book, The Alloy of Law, newly released in New Zealand and you can read the interview (and details of the local giveaway) here.
Most of you probably know Russell Kirkpatrick as the author of the award winning Across the Face of the World and Husk series as well as his regular appearances at local SF conventions. If you have talked to Russell at recent events, you will know that he has been working on a book called Walks to Waterfalls: 100 New Zealand Waterfalls. The book is out now and and Stuff have published an excerpt. There is also a review and some pictures over at Beattie’s Book Blog.
UK-based Fantasy Book Review recently concluded the following about Tymon’s Flight, the first book in Mary Victoria’s Chronicles of the Tree series: “This is the best novel I have read this year and it is very easy for me to recommend this story, not just to fantasy readers, but to readers of all genres.”
Today Helen Lowe has posted a new interview with Mary Victoria, discussing her third novel, Oracle’s Fire, and completion of the Tree series. There is also a giveaway to be drawn from amongst those who leave comments.
‘Tales from the Bell Club’ anthology is open for submissions. Paying US$25.00 for each story accepted. Open until December 23rd at the moment. Click
here for more information.
Release date: April 2012
Genre: Horror
We are now inviting submissions within the following guidelines for ‘Tales From The Bell Club’
Gentleman’s Clubs were fine establishments made famous by various books, radio play series’ and films. The clubs were places where explorers and adventurers would gather and tell stories of their adventures in exotic locations.
The Bell Club is different. Instead of being an adventurer’s club – it is an establishment that restricts its membership to those who have experienced unspeakable horror.
Successful membership requires the applicant to tell a story – and if the members find it disturbing enough – the applicant is granted access. It’s like a nascent support group for the traumatised.
No one judges or questions the stories told – because all the members have seen such things as no man can rationalise – and who are they to judge if a fellow storyteller is lying, mad or hallucinating?
By its nature the stories are set in the early years of the 20th Century, with male or female protagonists.
The submission guidelines are:
1. Stories must be suitable to be told in The Bell Club. A Gentleman’s Club (which does allow women members) where the members relate their personal stories of horrors they have witnessed or experienced.
2. The stories are being told in a setting between the years 1885 and 1935. The story should reflect this time setting, with exceptions suitable to the specific narrative.
3. Each story must be of a personal horror nature (and can include supernatural, monstrous, and other weird fiction elements). Tales that are told are where the protagonist experienced horror personally.
4. The stories are being narrated by the protagonist to other club members. This means stories should be told in the first person perspective (unless an exception fits the particular narrative style) but MUST be told from personal experience..
5. Stories should be in keeping with the setting in which the stories are told – so turn of the century knowledge, beliefs, cultural norms (1885-1935)
6. Story length should be between 3-10K words
7. No pornography. Gore, offensive language and sexual content should be within the context of the setting and cultural norms of the time period.
What rights do we want?
First publishing rights (print digital and audio), the right to use the story for as long as there is demand for the book, the right to edit each story for any missed grammatical errors, and the right to use parts of the book and the author’s name for promotion. You will keep all other rights and can republish the story anytime you choose after publication.
This is currently an open submission period. Submissions to remain open until filled or closing date is chosen. The anthology will be published by Knight Watch Press in Spring 2012.
Send submissions with standard manuscript formatting to:
Payment for your accepted submissions will be $25, one contributors copy (eBook) and a 25% off the cover price when buying at least 5 copies directly from KnightWatch.
ISBN – 978-0-9876914-5-3
Publisher: KnightWatch Press
Website:http://knightwatchpress.info/bell.html
US Fantasy author Daniel Abraham‘s The Long Price Quartet was published to critical acclaim between 2006-9, and the first book in his new “Coin and Dagger” series, The Dragon’s Path, has just been released in New Zealand. Local author Helen Lowe has seized the opportunity to talk with him about the new book and you can read the interview here.
Phillip Mann remains one of New Zealand’s best regarded SF authors. He is also patron of the Phoenix SF Society in Wellington. He wrote to Phoenix recently to let them know about the new Gollancz site SF Gateway. This is a portal site devoted to classic works of SF and Fantasy. Almost all of Phil’s work is included amongst these classics. The site does not sell books, but provides links to those who do if you want to fill the gaps in your Phillip Mann collection.
A book launch for Mary Victoria’s Oracle’s Fire is to be held at Weta Cave Wellington on Sunday, October 23 from 12noon to 3pm. Followers of The Chronicles of the Tree will know what this is all about and will be looking forward to the conclusion of the series. If you are new to the work of Wellington based Mary Victoria, drop by her web site for more information and excerpts from the books.
From our “SF people in the mainstream media” department comes news that NZ author Philippa Ballantine is the subject of an article in the NZ Herald. Pip has been very successful in getting books published in the last year – the article explores some of that success.
Australian author Kaaron Warren has been running a series of “Sparks” interviews on her web site. In each piece, she invites an author to recount the idea spark that triggered the writing of one of their stories. Today, in the latest post, New Zealand born author Paul Haines explains where the story The Devil In Mr Pussy came from. While you are there, you can check out some of the earlier sparks pieces including another New Zealander Lucy Sussex as she recounts the origins of some of her stories.
Author Helen Lowe is running a “Fun with Thornspell” feature, every Thursday from now until 1 September, giving readers the opportunity to comment on a Thornspell character they would like to have a spin off short story written about. Plus there are three hard cover copies of the book to be given away to school libraries. First up, Helen introduces the three judges who will select the winning character/comment, as well as talking about the genesis of the Belvedere in the Thornspell story and the importance of place in her writing. You can find out more here.
Bob Kuhn is a well known professional fantasy and science fiction voiceover artist. He will be reading the works of Australian and New Zealand authors at Renovation. He has been allocated a couple of time slots at Worldcon for reading the works of authors from this part of the world who wouldn’t otherwise have their work showcased in such a setting. The authors in question are Fiona McIntosh, Mary Victoria, Kim Falconer, Nicole Murphy, Helen Lowe, Alan Baxter and Angela Slatter. You can read more about this over at the Voyager site.
It is unusual for a New Zealand genre author to do a national promotional tour, but that is what Nalini Singh has managed. The tour starts in Auckland on Monday July 11th in Auckland and concludes in Christchurch on Friday July 15th. If you don’t know who this top selling New Zealand author is, then head over to her site to find out more.
The events appear to be informal in nature but will include signings. Some events are free while others have a charge but include drinks and nibbles (aka “An Evening with Nalini Singh”). The summary is as follows, – you can find more details of times, costs and venues over at Nalini’s Blog:
Monday July 11 – AUCKLAND – 12.30pm – Whitcoulls Corner
Monday July 11 – MORRINSVILLE – 6.30pm – Paper Plus Morrinsville
Tuesday July 12 – TAKAPUNA – 6pm – Takapuna Library
Thursday July 14 – WELLINGTON – 12pm – Borders Lambton Quay
Thursday July 14 – WELLINGTON – 12.30pm – Whitcoulls Lambton Quay
Thursday July 14 – LOWER HUTT – 7.00pm – Dowse Art Museum
Friday July 15 – CHRISTCHURCH – 2pm – Borders Riccarton
A new paying ezine based in NZ will be launching Jan 1st, 2012. It’s called Comets and Criminals, and will be published in a quarterly
format, with an ebook available at the beginning of each quarter and
content from the book released for free on the website over the course
of the quarter.
Comets and Criminals will publish short fiction and poetry.
Science-fiction is at the top of its genre list; cross-genre work is
also encouraged. We pay 1c a word (US) for short fiction between
1,000-5,000 words, and $10 for flash fiction and poetry.
For more information visit the web site.
Maria V. Snyder, a New York Times best-selling author of fantasy and paranormal fiction for teens and adults, will teach a half-day workshop in Auckland on Friday August 19, with a focus on writing fantasy and paranormal fiction. The workshop is hosted by Romance Writers of New Zealand, but is open to writers from all genres. Editors from local publishers will also be presenting and/or taking pitches from writers, and the afternoon will include a workshop on sword-fighting (an essential element of much paranormal, fantasy and historical fiction!). New Zealand Members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand and other writing organisations will receive a discount on the workshop registration fee. Earlybird registration closes July 11.
Maria V. Snyder will also be on the podium over the course of RWNZ’s weekend conference, including a much-anticipated talk on dystopian fiction, arguably the hottest genre of the moment. Other speakers include thriller supremo Tess Gerritsen, and Bob Mayer, an ex special forces agent (Green Beret A-team commander) and now a bestselling suspense author and digital publishing expert. Mayer will also present a one-day novel writing seminar in Friday August 19, open to writers from all genres, designed to take a writer from first page to last.
The RWNZ Conference runs August 19-21 at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Auckland. Earlybird registration closes July 11. For full details and online registration, visit www.romancewriters.co.nz/conference
Congratulations to Ripley Patton, whose sci-fi short story “A Speck in the Universe” was recently published in Night-Mantled: The Best of Wily Writers Speculative Fiction, Volume 1. Night-Mantled is available in paperback and ebook forms via Amazon.
Many of you will be aware of the Writers’ Read-In scheduled for this Friday 26 March to raise funds for the NZ Government Christchurch Earthquake appeal. This is a joint effort by the NZ Society of Authors and Auckland Libraries (all of the libraries in the Auck region). What you might not be aware of is that 26 southern writers will be helping with the readings. As such, we would love as a many of you as possible in the audience and to support us.
Here’s who is in what libraries:
Waiuku at 1pm: Joyce Irving, Debbie Newman, Charmaine Poutney, Colin Peel, Peter Blakeborough
Pukekohe at 1pm: Evelyn Scanlon, Linda Dawley, Jewel Dell, Janet Pates, Peter Blakeborough, Michael Botur
Papakura (the Sir Edmund Hillary Library) at 6pm: Peter Dawley, Althea Barr, Bev Jones, June Daly, Jocelyn Watkin
Highland Park at 6pm: Barry Southon, David Howard, Grant Stone, Ngaire Vakaruru
Papatoetoe at 6pm: Pauline Young, Maris O’Rourke and (TBC) Suzanne Laidlaw
Pakuranga at 6pm: Dawn Grant, Robert Sullivan, John Adams and K-T Harrison
Entry to the events above is by gold coin donation and there’ll be opportunities at some of the libraries to buy the writers’ books. Please bring your families, your friends, your applause (and your wallets) to support a very worthy cause.
Don’t forget that this Sunday, March 20, 2011 from 12:00-3:00 at Columbus Coffee Ellerslie (139 Main Highway, Ellerslie) specficcers will be meeting for our second monthly SpecFicNZ Auckland face-to-face meet-up. Monthly meetings will continue every third Sunday of the month at this regular location and time.
Newcomers welcome. Membership in SpecFicNZ is not required to attend.
Free 3 hour parking is available in Arthur Street.
For more information please contact Grant Stone via e-mail at grant(at)disorobot.com or Paul Heinz at paul(at)accredo.co.nz. An RSVP via e-mail is also appreciated for table-booking purposes, but you are welcome to just pop in. We’d love to see you there.
Terry Pratchett is coming to New Zealand for this event only!
Come and listen to Terry Pratchett live at the Auckland Town Hall, thanks to the Sunday Star-Times and Random House.
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today and is the acclaimed creator of the bestselling Discworld series.
Do you have a question you want to ask Terry?
Email it to win@star-times.co.nz by 10pm Monday 11 April and he may answer it for you on the evening.
This is a rare opportunity which is not to be missed!
Ticketing information
Early Bird Special:
The first 100 people to buy tickets will have the opportunity to meet Terry Pratchett backstage afterwards.
Discount available for Sunday Star times Subscribers, phone
0800 BUY TICKETS.
$20 tickets here.
Running time
Doors open 6.00pm
Main act 6.30pm – 8.00pm
(Times are approximate and are subject to change)
