The names of the contestants were written on separate pieces of paper which were carefully folded and placed in the SFFANZ President’s black Akubra hat, the one with a lucky feather in the hatband. The Presidents wife picked three pieces of paper from the hat and read out the names of the winners. In the order drawn, the winners of the DVDs are:
Zara Baxter
John Howell
Kevin Maclean
Congratulations to the winners.
Just a reminder that the DVD and Blu-ray of The Thing was released in New Zealand on March 7th. SFFANZ have three copies of the DVD to give away. To go into a draw to win a copy please email enquiries@sffanz.sf.org.nz with the answer to these questions:
1. What is the title of the story on which the movie is based?
2. Who wrote the story?
All correct answers will go into a draw to win a DVD. The draw will be held on Saturday 10th March
To prepare for the release of the final installment in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, A Memory Of Light, the official Facebook page is holding a series of exclusive prize giveaways for New Zealand. The first sweepstake is open now and is accepting entries until 30th April 2012. Click on the picture to take part.
The Thing is a prelude to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film of the same name about a group of scientists in the Antarctic who are confronted by a shape shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people it kills.
Palaeontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) joins a Norwegian scientific team in Antarctica that has discovered an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, and an organism that seems to have died in the crash. When an experiment frees the alien, a shape-shifting creature with the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. Paranoia soon spreads like an epidemic as they’re infected, one by one, and a thrilling race for survival begins?
The DVD and Blu-ray will be released in New Zealand on March 7th. SFFANZ have three copies of the DVD to give away. To go into a draw to win a copy please email enquiries@sffanz.sf.org.nz with the answer to these questions:
1. What is the title of the story on which the movie is based?
2. Who wrote the story?
All correct answers will go into a draw to win a DVD. The draw will be held on Saturday 10th March
SpecFicNZ are holding a short story competition in conjunction with Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris, authors of the steampunk adventure Phoenix Rising and publishers of the fiction podcast ‘Tales from the Archives’.
Submissions will be open throughout January 2012.
The competition is open to all citizens and residents of New Zealand and has a monetary and publication prize. Further details about the competition can be found here.
Make your way to as many of The Lord of the Rings movie locations in Wellington as possible, and be in to win fantastic prizes!
Register and pick up your unique entry form from the Weta Cave, Saturday 9am, August 13th.
The completely updated new editions of Ian Brodie’s The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebooks will be on sale at the Weta Cave to help you find the locations.
Ian Brodie will be on hand to judge the best photos and to sign his awesome guidebooks.
Go to Ian Brodie’s website www.ianbrodie.net
To celebrate the release of Rogue Gadda, the third and final book in the ‘Dreams of Asarlai’ series, Nicole Murphy is giving away a copy.
Go here to Helen Lowe’s blog to enter.
The SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE is running an online animation competition. The winner will receive $20,000 in prize money and their entry will be screened at a GRAPHIC festival event at the opera house.
2) Eligibility
a) The Competition is open to animation lovers 18 years of age and over.
b) The Entrant(s) must be the person/people creating the animation.
c) To enter the Competition you must be available to be in Sydney during the period 20 – 21 August 2011 to participate in the screening of the live event, Graphic Live. Overseas Entrants must possess a current valid passport and obtain any visas necessary to travel to Sydney for the Graphic Live event at the Sydney Opera House on 20-21 August 2011. [Employees of Sydney Opera House and their immediate families, associated agencies of this promotion and companies associated with this promotion are not eligible to enter the Competition
d) Each Entry must comply with the Competition Rules. Failure to do so will result in automatic disqualification from the Competition and immediate removal of the Entry from the Competition Website, at Sydney Opera House’s sole discretion.
e) Any queries relating to the Competition should be sent by email to: graphic@sydneyoperahouse.com.
SHORT STORY
All SF, fantasy, or horror stories of up to 5,000 words in length will be eligible.
To enter, please e-mail your story, as an attachment in .rtf (Rich Text Format), to the convention e-mail address enquiries@context.sf.org.nz.
Include a cover sheet with:
Pages must be numbered.
DO NOT include your name or other identifying information on the manuscript itself.
Final judging by Catherine Asaro
ARTWORK
All SF, fantasy or horror themed art – 2D, 3D, painting, sculpture, modelling or other forms – is eligible.
Please bring your artwork along to the convention, and present it in person to the registration desk to enter.
Final judging by Frank Victoria
Helen Lowe’s “The Heir of Night” will be launching in the UK as of 8 pm tonight, NZ time and despite earthquake, aftershocks, destruction, liquefaction and dust, Helen is going to be mark the occasion on her blog with a giveaway of three, signed, UK first editions of Heir (a large-format trade paperback not available in NZ)–the recipients to be drawn who comment on the official launch post that will be ‘live’ from 8 pm tonight, Thursday 3, through to 8 pm Friday 4 (so plenty of time to get your comment in.)
But, there is more. Recognizing the severity and trauma of the Christchurch earthquake, Helen is also doing a launch-a-thon: she will be donating a dollar for every person who comments on the official launch post (or in fact any of her March 3 posts on Helen Lowe on Anything, Really) to the NZ Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal, up to a maximum of $500. So get in there, comment and show your support to earthquake stricken Christchurch—and be in to win as well.
VERY EXCITING NEWS!
In conjunction with the Wily Writers Website for Down-loadable Speculative Fiction, SpecFicNZ is going to conduct its very first Short Story Contest.
This contest is only open to SpecFicNZ members, and will run from March 1st, 2011 to March 31st, 2011. If you are not a member of SpecFicNZ, it is not too late to join.
Editor of the Wily site, Angel Leigh McCoy, has generously agreed to publish the two winning stories in the June 2011 issue of Wily Writers, an issue featuring SpecFicNZ as the New Zealand national speculative fiction writers association.
She is doing this because she believes strongly “that writers organizations play a primary role in the support and success of up-and-coming writers. They provide networking and knowledge, the two most valuable treasures a writer can receive. If you’re not a member of a writers organization, then you may want to consider joining one, both so you can submit to Wily Writers this year and so that you have access to all the wonderful writing resources these organizations provide.”
Wily Writers is a significant market and was listed one of the 75 Best Online Markets by Writers Digest (Nov/Dec Issue 2010).
In addition to publication, the Wily Website will be paying the top two winning stories, and SpeFicNZ will be pitching in prize money as well. First place will be awarded $75 US. Second place will be $50 US.
Submission Guidelines can be found HERE, but please do not submit anything until March 1st.
No member of SpecFicNZ or its core committee will be judging the contest entries. They will be judged by an outside party (chosen by Angel McCoy).
Stories will not be edited, so send only your best, polished work.
Not a short story writer? If you only write novels, consider harvesting a short story or self-sustained excerpt out of your latest project to submit and promote your novel.
So, get writing and make NZ proud!
Helen Lowe interviews US author Beth Anne Miller about her debut time-travel romance, “Into the Scottish Mists”
and asks why romantic fiction is “so disdained”, here:
http://helenlowe.info/blog/2011/02/04/release-day-interview-with-beth-anne-miller/
With a giveaway of Helen Lowe’s “Thornspell” and Cassandra Claire’s “A Clockwork Angel” to be drawn from comments
that share “the preferred historical period & location for your romantic time-travel getaway.“
New Zealand Book Month wants readers across the country to go online and vote for their five favourite books, and share their story of the book that changed their life. Voting is open until the end of October, and reader votes will then be collated into a series of reading recommendations for New Zealand Book Month in March 2011.
Voting is open to everyone in New Zealand, and NZBM is offering a prize every day for voters – including new book releases, themed book packs worth over $100, and book vouchers to help with Christmas shopping – thanks to generous support from publishers and booksellers.
The competition is being run by the website Shades of Sentience. The theme is steampunk, and the stories you weave will need to represent the height of steampunk – all that is daring and unique and sweepingly epic about it. This will be the first step in a battle of the two great punk genres. Next years competition theme will be cyberpunk.
When both comps are complete they will choose a selection of stories for the next anthology. As yet unnamed, it will be a flip book with two covers – cyberpunk on one side, steampunk on the other. So this year, represent steampunk with everything you’ve got, because next year it’ll be cyberpunks turn.
The competition is only open to residents of Australia and New Zealand.
Closes 31st December 2010
Entry fee is $5.
1st Prize $200
2nd Prize $100
3rd Prize $50
More information can be found here.
