Chuffed. Last night, at the 18th annual Aurealis Awards held in North Sydney’s Independent Theatre, the Australian speculative fiction scene was chuffed… and proud. It all started with Scott Westerfeld’s inspiring opening address. He spoke of speculative fiction as the revitalising force of the movie, television and literary industries, and…
How can I describe what it’s been like the last few days – being surrounded by 250 friends and like-minded people? The 52nd Natcon / Conflux 9 was just that. The layout of Rydges Capital Hill, Canberra, meant I could walk into any room, linger in any corridor, and be…
Last month, I shared a photo on my Facebook stream about the universe. It had stars and mountains and a lot of swearing in it. As soon as she saw it, my mother called. She was surprised I would swear on Facebook. Wasn’t I worried what other people would think?…
Okay, so I wasn’t expecting that result! This January, I asked a bunch of writers what their writing goals were for 2013. Was their focus going to be novels, short stories, non-fiction… what? I was interested to see what everyone was planning to achieve, so conducted a poll on my…
What I learnt at Conflux 7: From Here to There Looking back over the four-day writing festival that was this year’s Conflux, it might be quicker to list what I didn’t learn during my stay in Canberra. But I’m not a negative kind of person so, although it’ll take longer,…
