{"id":3177,"date":"2011-11-08T15:35:51","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T04:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=3177"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:37:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T06:37:26","slug":"the-stuff-of-dreams-the-2011-nswwcs-speculative-fiction-festival-specfic11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/the-stuff-of-dreams-the-2011-nswwcs-speculative-fiction-festival-specfic11\/","title":{"rendered":"The stuff of dreams \u2013 the 2011 NSWWC’s Speculative Fiction Festival #specfic11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creating dreams, and pursuing them…<\/h3>\n

Last Saturday at the 2011 NSW Writers’ Centre Speculative Fiction Festival, Pamela Freeman<\/a> (Blood Ties<\/em>, Deep Water<\/em> and Full Circle<\/em>) said that speculative fiction was:<\/p>\n

the kind of story that my mother would say weakens your hold on reality<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Pamela Freeman & me.<\/p><\/div>\n

For me, this summarised the entire festival, with its dreamy ambiance and otherworldly talk, its fantastical array of stellar authors and my unreal presence… You see, I wasn’t supposed to be there!<\/p>\n

This coming weekend, my little family and I are moving house. So last Saturday I was supposed to be packing. Having just bought a house and given a huge stash of cash to the government (why, oh why is stamp duty so expensive?), I was also supposed to be cutting back financially. So I figured I’d have to give this year’s NSWWC spec fic festival a miss \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

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Tweetpitchers: Darren Stephenson, Ciara Ballintyne, me, Lucy Stone, Monique Kowalczyk<\/p><\/div>\n

Or so I thought…<\/p>\n

Luckily for me, the NSW Writers’ Centre decided to run a competition for the best speculative fiction tweetpitch. I entered… and won a free ticket to the festival! Yay! There were so many fantastic entrants, I couldn’t believe my luck, and this set the tone for my whole day-that-shouldn’t-have-been.<\/p>\n

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Kate Forsyth & Pamela Freeman<\/p><\/div>\n

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After a heart-felt opening by the fabulous Kate Forsyth<\/a> (The Starkin Crown, Bitter Greens<\/em>), who used to attend the centre as an aspiring author…<\/p>\n

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Pamela Freeman and her audience, including: Patty Jansen & Russell B Farr<\/p><\/div>\n

…Pamela Freeman<\/a>, a Doctor of Fantasy no less (well, okay, Creative Arts), talked us through the development of speculative fiction, from the biblical tale of Aaron’s rod, through the rise of gritty realism, and into the vibrant genre we know and love today. As the most dangerous animals now on the planet, Pamela suspects that humans continue to create stories about imagined monsters because we need to fulfil our innate desire to have both love and fear in our lives. Well, speculative fiction certainly does that!<\/p>\n

Next, a panel of highly accomplished publishers revealed their top tips on how to get published:<\/p>\n

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Raise your hand if you're NOT an aspiring author. Oh...<\/p><\/div>\n