Aurealis Explodes Across the Globe

Aurealis #87, the first to contain a story from a non-Aussie author, is out and it's a fantastic first issue for 2016. Just ask Tangent's Christos Antonaros, who raved about each and every story.

This latest issue is packed with stuff you won't find anywhere else. Stuff like:

"The Root Bridges" by Sean Monaghan

"Elven Blades" by Ian Bell
"Across the White Desert" by Deborah Sheldon

I was lucky enough to interview bestselling Aussie fantasy author Trudi Canavan for this one and she has some great insights into world-building and working with chronic pain. Gillian Polack examines the work of Nevil Shute (and it's awesome), and there's more Secret History of Australia and book reviews.

The bar has never been higher for Australia's oldest and best SF/F/H magazine. Whether you're a reader or a writer you need to be a part of it. Get it here.

Comments

New project

I've been working on a book of family-orientated children's stories, drawing on my experiences bringing up my kids as a single father. I asked AI to interpret one of the stories in art and it came up with this image (after a couple of dismal failures). It's actually a fair representation of the story. Now, to begin the daunting process of finding a publisher for this collection.

I Decided to Make Money From Writing - And it's Working

I've always wanted to be a full-time writer, but I've never had a clear understanding of how to make enough money from my writing to survive. In fact I read an article on the ABC news website this morning stating that authors in Australia earn, on average, $11,000 to $13,000 per year , which sounds about right. I can't live on that. No one can. So my fears are clearly justified. Regardless, in 2017 I decided to throw caution to the wind and try to come up with a way to make enough money from writing that I could start to think about transitioning from my regular job to the coveted holy grail of full-time writer . I had this vague idea of combining two of my great passions, writing and gaming, to see what would come of it. I had no real understanding, at that point, of what I was getting myself into. The answer, of course, is interactive fiction. Interactive fiction - or digital gamebooks - are the modern version of Choose Your Own Adventure stories, which were among m...

The Science of Fantasy Mapmaking

Aurealis #99 is out and it features a discussion between a geologist and a geographer (aka yours truly and the incredible Russell Kirkpatrick) about maps in fantasy novels. I really enjoyed writing this article with Russell for several reasons: first, I love maps and used do produce them as part of my job. Second, I like Russell and respect his work, and third, it's a super-interesting topic What I didn't realise when I first spoke to Russell about doing a piece together, was the depth of Russell's understanding of the politics and social infrastructure behind the act of creating a map. My experience of mapmaking has been limited to: 1) reproducing my favourite faux-medieval maps from movies and/or books via a combination of pain-staking precision and ad-hoc half-assery; and 2) the production of geological, geophysical and geochemical maps designed to aid in the discovery of economically viable mineral deposits. The two don't naturally go hand-in-ha...

FLY SOUP

Search This Blog