Launched - A Hand of Knaves

A couple of weekends ago I attended Conflux 14 in Canberra. I had a great time for many reasons, not least of which was because, alongside Leife Shallcross, I got to finally launch A Hand of Knaves!

Editing this fantastic collection of stories about thieves, pirates, con-artists and anti-heroes of all kinds with Leife has taken up a lot of my time over the past year and to see the finished product in the hands of readers was a real thrill for me.

It's the first collection of stories I've 'properly' edited and I think I can safely say that Leife and I struck up a great working relationship. It was a superb learning experience for me as a writer as much as anything. I learned a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses, not only through my interactions with Leife, but with the authors as well.

A couple of tipsy editors

A lot happened for both of us between the time we chose to take on A Hand of Knaves, and the date of publication. Leife beat out literally thousands of hopefuls to have her The Beast's Heart MS accepted and published by Hodder and Stoughton through their open submission call from a few years back. And I've secured contracts writing Choose-Your-Own-Adventure gamebooks for companies such as Big Fish Games. Just goes to show where editing a CSFG anthology can take you.

You could call me biased (and I am) but I really think this anthology is THE BEST. I had a hoot launching it, dressed up as the cowardly rogue Jayne Cobb, with Leife as Cersei Lannister. But neither of us could hope to match our spontaneously hilarious MC Rob Porteous, whom I suspect lives a double life as an actual space pirate.

A bunch of happy launch attendees

I'm kinda' sad it's all over now, but the launch was great fun. Thanks to all those who came along and best of luck to all the authors in this anthology. It was fun to meet some of you there.

The ever-popular signing table

Comments

Flies in the Soup: John Scalzi Part 2

Interview: John Scalzi Part 2 By Chris Large Interview first appeared in Aurealis #82. Welcome back John. At the moment your new book Lock In, [discussed in the last issue] is a standalone novel. Are you considering writing more in this world? Or is this it? No! I’d be happy to write more in this world if there was a desire from my publisher and from my audience. I don’t ever write anything but standalone novels. Old Man’s War was a standalone novel. I wrote that one book, right? And then it took off and my editor said, “You need to write another one,” and gave me some money. I said “Okay. I see how this works.” That’s how Old Man’s War became a series. Android’s Dream was supposed to be a series. I’d signed a contract for a second book but when I started writing it, it was terrible so I stopped doing that and wrote something else. So Lock In is currently a standalone book but if my publisher comes to me and says, “Yeah, I want you to write the second ...

Also -This CSFG Publishing Thing Happened...

CSFG Publishing provides Aussie spec fic writers with a semi-regular outlet for the expression of some pretty awesome ideas. Earlier this year I learned that one of my stories would be appearing in The Never Never Land - their latest anthology. They made me work for it though. And that's something I really appreciated about this process. A lot of publishers out there are happy to accept or reject your work, and a few will even offer a bit of free advice, but there aren't many who'll take the time to bring a slightly under-par story up to scratch. The reason for this is that working with authors can be difficult. We're a tricky bunch and some of us are protective of our babies. I'll be honest and come right out and say, I'm not. Frankly, I'll do anything to make a sale (within reason). Aside from writing something offensive, I will make any changes requested if a publisher shows even a skerrik of interest in my work. So that's the tale of my contrib...

Flies in the Soup: Thoraiya Dyer

Interview: Thoraiya Dyer By Chris Large Australian author Thoraiya Dyer spoke with me about her award-winning short story Wine, Women and Stars , her recent three book deal with Tor, the purpose of writing awards, and her no-holes-barred determination to put words to page. This interview first appeared in Aurealis #84. Welcome back to Aurealis Thoraiya, and a huge congratulations on winning your third Aurealis Award at the 2015 ceremony. You now have two awards for fantasy and a third for science fiction. In your own words you were ‘a bit weepy’ when you accepted the 2015 gong. What does it mean to you to win awards for your writing? I guess it depends on how confident you’re feeling in your skills at the time. I’ve been writing short fiction for a while now but also, in the background, I’ve been writing novels. The reason I was so weepy about that particular award was because last year my husband lost his job and the bank took our house, so we were fo...

FLY SOUP

Search This Blog