FLY SOUP

The title of this post says it all. My writing's been given mentions in "best of"s" and I've had the odd award here and there, but my work's never been nominated for a Ditmar award, so this is new for me. Which isn't to say A Hand of Knaves is all "my work". It's an anthology containing the work of plenty of people, but Leife and I planned the theme, read and selected the stories, and edited them as best we could to come up with the final product - which also contains artwork from Shauna O'meara that just happens to be nominated in the Artwork category (so we're winning all 'round). Congratulations to everyone involved with A Hand of Knaves and thanks to everyone who voted us into the ballot. As I've only ever considered myself a writer, it's strange to have something I've edited up for a national award. Strange, but AWESOME!!! Go AHOK!

When CSFG Publishing puts out a submission call to authors across Australia and NZ, it's with a view to showcasing the fantastic work of established and emerging writers in this region of the world. This was most certainly the case with  A Hand of Knaves , edited by yours truly and Leife Shallcross in 2017-18. The "blind" submission process helps a lot, as there can be no subconscious (or even conscious) favouritism involved during the story-selection phase. The most exciting part of the process for me, was getting to show-off some new (and even first-time) authors to readers of short fiction in this country. But now some of the more established contributors are getting their opportunity to shine. The recent announcement of the 2018 Aurealis Award finalists includes three stories from A Hand of Knaves: For Best Fantasy Short Story "A Moment's Peace" by David Versace For Best Science Fiction Short Story "A Fair Wind off Baracoa" by Rob Por...

Leife and I have worked for several months to cull the list of fantastic submissions down to nineteen of our favourites for A Hand of Knaves . There are some really fantastic stories in our bucket and it was great to finally put the author's names to their writing (as the reading for CSFG anthologies is done blind). I've been abroad of late and while I was away the CSFG released the list of stories and authors so I'd like to belatedly congratulate the successful writers, and let those who didn't make the cut know that we had a wealth of excellent stories to choose from so don't be too disappointed. Our list of authors/stories is as follows: Eugen Bacon,  Ace Zone Amy Brown,  A Tale Of The Marriage Of Gawain David Coleman,  Immortal, Coiled Tom Dullemond,  The Killblaine Legacy Maureen Flynn,  Gardening Through the Danse Macabre Rebecca Fraser,  The Pedlar Isobel Johnstone,  The Apothecary’s Apprentice Grace Maslin,  A Question Of Iden...

It's Done! Submissions are in and Leife and I have read them all. Every single one. There were a good number of entries given that the call was limited to Aussie spec-fic writers and there were some fantastic stories. I was truly amazed at the breadth of interpretation of the topic, with some writers really pushing the brief while still meeting the criteria and creating inventive material. Now it's time for Leife and I to don our gladiatorial armour and enter the ring to fight for our fave stories Hulk vs Thor-style. It's gonna be one helluva smackdown. Also, the crowd-funding campaign to raise some extra script to pay our long-suffering authors is up and running. The CSFG's anthologies are a significant part of the Aussie spec-fic writing landscape so please, please, please consider contributing, keeping in mind it's a not-for-profit organisation. Visit the Indiegogo campaign here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-hand-of-knaves/x/17109762#/ We...

If you're an Aussie writer and you haven't yet submitted your most knavish story to the CSFG's newest anthology, A Hand of Knaves , THEN GET ON IT! YOU ONLY HAVE UNTIL 15 NOVEMBER YOU FOOL!

Submissions for A Hand of Knaves - a new anthology from CSFG Publishing - ARE OPEN!! The editorial team has already put in a lot of effort to ensure this will be a great anthology, and just look at the card art already completed by award-winning artist Shauna O'Meara. Head over to the CSFG Publishing site to find all the details and once you've read the guidelines, submit to knaves.anthology.csfg@gmail.com . Leife and I are ready to read your fantastic stories!

Rogues are my all-time favourite characters, be it in books, movies, videogames, or tabletop RPGs (yes, I was the thief who stole your Ring of Featherfall while you slept and didn't say a word as you jumped off that cliff thinking you'd be fine) and thanks to CSFG Publishing I now get the opportunity to co-edit an anthology of stories entitled A Hand of Knaves - which will be 100% about thieves, scoundrels and rogues! So as you can probably guess, I'm stoked the CSFG committee decided to run with our pitch. In even better news, my co-editor is the unstoppable Leife Shallcross , who apparently doesn't have the word sleep in her vocabulary as she edits her upcoming novel The Beast's Heart , completes her second novel (which I've read and which is absolutely amazing), helps out with Conflux, as well as fulfilling her day job and doing all her other lifey things. We are super-excited for this and make no mistake, we both love the concept and want to produc...