FLY SOUP

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 thous...

Thanks to Shauna O'meara  A Hand of Knaves now has a cover, and it's a great one. Thanks also go to Simon Petrie for the layout of the text inside and out. I'm really pleased with every aspect of this anthology and can't wait to launch it with Leife Shallcross at Conflux 14 at the end of September. I know it's traditional only to show the front cover when announcing these things, but I like the wrap-around so much I just wanted to show off the whole thing.

So much awesome I'm one of the many, many unashamed Star Trek: The Next Generation fans who were blown away by the recent news that Jean Luc Picard would be making a return to the Star Trek universe. Even better: Sir Patrick Stewart came out and said the character may be a little different than we remember. Character evolution and quirky surprises are what will make his return interesting and, hopefully, exciting. But what will his new story look like? And what could be the reason for his return? These are the questions fans will be asking until the new series premieres. What will the show look like? Hopefully not some turgid political drama involving the internal machinations of Starfleet, as some seem to be suggesting. WTF people? Name one thing that would be good about that. Just one. I dare you! Some have suggested an Indiana Jones-style show focusing on Picard's interest in archeology. This could be interesting but there isn't much scope for high-stakes intri...

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...

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!