Peacemaker won an Aurealis Award for Best SF novel last night. It feels kind of surreal writing that… it was truly unexpected. It’s been hard slog the last few years, publishing is MEH, I’ve had a brush with breast cancer, my kids left home, some of my nearest and dearest have had terrible struggles, and other life dramas happened – we all have our stuff. So I’ve come to believe that when you get some good news in life you have to jump and sing and squeee and generally be a dork about it for a while. It’s good for the soul! So that’s what I’m doing today.

More than anything though, I want to use this space to thank a whole lot of people, starting with Margo Lanagan, my friend and extraordinary writer, who read my acceptance speech. Here it is:

I’m truly delighted that PEACEMAKER has been commended by the Aurealis judging panel. My dad brought me up on a diet of pulp Westerns and, eventually, I inherited his complete Zane Grey collection. For many years, I wanted to write my own version of a Western as a thank you to him, and because those stories were my first, intense fictional love. My sister still gets a kick out of telling people how at eight years of age I would only answer to the name of one of Zane Grey’s cowboys.

But writing a western, SF, paranormal mash-up is one thing. Publishing it is quite another. I’d like to thank Lee Harris, Marc Gascoigne, Caroline Lambe and everyone at Angry Robot for giving this story a chance when it was well outside the purview of most speculative publishers. I hope this award, in some small way, rewards them for the gift they bestowed on me. I’d also like to thank Tara Wynne, my long time agent and friend who supports whatever creative direction I take.

 Long live the Aurealis Awards and the community who celebrates them!

So that was the short thank you! Here is the longer one:

Thanks to Joey HiFi for a truly sensational cover; Mike Underwood for tireless promotion in the US; my family, Paul, Col, Nicci and Simon who have celebrated and encouraged me throughout my career, and remind me often to enjoy the moment and not always look ahead; to my staff here at MDPWeb (you know who you all are!), who are just the best bunch of people in the world, and continue to help me promote and celebrate reading and books; to some special writing people in my life: Trentonomicon, Paula Weston, Alisa Krasnostein, and Isobelle Carmody; to my sons who I love to the end of the universe and back; and to my partner, Nick, who has held my hand through all the bad times.

My win is your win.

Congrats to all the winners and the shorlistees — particularly Graham Storrs, whose arm I had to twist to even get him to send his stories out into the world. Australian spec fic is in great shape!

Marianne x

Alayna Cole

 

Alayna Cole is an MCA (Creative Writing) candidate who loves to write stories when she’s not studying.

I’m a writer who primarily concerns herself with the page. I’ve found that there are many benefits to favouring written narrative over alternatives like visual and interactive narrative, but there are also many downsides. And, beyond that, there are innumerable differences that cannot necessarily be put into ‘pro’ or ‘con’ categories. This article concerns itself with one of the key differences between my preferred craft and the visual narrative, specifically live action movies and television programmes.

It is possible for an audience to enter any narrative with prior knowledge of either the story itself, or the external factors that shaped it, and this knowledge can skew a person’s perception and interpretation. When watching a live action movie or television programme, an audience can easily be influenced by their understanding of the actors that they see on the screen, which can lead to a conflation of character and actor. For example, I’m fully convinced at this point that Robert Downey Jr. is actually Tony Stark, with Robert’s real life decisions often staying completely in character. Generally this connection between actor and character is a side-note to the story, something unintentional that only causes small biases with particular members of an audience based on their individual prior knowledge; however, I recently watched a movie where this connection seemed to be actively encouraged and this seriously altered the experience of the narrative for many members of the audience.

The release of Fast and Furious 7 was surrounded by a lot of hype, following the tragic death of Paul Walker—the actor who plays one of the lead characters, Brian O’Conner—late in 2013.

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Joelene Pynnonen

 

Joelene Pynnonen is a Brisbane based writer who loves YA fiction.

Stories of other worlds–or of our own world altered almost beyond recognition–have fascinated us for time immemorial. Insert Title Here, FableCroft’s latest anthology, offers a glimpse into a few of these worlds. Whether it’s exploring the distant future, exploring a future that took a slightly different historical route, or exploring a new reality, you can expect an onslaught of imagination in these pages.

The stories vary wildly in content. A Guardian whiles away his days defending the sacred Chalice that protects his homeland until his faith is tested. A shearer risks the wrath of the Governor when he rescues the man’s captive wife–only to discover that he has stirred up more trouble than he could have envisioned. A man who summons demons is called upon to summon an angel–and the world may never survive the repercussions.

These are a few of the tales to be found in this anthology. The stories here are far more adult than the other anthologies I’ve read from Tehani Wessely and, as she says in her introduction, they are darker than the other anthologies she has edited before. There’s none of the fledgling hope that One Small Step boasts, nor any of awed respect commanded by the stories in Cranky Ladies of History.

What is abundant in Insert Title Here, however, is consistently astounding world-building. Story after story explores unfamiliar realms – and story after story succeeds in making those realms blindingly convincing. As the title suggests, the possibilities in these stories are endless, and some of the worlds are so lovingly rendered that they would be more suited to a novel.

Some of these stories sacrifice character-building to create the worlds they depict. However, one that achieved the perfect balance of character, world-building, and plot was Stephanie Burgis’s ‘The Art of Deception’. The main characters, Julia and Hrabanic, counter each other wonderfully. She with her ability to manoeuvre delicate political trysts and he with his talent for anticipating and neutralising physical danger: both sorely needed traits in the perilous world they inhabit.

It’s difficult to know what to expect when settling down to read a book entitled Insert Title Here. In this case, a collection of wildly imaginative speculative short stories set in different times, dimensions or worlds. There are some gems hidden in these pages, but wait for a dark night to read them.

 Insert Title Here – Tehani Wessely (Ed.)

 FableCroft Publishing (April 1, 2015)

 ISBN: 9780992553418