2021 #1
Aurealis Shortlist, Flights of Foundry Appearances, and a couple of publications...
I’ve got a bunch of updates in this newsletter, so I’ll jump in without further ado.
Aurealis Awards
I’m honoured to share that Jigsaw Children, published in Clarkesworld Issue #161, has been shortlisted for Best Science Fiction Novella in the 2020 Aurealis Awards! Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women and Unnatural Order, two anthologies that I’ve been lucky to be part of, are also up for Best Anthology.
You can check out all the nominations here. It’s a stellar list.
Flights of Foundry
I’ll be appearing at Flights of Foundry this weekend, moderating a panel, appearing on two more panels, giving a presentation, and doing a reading. This is the first time I’ve been a speaker at a writing conference. Needless to say, I’m super nervous!
Saturday
Panel: Australian SFF Hour (UTC 00:00, AEST 10:00)
Presentation: Using Psychology to Deepen Character Development (UTC 05:00, AEST 15:00)
Reading (UTC 07:00, AEST 17:00)
Panel: Writing with a Healthy Mindset (UTC 22:00, AEST 08:00 on Sunday)
Sunday
Panel: How Long is a Story? Flash Fiction, Short Stories, Novellas, Novels and more… (UTC 07:00, AEST 17:00)
I attended FoF last year and it was amazing. The schedule this year looks even more abundant. Registration is free and still open.
Unnatural Order
I was thrilled to receive my contributor’s copy of Unnatural Order in January. I’ve read it from cover to cover and it’s a wondrous read. Apart from my own pint-sized story, there are wickedly delightful offerings from C.H. Pearce, Alannah K. Pearson, Nathan J. Phillips, Leife Shallcross, Freya Marske, and many more.
The tales surprised me in their scope—there were robots on a spaceship stumbling into an unexpectedly human task, virtual afterlife in a hyper-corporatised near future, explorations of collective consciousness, steampunk adventure, fables, and the uncanny in the everyday. Unnatural Order has truly sparked my excitement about Aussie spec-fic. Thanks again to editors Lyss Wickramasinghe and Alis Franklin for including me in this Aurealis-nommed anthology.
You can snag a copy through the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild website.
Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women
Since its release in September 2020, positive reviews have been rolling in (thanks, Vanessa Fogg and Nova Hadley, amongst others)! Still feeling super lucky that my two little tales are part of this.
I was delighted to hear that Black Cranes has made the final ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in an Anthology, as well as the Aurealis Award shortlist for Best Anthology.
In December 2020, I was introduced by the Horror Writers Association Seers Table for my bite-sized ghost story, Of Hunger and Fury. Thank you, Kate Maruyama, for nominating me.
My interview with the awesome Angela Yuriko Smith reappears on Horror Addicts for their Asian Horror Month. I talk about migration, the model minority myth, exploring our darker selves, and wanting characters who can do everything. Also, my dad teases primary-school-me about my character name choices.
You can find Black Cranes in hard copy through Omnium Gatherum or e-book or hardcopy through Amazon.
The Dunes of Ranza - Reprinted!
In November 2018, my first ever publication appeared in Going Down Swinging: Pigeonholed—an pulpy, paperback ode-to-genre by a Melbourne-based literary publisher.
This tale was The Dunes of Ranza, a post-colonial far-future sci-fi story with some of my favourite things—a cybernetically enhanced gender-bending bounty hunter, a love-hate sidekick relationship with wry banter, and questions about power, class, and humanity’s progress.
I’m so thrilled to share that The Dunes of Ranza has been reprinted in Space and Time Magazine #140. Just look at that stunning cover!
Every Version of You
I’ve saved this last wee bit of news for the bottom of the newsletter, but I’m very happy to share that Every Version of You is coming together slowly and steadily. My soft-cyberpunk-story-with-feelings has been churned through six months (yes, you read that right, six months) of gruelling structural reworking and has just been zinged back to my lovely editor at Affirm Press. Stay tuned!