For Your Consideration

It's that time of year again, to WillSmith dot jpg at my stories from 2019 for award consideration, including the Sir Julius Vogel Awards, Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, and the Otherwise Award (formerly Tiptree). In a lovely piece of serendipity, I will be able to attend the award ceremonies for all of them next year!

These are listed in chronological order:

• "Hearts Made Marble, Weapons Shaped From Bone" - Apparition Lit, Issue 5 "Resistance", January 15, 2019
  Unicorns aren't as put together as myth makes them out to be - it takes near annihilation for them to find their truth, strength, and anger.
  
• "Hunger's Truth" - Giganotosaurus, April 2019
  People with an X chromosome - not just women - have evolved a taste for man-flesh. Their sharp teeth have been blunted by the patriarchy, and Danyor must struggle with dentures, detainment, and daddy as revolution rises.
  
• "With God As Our Witness" - Lackingtons, Issue 19 Voyages, May 14, 2019
  Knights with genital embossed armour fly by dragon to meet God on the moon. Every mission before has failed, until Ser Serena comes along with A Plan.
  
• "Power Chord" - Capricious, July 31, 2019
  Punks in space! Surl must play the performance of her life with a guitar keyed to ignite the giant fusion engines of the Gilman, a generation ship taking an anarchist collective to the stars. 

News roundabout these parts

It's been a busy couple of months in these here writerly parts.

Edits for "The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper" and "No Man's Land" have been completed and handed in. "Cinrak" is now heading into the formatting stage and ARCs will be made available soon. If you'd like an eARC for reviewing purposes, contact me or editor Catherine Lundoff at Queen of Swords Press.

I'll have more details soon about my World War 2 land girl shapeshifters novella "No Man's Land", I'm just waiting for ducks to line up. When I have release date (hopefully May 2020), cover art, and ARCs to share, I'll be shouting about it.

Recent events I've done Word volunteering duties for include Zadie Smith and Behrouz Boochani. Working crowd control for Zadie Smith was enlightening, giving me the chance to watch a star author at the top of their game interacting with readers. And the Boochani event was incredibly emotional - I hope New Zealand can find it's way to grant asylum to him.

In October, I traveled to Wellington to be a part of the double book release by Paper Road Press for "Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Speculative Fiction Volume 1", which includes my story "Logistics", and Andi Buchanan's brilliant "From a Shadow Grave". A good time was had reading in the shadow of the Beehive, and both Year's Best and "From a Shadow Grave" made the following week's Top Ten New Zealand Fiction Sellers.

I was flattered to be part of a group of local wordsmiths creating the Word Up Cabaret in late November. Local storyteller The Unicorn brought together poets, spoken word artists, songwriters, and authors to perform a buffet of beautiful prose over a few nights. The night I performed, I read one of my unicorn stories (not related to our generous host). It was a fun experience, one I need more practice at for next year!

I've started planning a big travel event for May 2020, including Wiscon (finally!) and the Nebula conference. I'm hoping I'll be able to do a book release and readings at Wiscon. Let me know if you're going to be at either conference.

Worldcon 2020 planning is also underway. At least I don't have to travel so far for this major event! I hope to take part in some interesting panels and readings. I'm looking forward to sharing Wellington with all my writer friends, and Aotearoa New Zealand speculative fiction with the world.

Overall, 2020 is going to be a big year of travel, promotion, and book releases, a big new step for me. And I have to fit my regular writing schedule in there too! I'm looking forward to the challenge. I really want to up my game.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of my cat Bug:

A black and white tuxedo cat sits on a window ledge enjoying sunshine