Ends and beginnings, 2016 edition

Author with awardIn the spirit of recounting the good things that happened to me in this global annus horribilis, here’s my year in review. In (mostly) chronological order…

My writing year kicked off in earnest (I’m sure I wrote stuff before then, but I can’t be sure) in March, when I attended Contact. Held in Brisbane over the Easter long weekend, this was the 55th Australian National Science Fiction Convention and I enjoyed it heartily.

It featured the first Aurealis Awards that I was involved with (as judge for SF short story category) and much live-tweeting by me. I also won a Ditmar Award for Best New Talent, which was surprising and inspiring to my work since. (Except for the part where I dropped my pin on the floor of the stage, but I am at peace with my clumsiness.) To the Australian speculative fiction community, thank you for welcoming me and honouring me.

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Defying Doomsday

The anthology title 'Defying Doomsday' printed over a background of a city surrounded by desert with an orange stormy sky.

Image courtesy of Twelfth Planet Press.

My short story ‘Two Somebodies Go Hunting’ will be published in Twelfth Planet Press’ forthcoming anthology, Defying Doomsday. I am thrilled and humbled (seriously, look at the TOC!) to be included in what I think is a hugely important work.

Defying Doomsday seeks to find a place in fiction where disabled people aren’t erased or killed off early in the challenging setting of an apocalypse; where they aren’t reduced to being a burden to, or inspiration for, others.

The anthology is edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, and will be available later this year in print and ebook formats.