The obligatory award eligibility post

First, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. I had just one story of my own published in 2018, ‘To Rain Upon One City’ in Resist Fascism (psst, have you seen this gorgeous cover by Geneva B?) It’s eligible for the short story categories of the Locus, Hugo, and Ditmar awards. I was deeply honoured that my editors Bart Leib and Kay Holt saw fit to open the anthology with my far-future, Jewish refugee jiu-jitsu story of community and kindness.

Mother of Invention has already garnered some great reviews and nominations, including being listed on the 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List and being shortlisted for an Aurealis Award (additional congratulations are in order for Lee Cope, whose story ‘A Robot Like Me’ is shortlisted in the best YA short story category). Reviews are up at Tor.com, Books and Publishing, and elsewhere.

Things get a little more involved for Mother of Invention eligibility, so I’ve included more detail below, including voting eligibility and deadlines. Thank you to anyone who considers voting for my writing and editing work, and for getting through this labyrinth.

Continue reading

Mother of all updates

At long last, Mother of Invention is on sale! You can pick up a paperback or ebook from Twelfth Planet Press directly, or via Amazon. If you’d like an idea of what Tansy and I were trying to do with this anthology, Tor.com very kindly reprinted the introduction. Also on Tor.com, Tansy and I waxed lyrical about books that give voice to artificial intelligence. This is the first book that has my name on the cover and I’m quite proud of it, so I’d love it if you had a look. Also, check out the gorgeous cover by the amazingly talented Likhain.

As for my own fiction, I have a story forthcoming in a Crossed Genres micro-anthology, Resist Fascism. This story is about building community through kindness and jiujitsu (Jew-jitsu, if you will). The Kickstarter has just a couple of days to go, so now’s the time to hit that BACK THIS PROJECT button. I also have another story slated for publication next year, in [embargo]. Continue reading

Recently, and soon

Re-interred convict and early white settler graves in the Jewish section of Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart; many of the stars represent child and infant deaths.

I’ve had a busy few months year, editing Mother of Invention (it’s with the printer now!), writing, and taking on the gothest side gig ever: doing admin and proofreading gravestones for a monumental stonemason.

Belated writing news… My Ecopunk story, “Trivalent”, was shortlisted for a Ditmar Award, and my Defying Doomsday short, “Two Somebodies Go Hunting”, has been shortlisted for a Norma K. Hemming Award.

I just got back from the US, where among other things, I pre-launched Mother of Invention at WisCon (my livetweets are here; I had a fantastic time on the two panels I was on, plus the others I attended and elsewhere). While I was there, Strange Horizons interviewed me about my writing and editing work, and it was great fun to chat to them about what keeps me writing. Continue reading

It? Is? June?

The passage of time never fails to take me by surprise. So here we are, it’s June, and I’m announcing my next big thing: Mother of Invention: a speculative fiction anthology of diverse, challenging stories about gender and artificial intelligence. I’ll be co-editing this Twelfth Planet Press anthology with Tansy Rayner Roberts. We’ve just launched a Kickstarter to fund the project, so please check out the goodies we have on offer and tell your friends.

In other news, I’m very excited to announce that my Far-North Queensland guerrilla scientist story, “Trivalent”, is forthcoming in Ticonderoga Publications’ Ecopunk anthology. I’m really proud of this story, and I’m in excellent company in this table of contents. Continue reading