Aus Spec Fic Carnival January 2010

Egoboo is opening this year with a bang! As this month's hostesses, we welcome you to check out some of the exciting thoughts, articles, blog posts and everything we could find that relates to the Australian Speculative Fiction scene. Please enjoy!

Alisa Krasnostein announces the webpages, tweetpage, and Facebook page for Natcon50! This is also a call for Natcon Memorabilia. She also provides us with a few tools to help with promotion. She also announces what TPP has done that is eligible for a Hugo, and Tansy follows this with her mentions of favourite Australian works that are eligible too. Roadkill/Siren beat has won a Bibliophile Stalker Award for Cover Design! Well done Twelfth Planet Press!

Continuum 6 will be on soon! If you're free on the 26-28th February, 2010, and happen to be in Melbourne, then come along and check it out! If you're in Perth over Easter, then note that Swancon is rapidly approaching! If you're not going near either, both are more than happy to take supporting memberships. Aussiecon4 has announced an LJ to help people with travel arrangements to and from the convention.

Moonvoice rants about something very important - paying the artist.

Ripley Patton discusses jumping the shark,and announces a new online magazine called Wily Website.

JasonFischer talks about author bios, and Gillian works a bit on hers. He also talks about his novel writing process, and drops a few hints.

Tansy Rayner Roberts thinks about race and reader expectations, the guilt-work balance, and writing while the house is messy. She also hopes to learn more about Joanna Russ, a major figure in the history of feminist SF.

Kate Paulk thinks about writers trying to be normal, to which Rowena Cory Daniels asks us a few more questions. Rowena also blows Trent's trumpet. While I want to add a phrase to explain that further, I think you all should just click on the link and enjoy.

Alan Baxter reviews A Slice of Life by Paul Haines, Avatar, and discusses why The Phantom Menace was a terrible film. He also urges people to submit! Properly, that is! And he takes a good look at Gillian Pollack's Life Through Cellophane.

Patty Jansen has some thoughts on Avatar as well. Plus she thinks about the future of SF, and puts up a few words about writing. She also discusses her submission statistics for 2009.

Alannah Horgan announces the winners of the Shades Sentience Short Story Competition! Congratulations to Kia Groom for Lucid Dreaming.

Fantasy Writers on Retreat announces they exist! Yay Trudi Canavan, Russell Kirkpatrick, Nicole R Muprhy, Matthew Farrer, Cat Sparks, Kylie Seluka and Donna Maree Hanson! Plus ROR are barracking for their favourite Tansy!

Realms of Fantasy decide to upset a lot of people um have an all-female issue. Tansy has a few cents to spare, Alisa chimes in, and Robert Hoges also thinks about some of the issues raised. Patty Jansen has a few thoughts too, and Tansy revisits the topic a few days later, and so does Alisa. She also examines the gender ratios of the stories she has accepted for 'Sprawl.' Tansy also points us to Charlie Brown who talks about Fantasy's outreach efforts to find more women authors rather than dedicating a single issue to them. , where the discussion continues.

Alisa ponders on some of the things she needs to do as an editor, and talks about five lies writers believe about editors. She also mentions some of the best parts of editing anthologies.

The Tangled Bank: Love, Wonder, & Evolution is about to launch! The anthology, which marks the 150th anniversary of Origin of Species, is bursting with over 100,000 words of fiction, poetry, artwork, and essays about evolution. An international lineup of nearly 50 contributors includes Sean Williams, Brian Stableford, Patricia Russo, Carlos Hernandez, Bruce Boston, and Emily Ballou. The Tangled Bank will be available for download and in print on Darwin Day: 12th February, 2010. A story from the anthology will be available free on the website.

Jason Fischer is releasing hordes of zombies! Check out Black House Comics for more details!

Juliet Marillier talks on Writer Unboxed about voice in writing.

Laura Goodin draws parallels between attitudes of martial arts practitioners and writers.

Helen Merrick is proud to announce the publication of her new book 'The Secret Feminist Cabal: Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms' and gets a rather unusual review.


Once again, Mondy reviews a lot of stuff. Electric Velocipede gets a mention, as does Doctor Who: The Ebd of Time Part One and Part Two, a movie called Lifeforce from 1985, Under the Dome by Stephen King, and talks about the 78 books he read last year.

Carol Ryles talks about switching gender in her story, and what she learned in the process.

Glenda Larke posts about proofs, and things to do while waiting 2 hours for a cable car. (Read your proofs works for me!)

Joanna Fay translates a poem for us all to ponder upon - To Paint a Bird's Portrait by 20th Century French surrealist poet, Jacques Prevert.

Tehani Wessley announces the Table of Contents for 'Worlds Next Door', an anthology aimed at 9 - 13 year olds.

Satima Flavell talks about why editors are important in the scheme of things.

Talie Helene talks about Writing Obsessed Wednesdays.

Sarah Parker talks about Wordle, how she ripped the idea of Tansy, and what she likes about it. She also points us all to Ben's post about the final wrapup for 2009 Last Short Story Project.

JM is starting up a new blog called Life in the First Draft. Yours truly will be there in a few days!

Ursula le Guin resigns from the Author’s Guild over the ‘Google Settlement’ (incl info about what is the settlement, and links and quotes about for and against it)

Random House closes House of Legends children’s fantasy website.

Fleur McDonald has giveaways on her blog including any available book by Allen and Unwin or a small gift pack and membership from the QLD writers centre, which also have online stuff, so it’s useful for poeple in other states too! 

Terra Incognita Science Fiction has a new podcast with Marianne de Pierres reading her short story 'In the Book Shadow'. 

Nominations for the Chronos Awards are now CLOSED. Thanks every one who nominated!

John Samuel also announces the Shortlist for the Chronos Awards! You need to be a full or supporting member to be able to vote, so get yours today!

Next month's carnival is being hosted by Writers on the Rise. Check them out and remember to send them links of things you want to promote.

Nyssa also announces a new link system for the Aus Spec Fic Carnival! Feel free to book mark this link. Use it every time you see something interesting or exciting about an Australian or New Zealand author, publisher, or reader related to Australian Speculative Fiction. We want to know more!