Phew! That's my #AurealisAwards entries submitted!

The worst bit? Having to come up with actual titles for the #Tootfic stories I entered!

#WritingAwards

It appears that my writings since January are eligible for judging in the Aurealis Awards, so I've just submitted my entry for a few of them.

@FutzleFiction @Unixbigot yours likewise appear to be eligible.

Short stories can enter for free.

https://aurealisawards.org/

#AurealisAwards #WritingAwards

2024 member updates!

2024 is (nearly) dead! Long live 2024… particularly as it was a busy and productive year for CSFG members. Some highlights are listed below (if I’ve missed you, better keep and eye on the mailing list… and your membership status!), but a huge shout-out and congratulations to all our members, whatever their 2024 may have brought them. Now here’s to a fantastic, scientifical, and horrific (in a good way) 2025.

Community

CSFG Lifetime Member Kaaron Warren made appearances at the  Canberra Writers Festival, CrimeFest Bristol, Capital Crime and Cymera Edinburgh.

Dr Gillian Polack was an honorary fellow for a month at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, where she got to meet students who studied herwork as part of their MA. Some studied the novel, The Time of the Ghosts, but most were looking at short fiction. This was part of a resarch visit to Germany supported by Deakin University. She was the Invited Creative Guest at the Virtual International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, and made appearances at the  Glasgow World Science Fiction Convention, Octocon (Irish National Science Fiction Convention), Balticon (Baltimore Science Fiction Convention), Melbourne Continuum, Nebulas, and Levitation (UK National Science Fiction Convention).

Rob Porteous worked on and contributed to The Sum of All Writers, and anthology was put together by a collective of US writing coaches and their friends. Rob edited and laid it out. The anthology is to raise funds to support emerging speculative fiction writers and has already raised about $20,000 in pre-orders. Rob also offers his own speculative fiction coaching services.

Steve Herczeg is currently running the Kickstarter for his second collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, The Curious Cases of Sherlock Holmes Volumes 3 & 4.

Publications

From Donna Maree Hanson, the short story collection Robot Hearts and the novel Destiny’s Blood (as Dani Kristoff).

From Steve Herczeg, the short stories “Death comes to Pine Gulch” (Gunslingers: Campfire Tales #2), “With the assistance of the Wiltshire Widow” (Steel True, Blade Straight), “A Death at Stonehenge” (No Holidays for Sherlock Holmes), “The Adventure of the Flustered Theologian” (Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in 1886), “The Case of the Trepoff Murder” (MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories), “The Case of the Fallen Spirit” (Sherlock Holmes takes the Stage Volume 2), “The Deaths on the Edge of Standish Woods” (MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories), “The Disappearance of the Wild Bunch” (The American Adventures of Solar Pons), “The Adventure of the Ruddy-Faced Bookseller” (Sherlock Holmes and the Great Lady Detectives), “The House” (Spillwords Halloween Collection).

From Lily Mulholland, the short story “Body of Work’  (Spawn 2: More weird tales about pregnancy, birth and babies).

From T. R. Napper, the short stories “Burned Like Coal” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) and “Highway Requiem” (The Year’s Best Science Fiction on Earth 2), the novella, Ghost of the Neon God, and the novel, The Escher Man.

From Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga, the essay “Afrofuturism and Exploring Cultural Identity as a Process of Becoming” in the newly published Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction.

From Celia Pearce, the short stories “Down the Hatch” (Cosmic Horror Monthly #51), “Practice Makes Perfect” (Conflux 18: Missions and Quests), and “Dualhaven” (The Off Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird).

From Dr Gillian Polack, the audiobook for The Wizardry of Jewish Women, a collection of three novels under Enchanted Australia, the novel Langue[dot]doc 1305 in the collection A Rift in Time, and a chapter on Jewish Speculative Fiction in Australia and New Zealand, in Valerie Frankel’s Jewish Fantasy Worldwide.

From Rob Porteous, the novella Dancing with Storms (The Sum of All Writers).

From Cat Sparks, the Calvaria Fell short story collection with Kaaron Warren, a first publication in Spanish for the short story “Metal pesado” (Excelsius 2024), and the short story “Beasts of Bone and Promise” (Time Machine Australia Bound).

From Kaaron Warren, the novel The Underhistory, the novella The Emporium, the short stories “Bright Hearts” and “The Ruins, with a Spectator”, and the Calvaria Fell short story collection with Cat Sparks.

Awards

• T. R. Napper for Best SF Novel (Aliens: Bishop) and Best SF Novella (“A Marked Man”)
• Celia Pearce for YA Short Story (“Integrated Learning”)
• Kaaron Warren for Best Novella (Bitters).

• Kaaron Warren won Best Novella for Bitters
• T. R. Napper for Best Novella (“A Marked Man”) and Best Short Story (“Highway Requiem”)
• Celia Pearce for Best New Talent, Fan Artist, and Short Story (“Jimmy Flip Brings His Little One to Work, and It Comes My Turn to Hold It”).

And other wins and nominations include:

• Kaaron Warren won the Australian Shadows Awards Best Novella for Bitters
• Celia Pearce for the Brave New Weird Awards with “Jimmy Flip Brings His Little One to Work, and It Comes My Turn to Hold It”.

#aurealisAwards #awards #ditmarAwards #memberNews

Another story from This Fresh Hell has been nominated for an award! Chuck McKenzie's "The Dark Man, By Referral" is brilliantly creepy-yet-uplifting! Congratulations, Chuck!

Read more at:

https://narrellemharris.iwriter.com.au/the-dark-man-by-referral-award-nomination/

#shortstories #horrorFiction @bookstodon #horror #AurealisAwards #ThisFreshHell

I wrote a little piece about my #aurealisawards win last week - short and sweet, just like me.

I authored Resembling Lepus, sure, but it does take a village. The editor, the publisher, the fellow authors who supported and blurbed and kicked my arse to get on a plane and go in person. I have a great village and got to meet a couple of its denizens in person that night. Still elated 🖤☺️

https://www.amandakool.net/blog/2023/6/6/resembling-lepus-won-the-aurealis-award-for-best-sf-novella

Tl;dr: If they ask you to write a speech, write a goddamned speech 😅

#writing #AurealisMagazine #blog

The Not So Chosen One, shortlisted in the 2023 Aurealis Awards, is young adult fiction by Kate Emery, with a Hogwarts like school of magic in Perth, Australia, and a student maybe more sarcastic than magic.

https://disassociated.com/australian-novel-the-not-so-chosen-one-kate-emery/

#AustralianLiterature #YoungAdult #AurealisAwards

Congrats to everyone on the Aurealis Awards shortlist, including @spacerookie [email protected] @garthnix @AlanBaxter @ScottSteensma @Fordwalker !

https://aurealisawards.org/2023/03/09/2022-aurealis-awards-shortlist-announcement/

#AurealisAwards #OzLit #AusLit #AustralianAuthors #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #SFF #Books #Bookstodon