adelaidesean: (WOTF 23)
Concept Sci-fi is hosting its first annual Short Story Competition, offering entrants a chance to win £100 plus some signed goodies from competition judge, um, me.

Details in the link above. It's a themed competition. Here's the blurb:

Frank Zappa once said that everything in the universe is part of one great big note. He wasn't far wrong. There's music in the earth's core, in the sun's atmosphere, even in the roiling fire of the Big Bang. There's music in our interior lives too, in the stories we tell. "Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable", according to Leonard Bernstein, which makes it a perfect tool in the writing of space opera--my true but not my only love.

Way back in the late 1980s, I had to choose between two lives: one writing words and another writing notes. In an alternate universe, there's a version of me beavering away at a new symphony, or the score to a Hollywood movie. Here, the closest I get is putting Gary Numan lyrics in the mouths of my characters, and dreaming.

Dream for me. Tell me the note that ripples through spacetime in the wake of an ftl cruiser. Convey to me the songs that alien cephalopods whistle in their jovian soup. Give me the music of the spheres as you hear it. When the echoes fade, we'll all be richer for it.
adelaidesean: (kb's party)
The 2006 Aurealis Awards have been announced and the news is good for some, not so good for others, but excellent for everyone involved. Hurrah!

As always, there were some raised eyebrows. Judging the Horror category kept life interesting the last few months (as the tied result might testify). No friendships were harmed in obtaining that result, I swear, and I won't tell which side of the divide I fell.

In the science fiction section, I was very pleased to walk away with the Best Short Story gong--a surprise to me, given such a strong line-up--which was collected on my behalf by the most excellent Stephanie Smith of HarperCollins.

Sadly, despite having agreed to co-host with Kim Wilkins, I was forced to pull out at the last minute (attending solely as an animated head on the big screen), so I missed out on all the excitement and merriment afterwards. If the party was anything like last year's, there'll be some sore heads today. I look forward to the photos...

P.S. )
adelaidesean: (beach)
Sometimes being a writer is more about reading than writing. Sometimes reading swamps writing entirely, a situation I find myself in at the moment.

I don't mean reading over my own work during the editing process; neither do I mean reading for review or research. During October, I'll be reading as a judge for the Aurealis Awards and the Writers of the Future Contest. I'm assessing grant applications (which includes scrutinising support material by the box-load) for Arts SA. I'm perusing submissions for the ever-expanding Big Book Club. And I'm looking at a galley from a friend in the States with a view to providing a blurb.

All of these things are important. All of them take time. There are days in the middle of writing a novel when I would kill for an afternoon reading a good book (aka falling asleep on the couch with a hardback plopped over my face). Seems all those wishes are coming true at once this month.

I'm not complaining. I'm actually looking forward to it. It counts as input, and I can't let myself nod off while reading this kind of stuff. Any one of these books or stories could inspire me in unknown ways. I might even read something that will change the way I think about fiction forever. It's possible. Isn't that why we let stories into our lives in the first place? To change and inspire us?

It's also a pleasant change of routine. Before I know it, I'll be back to doing what I normally do and wishing for moments like these. By anyone's standards, reading for a living looks very much like luxury.
adelaidesean: (Default)
A couple of pleasant pre-Xmas items:

(1) Geodesica: Ascent has been nominated for an Aurealis Award in the Science Fiction section. (Follow the link for the complete list of nominations.) Results announced in Brisbane Feb 25.

(2) I've been asked to be a judge for the Festival Awards for Literature, announced at Adelaide Writers' Week in March next year. The reading schedule will be a bit stiff (107 books arrived a couple of days ago, all due to be read by mid-January) but it'll make a nice change from writing... and judging the WOTF... and making merry. :-)

Cheers,
Sean

WOTF

Aug. 12th, 2005 10:07 am
adelaidesean: (Default)
Oh, and speaking of L. Ron Hubbard, I'm very excited to have been invited to become a judge for the Writers of the Future. It's been thirteen years since I attended my own award ceremony, at which I swore I'd be back one day as a judge, so I'm quite excited by this. The timing is great, too, as I'm off to Seattle for the latest ceremony on Monday, where I'll be basking in the glow of Cat Sparks, one of this year's illustrious winners. Woohoo!

Cheers,
Sean

Profile

adelaidesean: (Default)
adelaidesean

February 2025

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
232425262728 

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 8th, 2025 12:45 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios