Back and forward

It's most of the way through January and I'm only now getting around to a summary of 2009. Which pretty much sums it up. I had some pretty big writing plans for 2009 and achieved exactly none.

So what happened?

The day job went from being a day job to being day, night, weekends... It happens, sometimes. And I am proud of what I achieved. I built something pretty damn impressive, in a far shorter timeframe than I would have expected. Full credit to Microsoft for that. The .NET stack in general and Silverlight in particular have been a huge force multiplier for me. Any other technology wouldn't have got me as far so quickly.

But those long hours still killed me. Rushing to meet deadline after deadline was not cool. By the end of the year I was a tired and grumpy, insomniac. I still am. Hoping I'll get back to some decent energy levels soon.

OK, enough complaining. There was a lot of good stuff to celebrate this year.

Starting in March I took part in the  Australian Horror Writers Association mentor program.  The AHWA are kind enough to consider Kiwis honorary Aussies, so I was able to work with multi-award winning author Lee Battersby. He took some of my stories, pulled them apart, and when we put them back together they were so much better than when I started. If you're in NZ or Australia, you should check out the AHWA. They're a great bunch of people.

Queen's Birthday weekend I attended my first con, Conscription, where I met fellow writer (and the driving force behind Spec Fic NZ), Ripley Patton. Ripley really did make the con for me - I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much without her. The weekend passed in a blur and by the time it was done I'd ended up winning the Julius Vogel. I'd be lying if I didn't say that was hella cool.


NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week. How good was that, ay? Want to bet it'll be even bigger next year?

Other nice things. Had my first reprints:Dick Whittington's Blues in the Semaphore anthology and The Salt Line at Wily Writers. The Salt Line was also the first of my stories to be podcast, with an excellent narration from Tim Jones.

That was last year. So what's next?

That work overload killed my writing. So this year, all I'm planning on doing is getting my mojo back. I'm just going to stick to the basics - words on paper. This is the equivalent of me jogging round the streets of Philadelphia, pounding on carcases in the freezer, climbing up the art museum steps. I've got some big plans for later, but I won't get anywhere unless I can get that muscle mass back. Blunt Force Trauma. Various other boxing cliches.

I don't know if I'll be blogging here very much - I want to put as much energy into fiction as I can. If this affects my chances of winning some sort of journalism prize then I'm OK with that.

The Sir Julius Vogel Awards nominations now open

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, a blissful week away from that Internet thingy. But just before I go:

The Sir Julius Vogel sub-committee of SFFANZ is currently accepting nominations for science fiction and fantasy works first published or released in the 2009 calendar year.

Nominations open on 1 January 2010 and close on 31 March 2010 at 8pm.

For more information about SFFANZ and the SJV Awards, please go to the SFFANZ web-site http://sffanz.sf.org.nz/

To make a nomination please email  sjv_awards@sffanz.sf.org.nz..  Anyone can make a nomination, and it is free of charge.

Please send one nomination per email and include as many contact details as possible for the nominee as well as yourself.

You can find full details about the nomination procedures and rules, including eligibility criteria at http://sffanz.sf.org.nz/sjv/sjvAwards.shtml

A detailed nomination FAQ can be found at http://sffanz.sf.org.nz/sjv/sjvAwardsNominationGuidelines.shtml

The voting will occur at Au Contraire, http://www.aucontraire.org.nz/ - the national science fiction convention being held in Wellington, New Zealand over the weekend of the 27 - 29 August 2010.

For your consideration, some eligible works. This list is in no way complete and possibly more than a little biased. 

Novella or Novelette

"Over the Rim", Ripley Patton, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 42

Short Story

"Corrigan's Exchange", Ripley Patton, Semaphore June 2009

"Dick Whittington's Blues", Grant Stone, Semaphore March 2009

"The Living Dead Boy", Grant Stone, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 41

Collected Work

"Voyagers: science fiction poetry from New Zealand", Mark Pirie & Tim Jones (editors)

Production/ Publication

Semaphore Magazine, Marie Hodgkinson (editor)

Best Fan Writing

"Hugh Cook - The Wordsmith and the Warrior", Dan Rabarts. Produced as part of NZ spec fic blogging week and published here, here and here. 

Best Fan Production

"Digital Magic" - Podcast, Philippa Ballantine (available here ) 

What's really cool about that list is that it's by no means complete. There's some great work out there - check your favorite kiwi sf blogs for more. 

Right. That's me off on holiday. See you in a week!


Update
Another eligible work, in the Novel category: Pat Whitaker's Returning.