The Ten Best Books I Read in 2022
Read about forty books* this year, which isn’t bad. I try to read every day – the second most important part of the job of being a writer is reading widely – but unfortunately I am also human. As a …
Supanova Convention: Going Home in the Back of Divvy Van
After two very long days at Supanova, talking about my novel to readers, I left Sydney at 7pm Sunday, looking forward to collapsing into my own bed back in Canberra later that night. Instead, I found myself pitching my book …
The Punk in Cyberpunk: a cyberpunk manifesto
Well, more a set of guidelines than a manifesto. It wouldn’t be particularly punk to tell others how to think and how to be.
We should begin this story with the question: what is the ‘punk’ in cyberpunk? It’s an …
“The Will and the Act”: 36 Streets Book Launch
Delayed (by you-know-what) a couple of months, I launched my debut novel in Canberra on Sunday, 29 May. To be blunt, I find these things exhausting – unless you’re a superstar, you organise the entire event yourself, which is a …
Update: An Aurealis Award Nomination, new stories, & other news
Very happy to have received a nomination in Australia’s premier speculative fiction awards, the Aurealis. I was shortlisted in the ‘Best Science Fiction Novella or Novelette’ category for A Vast Silence, which first appeared in the Magazine of …
36 Streets – available now
It’s done. Five years, working on this novel. Giving up on it, coming back to it, agonising, creating, drafting and re-drafting, and the bloody thing is done. Now – marketing BS aside – it’s out of my hands and up …
The Hugo Awards in China: half a loaf of bread, or none.
The decision to allow the Word Science Fiction Convention (commonly known as the Hugos) to be hosted in Chengdu has two major risks. Firstly, to launder the reputation of a barbaric dictatorship currently engaged in genocide against an ethnic and …
Praise for 36 Streets
Breaking out the begging bowl and approaching successful authors for a book quote was one of my least favourite parts of finalising 36 Streets. In fact I hated it. “Hey, you don’t really know me, but could I …
Your Debut Novel: From Acceptance to Publication Day
The space between selling your first novel, and publication day, is long and exhausting. For me, the gap was about 18 months. I’ve written this article throughout the process, while the experience is fresh. It is fair to say …
The Six Best Books I Read in 2021 (and seven honourable mentions)
I got through thirty-one books this year, not including those I read as judge in the Aurealis Awards. Still, less than I would have liked. I try – and usually succeed – to write every day. But as an author, …