by Jason Fischer | Sep 23, 2010 | Announcement, Publication, Writing
Just sold my story “Eating Gnashdal” to Keith Stevenson’s upcoming anthology Anywhere But Earth. Nice! Some more info about the book here:
http://keithstevenson.com/CDLblog/submissions/
And a list here of the other authors who so far have been accepted for this book, it already looks like a great line-up of local writers:
http://keithstevenson.com/CDLblog/2010/07/11/abe_update_3/
Many thanks to everyone at Clarion South who helped me with this story, and a big thanks to Russell B Farr for his advice and assistance.
by Jason Fischer | Sep 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
A final wrap-up blog post will be coming soon, wherein I finish the retelling of my great USA adventure.
In the mean-while, one of the photographers who recorded the event (the lovely Huguette) has emailed me a giant swag of professional photos taken during the week. I’ve uploaded them all into a Flickr account for your enjoyment, and it can all be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason_fischer/
by Jason Fischer | Sep 12, 2010 | Interview, Publication, Winner!, Writing
(Here is part 1 of my epic adventure for those who missed it: https://jasonfischer.com.au/?p=136)
So after returning to the Author Services building turning in our 24-hour stories, John Goodwin (President of Galaxy Press) dropped by to give our class a bit of a talk about media, self-promotion, and interviewing skills. This was really invaluable stuff – I’ve done other writing courses/camps/retreats before, and not once has anyone ever told me about how to conduct myself in an interview situation. Here’s a great example: If someone says to you “so, what’s your story about?” can you neatly summarise your tale in thirty seconds or so? Pretty much every time I’ve been asked this question, I come out with “there’s this guy, you see, and he lives in this land where so-and-so happens, and he has the ability to so-and-so, and then…” by which time the other person has a glazed look in their eyes and you’ve officially lost their interest.
Now change this into an interview setting with the media. You’ve got thirty seconds to sell yourself and your new product, to an interviewer who is probably not interested in the genre and who will unconsciously attempt to derail the conversation to more familiar territory. We were taught how to be concise, how to present ourselves, how to stick to the topic and answer the question we really want to answer (much as politicians do in interviews).
We were put into practice with our “twins” (person you’re sat next to for the workshop), and did dry-runs of our interviewing skills until we were blue in the face. This was invaluable, as later on we first prize winners did film and radio interviews, and all the contestants did film and taped interviews with the folks from Author Services after the awards ceremony. At some stage a filmed interview with us will appear at neverendingpanel.com, and we each did a spot for XM Radio. I’m sure glad we had a bit of practice first!
All books published by WOTF winners are kept in a very cool library, and I too have a book here! It’s the skinny one next to The Jane Austen Book Club.
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by Jason Fischer | Sep 10, 2010 | Announcement, Writing
I have mentioned this a few times now, but the time is finally here! Issue #6 of Midnight Echo (magazine of the Australian Horror Writer’s Association) is now open for submissions. This is the SF/Horror issue, co-edited by myself, David Conyers and David Kernot. Submission details as below:
http://australianhorror.com/index.php?view=144
This market is open to all, not just members of AHWA. So have a read of the guidelines, and send your creepy alien tales (of 5000 words or less) to midnightecho@australianhorror.com – it’s as easy as that.
If you have any queries, comment on this post or email me direct at mail@jasonfischer.com.au and I’ll do my best to answer them. Good luck and good writing!
by Jason Fischer | Sep 9, 2010 | Pimping
Here’s some stuff that’s definitely worth checking out:
Clarion South survivor and fellow Adelaidean L.L. Hannett has just released a deliciously creepy story into the wild, “Their Own Executioners”. This can be found via this link at Chizine: http://www.chizine.com/their_own_executioners.htm
A new story by Peter M Ball has just appeared at Apex, “L’esprit de L’escalier”. It’s AWESOME, the latest in a great run of Apex stories now under his belt. Go, click, read: http://apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/2010/09/short-fiction-lesprit-de-lescalier-by-peter-m-ball/
Fellow WOTFer Brad Torgersen has a novelette in the latest issue of Analog: http://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/outbound-now-available-in-the-november-2010-issue-of-analog-science-fiction-fact-magazine/
And fresh from the recent Worldcon, Laura Goodin has just posted a very thorough and quote-worthy account on how to moderate panels at SF conventions. This is a great survival guide, and something I wish I had read before my first stint as a panel chair*: http://lauragoodin.blogspot.com/2010/09/moderating-con-panels-introduction.html
*This unfortunate event was marred by the fact that one of my poor panellists broke their ankle the morning of the panel, and that something much cooler was going on next door. Sigh.
