August 2011

AntipodeanSF, long-running Australian speculative fiction webzine, has started a weekly RADIO SHOW AND PODCAST which features the flash fiction stories published therein, along with various segments. Listen to the show at the website, and find past shows archived at http://antisf.libsyn.com/. (www.antisf.com.au; submitted by Ion Newcombe)

The Wheeler Centre has uploaded a video of the sold-out TERRY PRATCHETT evening “Imagination, not intelligence, made us human” at Storey Hall (mentioned in Bullsheet April 2011). The video includes a reading from the upcoming Discworld novel, Snuff. (wheelercentre.com; courtesy of Discworld Monthly)

Author of the FALLEN series, Lauren Kate, is currently conducting an Australian tour. Follow it on Twitter with #fallentour.

For the fast writers among you, magazine AFL Record is running a SHORT STORY COMPETITION about the 2022 AFL World Rules, a story in which Australian football has gone international and overtaken soccer as the “world game”. Though its topic is football, its essence is SF. It closes August 7. (aflrecord.com.au; submitted by Alan Stewart)

WORTHY CAUSE: Melbourne Browncoats (fans of Joss Whedon’s Firefly, as if you didn’t know that already) are running a FUNDRAISER for Equality Now as part of the annual, global Can’t Stop the Serenity charity movement. The New Melbourne Browncoats will be screening Serenity and Dr Horrible’s Sing-along Blog at Federation Hall in Southbank. The event will feature raffles and door prizes, a charity auction and Browncoat merchandise. Tickets available now. (www.newmelbournebrowncoats.com)

The Queensland Writer Centre is running a ‘Writing Science Fiction Short Story’ SHORT COURSE in October in its Online Learning Centre. The course will be facilitated by Lee Battersby and runs for six weeks. (www.qwc.asn.au; submitted by Imogen Smith).

Powerhouse Museum in Sydney will be the only place in Australia to see HARRY POTTER: The Exhibition, opening on 19 November 2011. The exhibition offers fans a look at the artistry and craftsmanship that went into creating the iconic props and costumes that have appeared throughout the Harry Potter film series. (www.powerhousemuseum.com)

The third edition of the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION is to be published online, with text available free. (www.sf-encyclopedia.com; submitted by Andrew Porter)

NEW RELEASES

Lost in Transit: The Strange Story of the Philip K Dick Android is a new popular science book by Australian writer David F Duffy, telling the incredible events surrounding the creation of the intelligent android replica of Philip K Dick, and its loss in 2006. The PKD Android not only looked eerily like the man himself, it moved and spoke like him. The android would ‘watch’ people as they approached him, ‘hear’ their voices and answer complex questions. It was received to great acclaim, winning prestigious awards, capturing the imagination of the international media, and taking the science community by storm. Then it was gone. In a tale where contemporary science pays homage to some of Dick’s most outrageous predictions and paranoid fears; and where events surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the android’s head seem to mirror the writer’s most inventive novels, it is sometimes hard to know where science ends and fiction begins. Yet every word is true. Published by Melbourne University Press, RRP $29.99. (Submitted by Andrew Hawkins)

PEACEMAKER, the new graphic novel mentioned last month, is no longer available at its special launch price, but the full price includes a bonus short story and conceptual art.

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS

The list of HONOURABLE MENTIONS for Australians in Gardner Dozois’s new The Year’s Best Science Fiction 28 includes stories by Peter M. Ball, K. J. Bishop, Jenny Blackford, Damien Broderick, Isobelle Carmody, Elizabeth Carroll, Aidan Doyle, Margo Lanagan, Sean McMullen, Garth Nix and Simon Petrie, and two stories from Sean Williams. Damien Broderick’s much-praised story “Under the Moons of Venus” is also reprinted in the book. (Submitted by Jenny Blackford)

CONVENTIONS

GRAPHIC, Sydney’s festival of graphic storytellong, animation and music, runs from 20 to 21 August at the Sydney Opera House. (graphic.sydneyoperahouse.com)

Melbourne’s anime festival, MANIFEST, will be at the Melbourne Showgrounds from 26 to 28 August. It combines a variety of fun activities, and occasionally a chunk of content that is actually high quality science fiction and fantasy. (www.manifest.org.au/web; submitted by Justin Semmel)

SHEKILDA Again, the second annual Australian women’s crime writers’ convention, will run in Melbourne from 7-9 October. (www.shekilda.com.au)

Upcoming events include ARMAGEDDON Expo Australia (October, Melbourne), and CONFLUX 7 (September/October, Canberra).

Got more news? Add it in the comments and/or send an email to have it included in next month’s issue.