Award Winning…

No, no, not me personally – but I did contribute to an Anthology that has just won an award. An award for Best Collected Work, no less!

Tales for Canterbury was entered into the Sir Julius Vogel awards earlier this year. When it was nominated, we were all very chuffed about it, but never ever expected that it would actually have a shot at winning the award. But it did. It’s not that I don’t have faith… it’s just that it was up against some very big competition, and yet it still managed to pull through.

Anna Caro and Cassie Hart pulled together this Charity Anthology almost in record time last year after the February 22^nd Canterbury Earthquake. This meant sending out word to authors all over the place, reading through and accepting or rejecting work, then having the joy of editing it, and finally pulling it into a beautiful polished piece. Now as the crowning jewel, it has won the Sir Julius Vogel award for Best Collected Work.

So… A huge congratulations goes out to all of my fellow authors in this collection, as well as to our amazing editors – Anna and Cassie. I feel very privileged to have worked with them to be published alongside this brilliant collection of authors.

Go check them out: RJ Astruc, Philippa Ballantine, Jesse Bullington, Anna Caro, Cat Connor, Brenda Cooper, Debbie Cowens, Matt Cowens, Merrilee Faber, AJ Fitzwater, Janis Freegard, Neil Gaiman, Cassie Hart, A.M. Harte¸ Karen Healey, Lynne Jamneck, Patty Jansen, Gwyneth Jones, Tim Jones, Kim Koning, Jay Lake, Helen Lowe, Kate Mahony, Tina Makereti, Juliet Marillier, Angel Leigh McCoy, Linda Niccol, Ripley Patton, Simon Petrie, Grant Stone, Jeff Vandermeer, Mary Victoria, and Sean Williams

There are still a few copies of Tales for Canterbury left if anyone wants to buy one. But you only have until the end of June to get your hands on it. After that, Tales for Canterbury will be wrapped up and finished.

That’s all for now… much excitement, happiness, and satisfaction on a job well done J

 

Monday Musings

Welcome back to Monday. Was meant to post another blog last week, but due to my ‘baby-brain’ it didn’t quite happen. Might happen this week. I’m easily distracted by food and sleep. Surprise surprise…

I had a lovely weekend with my buddy Cassie Hart at her place in Taranaki. I met Cassie through working with her during the Tales for Canterbury period. Something just struck a chord between us, and we have been firm friends ever since. Met through a mutual cause, and maintained our friendship, which is done rather easily since we are both passionate about very similar things.  

As for my musings for this week – here they are:

• 

  A little Taranaki surf to whet our Summer appetites…

  Summer is coming, and I am more than aware of the urgent need to upgrade my wardrobe with clothes that will actually fit me throughout this period. This is happening though through the awesome donations from a few friends, which I am super stoked about. Being pregnant, and about to hit 30 odd degree weather at my house is not going to be too much fun. However, with a little help from my friends and family, I might just get though!

• I’m gutted there is no surfing this summer for me… however – there will be plenty of swimming at the beach next to my house. Gotta have something to cool me down a bit!
• Editing should be moving, but since my Evil Day Job is rather full on at the moment, the editing isn’t moving as fast as it should be. I need to throw more focus at it, and get it all out of the way. Starting tomorrow. *fingers crossed*
• I’m still mulling over ideas for NaNoWriMo this year. I think that even if I can get through 25,000 words this coming November, I will be pleased with myself. The lack of writing has been getting to me a bit, but I do also realise that all my thoughts are completely scrambled at the moment… so I’ve just been taking a bit of a break. I would really love to finish the Talent series though. I think that would be a worthy achievement before little Bumpkin is born.
• Christmas is just around the corner, and I haven’t even thought about what to get people yet – haven’t even discussed what we are doing for it! I guess this is a conversation we better have rather soon though. I have recently thrown all my outdoor furniture out – so I might need to get some more if people want to have it at our house.
• Totally LOVE the new chilling and reading space that we created last week in our living room. Its working really well. I sit there and read in the afternoons, and gaze out at the garden. It’s brilliant.
• One of my best friend’s is moving to Brisbane sometime soon… and while I’m extremely proud of her for taking the leap, and living her life to suit her and no one else, I know that I’m going to miss her. But I am extremely proud of her. Our lives are ours. And it’s completely up to us to change it if we don’t like the stagnant or mundane phase it’s in. She’s moving to a city where the sun shines happily, the weather is normally pretty decent, it’s warm… even in a southerly.

I think that’s it from me today. I look at the above thoughts and think that perhaps I had better put together a decent little list and start working through it!

 

Officially published… walking on sunshine

Life changed significantly for me yesterday afternoon. At 2.57pm, I officially became a published author. Yeah, I know – how amazing is that?! After how many years? Too many, but I have never had any regrets over those years either.

I have the feeling that I am walking on sunshine at the moment, and it hasn’t abated since I checked my email yesterday afternoon.  I almost feel as though anything could happen now, and that there are beautiful, big, and bright writing horizons ahead of me. I’m sure that all writers feel like this when they finally get something published. It’s a pretty epic emotion.

The fact that one of my stories is out there and published with some pretty incredible writers warms my heart even more. Last night I read a couple of the stories in the Tales for Canterbury anthology, and I was blown away by the talent that’s in this collection.

What is even better is that 34 writers came together and donated their stories to this anthology to raise money for Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. None of the writers are getting paid out of this… and all of the proceeds head directly to Red Cross for them to help those in need in this devastated city, which is going to take years to rebuild, and even longer to emotionally recover.

Putting something like this collection together takes up massive amounts of time and love, and Cassie Hart and Anna Caro have completely dedicated themselves to the cause of getting this anthology compiled to raise money for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. Both Cassie and Anna have struggled with maintaining their own levels of writing while this anthology has been under way. It has been a huge commitment. In terms of pulling something together that is this big as quickly as they did is truly incredible. To them I raise my glass. They are amazing women.

If you would like to know more about the incredible authors featured in it – please visit Tales for Canterbury. And what we would love even more is if you bought a copy over at Random Static Publishing.

 

Tales for Canterbury

Wow. I didn’t get the chance to put this up yesterday, so it’s better late than never!

As some of you know, over the past month,  there have been a couple of incredibly driven New Zealand writers pulling together an Anthology of Short Stories for Earthquake relief.

This is an amazing opportunity for you to donate to Red Cross Earthquake Appeal – and get something really special in return.

Tales for Canterbury is an opportunity for readers everywhere to give support to the people of Christchurch, who have shown resilience and bravery as they work to rebuild their lives and city. This charity anthology features tales by more than two dozen writers from New Zealand and beyond who have generously donated their works.

We are now taking pre-release orders for this volume of inspiring works. If you wish to pre-order a copy, you can do so directly with the publisher, RandomStatic.

This book will be released in hard copy ($24.95 incl. postage), as well as e-book ($12.00), and printing is expected to start in April. All profits will be donated to the NZ Red Cross Earthquake Appeal.  See Tales for Canterbury for more details.

Tales for Canterbury brings you a variety of stories set in both contemporary and future times, worlds touched by disaster, magic, and the otherworldly, where everyday truths are explored, and you never know what shape the future might hold. Explore the depths of what it means to be human, escape the real world, and find hope in these pages.

If you wish to send out to your networks, then please do so. We want to raise as much money as we can!

Whilst Cassie and Anna talk about resilience and bravery, I am truly amazed at the shear drive and passion that these two women have for this cause.  The incredible amount of coordination in getting something like this together (in just one month!) is amazing. This has been a big process for both of them, but the resilience and bravery that these two women have displayed throughout this journey is inspiring.

Even if you can’t help out financially, drop them an email or a message to show your support. I know that it would mean a lot to both of them.

 

Tales for Canterbury

Publishing an Anthology: Tales for Canterbury – All proceeds to Red Cross Canterbury Earthquake Appeal. Seeking Stories.

This is an idea that a NZ writer came up with last night, and since then – it’s escalated. So – I’m going to throw this out there. If you have any further queries about it, feel free to email Cassie and she will be happy to answer:

Christchurch, New Zealand, and the wider Canterbury region, was rocked yesterday (22.2.11) by another round of serious earthquakes. This time they struck during the middle of the day causing more devastation, and loss of life, to a city still trying to pick up the pieces from last September’s quakes.

In an attempt to do something, anything, to make a difference, we are putting together an anthology of short stories loosely themed around survival, hope and the future. All profits of this anthology will be donated to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal, or another registered charity aimed at aiding those in need in Canterbury.

The purpose of this Anthology is two-fold—to help financially, but also, we hope, to provide entertainment and alleviation in a time of crisis. We hope that our words will help make a difference.

We have already begun to approach authors, and the response is encouraging. Mainly due to time pressures, this anthology will be by invitation. However, if you are an established writer, and keen to contribute, please feel free to get in touch with us at just.cassie.hart@gmail.com. We are looking for stories between 1,500 and 5,000 words, of fairly upbeat nature in the general, literary, science fiction or fantasy genres.