New CSFG membership fees and structure!
CSFG now offers membership benefits to writers and creators of speculative fiction living outside of the Australian Capital Territory and surrounds, ie, in Outer Canberra.
See here for details.
The Next anthology is out now!
Next was launched at the Conflux 9 convention on 26 April and can be purchased now! 
$24.95 plus postage. Pay by Paypal or Contact Us.
And get a second CSFG book for half price when you purchase Next!
See the CSFG Publishing page for more details and more special offers.
CSFG Member News (April 2013)
Congratulations!
To Kaaron Warren for winning… well, pretty much everything on offer: Through Splintered Walls won the Ditmar and Australian Shadows awards for Best Collection and “Sky” won the Ditmar for Best Novella and Australian Shadow for Best Long Fiction.
To Nicole Murphy for launching her In Fabula-divino anthology at Conflux 9
And to those whose stories were selected for The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2012: Kaaron for “River of Memory”, Alan Baxter for “Tiny Lives” and Nicole for “The Black Star Killer”
Upcoming workshops
Rik Lagarto will be teaching ‘Writing for Games‘ at the ACT Writers Centre on 1 June 2013
Sales and Publications
Nicole sold her novel The Lies We Tell to Escape Publishing
Alan sold his stories “Roll the Bones” to Crowded Magazine and “Not the Worst of Sins” to Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Ian McHugh sold his story “Extracted journal notes for an ethnography of bnebene nomad culture” to Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
Alan Baxter’s novella Dark Rite, co-authored with David Woods, is now available to purchase and download the first three chapters for free here
And Dave Versace’s story “Imported Gods-Aisle Nine”, Nicky Rowlands’s “On the Wall”, Shauna O’Meara’s “The Dream Tracker”, Robert Phillips’s “A Dream of Something More”, Ian’s “Vandiemensland”, Gillian Polack’s “Someone’s Daughter”, Leife Shallcross’s “A Little Warning”, Rik’s “The Wild Hunt”, Ross Hamilton’s “When Money Talks”, Elizabeth Fitzgerald’s “Phoenix Down”, David Coleman’s “Gambler’s Blues” and Alan’s “Quantum Echoes” were published in the CSFG Next anthology, launched at Conflux 9.
CSFG at Conflux 9
UPDATED!
Friday 26 April, 6-7pm – launch of Next, edited by Simon Petrie and Rob Porteous
Dealer’s Room
From 1pm, Thursday 25 April – come see the special offers at the CSFG dealers table
Thursday 25 April, 12-3pm - Writing using the five senses with Gillian Polack
Friday 26 April, 8-10am - Polishing your turds (or, how to edit your stories) with Ian McHugh
Friday 26 April, 8-10am - Distilling your story with Chris Andrews
Readings
Friday 26 April, 9:30-10am – Simon Petrie
Friday 26 April, 11-11.30am – Leife Shallcross
Friday 26 April, 3-3.30pm - David Coleman – UPDATED
Saturday 27 April, 9.30-10am – Ian McHugh
Saturday 27 April, 11-11.30am – Kaaron Warren (Conflux 9 Special Guest)
Sunday 28 April, 11-11.30am – Al Baxter
Sunday 28 April, 1.30-2pm – Shauna O’Meara
Art Show
Works by Shauna O’Meara
Events
Friday 26 April, 11am – kafeeklatsch with Gillian Polack
Saturday 27 April, 4-4.55pm – Guest of Honour talk by Kaaron Warren
Saturday 27 April, 8-8.55pm – The Romance Gauntlet (Leife Shallcross, Rob Porteous, Simon Petrie, Shauna O’Meara, Ross Hamilton)
Sunday 28 April, 11-12am – launch of In Fabula-divino, edited by Nicole Murphy
Panel Program
Thursday 25 April
10-10.55am - Taboo subjects for authors (Gillian Polack)
3-3.55pm – Self-publishing (Phill Berrie)
Friday 26 April
10-10.55am - What was great about SF when we were young? (Phill Berrie)
12.30-1.25pm - The politics of steampunk (Gillian Polack)
2.30-3.25pm - Better than they Should Be Anime (Shauna O’Meara, Elizabeth Fitzgerald)
4-4.55am - Podcasts and multimedia (Phill Berrie)
5-5.55pm - Speculative Art (Shauna O’Meara)
Saturday 27 April
10-10.55am - Writing communities (Phill Berrie)
11.30-12.25am - Using history to inspire fiction (Gillian Polack)
8-8.55pm – Star Wars the rebirth (Chris Andrews) UPDATED
Sunday 28 April
10-10.55am - Does a Cover Sell a Book? (Shauna O’Meara)
12.30-1.25pm - Defining the essentials of a short story (Gillian Polack)
12.30-1.25pm – Secret life of Writers (Elizabeth Fitzgerald)
2.30-3.25 – Junkyard Writing (Rob Porteous, Rik Lagarto)
3.30-4.25pm - Technological optimism vs political pessimism (Phill Berrie)
Elevator Pitches and Pitching Sessions
by Chris Andrews (writing at fandelyon.com)
With Conflux kicking off this Thursday, I thought a post about pitching to agents and editors was in order.
Why?
Other than having a good time and catching up with friends at Conflux, I’ll be moderating a panel on pitching (with two agents and an editor), teaching the art of creating elevator pitches during a workshop on Friday morning, and later that day pitching to an editor myself in the hopes of selling my epic fantasy.
So what do I know about pitching? A few things.
The basics…
The best thing you can do is approach a pitching session from agent or editor’s perspective, which means keeping two things in mind:
- They want to know that you’re someone they can work with (that you’re not insane).
- You have something they can make money from (they’re running a business, not an art-house).
In regard to pleading ‘not insane’… Read more…
Conflux 9 Book Specials
The following special offers on CSFG books will be available at Conflux 9:
FREE copy of Encounters with any purchase upon presentation of the voucher from your con bag!
Get Gastro for a dollar with every Conflux Cookbook! $21 for the pair.
$44.95 for Elsewhere + The Outcast + Masques + Winds of Change (that’s $64.75 value, including your free copy of Encounters!)
Half-price on any other CSFG book when you buy a copy of Next!
Come to the launch of Next at Conflux 9!
6pm, Friday 26th April, Rydges Capital Hill, Canberra
- Janeen Webb (World Fantasy, Aurealis and Ditmar Award winner)
- Richard Harland (Golden Aurealis and Aurealis Award winner)
- Readings from emerging CSFG authors Leife Shallcross and Rik Lagarto
- Get your copy of Next signed by the contributors.
- Get a voucher for a HALF-PRICE book from the CSFG table in the dealers room.
