Diamond Jack, Smirnov and the Pelikaan

I was asked to take part in an interview for ABC’s The History Listen, which was used for a mash-up documentary on one of my favourite Australian characters, Diamond Jack.

It’s a fantastic format, which my mother described as natural storytelling, like we are all telling the story over drinks.

You can listen to the full podcast here: Diamond Jack, Smirnov and the Pelikaan

My piece on unexpected finds now found in northeast

I’m am thrilled that my essay The Train Station Ateljee is featured as a long read (seven minutes, apparently) in northeast, an online magazine about art and culture in Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki.

I’ve never been back to that train station but I’d love to think that he is still there and that people are still stumbling upon his ateljee and coming out changed.

Estcon 2020 experience in Locus Magazine

2020 has been a difficult year for events and conventions, which led to Estcon being the biggest event of the summer for me. My write-up and photographs were featured in the November issue of Locus Magazine and you can read all about it at the Locus online magazine: https://locusmag.com/2020/11/estcon-2020-report/

Attending a science fiction convention from a tent was definitely not what I expected to be doing this summer but my presentation went well and I had a great time.

Exoplanet Demographics Conference

I was excited by the opportunity to take part in the Exoplanet Demographics conference hosted by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at IPAC/Caltech over the 9-13th of November.

The organisers of the virtual conference were surprised by the amount of interest they received from science fiction writers and decided to do a Collaborative STEAM public outreach project, soliciting science fiction stories, poetry and art inspired by the discoveries being presented during the conference.

I was given the abstract of a presentation by Juliette Becker entitled The Origins of Multi-Planet Systems with Misaligned, Nearby Companions. Inspired by the details of the discovery (at least those that I understood), I wrote a short-and-sweet science fiction story called “The Missed Connection”.

This was published in the Wednesday edition of the Heavy Metal Jupiters and Other Stories e-zine edited by Jessie Christiansen and Heather Clitheroe.

I’m doubly excited to discover that the author of the research talk said that she loved my story!

This was a great initiative and I am proud to have been a part of it.

What I was Doing While I Wasn’t Here

I wrote a long update as I’ve been terrible about posting news.

The past six weeks have been a whirlwind and I’ve just finally had a chance to sit down and take a deep breath. Some of my friends have talked about how much more free-time they have during the pandemic, because they aren’t going out and they are working from home. Somehow, this hasn’t happened to me at all, even though I’m not travelling.

You can read all about it here: What I was Doing While I Wasn’t Here

Interviewing for an Aviation Documentary

I’ve been very lucky to be able to work on a number of excellent documentaries and I’m excited to share that, despite not being able to travel, this is still happening. Last week, I met with a Tallinn camera crew who filmed me doing a COVID-safe interview via Zoom. The producer and I talked for three hours about an accident they are featuring on the television series which inspired me to write the Why Planes Crash books and which is still my my favorite crash show. The episode will probably end up with me saying about three words in the final version but it was exciting all the same. It’s also an unbelievable sequence of events that I’m glad to see being covered. I’ll tell you more as soon as it is out and I am able to share the details!

Space Ageing

I’m thrilled that my article on Old Women in Science Fiction has appeared in Nature magazine!

I wish I’d tried harder to mention Chrisjen Avasarala in Caliban’s War and Ofelia Falfurrias in Remnant Population but I struggled with the space limitations.

You can read the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03618-w

TitanCon Belfast 2019

I’m very excited that I will also be presenting in Belfast at TitanCon. This is the 2019 Eurocon and takes place the weekend after Worldcon. It promises to be a great convention and I’m really looking forward to it.

I will also be taking part in Literature Night on Thursday night and hopefully reading something completely new!

I can recommend the panel on Game of Thrones: Series Retrospective which is taking place on Friday in the Waterfront room at the Hilton. I’m moderating and have already had a conversation with the panelists, who have a lot of very interesting things to say about it all!

You can see the entire programme on Grenadine: https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/titancon/en/titancon2019

Worldcon Dublin 2019

I now have my schedule for Worldcon at Dublin and it looks great!

Here’s the official programming:

15 August 2019 13:30 – 14:20
Presenter: Throwing Grandma out the Airlock
Odeon 5 (Point Square, Dublin)

17 August 2019 12:00 – 12:50
Moderator: Invisible Work: Mothers and Caretakers in SFF
Wicklow Hall 1 (CCD)

19 August 2019 10:00 – 10:50
Panellist: Anniversary: Alcock and Brown
ECOCEM Room (CCD)

19 August 2019 13:00 – 13:50
Autographing
Level 4 Foyer (CCD)

I’m very much looking forward to this; also my first EVER trip to Ireland!