NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week

14th-20th September is NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week

What?
This is an opportunity for anyone in (or even with links to) New Zealand to talk about Speculative Fiction, to publicise what they've been doing or simply share some knowledge. It's an opportunity to learn what others have been reading, writing, watching or drawing, to start a conversation, to gather some recommendations for reading or some tips for writing.
NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week is organised by Core members of SpecFicNZ, who are working towards the launch of a national SpecFic Writers organisation in 2010.

Why?
Because speculative fiction still doesn't get the recognition it deserves in New Zealand and because there are so many people out there doing so many exciting things - and so often they don't know about each other.

How can I participate?

1) Help get the word out! Link to this page, tell your friends, encourage people you know to write.

2) Write a blog post any time from 14th to 20th September. It can be a review of a book by a local writer, an update on your own writing, photographs of a place near you which has some links to speculative fiction, related art - the possibilities are endless. Don't feel you need to be an expert of have any kind of qualification for joining in - this is for everyone!
Please do remember to post a link to your post in the comments to this page, otherwise we may not see it. Comments are screened to stop spam, so don't worry if it doesn't show up straight away - we will be checking frequently.

3) Check back over the week to see what others have written. They'll all be linked to in this post as we get them. Discover what other people are thinking, doing and writing, and don't forget to comment - you may get some interesting conversations going or even meet some new friends.

The Posts

Anna Caro takes a look at examples of nineteenth century NZ speculative fiction online in SpecFic from Another Time

Catherine Mede gives an overview of what speculative fiction is in SpecFicNZ Blogging Week!

Tim Jones (along with Helen Lowe) will be discussing writing Speculative Fiction in Wellington this Thursday - he gives full information in Fantastic Voyages, This Thursday Evening

Ripley Patton introduces the week in New Zealand Spec Fic Blogging Week Has Arrived

Narena Olliver shares the first chapter of a story in Tina a Toi

Australia-based Simon Petrie gives some thoughts on how his New Zealand upbringing influences his SF writing, and some more general comments about Kiwi writers overseas, in It's NZ spec fic blogging week...

J. C. Hart has another introduction to the week and why it's important in NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week Begins

Cara discusses the problems with availability of speculative fiction in NZ in Buying speculative fiction in New Zealand... or not.

As an immigrant to New Zealand, Lynne Jamneck has some thoughts on how the country has shaped her writing... and herself in New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week

Ophelia Stornoway talks about the history of Semaphore magazine, and some NZ SpecFic which formed part of her childhood in New Zealand Spec Fic Blogging Week

Karen Healey talks about her experience of using cultural consultants to avoid inadvertent racism when including Maori mythology in her writing in Cultural Consultants

Grant Stone highlights another work of 19th Century speculative fiction in "with no likeness to humanity except that they stood on two legs; with arms yet not arms; faces human, yet how unlike!"

Anna Caro shares an extract from a work in progress in Invented Wings (an extract)

Catherine Mede brainstorms some ideas for speculative fiction writing set in, or including, New Zealand in Speculative Fiction in NZ?

J. C. Hart details publication options in Opportunies for Spec Fic writers in NZ

Ripley Patton highlights some local writers in A Sampler of New Zealand Spec Fic Authors

Grace Bridges introduces new publisher Splashdown Books in NZ SpecFic Blogging Week - Ooh La La!

Ophelia Stornoway talks about the presence of the New Zealand landscape in fantasy writing in Fantasy geography and NZ

Pat Whitaker announces the launch of his latest work and shares a preview of the cover in News

Simon Petrie talks about NZ content in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine in ASIM and kiwi content

PJ Ballantine discusses some of the reasons behind the increasing success of genre fiction in NZ in Why genre is blooming in Aotearoa

Grant Stone announces the publication of one of his stories in The Salt Line featured on Wily Writers

Paul Heinz talks about why NZ is particularly suited to speculative fiction in Land of the Other

Anna Caro interviews a local speculative fiction publisher in An Interview with Kelly Buchanan from Random Static Press

Dan Rabarts posts about "one of New Zealand’s unsung heroes of fantasy literature" in Hugh Cook - The Wordsmith and the Warrior

Catherine Mede gives a personal perspective in Speculative Fiction – What does it mean to me?

J. C. Hart interviews a local writer in PJ Ballantine – NZ writer and podcaster

Debbie Cowens talks about the importance of SpecFic in Why I read and write Speculative Fiction

Tim Jones looks back to his first speculative fiction publication in Like A Virgin, Published For The Very First Time

Ripley Patton also highlights Grant Stone's short story, 'The Salt Line', in Free New Zealand Spec Fic Story

Anna Caro introduces the 31st New Zealand National Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention in Au Contraire

J. C. Hart remembers how she started writing in The Universe Is My Oyster: why I write speculative fiction

Catherine Mede interviews Lee Pletzers in Speculative Fiction – Interview with a Horror Writer

Ripley Patton discusses her move to New Zealand and how it ties into her writing in A Stranger in a Strange Land: Why I Write from New Zealand

Paulette Brae talks about how she first came to describe her writing as speculative fiction in Speculative Fiction

Debbie Cowens tells the story of a writing project she is involved in in The Joys of Writing Collaborative Speculative Fiction

Catherine Mede finds inspiration on a bush walk in Speculative Fiction – Native inspiration

Anna Caro reports back from a local event, including a link to a recording, in Fantastic Voyages

Ripley Patton finds inspiration for Speculative Fiction in New Zealand in Weird New Zealand: The Land of Speculation

Jenni Talula also reports back from Fantastic Voyages (in more detail) in Fantastic Voyages – Speculative Fiction Blogging Week

Catherine Mede remembers her introduction to speculative fiction in Under the Half Men of O…

J. C. Hart posts some photos and talks about what the week has meant to her in The healing powers of the beach

Sally McLennan shares her perspective on speculative fiction in What if? Ah, what if we were all the same, really…

Anna Caro lists some writers' resources in Aotearoa Past and Future - Resources for Writers

Matt Cowens shares a piece of fiction in NZ Spec Fic Blogging Week Opens New Horizons

Catherine Mede posts an excerpt from a work in progress in Speculative Fiction – Excerpt from Chrystias

Angel Leigh McCoy finds inspiration in some of the country's more bizarre (if sadly extinct) wildlife in Guild Wars, the Moa, and New Zealand ...

Tim Jones announces a book tour in The Voyagers Book Tour Of New Zealand

Anna Caro talks about how where she lives has affected her writing in A City of Possibilities

J. C. Hart shares the beginning of a short story in As Promised

Grant Stone finds himself less and less isolated in Distance

Sally McLennan comments on the growing speculative fiction community in Fantastic Voyages Within the Speculative Fiction Community