A good, good night at the 17th annual #Aurealis Awards!

Posted on 13 May 2012 by zena@zenashapter.com

I gotta feeling… that tomorrow night’s gonna be a good night – a good, good night: #AurealisAwards

A good, good night!

Such was my tweet on Friday – and my prediction was spot on. Saturday night at the 17th Annual Aurealis Awards was a good night – a good, good night!

Kicking off with pre-drink drinks, in pre-frock frocks (yes, I mean you Cat Sparks!), we all gathered at The Rydges Hotel’s Mundo Tapas Bar to wish the shortlisted stars of the Australian speculative fiction scene the very best of luck.

Above us, stars then followed the stars, as we switched venues to enjoy our Voyager goodie-bags, complimentary drinks and canapés in the lobby of the North Sydney Independent Theatre. With a film crew recording our every move, and a room pack full of talent so breathtaking it was hard to know whom to chat with first, it felt like a luxurious red carpet experience.

North Sydney Independent Theatre – lobby drinks & canapés. Yum!

Continue reading →

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Writers! What do you fear most about being a writer?

Posted on 8 May 2012 by zena@zenashapter.com

We’re our own worst enemy – what!?

As those of you who read my last blog post, or who like my Facebook page, will already know, I’ve been conducting a poll over the last couple of weeks, about what writers fear most about being a writer.

The poll itself was inspired by the recent Ditmar nominations and by the fact that the writers over on Write Anything are this month searching themselves for their greatest writery fears. It was a difficult question for me to face – you’ll find out why on Tuesday 29 May when my post goes live. But in the meantime, I thought I’d conduct a little survey among the writers I know.

What do you fear most about being a writer?

Now… here are the results! Continue reading →

Posted in Writing Inspection | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Validation!

Posted on 26 April 2012 by zena@zenashapter.com

Today, there are congratulations all round.

CONGRATULATIONS… me!

I sold another short story today – yay! It’s my first international sale (details to follow soon), so… watch out world! (he he)

CONGRATULATIONS… Ditmar nominees!

A lot of my author mates got nominated today… for Ditmar Awards. Ditmar Awards have been awarded annually since 1969 to recognise achievement in Australian speculative fiction and speculative fiction fandom. I’m so proud to see so many of the friends I made at Conflux 7 last year on the list, which is set out below.

Writers can waste way too much of their writing lives in turmoil. As I said to one of my publisher-mates earlier this week, we often work ourselves up into what I can only describe as an ‘anxious mess’. Sometimes I swear it borders on paranoia! In only a matter of minutes we can go through what I will now dub as ‘The Fear Cycle’: Continue reading →

Posted in Australian Authors, Personal news, Writing Inspection | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments