Tag: Fiction

One More Clarion Post

~ emmakosborne ~ Leave a comment

No Clarion for me this year. I received rejections from both UCSD and West, much to my disappointment.

I know that it’s not the be all and end all, and I intend to continue to work hard on my writing. I will keep submitting. I’ve got three upcoming publications within the next 2-4 months and a few more irons in the fire.

Still, I would have loved to have taken six weeks away from my day job to write, to learn, to meet people and to improve my craft.

Next year. There is always next year.

I’m reminded of one of my favourite Robin Hobb quotes:

“The fight isn’t over until you win.”

― Robin Hobb, Royal Assassin

Tenterhooks

~ emmakosborne ~ 5 Comments

At this point, all I can do is hold myself in a state of cat-like readiness.

If you’ve found me by searching for people waiting on Clarion news, welcome. Pull up a chair. UCSD is pretty much sorted, I suspect, but you and I both know that West is a mystery.

Maybe a writing exercise would help pass the time?

You’ll have to excuse me, I’m far too frazzled to come up with something, but do hit me up in the comments if you’re up for some kind of word-related challenge.

General Villainy

~ emmakosborne ~ 3 Comments

It has been said many times over that a good villain is the hero of their own story. Couldn’t agree more.

Personally, I like villains with complex backgrounds and high ideals that make perfect sense if you squint. Y’know, like Magneto. He has lived through terrible things and is a product of those struggles. (Plus, him breaking out of his plastic prison in X-Men 2 is my favourite scene from any action movie EVER.)

Think about Walter White or Tywin Lannister. Arguably, Tywin is the more noble of the two – yes, he lies and schemes and kills his foes, but his declaration that his actions are all for his family and his legacy actually ring true when you hold his words up against Walt’s endless lies and ego.

Sometimes it is all in where you stand. Daenarys Targaryen is a conquerer as much as a liberator, and shows no mercy to those who have wronged the weak. Remember, this is the woman who has crucified people (OK, so they had just done the same to a bunch of slaves…) She fights fire with fire and rules in some cases by asserting her values onto several different ancient cultures (not that they were necessarily GOOD, of course.) Would the people of Meereen and Pentos and Yunkai see her as a villain or a hero?

I adore a good villain and I love a solid antihero. Got any favourites?

Clarion Season

~ emmakosborne ~ 18 Comments

It has rolled around for the fourth time. Like, oh, hundreds of writers around the world, I have submitted an application to both Clarion UCSD and Clarion West.

I can’t stop checking my email.

Usually I’m waiting on something writing related – a submission, a beta read, very occasionally a contract – but this is different. I know (promise) that I’m not going to hear anything for a little while. I still can’t help checking. And checking. And checking.

Brain, Please Stop.

I really, really, REALLY hope that this year is my year. But, you know, all of the other times I’ve missed out have only made me a better writer, and if I don’t go to Clarion then I’ll be off on a holiday to Europe. You could call that win-win, yes?

I’ll just be over here, pushing F5 and thinking positive thoughts.

*stares*

Edited to add: So, I’ve gotten a rejection from Clarion UCSD. Holding out for news from West. Eeeeeeeeeeek.

Award Eligibility – Chronos and Ditmar Awards

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Turns out that my short story Squeak as published by Daily Science Fiction is eligible to be nominated for both the 2014 Chronos (Best Short Fiction) and Ditmar (Best Short Story) awards. Cool!

The Chronos honours genre work by Victorians, whilst the Ditmar is an Australia-wide award. You can find a full list of the eligible stories here:

Chronos eligibility list

Ditmar eligibility list

Nomination info can be found on the Continuum site – generally, you need to be a member of the fan community to nominate, but voting memberships can be picked up for a fiver if in doubt.

Go take a look! Loads of great stories and novels up this year. And if you decide to take a look at mine, thank you for reading!

What would you do for a story?

~ emmakosborne ~ 5 Comments

I heard about a guy who got arrested on purpose. He walked up to a couple sitting at a restaurant, flipped over the table and started ranting. He got arrested, alright.

Turns out, he did it because he’s an actor, and he wanted to know what it was like.

What would you do for a story? Drop acid? Join the army? Put on a bunch of weight? Go talk to engineers, watchmakers, fishers, surgeons, physicists, homeless people?

I write mostly science fiction and a bit of fantasy. I make a lot of shit up. Like, a lot. Sure, you can wear a suit that allows you to cling to walls and heals when you tear it. Yep, you can totally run a ship that has a garden instead of an engine. Go ahead, shoot with a gun that switches bullets when you shout at it.

Granted, I try to run my stories past a scientist if there’s something I’m worried about nailing after I’ve done my research (aeroponics and photovoltaic cells were SO FREAKING INTERESTING) Luckily, I know a bunch of scientists (thanks, you guys!) But sometimes you can only really get something right if you’ve experienced it, eh?

The novel I’m working on might just require me to run a couple of obstacle courses. Yeah, we’ll see how I go with that.

How about you? How far would you go for art? How far have you gone?

Women Destroy… ALL GENRES! RAAAAAAAAH.

~ emmakosborne ~ 1 Comment

I’ve recently posted about this, but OOH LOOK. NEW THINGS! Apparently the women of the world are not content with destroying JUST science fiction. Of course, we’re in a pretty spectacular situation here – Lightspeed’s kickstarter has raised over $15k to fund their special issue containing a stack of new stories, reprints and flash fiction authored, collaborated and edited by an all-women team of awesome. What’s next? Horror! Fantasy! Maybe getting our hands on some kind of multi-genre lair so that we can all hang out and discuss general geekery? Who knows! THE WORLD IS OURS.

Ahem.

Anyway. If you haven’t kicked in, please do! There are some awesome bundles available in the mix, and every cent thrown their way funds more content for the female genre writers of the world. This is a very good thing.

Clearly this is an exciting time. I absolutely love writing science fiction and fantasy (and also a bit of horror, sometimes, if that’s the mood that takes me) because it is so very much fun to make things up and to explore any and every world that is out there (or hey, worlds that I ENTIRELY MAKE UP ALL BY MYSELF!) I love writing it because I love to think about what’s beyond the here and now. I’m the sort of girl who thinks all the time about  mind controlling drugs, about dwarven caverns that wend and weave under mountains, about blasters and spider-web rope and cosmic warps and engines made from photosynthetic plants. I think about settlement wars within Mars colonies, cursed pocket watches and people who can yank your soul right out of your mouth. There are so many ideas out there to explore, and I love the fact that I can let my brain run rampant during the creative process. I think that my best stories are also tangled up with my heart. I find myself wondering about the people I write. What are they seeking? Which words, when said by a loved one, will tear them to pieces? How do they move past tragedies? Do they find joy? What are they positively overwhelmed by?

Writing science fiction and fantasy and horror and hey, general weird stuff allows me to mix in all of the above and that makes me so very happy. Funding the Lightspeed kickstarter is a small step to making the writing of all female genre writers more visible, more mainstream, more accessible. I’m sure that you’ll agree that this is a very good thing. 

News of the Positive Variety

~ emmakosborne ~ 3 Comments

A couple of lovely things have happened lately. I’m very pleased to confirm that Aurealis is taking my story Clean Hands, Dirty Hands! They’re currently on a quest to be considered a professional market by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, so if you have a spare $19.99 burning a hole in your pocket, you can subscribe and receive 10 whole issues of spectacularly good fiction. And one of them will have my story in it! And also, it might help me out for SFWA membership in the future, so everyone wins, really. 

In other news, my horror story The Box Wife is set to appear in Shock Totem #9. I’m thrilled to have found such a wonderful home for this one, as it is… well, I guess you could call it “unusual”. I’m quite sure that it is the most disturbing thing I have ever written. I can’t wait for this to hit the shelves. The cover art for Shock Totem (by the exceptionally talented Mikio Murakami) is always completely and utterly drool-worthy and the stories are top notch. 

I should also mention that I had a blast at GenreCon in October this year. The State Library of Queensland has got to be the most impressive modern library I’ve ever seen. It is stunning. My partner in crime Eliza Rose and I met some wonderful people over the weekend (you’re all awesome!) and, let’s face it, pretty much kidnapped the hilarious and dirty Chuck Wendig. Go read his books, that’s an order. I’d like to thank Kate Cuthbert for introducing us to the cool kids and also huge thanks to Alex Adsett, Patrick O’Duffy, Narrelle Harris, Imelda Evans, Kathryn Fox and Cat Sparks for being lovely and welcoming to this little newbie. We also did karaoke, which we will never speak of again (hot tip – don’t do rap).

I’m currently slogging through a novel this month, which is going more slowly than I would like, but faster than anything else I’ve done this year. So I guess I’d call that a win. Other than that, I am wishing fervently for a time-turner so that I have a chance to edit a couple of short stories that I’ve been working on lately. TOO MANY THINGS TO WRITE. 

November be crazy. Whew. 

Flash Fiction out at Daily Science Fiction

~ emmakosborne ~ 1 Comment

I am very pleased to announce that my first professional sale is now up on the web at Daily Science Fiction!

I cannot tell you how fucking excited I am that I finally made my first professional sale. I’ve been submitting a lot of work lately, and although I know that I am aiming high and that it is an incredibly tough market to crack, I can’t help but be ever so slightly disheartened by the rejections that roll in. Don’t get me wrong, I know that it’s the way it goes and I’ve had some exceptionally lovely feedback from editors (E. Catherine Tobler from Shimmer, I’m looking at you) but it’s just so hard to know if you’re actually good enough to play in the big kid’s sandbox. Getting a ‘Yes’ means the world to me to the point that, when my story hit the inboxes of 7000+ subscribers, I hysterically cried and laughed for about ten minutes.

And then? I got some great feedback via Twitter and Facebook. And it felt amazing. People read my story! People LIKED my story! People took the time out to find me on the interwebs and say so! Writing can feel so solitary sometimes, especially if you’ve only shown work to critiquing buddies (and I love every single one of you, very much). It was terrifying and overwhelming to think that a little piece of me was out there, in the most visible way I’ve experienced up until this point.

It was also a confronting moment in a very peculiar way, as I wrote Squeak during a very dark time. And if you know me personally, it probably makes a lot more sense. But all of a sudden, strangers can see something exceptionally personal and meaningful to me. Maybe those are the only stories worth writing, but it sure does feel bizarre to expose yourself in such a fashion. It makes me feel like I’m risking my insides to a crowd. And, you know what? It makes me feel brave, and that, I think, is a very good thing.

Insert the sound of a smashing champagne bottle here.

~ emmakosborne ~ 2 Comments

Why, hello there, internets. Welcome to the site. I’m Emma Osborne. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I’m a writer of fiction and poetry, most of which is speculative in nature. I particularly enjoy writing science fiction and fantasy stories.

This blog will be used to talk a little bit about what I’m working on, and will hopefully also be a place to announce my successes in getting stories out there. My latest news on that front is that I have forthcoming fiction coming out at Daily Science Fiction, which I’m really excited about! First pro sale!

I’m also rather obsessed with music, so I’m sure I’ll be posting about what I’m listening to. The track I’m currently playing on repeat whilst writing is Ludovico Einaudi’s Primavera.

Have a listen.

I don’t know about you, but this is the kind of song that makes me want to stand on a mountain with my hair being swept dramatically by the wind, ready to take on the world. In a word? RAH.