The SpecFicNZ Podcast: Recent Episodes
specficnz
In this episode we got to chat with Dunedin author Sharon Hannaford, about Urban Fantasy, marketing, and the importance of character flaws.
You can find Sharon here at her website
As ever your co-hosts are:
Nix Whittaker
Kura Carpenter
Mat Danaher
In this episode we talk about rights for writers and other creatives, fiction as a way of exploring what's happening to our world, and why New Zealand writers should join the NZSA.
Mandy's website can be found here
The New Zealand Society of Authors can be found here
And as ever your co-hosts can be found by clicking on the links below:
Kura Carpenter
Mat Danaher
Nix Whittaker
If you have any questions or feedback or would like to be interviewed please flick an email to: podcast@specfic.nz
In the episode Wellington writer Melanie Harding-Shaw talks about the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon which is coming from Wellington this year. She also talks about the new anthology she is helping to edit (Black Dogs, Black Tales), and why submitting a lot of short stories is the key to success.
You can find more Melanie's website here, the CoNZ website here and the Facebook Page here.
Just like last season your co-hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker and,
Mathew Danaher
And as usual the Podcast is brought to you by SpecFicNZ which you can find here. If you're already a member don't forget to join the Facebook Group here.
For this episode we were joined by award winning Hamilton based author Jean Gilbert. She talked about teaching writing to young people, living with face blindness, and writing for film and TV.
You can find her here:
Web.
Facebook.
Twitter.
As always your co-hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker
and Mathew Danaher, who is also to blame for any audio glitches or issues.
In this episode we had a chat (and a laugh) with Jamie Sands. We talked about their YA book the Suburban Book of the Dead (buy it here), identity, role playing games, and romance, among other things.
You can find them at the following links:
Blog
Patreon
You can buy their romance novels here
As ever you can join SpecFicNZ here
Your hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker
Mathew Danaher (who amateurishly edited and produced this episode).
In this episode your hosts talk about what they wished they had known before starting out down the self publishing, or traditional publishing routes.
Some of the things they talk about are:
Amazon Author Central.
Book Funnel.
New Zealand Society of Authors and their contract reading service.
And vanity publishing and why you should avoid it, You can read more about them on the Writer Beware website.
As every your hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker
Mathew Danaher.
And this podcast is part of SpecFicNZ which you really should join.
We had a lot of fun recording this episode as you can probably tell. Apologies from Mat for being a bit mumbly, as he was sat in the room where the recording was happening, there's no excuse. He will try better next time!
Trudie Jaye
Trudie is one of the hosts of the wonderful and super useful if you are or want to get into self publishing SPA Girls Podcast. Available on all good apps. Subscribe to it already!
We talked a lot about:
20 Books to 50K
Craig Martell
Romance Writers of New Zealand, and of course SpecFicNZ.
Your hosts:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker
Mathew Danaher (who also does the recording, producing, and editing).
If you would like to be interviewed or otherwise get involved - get in touch: podcast@specfic.nz
You can find Tim Jones Online:
Blog
NZ Book Council
You can buy his latest book - Where We Land.
And you can read a review here - SpecFicNZ
As ever your co-hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker
Mathew Danaher
You can find out more about Eileen at her website here - https://www.eileenmuellerauthor.com/
Ava Fairhall's map for Dragons Realm - http://www.geysercon.nz/updates/avafairhallsfantasymaps
50booksto20k
Book Funnel.
As ever your hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker
Mathew Danaher
In this episode we talked with award winning Wellington based horror writer Dan Rabarts.
You can find him online at:
http://dan.rabarts.com
https://twitter.com/rabarts
https://www.facebook.com/rabarts
He is a member of the Australasian Horror Writers Association, as well as FFANZ.
As usual your co-hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker
Mathew Danaher
We were really lucky to spend an evening talking with Aaron Compton co-editor of Te Korero Ahi Ka
As well as talking about his experience as a mentee editor, we also talked about being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, cryptozoological porn, and whether vikings were the first New Zealanders (hint - no they weren't!).
You can visit Aaron's website here - https://www.compton.ink/
And you can find him on Twitter and Instagram - aaron.compton
As ever your co-hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Nix Whittaker
Mathew Danaher
If you are a New Zealand based or originating creator of speculative fiction you should join SpecFicNZ you can do that here - https://specfic.nz/join
In this episode your regular co-hosts talked about plot and structure...
They talked a lot about the hero's journey and their opinions of it, as well as saggy middles, sub plots, and more. Also Nix sets some homework.
You can read more here:
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Why I seldom teach the hero's journey any more
The hero's journey is no longer serving us
Structure and Beats
Your co-hosts:
Nix Whittaker
Kura Carpenter
Mat Danaher (Editor/Producer/Engineer).
NB: This episode was recorded with different software to usual, but that shouldn't impact on the sound too much.
As ever please send any feedback, comments, or questions to: podcast@specfic.nz
In this episode your hosts were lucky enough to spend an enjoyable half an hour or so in the company of Australian born, Dunedin resident author Mark McCabe who talked about Kindle Direct Publishing, going wide, making sure you have the right cover, and creating fantasy maps.
If you want to do some further reading -
You can find Mark online here.
You find his artist Jeff Brown here.
Generate your own fantasy city maps here.
Other fantasy maps here.
As ever you can find your hosts online -
Nix Whittiker
Kura Carpenter
Mat Danaher
This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by the hopefully ever improving, Mat.
You can find SpecFicNZ here.
In this episode Christchurch author Kevin Berry talks about writing interactive fiction for a middle grade audience, as well as speculative fiction, YA, and crime fiction.
You can find Kevin and his books here.
In this episode our three hosts talk about different aspects of writing from the point of view of an indie novelist, a traditionally published novelist, and a short story writer. As always this is with a focus on New Zealand.
As always our hosts are:
Kura Carpenter
Mat Danaher
Nix Whittaker
If you have any comments or questions, or would like to get involved in our podcast, or be interviewed, flick us an email: podcast@specfic.nz
This episode features an enjoyable chat with Darian Smith, author of the 'Agents of Kalanon Sequence', as well as the extremely useful 'Psychology Workbook for Writers'.
You can like Darian's Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/DarianSmithAuthor/
You can find his books on Goodreads here - https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/7370521.Darian_Smith and you can buy them at all good bookshops both online and off.
In this episode we had a chat with Deb E Howell, Dunedin based author of Warrior's Touch, Healer's Touch and the soon to be published Magician's Touch among other works.
You can find her website here - https://deberelene.com/
And you can find her on Facebook here - https://facebook.com/deberelene
As you can tell we had a good laugh recording this one, and it was the second episode we actually recorded, so you can tell we were still getting used to the flow of the interview, and using the technology.
In this episode we talked with Dunedin based author Daniel Stride. We talked about his work in the SpecFicNZ anthology which you can find out more about here. We also talked about Daniel's novel Wise Phuul which you can buy here.
We also talked about TV Tropes and the Society for Creative Anachronism.
You can find Daniel's website here.
Award winning New Zealand Writers Lee Murray and Piper Mejia talk about New Zealand's premier event for science and fantasy creators - Geysercon, as well as the import work that New Zealand Young Writers, and their Young Writers Fest do.
You can find out more about Lee here, and more about Piper here.
Geysercon
Young NZ Writers
Podcast hosted by:
Kura Carpenter
Mathew Danaher
Nix Whittaker