Three years on from when I first started writing, I’m finally finding my tribe in Wellington! In the last couple of months I’ve met so many awesome authors. If you’re a Wellington-based Spec Fic writer and want to meet up, come find us here. And if you want to follow Wellington Spec Fic writers on Twitter you can find my new list here. It includes writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and everything in between; as well as age ranges from Children’s through YA to Adult.
Here’s an (incomplete) list of the writers I’ve come across, some of whom I haven’t met yet. Let me know if I’m missing someone, especially if it’s you! And if I’ve messed up the descriptions at all, please tell me that too.
Emma Berquist https://www.emmaberquist.com/about, Twitter Emma Berquist grew up in Austin, Texas and currently lives in New Zealand. She enjoys horror movies, dogs, and jigsaw puzzles. DEVILS UNTO DUST is her first novel-A teen YA alternate history for fans of Westworld and The Walking Dead. Her second novel Missing, Presumed Dead is a YA ghost story. I got to sit next to her at drinks the other night and she’s awesome.
Andi C Buchanan, http://andicbuchanan.org/, Twitter Andi C. Buchanan is a writer, editor, and part-time space lobster based near Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Their work is published or forthcoming in Apex, Kaleidotrope, Glittership, and more. Andi also edits Capricious magazine, creates websites as part of DragonByte and likes cheese, dinosaurs, and good disability representation in SFF. Andi’s story ‘Girls Who Do Not Drown’ won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Short Story in 2019. Andi was one of the first writers to reach out to me on Twitter. Their novella From a Shadow Grave came out from Paper Road Press in October 2019. A Mt Victoria ghost story! And it’s amazing!
Elizabeth Knox https://elizabethknox.com/, Twitter Elizabeth hardly needs introducing! She has published twelve novels and three autobiographical novellas and a collection of essays. Her best known books are The Vintner’s Luck, and The Dreamhunter Duet. (Dreamhunter and Dreamquake). I saw her speak at LitCrawl in 2018 where she spent an awesome and hilarious five minutes detailing how every character she’d killed in a novel had died. Her novel The Absolute Book came out from Victoria University Press in September 2019. It’s long-listed for the 2020 Ockhams and described as ‘an epic fantasy, intimate in tone’.
Jayne Gale https://jaegrace.itch.io, Twitter, Jayne Gayle is a game developer currently writing a story game set in an imaginary multiverse: The Sabotage of Min'atoa Station.
Chris Gee is a Science Fiction/Space Opera writer. He’s studying for a Bachelors of Arts Degree at Massey majoring in Creative Writing and he’s had four stories published in New Orbit Magazine, including one where I got to share a Table of Contents with him.
Mandy Hager https://mandyhager.com/, Facebook, Twitter Mandy Hager is a multi-award winning writer of fiction for young adults. In 2019 she was awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal for life-time achievement and a distinguished contribution to New Zealand’s literature for young people, which means she has a bajillion other awesome awards, too. Her Blood of the Lamb trilogy was described by Margaret Mahy as ‘like 1984 for teenagers’.
Melanie Harding-Shaw https://www.melaniehardingshaw.com/, Facebook, Twitter It’s me! If you found your way here, you probably have a vague clue who I am already. I write sci-fi and fantasy. Children’s to Adult. Microfiction through to novels. Go explore the rest of my website for more details :)
Dr Helen Heath https://www.helenheath.com/, Twitter Helen is a poet, essayist and academic. I was so excited when I picked up her poetry collection Are Friends Electric? and realised it was speculative. In addition to her other awards, Are Friends Electric won the 2019 Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham Book Awards. I haven’t met her, yet.
Whiti Hereaka Facebook, Twitter Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa) is a playwright, novelist, screenwriter and a barrister and solicitor. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing (Scriptwriting) from the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University and is a trustee of the Māori Literature Trust. She’s had a number of residencies and her second novel, Bugs, won the Honour Award, Young Adult Fiction, New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, 2014, and the Storylines Notable Book Award, Senior Fiction, 2014. Her novel Legacy published last year by Huia Press follows 17y.o. Riki, who wakes up one hundred years in the past in Egypt, 1915. Whiti is working on her new novel Kurangaituku based on the story of Hatupatu and the birdwoman. She has ridiculously amazing style.
Marie Hodgkinson https://mariehodgkinson.co.nz/ Twitter Marie writes paranormal romance as Zoe Chant, and other things I’ve yet to be able to quiz her on. She also runs Paper Road Press, who are doing amazing things publishing Andi’s awesome novella and the inaugural Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her novel Stealing the Snow Leopard’s Heart was second equal for best long romance in 2019’s Koru Awards.
Barbara Howe http://barbarahowewriter.com/ Facebook Barbara Howe writes the high fantasy Reforging Series published by IFWG, currently (as at Feb 2020) three books published of an impressive five in the series! Last time we caught up she’d just finished the first draft of the final book. The home stretch! She’s another wonderful import from the USA, North Carolina and New Jersey, and has been in Wellington since 2009. She’s also a software developer for the film industry and has a laugh to rival mine.
Tim Jones, http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/, NZ Book Council profile, Twitter Tim Jones is a fiction writer, poet, and editor. He is the author of two collections of short fiction, four collections of poetry, and one novel. He was co-editor of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand(2009) with Mark Pirie, which won a Sir Julius Vogel Award. He also won the NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature. His novella Where We Land was relaunched in 2019 by The Cuba Press. Have I met him at an NZSA event? Possibly? We’ve since run into each other at drinks and cli-fi panels.
Graci Kim, https://www.gracikim.com/, Twitter Graci Kim is a Korean-Kiwi author of MG and YA books. Her Korean mythology-inspired debut MG novel, The Last Fallen Star, about family, witches, and the search for belonging, will be published with Rick Riordan Presents, Disney-Hyperion, in 2021. In 2018, Graci was shortlisted for the NZ Storylines Tessa Duder Award for YA fiction. She is a 2017 alumnus of the AuthorMentorMatch programme, and is the Communications Officer for the NZ Society of Authors (Wellington branch). Graci is super lovely and has done a TEDx talk and everything!
AJ Lancaster, https://ajlancaster.com/, Facebook, Twitter AJ writes fantasy of the whimsical rather than grimdark variety, and her favourite authors include Terry Pratchett, Tamora Pierce, Mercedes Lackey, Georgette Heyer, and Naomi Novik. The Lord of Stariel is AJ’s debut novel, set on a magical sentient estate in a world where the fae are only stories…until now. She was hidden on the other side of the table from me at drinks the other night, but now that I’ve just realised she’s a fellow Tamora Pierce and Mercedes Lackey fan, I’m going to have to make sure we chat at the next ones.
Paul Mannering, https://paulmannering.nz/, Facebook, Twitter Paul Mannering is an award winning Speculative fiction and horror writer who has now abandoned Wellington. I wish I’d introduced myself to him at GeyserCon for the cabbage antics alone. Instead I accosted him at the library where he was volunteering to run D&D sessions for kids, including my son. His next novel Time of Breath came out from IFWG publishing in 2019.
Eileen Mueller https://www.eileenmuellerauthor.com/, Facebook, Twitter Eileen Mueller is a multiple-award-winning author of heart-pounding fantasy novels that will keep you turning the page. She’s also so busy volunteering and giving back it makes my head spin. She’s a fabulous speaker and a wealth of information on Indie Publishing, and she’s had stunning rainbow-coloured hair every time I’ve met her. She’s won Sir Julius Vogel and Storylines Notable Book Awards.
A.J. Ponder https://ponderbooks.com/, Facebook, Twitter A.J. Ponder has a head full of monsters, and recklessly spills them out onto the written page. Beware dragons, dreadbeasts, taniwha, and small children - all are equally dangerous, and capable of treading on your heart – or tearing it, still beating, from your chest. Her latest novels are the Sylvalla Chronicles-coming of age fantasy. She’s another previous Sir Julius Vogel Awards winner. She’s also great to talk to about US politics and coeliac disease.
Dan Rabarts http://dan.rabarts.com/, Twitter, Dan is a writer of fantasy novels and speculative fiction, and sometime narrator of podcasts (including stories for the Hugo award-winning StarShipSofa). He’s another Sir Julius Vogel Award winner. He’s written several novels and his short stories have been published in venues such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Aurealis Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and on the Parsec Award-winning steampunk podcast Tales from the Archives, among many others. In 2019, his latest novel was Children of Bane - Brothers of the Knife.
Dr Isa Pearl Ritchie http://isaritchie.com/, Facebook, Twitter Isa grew up in the Waikato as a Pākehā child in a bicultural family and Māori was her first written language. She has a Masters degree in sociology focused on nutrition and a PhD on food sovereignty in Aotearoa. She’s passionate about food, wellbeing and social justice. Her novel Fishing for Māui was shortlisted for the NZ Booklovers Awards. She came and spoke to our NZSA branch meeting in 2019 about Indie Publishing and had so many interesting things to say. Her latest series, Dreamweavers, is Middle Grade/Young Adult fantasy based around lucid dreaming and mental health.
Janna Ruth https://www.janna-ruth.com/, Facebook, Twitter Janna writes English and German Fantasy, YA and General Fiction. We met at a NaNoWriMo meet-up in 2018 and she’s on the Wellington Branch Committee for the New Zealand Society of Authors and the Social Media crew for CoNZealand. She won the Best Indie Seraph Award for speculative fiction in 2018 for her novel Im Bann der zertanzten Schuhe. She was my personal support crew at the Sir Julius Vogel Awards in 2019.
Caitlin Spice Facebook, Twitter Caitlin writes lots of stories about very bad faeries as C.M. Scandreth. I first came across her as co-author of Raven Wild, the third in a series of LGBTQ inclusive children's picture books. She also has an illustrated collection of short stories The Silver Path, and stories in the NoSleepPodcast. I’m pretty sure she’s done other amazing things that didn’t yield from my cursory google search, too. :)
Sascha Stronach https://www.theunderstatesmen.com/, Twitter Sascha once wrote to Esquire about Metalhead Wizards fighting demons with the Power of Rock and they actually published it; today he mostly writes about LGBT+ Wizards saving the world with the Power of Love. There’s still a lot of metal and demons. He owns Little Hook Press and published his debut novel The Dawnhounds in 2019 (Adult Spec-Fic/New Weird, LGBT+).
Darusha Wehm https://darusha.ca/, Facebook, Twitter Darusha writes science fiction and speculative poetry as M. Darusha Wehm and mainstream poetry and fiction as Darusha Wehm. Their interactive game fiction The Martian Job was a Nebula finalist in the inaugural game category in 2019 and Sir Julius Vogel Award winner for Best Novella. Darusha is another writer who has been super welcoming on Twitter and graciously answered all my fan-girl questions at GeyserCon. Darusha is a fellow CoNZealand volunteer-heading up their publications division.
Toni Wi Twitter Toni Wi is a speculative fiction writer and policy analyst (just like me!). Her flash pieces have been published in Sponge, Mayhem, Breach, and Flash Frontier. She was part of the Hagley Writer’s Institute in Christchurch, where she won the Margaret Mahy award for best portfolio. Her horror story about trees was in the same issue of Breach Zine as my horror story about trees, and she was a fellow panellist with me at the National Flash Fiction Day Wellington event this year after she was long-listed for her story ‘Dunedin’. There’s a cool interview with her here, where she wins the award for best author pic.
Rem Wigmore Twitter Rem Wigmore is a writer of things, including urban fantasy The Wind City.
Tabatha Wood http://tabathawood.com/, Facebook, Twitter Tabatha writes mostly horror, fantasy and suspense. Her debut fiction collection of original short horror stories, Dark Winds Over Wellington: Chilling Tales of the Weird & the Strange, was independently published by Wild Wood Books in March 2019. She’s the lead editor for Black Dogs, Black Tales, an anthology raising money for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.