• Mary Brock Jones posted an update 8 years, 10 months ago  · 

    The May meeting of Auckland SpecFicers will be on this Sunday, 19th April, starting at 1pm as usual. We are back at our usual venue, the audiofoundation rooms at the top of town.

    Meeting details are:

    Date: Sunday, March 22nd
    Time: 1-3pm.

    Location:

    Sub-Basement of the Parisian Tie Factory,
    4 Poynton Terrace (Off Pitt St or behind St Kevins Arcade)

    AK Central

    See location map here: http://www.audiofoundation.org.nz/contact

    There is parking available in Poynton Tce, or in the surrounding side streets. I usually get one near the top of Greys Avenue – free parking on Sundays. Alternatively, there is the council car park under the Aotea centre, and walk up through Myers Park.

    The meeting room is through the top main entrance, then down the stairs at the side to the bottom floor.

    Please bring along a gold coin donation to help pay for hire of the venue.

    Tea/coffee available.

    Topic:

    Given the awful weather hitting Wellington at the moment, I thought it would be good to talk about setting – and in particular those parts of the setting that aren’t always obvious, but that a writer must get right – like weather to start with! Clothes, jobs, how do your characters earn their living and where do they get their food? All those subtle, non-story parts of the setting that have to look seamless, but can sometimes take hours and hours of research to get right!

    Reading

    Is anyone interesting in doing a short reading – a story, part of a story, part of a longer work – whatever? Please email back if you would like to give a reading during the meeting – either this month, or another month.

    News
    As many of you know, the Auckland Writer’s Festival is on at the moment, and there are some very interesting speakers of particular interest for specfic writers. Have a browse through the programme, but some I thought would be great to catch are :

    – Nalini Singh: Guild Hunting – Friday, 15 May, 7 – 8pm

    – Zak Waipara: Maori Myths – Sunday, 17 May, 1.15 – 1.45pm. (clashes with our meeting, but you could always come along after.)

    – Panel: Ways to change the World – Sunday, 17 May, 3 – 4pm. (so you could go along after the meeting)

    – Amy Bloom: Character and Story – Saturday, 16 May, 9 – 10.30am

    – Philip Temple: Speaker’s corner, speaking truth to power – Sat 16 May, 12 – 12.30pm. This one looks fun – a writer being deliberately provocative.

    and lots more. Browse the programme on the site. They have a non-fiction, science stream this time, so great for research for the SF writers among you.

    And lastly, my own news . My first indie published books will be out soon.

    Resistance: Hathe Book one – release date 28 May. On pre-order now.
    Pay the Piper: Hathe Book Two – release date planned for 7 June. I’ll get it up on pre-order in the next couple of days.

    Best of all, I have covers – very pretty covers! Sorry, but I just couldn’t resist showing them off.

    ​ ​

    Looking forward to seeing you all this Sunday.

    cheers,
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    • Hi Mary, congrats for the new book; it sounds great, and that cover is par-ticularly pretty! Pass on my apologies to the Auckland meet-up group as I won’t be able to make it today. Lil question though? does the group meet every 4 weeks, or is it only when there’s an update? Cheers. 🙂

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