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Conclave III – GoH Daphne Lawless

Lee Murray, , , , , , 0 comment

We’re delighted to present the full text of the speech of Conclave III Fan GoH Daphne Lawless, who talks about filking as a form of community building and the role of youth in maintaining our science fiction and fantasy community.

My name is Daphne Lawless and I AM NOT INSANE. Thought I’d better get that out there.

Warning: I use big words, abstract concepts, adult language, and have a habit of jumping from one subject to another like Catherine the Great. My apologies if it leaves you behind. Feel free to ask for clarification later.

I’m here to talk about 4 things in no particular order:

  1. Generational Change in Fandom.
  2. How I shouldn’t even be here.
  3. Filking and fan creativity.
  4. The politics of rrrrevolution.
  5. Cycle lanes
  6. Why science fiction at all?

To start, I don’t think I deserve to be FgoH.

Not that I’m ungrateful – I love having an audience to talk at. I’d talk at the opening of an envelope.

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Te Kōrero Ahi Kā – Jane Percival

Lee Murray, , , , 0 comment

The Mysterious of Mysterious Mr Montague

By Jane Percival

It’s funny how the senses can enhance memories. The addition of a taste, a smell, or a touch, makes the memory more stable, somehow, transforming it into an easy-to-access snapshot of a place and a time that you visited; able to be examined whenever you wish.

A butcher’s shop has a particular smell. And the smell of such a shop in the 1970s is nothing like the odour of the meat section of a supermarket. It smelled of blood and sawdust. Rattling plastic strips kept out most of the flies, and in Summer, a lazy ceiling fan would push the air around, just a little. | Read More...

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Te Kōrero Ahi Kā – A Community Project

Lee Murray, , , , 0 comment

By Lee Murray

Te Kōrero Ahi Kā is a community building project instigated by SpecFicNZ as a key activity for 2018. Over recent years, initiatives such as writing competitions and one-off publishing grants had seen dwindling entries, so, in a bid to increase member engagement and awareness of our work at SpecFicNZ, the committee proposed a non-themed speculative showcase anthology where members could submit prose, poetry and artwork, including cover art, in return for a small fee.  The project was intended as a learning tool, the committee calling for applications for a mentee editor to work on the anthology with experienced editor and assessor President Grace Bridges, and myself. Member Aaron Compton won the bid and although he had never done any editing before, Aaron’s keen eye and quirky taste meant he quickly became a great asset to our editing line-up. | Read More...

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