Anthology Contributor Daniel Stride

Anthology Contributor Daniel Stride

Aftermath: Tales of Survival in Aotearoa New Zealand is SpecFicNZ’s new anthology, available here.

The anthology explores Aotearoa in a post-apocalyptic world. Disasters have occurred around the country and the world. New Zealand, in our isolation down under, may have escaped most of what happened around the world, but it was pretty bad out there. As Kiwis are apt to do, though, we’re “getting over it”. You know, she’ll be right …

This is not just an anthology of disaster stories. The pages are filled with hope in the form of short stories, poems, flash fiction and artwork about what comes afterwards. The contributions are exclusively from SpecFicNZ members and reflect the diversity and breadth of this country we love to call home … even if the edges are a bit torn and tattered.

We’re interviewing all the contributors to the anthology so you can get to know the brave souls who’ve battled zombies, aliens, earthquakes, volcanoes and more to bring you the stories you’ll find between its covers.

Today, we’re chatting with Daniel Stride

Aftermath includes a variety of disasters set all around Aotearoa New Zealand. What disaster / location combination did you write about and why?

Location – Dunedin. Disaster – the Freezing of Time.

The ‘why’ for location is simple enough. I have lived in Dunedin for some twenty years, and know its geography better than most places in the country. As for the Freezing of Time, I had been working my way through a book on the Pre-Socratic Philosophers, and remember being struck by how strange Parmenides’ ideas actually were. I thought they’d be a distinctive form of apocalypse.

How do you think the Kiwi approach to life after disaster is unique?

I’m not necessarily sure it is unique. People are people, after all.

What are your most valuable post-apocalyptic skills?

I’ve always prided myself on making the best of a bad situation.

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Being a writer, you must have lots of pens. What creative use would you put them to in a post-apocalyptic New Zealand?

The apocalypse presumably means the end of the internet. Pen and paper return as the means of communication.

Tell us a little about your other writing?

I have one novel out (steampunk-flavoured dark fantasy, Wise Phuul, published in November 2016 by small UK press Inspired Quill). The setting owes a fair amount to New Zealand – including pohutukawas and wetas. I have also had a good dozen or so short stories published by online magazines.

What are you working on now?

I am 50,000 words into Old Phuul, a sequel to Wise Phuul.

Where can readers find out more about you and your writing?

I can be found blogging at A Phuulish Fellow (https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/). In fact, I am better known as a blogger (especially about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien) than as a writer in my own right.

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