Have you been hankering for some more Sams in your life? Were you wondering whether you could add some Sams to an upcoming weekend? Do you have a book that would look better with a Sam scribble inside it?* Well you are in luck, my friends! For I will be venturing out into the world on several upcoming occasions so you can remedy your Samlessness with ease.

Conflux (Canberra)

This is a mighty fine time of year in our nation’s underrated capital and you can find me hanging out at the Vibe hotel for the annual Conflux convention from September 29 – Oct 1!

The full program is here and you can find me at the following events:

I will also be lurking about drinking too much coffee and very happy to chat anytime! I may be manning the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild bookshop table at some point if you for some baffling reason are on this website yet do not have a copy of my book, and would like to purchase one. I will have hardbacks, which are trickier to find, if you like your books firmer than average.

Galaxy Books (Sydney)

I will be signing books and doing a Q&A with the lovely Annie from the Read3r’z Re-Vu book group at 11 am Sunday 14 October – details here. 

Supanova (Adelaide and Brisbane)

Also very excited to say I will be at Supanova Adelaide on 2 – 3 November and Supanova Brisbane on 10 – 11 November with other excellent SFF authors such as Timothy Zahn, Carole Barrowman, Maria Lewis, Lynette Noni, Amanda Bridgeman and Jodi McAlister, as well as media stars like Christina Ricci, Ian Somerhalder, John Barrowman, Dean Cain and Daniel Gillies – full list of guests is here. This will be the first time I do a big crazy thing like Supanova so please come by and say hi!

There may also be another couple of events around later in the year, so I’ll keep you posted.

* Including but not limited to my book. I’ll sign more famous and better authors’ books instead if you like.

SFF World recently asked me to contribute an article on diversity in SFF. It’s something I feel pretty strongly about, so it was good to put some thoughts down. Go check out the article here at SFF World if you’re interested.

The article isn’t about me specifically or my personal experiences in writing, but it is definitely something that I think about and care about in the stories I want to tell.

And, uh, don’t forget to buy my boooook! Out in the UK in a mere 2 days!

BUY IT NOW!

The Australian edition of City of Lies has officially been released! You can find it out in the wild in all your favourite bookshops, and possibly also your LEAST favourite bookshops, if there is such a thing, but then you’d have to agree if they’ve stocked my book they can’t be all bad. Thanks so much to friends and readers who’ve been sending me pictures of it in various spots all over the place!

Due to deadlines and other commitments I haven’t actually managed to go in person and stroke any copies of this bad boy. Soon, my pretty. Soon. By the weekend there should be signed copies available at Harry Hartog’s in Woden, Dymocks Belconnen, City and Tuggeranong, and Paperchain in Manuka. Or of course I can sign one for you in person if you come along to the launch next week.

Things on this week

On Friday 3 August at 2.30 I will be on ABC Afternoons with Anna Vidot, that’s ABC local radio 666 at around 2.30.

On Saturday 4 August at 12.30 I will be on a panel at GammaCon with the lovely and talented Leife Shallcross and Craig Cormick, talking about the road to publication, finding writers groups, and doing a general Q&A.

On Sunday 5 August at 11am I will be on Jen Seyderhelm’s Sunday Roast on 2CC

I can promise that I will talk too fast in all of these circumstances so just pretend I’m a podcast turned to 2x speed and giving you twice the blabber for the price of one.

Wish me luck!

Very pleased to announce I’ll be doing an event at my favourite bookstore, Harry Hartog’s in Westfield Woden, on 9 August. It’ll be in the format of a conversation with the lovely Claire of Claire Eva Reads, with a chat about the book, writing, and publishing, and anything else Claire thinks of to ask me about, with an audience Q&A and signing.

Details and RSVP here – please do RSVP so we have an indication of numbers. There will be cupcakes, and possibly poisonous themed beverages. 🙂

The event is free, of course, though I’m sure Harry’s would be delighted if you bought your copy of City of Lies from them — they are so wonderful at supporting local authors and running these events, it’s nice if the event results in good sales for them too!

I would love to see you there if you can make it.

If you can’t make it, you can check my list of other interviews and appearances on the About Sam page.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time you’ve probably heard me mention my siblings – I’m one of five, and we were close as children and still are as adults. But I feel like sibling relationships are underrepresented in adult SFF, which is one of the reasons that I made a brother/sister duo the central relationship of City of Lies.

Here I am over at Tor.com talking about 5 SFF books that do a good job portraying siblings: Sam Hawke on siblings

I’m so delighted to be able to announce that Transworld has bought UK/Australian/New Zealand rights to City of Lies and the following Poison Wars novel!

Here’s the Bookseller announcement

I’m thrilled that there will be a local version for my Aussie friends and family and I’m looking forward to changing all my spelling back to the original version, haha. In all seriousness, it’s great to be working with Simon Taylor and the Transworld team. When further info about the new version is available I’ll keep you all posted.

Thanks so much to my US team, led by my wonderful editor Diana Gill, and to Simon and my new pals in the UK, and (as always), the unparalleled Julie Crisp.

As always, thanks for the support and encouragement all of you who bother to read these things!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the anthology from the publisher. Thanks Petros!

This is a mammoth anthology, with 40 (FORTY!) authors and stories. I know I tend toward wordiness at the best of times so I’m not going to set myself some kind of terrible challenge and talk about everything in here. But, in general, it’s worth noting a few things about the anthology as a collection.

First, it is thematically strong, with all bar a few stories really tying in nicely to the exploration of the art of war, but a huge range of takes on that concept within the book (some grim, some funny, some heartbreaking, some heartening). Second, it’s got some great authors you probably already know and love, and they all deliver, but there’s probably some stories in there by people you don’t know that are gonna knock your socks off (there were for me). Third, it’s entirely for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), so your money is going to one of the best causes you could ask for. It’d be a reeeeeeal shame if you didn’t buy this anthology, son. A real shame.

To my mind, there were a lot of enjoyable reads and only a couple that I really struggled with (remarkable, considering the sheer number of stories). Highlights for me were (in order of appearance not rating):

• Laura M Hughes, Dear Menelaus: This was probably the most unique story in format – a letter from Helen to Menelaus. Sharp and fresh take on an old story.
• John Gwynne, The Greatest Battle: If you know John’s work you’ll recognise the style and characters, but it stands, I think, as an enjoyable, well placed fragment of a bigger story, with entertaining characters and a typically engaging and well-written battle scene.
• Timandra Whitecastle, This War of Ours: this one HURT, man. Gut wrenching little tale of the price of violence and war on children. I read it twice. On reflection, likely my favourite story in the whole anthology. Will be keeping a VERY strong eye on the author.
• Steven Poore, Asalantir Forever: I’ve had a weakness for stories that deal with the particular futility of life in the trenches since Blackadder Goes Forth. This one had strong writing and powerful imagery.
• Brian Staveley, the Art of War: This one blew me away with the sheer scope and depth presented within such a short space. Thoughtful, beautifully written.
• Nicholas Eames, Sacred Semantics: I cannot really describe this story except to note that it is bloody hilarious and had me cracking up the whole way through. I was a bit careless about paying attention to who I was reading when but it wasn’t hard to pick this as the same writer who is currently delighting me with Kings of the Wyld.
• The combined efforts of Michael R Fletcher’s Doppels, The Undying Lands: Sort-of-zombies, colosseums, humour, tragedy and even a bit of romance, all in one package. Very entertaining and kept upsetting my expectations. Excellent.
• Anna Smith-Spark, The Fall of Tereen: another author whose debut is sitting waiting on my TBR pile. It’s been bumped up in priority after reading this story, which is one of the standouts in terms of quality and uniqueness of prose. The style is probably not for everyone but I loved it. Very dark though!
• Dyrk Ashton, Valkyrie Rain: A nuanced and interesting telling of the Valkyries’ fall from and return to grace.
• Miles Cameron, The Storm: An awesome self contained siege story with a lot of character. I really enjoyed this.
• Anna Stephens, Flesh and Coin: Mercenaries and ambushes and brutal action with emotional punch, surprise, and even a few laughs. This story does a lot. If you haven’t read Godblind you’re going to want to go out and get it after you’ve read this sample of her writing. Loved it.
• Mark Lawrence, The Hero of Aral Pass: Great finish to the anthology – action-packed, compelling voice, funny and dark. Classic Lawrence.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the stories I enjoyed but they’re the ones that stayed with me. I’d be stunned if you couldn’t find a bunch you like in there. Overall, I found it a delight, and I’ll be getting the paperback with the beautiful art to add to my collection.