Stepping Down from the SA Writers’ Centre Board

A couple of days ago I made a hard decision to step down from the Board of the SA Writers’ Centre, a fantastic organisation that promotes and supports South Australian authors of all genres, success and abilities. For a time last year I was their editor of their member magazine Southern Write, and have been a member since 2007. I’ve also presented several workshops specific to the science fiction and fantasy markets.

I was asked to join the Board by Deputy Director Sean Williams because of my experience in the corporate sector, but it was the corporate sector that ultimately beat me, with a day job that requires a lot of travel and at times, long hours. I just didn’t feel that I was offering the Board the attention that it deserved. So I’ve stepped down.

That doesn’t mean that my involvement with the Centre is over, far from it. For starters I’ll be presenting a new workshop in the middle of the year on how to structure a fantasy novel (fantasy and not science fiction, because most people writing in the speculative fiction market write fantasy, so you have to cater for what the market wants). I’ll post more on this workshop when details become available.

In the meantime, if you are a speculative fiction author (or any author for that matter) looking for a little help on getting started, or assistance regardless of your level of skill or success, I highly recommend this organisation. The help they’ve given me over the last few years has been invaluable. Science fiction and fantasy authors who are members of the SA Writers’ Centres are Sean Williams, Fiona McIntosh, D.M. Cornish, Malcolm Walker, Lian Hearn, Astrid Cooper and many others.

Membership is very reasonable too.

New Reviews

I've been getting some nice reviews of my work lately. The most prominent is for my collaboration with Brian M. Sammons, "Six-Legged Shadows" from Monstrous. Dread-Media.com said it was "A great little sci-fi terror fest that is reminicent of the Twilight Zone in every way. I loved it!" while Horror Fiction Review said it was "A nifty H.G. Wells-ish collaboration from David Conyers and Brian M. Sammons that packs a clever finale."

Meanwhile Terry Dowling (Blue Tyson) rating the anthology Agog! Ripping Reads gave my sci-fi thriller novella appearing in it, "Aftermath", the highest rating (4 stars) of all the stories appearing in the collection. His comments were "Zebra king neural control bleeding shot, mate" which is more cryptic than anything else, and probably only make sense if you've read it, which you can because it's online here at Apex Magazine. Be warned, it is a very dark tale.