Endings and... Endings
Hello Kiwi Writer,
We've had a fantastic novelling season this year with 124 members participating in the Southern Cross Novel Challenge and Half Novel Challenge. 70% of participants logged their progress and contributed to the 1,538,907 words written as part of these challenges. A huge congratulations to the 20 participants who became winners and set a win rate of 16%. That's sure some great number to beat next year and we hope you'll all stick with us until then.
SoCNoC came to a jubilant yet sobering end with news of one participant's passing. Lindsay Mutch, known as Kiwi Writer Lindsa, died June 28th 2010 after a short illness and writing 38,653 words of his SoCNoC novel. Lindsay was well on his way to winning SoCNoC and we proudly presented Lindsay's friends and family with an honorary SoCNoC winners certificate.
Lindsay leaves behind an impressive back catalogue of articles, poems, blog posts and tweets that have entertained many readers. To celebrate LIndsay and his work we are dedicating the July Zing Thing to him and asking you to pick your favourite Mutchisms to be included as Zing ingredients. Make your picks by 18th July and get ready to write that 2,000 word zinger from 23 - 25 July.
As writers we are enticed by the new and shiny ideas. We juggle projects and involve ourselves in each story as we would in a romantic relationship. It's a bumpy ride this writing thing but nothing is better than the feeling of reaching The End. The end of a first draft, an outline, a revision or query letter. Whatever ending might be eluding you now we know you'll find it with us this August because The End Is Nigh. Head over to the forum and begin discussing the projects that have been vying for your attention.
June saw the debut of the Kiwi Writers chatroom for use with SoCNoC. We've closed the SoCNoC chatrooms for this year but have opened the Kiwi Writers Chatroom that will be open all year round for your word warring and writing chatter. It also provides a facility for those Kiwi Writers living in remote areas or dotted around Europe and the US to get together live.
New Zealand's 31st National Science Fiction Convention, Au Contraire, is coming to Wellington over 27-29 August and to celebrate New Zealand speculative fiction A Foreign Country, a collection of short stories, is now available to pre-order. Featuring work by best selling author Juliet Marillier, several Sir Julius Vogel Award winners and many of our own Kiwi Writers it's a great way to support New Zealand writers, New Zealand fiction and our small presses. Pre-orders are important for small presses to have both the liquidity to market more effectively and for determining the print run size so order yours now!
Join Us!
Kerryn Angell