{"id":1002,"date":"2014-02-15T17:18:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T17:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2014-02-15T17:18:55","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T17:18:55","slug":"nick-wood-janfeb-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/?p=1002","title":{"rendered":"Nick Wood – Jan\/Feb 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019re back from SA earlier this year, having gone to the Cape Town mourning concert for Nelson Mandela<\/strong> with my family. A huge loss indeed, but life goes on and many varied and moving tributes were made: http:\/\/shine.yahoo.com\/healthy-living\/flash-mob-pays-surprise-tribute-to-mandela-in-south-african-mart-203741638.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finished reading Carole McDonnell’s <\/strong>‘The Constant Tower’<\/em> – a fantasy epic with well-drawn characters and an implicit spiritual structure that supports rather than detracts from the elegance of the story. McDonnell’s<\/strong> (second) book can be found here: http:\/\/www.wildsidepress.com\/The-Constant-Tower-by-Carole-McDonnell-epubKindle_p_6086.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for health, I look to 2014 as the year I gain a better grip on prolonged pain. In pursuit of this, I will be attending experiential training courses in Mindfulness Based Pain Management <\/em>(MBPM), focusing particularly on the breath. So it is I hope to share it with others, once I have a firm enough grasp on my own experience: http:\/\/www.breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk\/<\/a> I now realise a pain free life is not ‘normal’ (nor to be blandly accepted as such) but is a real privilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing wise, I’m pleased to report the resale of ‘Azania’<\/em> to an anthology of ‘Immigrant SF’, ‘How to Live on Other Planets: A Handbook for Aspiring Aliens<\/em>\u2019<\/em> (2015). http:\/\/www.upperrubberboot.com\/how-to-live-on-other-planets-a-handbook-for-aspiring-aliens\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have also resold my story ‘Of Hearts and Monkeys<\/em>\u2019 to Soles<\/em> series and hope to make all my dues payable to Rape Crisis<\/em> in Cape Town, given the kernel for the story was the horrific concept of \u2018corrective rape\u2019. http:\/\/rapecrisis.org.za\/<\/a> My follow up story to this, ‘The Girl Who Called the World’<\/em> has recently been published in the anthology ‘<\/strong>Fierce Families’<\/strong> by Crossed Genres<\/em>: http:\/\/crossedgenres.com\/titles\/fierce-family\/<\/a> This is an excellent anthology focusing on speculative scenarios for QUILTBAG families, with a thoughtful article on ‘Families in the Future’<\/em> by Alex D. MacFarlane<\/strong> at tor.com<\/a>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.tor.com\/blogs\/2013\/10\/sleeps-with-monsters-writing-families-in-the-future<\/a> Alex<\/strong> went on to write another powerful and engaging article on thinking more broadly about sexuality too, which should actually be a strength of SF, given its focus on evolving mores and the transience of cultural ‘bedrocks’:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.tor.com\/blogs\/2014\/01\/post-binary-gender-in-sf-introduction<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I have written an article for pornokitch’s<\/strong> ‘Friday Fives<\/em>‘ sequence, due to \u2013 I believe – be published Friday 21st February. In it, I focus on the bubbling South African SF scene, of which I’m very proud to be a small part.\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.pornokitsch.com\/friday-five\/<\/a> But – for now – may 2014, the ‘year of the horse’, be a good one for you all – and may your main goals come true, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re back from SA earlier this year, having gone to the Cape Town mourning concert for Nelson Mandela with my family. A huge loss indeed, but life goes on and many varied and moving tributes were made: http:\/\/shine.yahoo.com\/healthy-living\/flash-mob-pays-surprise-tribute-to-mandela-in-south-african-mart-203741638.html I finished reading Carole McDonnell’s ‘The Constant Tower’ – a fantasy epic with well-drawn characters and an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014blogs","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}