Earl Livings is an award-winning poet and fiction writer who has been widely published in Australia and also Britain, Canada, the USA, and Germany. He has read his work around Melbourne and overseas and appeared on panels at  various Australian SF conventions and festivals. Earl has a PhD in Creative Writing, for which he wrote a fantasy verse novel, The Silence Inside the World,  and which is now doing the rounds for publication. He taught professional writing and editing for almost 20 years and has also worked as a freelance editor, a manuscript assessor, and a mentor. His writing focuses on science, history, nature, mythology and the sacred. Ginninderra Press published his latest poetry collection, Libation, in late 2018, and he is currently working on an historical fantasy novel set in dark ages Britain. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and their ever-growing stacks of books.

1. Tell us about your recent publications/projects?

I am currenty working on an historical fantasy novel set in 6^th century Britain. The novel explores the life of the historical person that likely formed the basis of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s  Merlin in his famous book The History of the Kings Of Britain, written 600 years later. A chapter of the novel was recently published in Enheduanna Journal Volume 4.  I also have a short story, ‘The Judgement of Briga’, coming out in the anthology 2020 Perfect Vision in July this year. The story is set in my Glory Worlds universe and features a character called to challenge the false deity of his planet, a world, it turns out, manufactured so that its colonists can live in a desired ancient culture setting.

2. What has been the best publishing or SF community experience of your career so far?

For many years, I taught professional writing and editing at TAFE and was actively attending writers conventions and festivals of all stripes so I could bring back information and insights to my students. What has always impressed me about the SF community is its inclusiveness. When I go to a literary festival, it’s the writers and their publisher minders over there and we poor fans over here. You might get to talk to a writer if they are signing a copy of their book for you, but that’s about it. Also, such festivals may well be called ‘writer’s festivals’, but they really are for readers-only.  There is very little content and contact for those readers who are also interested in the craft and art of writing and may be emerging writers themselves.

The SF world is not like this. I’ve been fortunte to attend three worldcons in Australia (1985, 1999, 2010) and a number of local festivals (Continuum and Speculate) over the years, as a fan and as a panelist, and the experience is vastly different. All those who attend are on a spectrum from reader-only to bestselling author and everything in between, and everyone is there for the same reasons: to share their love of speculative fiction in its many incarnations, genres and media, and to learn more and more about it, as a reader and, for many, as a writer. The camaraderie is infectious and the attitude of many, generous. For anyone starting out in SF, a local festival is a great place to find your tribe and start opening doors to richer experiences of the field.

3. Which recent Australian/NZ work would you recommend to international fans interested in expanding their Antipodean spec fic knowledge? 

For an excellent overview of SF in Australia, I would highly recommend The Morning Bell podcast (http://themorningbell.com.au), a literary podcast dedicated to exploring all aspects of the writing industry, though with a particular emphasis on speculative fiction. The podcast is hosted by Joel Martin, who is also the Director of Speculate, the Victorian Speculative Writers Festival, which was successfully run in 2018 and 2019.

Obviously, I should also give a shoutout to 2020 Perfect Vision, which is the anthology being published by Vision Writers (http://visionwriters.net), the home for speculative fiction, science fiction, horror and fantasy writers in Queensland, Australia. The anthology, which was open to writers around Australia who are connected to Vision Writers, is thus a good showcase of SF by established and emerging writers.