'The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople' in the revered The Conversation as one of five "Australian literary works of particular relevance to national conversations about AI"

I've always respected and admired The Conversation, so it is a humbling privilege to have 'The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople' written about in The Conversation as one of "five Australian literary works of particular relevance to national conversations about AI"

'Australian Writers have been envisioning AI for a century. Here are 5 stories to read as we grapple with rapid change' by Leah Henrickson, Catriona Mills, David Tang and Maggie Nolan. 

I look forward to reading the other listed works, and I already have James Bradley's novel Clade on my lengthy TBR shelves. 

I also loved James Bradley's elegant fairytale retelling of 'Rapunzel' titled ‘Beauty’s Sister’ which I read in the anthology That Glimpse of Truth ed. David Miller. The work, I have since discovered, can also be found as as a stand alone novelette from Penguin Books. I've also mentioned the 'Beauty's Sister' as a standout in a couple of previous posts on short stories (links below under 'Current Reads of Note').

Regarding 'The Tic-Toc Story of Constantinople', it is available on all the usual ordering platforms in the Aurealis Award Finalist anthology Kisses by Clockwork ed. Liz Grzyb. I'd like to thank Liz Grzyb for selecting the story and for the anthology callout. Liz also allowed me to make some naughty late changes of some magnitude (not something I have ever done before or since as a writer). I would also like to thank my old writing compadre, Daniel Simpson, who was my final draft reader. Dan has been a top mate ever since he plonked himself next to me in a uni class when we both returned to uni part time for interest's sake.   

Other News 

Aurealis Awards:

I will try to make the trip over to Melbourne for The Aurealis Awards Ceremony on the 18th May, as a story of mine, 'An '80s Tenement Love Story' from Bourbon Penn 31 has been selected as an Aurealis Finalist. 

Current Reads of Note:

Two very different, but both superb, WW2 novels: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which I have been meaning to read ever since I read Doerr's magnificent short story 'The Deep', which is coincidentally mentioned alongside James Bradley's story here in a post titled "150 Stories to Help Flatten the Curve" and also here in "24 Superb Short Stories from my 2018 Reading"); and the other novel was A Special Providence by one of my favourite writers, Richard Yates. 

And I started last night on the novella The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson; meaning to just read 10 pages or so, and, 70 pages later, I forced myself to stop to get some much needed shut-eye. Thompson has written an intelligent page turner, and while fascinating, it's also incredibly chilling and not for the faint hearted. I hope it isn't too neatly tied up at the end. 

After Thompson's cold dread, I plan on easing into a few One Story stories.