Ben McKenzie

Drawn from the spoken word performances at Melbourne City Library’s event “Not Quite the Big Finish”, Whose Doctor? is a collection of personal musings on the Time Lord and his adventures and what they mean to nine Melbourne-based poets, comedians, scriptwriters, academics and authors. My piece has the rather ridiculous title “Doctor Sylv Love (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Admit Seven is my Favourite)”, and sits alongside pieces by Adam Ford, LJ Maher, George Ivanoff, Emilie Collyer, John Richards, Karen Pickering, Philip Ashmore and Jules Wilkinson. It’s available exclusively as an eBook through Tomely and Smashwords, for the bargain price of $5.

I first starting tinkering with games when I discovered roleplaying games, and in 2012 I got my first gig writing for one. I backed the Kickstarter for Magpie Games‘ storytelling game of heroic sacrifice and humanity-threatening disaster, Our Last Best Hope, and pitched a couple of ideas for the Companion book that backers made possible as a successful stretch goal. My first idea had already been taken, but my other idea – a hack for the game and an alternate play set, both geared towards comedy – were accepted for publication. It’s available on DriveThruRPG and through the publisher’s web site, and both the companion and the game itself (in which I’m also credited, for some suggestions for the Zombie Apocalypse play set) turned out great. Check out all the info on the official Magpie Games Our Last Best Hope page.

A “mook”, it turns out, is a cross between a magazine and a book, and I contributed the essay “What Makes A Wizard?” to this anthology of geek-themed fiction, non-fiction, poetry and art. There’s all kinds of great stuff in here, and I was lucky to be a part of the Geek Mook for a long time: from a fundraiser in July 2011, to hosting the launch on Friday the 13th nearly a year later. My essay asks the burning question: is being magical in the wizarding world of Harry Potter a matter of genetics? You’ll have to buy a copy of the Mook to find out! Unfortunately it’s not clear if Vignette Press are still around, but Geek Mook is still listed at the Small Press Network, so you can try getting a copy there. Geek Mook is (or was) $19.95 plus postage.

I was humbled to be asked to be interviewed by the wonderful (and then Voiceworks editor) Kat Muscat for “Space”, issue 89 of Voiceworks. Kat and I talked about comedic inspiration, feminism, geek culture, role-playing and a bunch of other things along the way; the resulting conversation was published as “Finding the Anecdote”. I recommend picking up a copy; it’s full of some brilliant writing, and I felt very privileged to have been involved not only as an interview subject, but as the MC for the launch of this issue in Melbourne. Voiceworks is a quarterly magazine of new writing from young Australians, and is available in print and electronically by individual issue ($10) or annual subscription (only $17.99 – bargain!). The link above will take you to my issue on Tomely, but check out the Voiceworks web site for more information.