Sean McMullen Sean McMullen i(A29012 works by)
Also writes as: Roger Wilcox
Born: Established: 1948 Sale, Sale area, Central Gippsland, Gippsland, Victoria, ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Sean McMullen has a rich ancestry that includes Scottish, Portuguese, French and Irish forebears. His first career was music, learning guitar as a teenager, appearing in student theatre and then turning to folk music in 1972. He performed as a guest singer in the 1973 production of the Pirates of Penzance and in 1974 he sang with the Victorian State Opera. He has also sung with the Melbourne University Choral Society, the Trinity College Consort and various other musical groups. In 1975 he took up instrument building, and still plays a 13-string lute that he constructed.

In 1974 McMullen graduated from the University of Melbourne in physics and history and went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in library and information science. In 1978 he spent time in Europe, singing and playing at folk festivals but gave up professional music on his return to Australia.

McMullen's science fiction stories were first published in amateur magazines in 1981. While undertaking a Master's degree, he was elected editor of the Melbourne University's SF Club's fiction magazine Yggdrasil. In 1985 at the World SF Convention he won the convention's writing competition with his short story 'The Deciad'. Since then his stories have appeared in Analog, InterZone, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Eidolon, Aurealis and numerous anthologies. McMullen established himself in the American market in the late 1990s and his work has been translated into many languages including Polish, French and Japanese. McMullen was an assistant editor and primary contributor to The MUP Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction & Fantasy (1998).

McMullen's work includes Voyage of Shadowmoon (2002), a sea-faring fantasy; The Eyes of the Calculor (2001), featuring disparate characters in the future; The Miocene Arrow (2000) and Centurion's Empire 1998), a high-tech SF tale of future intrigue. The settings for his work range from the Roman Empire to cities of the distant future. He has won numerous awards and his writing is well-regarded as being scientifically accurate and sits within the 'hard' science fiction milieu.

In 2008 McMullen submitted his doctoral thesis, comparing medieval stories with twentieth century movies with medieval settings, to the University of Melbourne

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

1993 shortlisted Ditmar Awards William Atheling Jr Award For 'From SFantasy to Galileo' (publication details unknown).
1993 winner Ditmar Awards William Atheling Jr Award For 'Australian SF Art Turns 50' (Eidolon no.7, Summer 1992)
1992 winner Ditmar Awards William Atheling Jr Award For 'Going Commercial'.

Awards for Works

Acts of Chivalry 2013 single work short story fantasy
— Appears in: Tales of Australia : Great Southern Land 2013;
2014 finalist Washington Science Fiction Small Press Award
Electrica 2012 single work short story fantasy
— Appears in: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , April vol. 122 no. 3/4 2012; (p. 5-36) Year's Best SF 18 2013; (p. 414-) Ghosts of Engines Past 2013; (p. 247-76)

'Napleonic alternate history with a touch of the cthulhian terrors. A young officer, a code breaker, is despatched to a rural retreat in the English countryside, where some strange experiments are taking place which could revolutionise combat communication – taking it far beyond the use of semaphore signalling.'

Source: Best SF (http://bestsf.net/sean-mcmullen-electrica-fantasy-science-fiction-marapr-2012/). (Sighted: 20/6/2014)

2013 finalist Locus Awards Novelette
Eight Miles 2011 single work short story science fiction
— Appears in: Year's Best SF 16 2011; (p. 400-429) Ghosts of Engines Past 2013; (p. 5-30)

A balloonist in 1840s' London finds himself approaches by a baron with a strange secret, a secret that can only be revealed at high altitudes.

2011 finalist Locus Awards Novelette

Known archival holdings

University of Western Australia Library (WA)
Last amended 4 Aug 2016 13:45:07
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