Lyn McConchie is a New Zealand writer of science fiction/fantasy, picture books for children, a non-fiction humour series, a number of stand alone books and many short stories, articles, poetry and opinion pieces and reviews. She lives in a small village in Southern Hawke's Bay. Lyn is a member of the NZ Rare Breeds Association, breeding Jacob sheep on her farmlet.
Lyn has won the Best Novel category in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for New Zealand science fiction and fantasy four times: in 2003, 2005, and 2006, for the novels Beastmaster's Ark,[1] Beastmaster's Circus,[2], and The Duke's Ballad[3] respectively, all three of the books having been written in Andre Nortons worlds; and in 2011 for her novel The Questing Road[4]. In 2011 she also won the Best Young Adult Novel category for Summer of Dreaming[5].
She also won an award for editing in the Vogels' former incarnation as the New Zealand science fiction fan awards in 1990. Her short stories have won The Australian SF Foundation award (for The Third Storey) in 1992, and Muse Medallions (Best Short Story)from the International Cat Writers Association in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2002. Her short story, Waiting Tables and Time, was a finalist in the Sir Julius Vogel awards (Best Short Story) in 2009, and most recently her story was in the Whortleberry Press theme anthology (Christmas in Outer Space) that was voted Best of the year on the Whortleberry site.
Most recent books published or due -
In July 2011, Lyn was working on a sequel to Summer of Dreaming and after that, the rewrite of a standalone fantasy.