It was a lovely weekend, involving much catching with distant friends in person, a rare treat for me. It did mean that I fell down somewhat on my social media duties, but I don’t think I was the only one! I not only barely tweeted the whole time I was away, but I only took one picture on my phone (of strawberries, not of PEOPLE) and despite sharing a suite with Alex and Alisa entirely failed to record anything for Galactic Suburbia.

Instead, we mostly took part in that classic social medium of talking each other’s ears off before, during and after the awards ceremony, and then again over the longest breakfast in the world with many friends and colleagues the next morning. Bliss!

Some good updates I have seen are from Zena (who I met while lurking outside the theatre waiting to be let in!) and from Sean the Blogonaut, who proved that the best event reporting can come from someone who wasn’t even there.

Apologies for lack of tweetage and podcasting! It’s not that I forgot you all, I was just giddy with child-freedom and the lack of oxygen to my feet after walking in my heels to the theatre…

While I gracefully lost to three very talented women (Sue Isle, Pamela Freeman and Lisa Hannett, hard to argue with that!) in my categories, I was delighted at so many of the wins (including several works/authors I have championed over the last year) that it felt like a very successful night. No one will be surprised at how delighted I was to see The Courier’s New Bicycle honoured. And of course there was the one that hadn’t been mentioned on the shortlist at all…

Galactic Suburbia won the Peter McNamara Convenor’s Award! We are very grateful and happy about that, it was lovely to be able to acknowledge our little podcast’s success on a literal stage in front of our peers. Plus we won actual cash money thanks to the CAL copyright fund, one of the sponsors. We haven’t decided yet what to do with the money once we’ve covered a year or two’s podcast hosting costs (WISCON FUND!) but look forward to wrangling about that decision, possibly even on air.

In the meantime, congratulations to all the other winners, and three cheers for Spec Faction who worked tirelessly to put on another great night for the Australian spec fic community. I am very grateful for their efforts!

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In which the boob window is explained. Don’t say we’re not educational! You can download the new episode through iTunes or here on our website.

News

Drink Tank loves us! Download their Hugo shortlist commentary here.

Mondy loves us too! He makes us go awww.

James Tiptree Jr finally in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and about time too.

Talking to Alistair Reynolds: he defends the idea that science fiction has a limited number of plots

Locus Award Finalists

Clarke Award

Women in (Japanese) Comics: Cheryl Morgan reports; Anime News Network

Some kickstarter stuff:
Feminist Historical Anthology from Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Scalzi on Amanda Palmer and how she worked hard for 10 years to get her “overnight success”

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Very excited to announce that this year’s Norma K Hemming Award for race, gender, sexuality, class and disability in Australian speculative fiction (or as we refer to it on Galactic Suburbia, the NORMA) has released its shortlist, and I am on it along with some very distinguished company. Hooray! The winner will be announced at Continuum in June – luckily I’m already going.

The Shattered City, I have to say, has so far received such a surprising amount of attention considering the conventional wisdom (heh) about middle books of trilogies. *pats little book’s head* I am delighted.

Black Glass
novel by Meg Mundell
published by Scribe Publications (Brunswick VIC)

Bluegrass Symphony
collection by Lisa L Hannett
published by Ticonderoga Publications (Perth, WA)

The Devil’s Diadem
novel by Sara Douglass (1957 – 2011)
published by HarperCollins

Eona
novel by Alison Goodman
published by HarperCollins

Hindsight
novel by A A Bell
published by HarperCollins

Nightsiders
collection by Sue Isle
published by Twelfth Planet Press (Perth, WA)

Road To The Soul
novel by Kim Falconer
published by HarperCollins

The Shattered City
novel by Tansy Rayner Roberts
published by HarperCollins

Yellowcake Springs
novel by Guy Salvidge
published by Interactive Publications Treetop (Brisbane, QLD)

I see that Sean the Blogonaut scooped me on this one by dint of being awake past midnight on a school night. That’s dedication for you! But now I’m up stupidly early (by accident) and most of the people I want to squee with are still asleep!

So here it is. Um. UM. Let’s just say I’m not sure I’m going to be able to discuss this one sensibly on Galactic Suburbia. (Which of course won’t actually stop me).

Congrats to everyone on the ballot, with some especial squeeage for Jo Anderton who is represented by her debut novel. Thank you everyone who nominated & all the people doing the work to produce this ballot. I am staring at it with giant anime eyes. Just so you know.

The Ditmar subcommittee are pleased to announce the ballot for the Australian SF (“Ditmar”) Award for 2012. Voting is now open, and will remain open for at least 30 days. [Follow the link for voting info]

The 2012 ballot is as follows:

Best Novel
* The Shattered City (Creature Court 2), Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperCollins)
* Burn Bright, Marianne de Pierres (Random House Australia)
* Mistification, Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot Books)
* The Courier’s New Bicycle, Kim Westwood (HarperCollins)
* Debris (The Veiled Worlds 1), Jo Anderton (Angry Robot Books)

Best Novella or Novelette
* “The Sleeping and the Dead”, Cat Sparks, in Ishtar (Gilgamesh Press)
* “Above”, Stephanie Campisi, in Above/Below (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt”, Paul Haines, in The Last Days of Kali Yuga (Brimstone Press)
* “And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living”, Deborah Biancotti, in Ishtar (Gilgamesh Press)
* “Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Love and Romanpunk (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Below”, Ben Peek, in Above/Below (Twelfth Planet Press)

Best Short Story
* “Breaking the Ice”, Thoraiya Dyer, in Cosmos 37
* “Alchemy”, Lucy Sussex, in Thief of Lives (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Last Gig of Jimmy Rucker”, Martin Livings and Talie Helene, in More Scary Kisses (Ticonderoga Publications)
* “All You Can Do Is Breathe”, Kaaron Warren, in Blood and Other Cravings (Tor)
* “Bad Power”, Deborah Biancotti, in Bad Power (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Patrician”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Love and Romanpunk (Twelfth Planet Press)

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Kirstyn McDermott confesses to being a bad feminist… which brings home how very hard women can be on themselves! Sometimes allowing yourself to be imperfect is in itself a feminist achievement. On the other hand, it never hurts to reassess, and try harder. As long as you take care of yourself before you start helping others with their oxygen masks…

Foz Meadows expresses frustration at how heavily books (especially those aimed at teens these days) appear to be gendered, when they really don’t need to be. So does Seanan McGuire. This is a thing. I’ve had a similar conversation with about six different people in the last fortnight, including my seven-year-old! She likes to read books that aren’t girl books or boy books but KID BOOKS. It’s a pink glitter jungle out there.

Tehani Wessely provides some gender stats on the Aurealis Awards.

Mari Ness raises her eyebrows at a list of great YA girl characters from books that aren’t necessarily YA…

Mary Robinette Kowal is an astoundingly good sport about the fact that her new novel Glamour in Glass (sequel to the awesome Shades of Milk and Honey) is being published without its first sentence. I would be on the floor in pieces. She has devised a clever bookmark, a sticker, a plan for writing it into your book at formal signings, and a cool quiz. I scored 9/10!

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You can check out the new Galactic Suburbia episode on our website or at iTunes. You’ll notice we were really subtle about the Hugo nomination, because we didn’t want to be tacky.

In which this Hugo nominated podcast is Hugo nominated and discusses the Hugo nominations while being Hugo nominated. Also, the internet is full of things. Some of those things discuss gender, feminism and equality, some have wide ranging implications for the future of SF awards, and some of them are nominated for Hugos.

HUUUUUUUUUGO SHORTLIST

Hunger Games Hunger Games Hunger Games

Build up to make a hit
The reviews are in:
Topless Robot
Forbes
Our Alisa

But in the real world, the character Katniss Everdeen faces an even greater challenge: Proving that pop culture will embrace a heroine capable of holding her own with the big boys.
It’s a battle fought on two fronts. First, The Hunger Games must bring in the kind of box office numbers that prove to Hollywood that a film led by a young female heroine who’s not cast as a sex symbol can bring in audiences. And second, for Katniss to truly triumph, she must embody the type of female heroine — smart, tough, compassionate — that has been sorely lacking in the popular culture landscape for so very long.

The Clarke Award Shortlist:
Christopher Priest’s original post
Cat Valente responds:
“Because let’s be honest, I couldn’t get away with it. If I posted that shit? I’d never hear the end of what a bitch I am.”
And further she responds

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Sadly the outfit I will probably wear to the Hugos this year involves pyjamas and ug boots, cos I’m certainly not going all the way to Chicago, but, but BUT…

Galactic Suburbia was nominated for Best Fancast.

This is a dizzying and most splendid honour, and all four of us, presenters and producer, are tickled pink.

Congratulations to everyone on the shortlists, especially our fellow nominees in the Fancast category:

Best Fancast (326 ballots)
The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts (presenters) and Andrew Finch (producer)
SF Signal Podcast, John DeNardo and JP Frantz, produced by Patrick Hester
SF Squeecast, Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente
StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

There is dancing, much dancing, and joyful celebration. Also, there will be HUGO PINS, that most exciting sartorial item. I also love that my Twitter feed has filled up with people talking about the acquisition of frocks for the ceremony.

The most splendid Karen Healey and I chatted this morning (in one of my brief holiday internet windows) about the importance of wearable tokens of awards, and how all literary awards could be GREATLY IMPROVED. You can read a cut down version of our conversation here.

So the big SF news on the internet this week is apparently not the release of the Clarke Award shortlist, but that Christopher Priest does not approve of the Clarke Award shortlist. Scalzi and Charles Tan discuss both the rant itself and the responses to it. Cheryl Morgan looks at the piece as part of a larger tradition of deciding award decisions are WRONG.

Personally, as someone who has judged a bunch of awards, I think that critiquing shortlists is fair game, because there’s no completely objective definition of ‘best’, but suggesting that the decisions are wrong, incompetent or should in some way not count is the height of arrogance because, you know, THERE’S NO COMPLETELY OBJECTIVE DEFINITION OF BEST. And it’s amazing how often these critiques come down to “people with different opinions to me are stupid/wrong” which isn’t an overly healthy attitude. At the point you’re suggesting that the judges should be fired and their decisions overturned… gah. No. Not okay.

On the other hand, internet rants are fascinating when they’re happening to other people. So there’s that. And sometimes there are t-shirts. By far the most measured, well-crafted and nuanced response I have seen in response to the Priest post, however (and one which made me seriously reconsider my use of the word ‘rant’) is by Catherynne Valente, who brings up all kinds of really interesting angles to the story that I hadn’t considered before. I really think she is becoming one of our most important commentators on the field.

Speaking of nuanced criticism, Maggie Stiefvater’s first response to the Hunger Games film and the audience she saw the movie with is really interesting. Certainly worth considering if you’re over all the ‘it should have been more violent’ complaints of the movie.

There’s a great discussion on the Australian Women Writers blog about romance, and whether it’s feminist or not, being a genre all about women’s point of view (readers, writers and characters), but one that sometimes promotes unfeminist ideas. (You mean supporting women’s rights to CHOOSE what they read even if it’s bad for them might be feminist???)

Jennifer Mills interrogates the gender essentialism that sometimes surrounds discussions of women’s writing.

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I empathised deeply with this post about the solitary existence of writers and the way we need our people around us to keep us sane, and professional.

As part of the ongoing excellent advocacy work coming out of the #AWW challenge, here’s a list of Australian women writers of Asian heritage to help you include some diversity in your choices.

The Australian government is running an online survey about our opinions on gay marriage. So far the interim response is pretty depressing (running at only a bit over 30% saying YES GAY MARRIAGE) but it’s not based on very many people’s opinions. So if you’re Australian, go, take five minutes and register your own thoughts on the issue.

Alisa Krasnostein, Cheryl Morgan, Lynne M Thomas and many other smart people share their opinions on awards in the latest SF Mind Meld.

One of my favourite Tor.com posts this week – Redskirts looks at some of the portrayals of women among the traditional ‘redshirt’ junior-Starfleet-person-of-the-week tradition in the original Star Trek.

The new Doctor Who companion has been announced and we still know very little about her – Ritch Ludlow asks some questions about fan response to Amy Pond and considers what kind of standards might be applied to this new character.

Oooh, another great one from Tor.com! Comic artist Faith Erin Hicks whose work I really enjoyed on ‘Friends With Boys’ has drawn a personal response to The Hunger Games as a popular story, drawing upon her family experience (as the daughter of a Vietnam veteran). I love to see the comics form used to tell powerful memoir and this brief piece is very compelling.

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I am delighted to see that The Shattered City has been shortlisted for Best Fantasy Novel in the Aurealis Awards – and that Love and Romanpunk and “The Patrician” have also been shortlisted for Best Collection & Best YA Short Story, respectively.

Congratulations to all the nominees! I am honoured to be in the company of so many excellent friends & colleagues. I’m planning to be at the ceremony – had so much fun last time. Hope to see many of you there for our night of nights! (ooh, clothes shopping!)

Winners of the 2011 Aurealis Awards and the Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence will be announced at the Aurealis Awards ceremony, on the evening of Saturday 12 May at the Independent Theatre, North Sydney. Details of the evening and a link to the online booking website are available at www.aurealisawards.org

An after party will be held at Rydges, North Sydney, following the awards presentations. Accommodation is available at Rydges for $149 (room only) or $174 (including full buffet breakfast). To take advantage of these rates please use the code ‘Aurealis’ when making your booking.

For further information about the awards please contact the convenors at convenors@aurealisawards.com

The 2011 Aurealis Awards are sponsored by HarperVoyager and Cosmos Magazine and proudly supported by Galaxy Bookshop.