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.

Back on the Australian Women Writers blog, Margo Lanagan writes a beautiful and lyrical review of Kate Forsyth’s new book, Bitter Greens.

Sofia Samatar writes thoughtfully about religion and fantasy, and how we need to broaden our definitions of “religion” in order to properly discuss this particular issue.

N.K. Jemisin talks about the problematic nature of the ‘strong women characters’ stereotype, or indeed any stereotype, and how fictional ideas can have quite horrible ramifications in real life.

There’s a new page up on the SF Encyclopedia! Check out ‘Women SF Writers,’ edited by Helen Merrick. And no I’m not just linking to it because I’m mentioned. Not at all.

Stephanie Smith, commissioning editor/associate publisher who has shaped HarperCollins Voyager (and Australian commercial fantasy as a whole) over the last seventeen years or so, is retiring. Check out the post on the Voyager blog in which many fantasy authors (including me) comment on what they owe to Steph. Truly the end of an era!

And to close by cheering everyone up, check out this post about how batshit freaky the Superman/Lois Lane relationship used to be way back when. Wow. Just wow.

In closing, how wonderful to be able to celebrate the opening of a new indie SF bookshop! Notions Unlimited in Melbourne [Notions Unlimited, Shop 9, Chelsea Beach Arcade, Chelsea, Victoria Australia] recently opened under the management of SF/horror writer Chuck McKenzie, and you can check out their launch video below along with some chat by a bunch of customers & Aussie spec fic writers about what they want from a bookshop.

Steeles Island, a mostly-private peninsula out near Carlton Beach (on the eastern shore of the Derwent River), turned out to have all these things in spades. It was a lucky find, as it turned out to have so many benefits we hadn’t even hoped for.

This particular ROR (wRiters on the Road/Rise/Riesling) had a family theme to it. We’d only included family members once before, when little Raeli was too young for me to bear leaving her behind for a whole four days, and so she and my honey came along to a North West Coast Tasmanian ROR, staying nights with us at the Hawley Beach house we rented, and disappearing during the days to visit relatives. This time around, we planned to do something similar only with Jem along – and then Margo and Rowena decided to bring family members too!

The house was so decadently large that we were able to critique separately from the non-writers in our party, and had the benefit of getting to know each other’s families as well as the non-stop industry talk that characterises these retreats.

We tried the experiment of using an iPad and Skype to include a long-distance member, with our virtual Maxine sitting in on a couple of sessions, as well as getting to have one of her own. It worked a lot better than we suspected it would, and while you wouldn’t want to do it every time or for every session (the great value in these retreats is getting to hang out in person) it was certainly better than having no Maxine at all! Those who weren’t experienced with Skype found it quite distracting to be talking to a black panel, and we talked at one stage about decorating a boiled egg to represent our Maxine (a random apple core just didn’t have the right aura about it) but we coped valiantly with the technical challenge. A good precedent, I think. We had also meant to record podcasts while we were there, but totally forgot. Sorry!

We were right on the beach, so the girls (and grown ups) tracked sand everywhere, indulged in recreational sweeping (or as Jem put it: the Cleaning Game) and generally had a ball. The tennis courts, mini-golf, swings, kayaks, and especially the pool table were all utilised, and we were greatly entertained by the facilities we could never use to their full extent, like the six fridges, three ovens and gazillion beds – the house is usually used to cater family weddings and conventions, and can comfortably sleep 20, or feed 50. The non-writers also took the chance to go off adventuring, as we were close to historical sites like Port Arthur, and tourist attractions like the berry farm.

And oh, everywhere we looked there was water, sand or greenery. A beautiful place, inspiring and (mostly) secluded. The mud crabs delighted the girls, as did the ocean in their back yard, and I only regret that the changeable Hobart weather only created two perfect swimming days – the one when we arrived and the one when we left, of course! The storm in between was marvellously atmospheric, though, and we only had one day so cold that the mainlanders started to look a bit grim and shivery. And yes, we let them have a wood fire.

The food as ever was epic, Dirk being delighted with the best kitchen we’d ever provided for one of these events – he offered up salmon, salads, baked chicken in damper crust, smashed potatoes, butter chicken, lemon cake with strawberries, pancakes and a truly luscious bread and butter pudding. Also fresh-baked bread, and for one especially memorable breakfast, petit pain au chocolat hot from the oven. The older kids often hung out with him in the kitchen, and he shared cooking tips and techniques with them. Raeli was especially excited to see bread made from scratch! We also ate our way through titanic quantities of fresh dark cherries and sweet greengages.

Being so close to Barilla Bay, we had to “do oysters” one night! We did have permission to raid the local oyster beds, but they were frighteningly large and mostly underwater, so we ended up playing it safe and not risking the wrath of the sea gods. We bought seven dozen and ate our way through them on the night of the official release dates of Margo’s and my books – particularly appropriate for Sea Hearts! Though no seal wives were harmed in the making of our dinner.

It wasn’t all eating and talking – though of course that is a huge part of our ROR weeks! There was work, too, and we critted up a storm, with quite intense working sessions that left us light headed and sleepy by the time evening came around. There is absolutely no price you could put on the benefit we get from having so many dedicated professionals giving feedback on your book-in-progress, and getting a window into their process at the same time. We had books that were fragment first drafts, books which were five minutes away from going to the publisher, and everything in between.

And of course, what is workshopped at ROR stays at ROR. But oh, I wish I could tell you about these fabulous books that are coming!

We talked a lot about worldbuilding as plot, one of my favourite writing techniques, because once it was raised in one session, it became relevant to all the others (of course!). We talked a bit about agents, ebooks and the changing marketplace, too. And, it being our anniversary ROR (we didn’t manage to have one for our ten year mark – this makes it eleven) we ended up looking back on our our careers had changed and developed since the original five of the group came together. Rowena has been archiving the goals we set every ROR, and it’s fascinating to see which of our past predictions came true, and which were heartlessly abandoned. Marianne and Trent (and Maxine, of course) we missed you MOST on that night!

I’m very pleased that I managed to time my book launch to fit with the last day of ROR (it involved some very precise timing and great goodwill on the part of my publisher!) and even more pleased that Margo was able to join me. It’s a rare thing to have so many of MY author people at one of my book launches, and it felt like an appropriately dramatic way to celebrate the end of a trilogy that began, as many of my books do, with a ROR manuscript. [more launch pics here]

It all feels a little flat now it’s over – and we keep thinking of other ways to use that magnificent house! It would be a fabulous site for a Clarion style writing workshop, or boutique professional conference. (Tehani and Terri, take note) The sign of a good ROR is that we start musing nostalgically about coming back to that particular place before we’ve even left… but of course, we never do. There are always new places to explore.

Rowena’s ROR report here, with a bunch of different pictures of different bits of the house and island!

Margo’s report on the ROR blog, talking about Formidable Energies – the very very early stage novel she brought to our workshop!

Yes, I am a diehard Locus Recommended Reading List fangirl. It’s where I got my book recs from before the blogosphere inserted itself into my brain. Which is why it was so exciting for me to appear on there twice – under Collection for Love and Romanpunk, and Short Story for “The Patrician.” Heady stuff! The Collection recommendation is especially exciting, as I’ve never had a whole BOOK recommended by the Locus crew. And it really didn’t hurt to be poring over the list with fellow recommendee Margo Lanagan over our breakfast bowls…

I’m really excited and proud about how much positive response I have got from people about “The Patrician” – it’s a story that felt right when I was writing it, so it’s fantastic to see it mentioned several times in this issue of Locus, by reviewers whose opinions I greatly respect. The book as a whole has gone very well too – Alisa told me this week that she opened the last box of Love and Romanpunk! How exciting is that, for a small press title to be so close to selling out, less than a year after its release?

Jason Nahrung points out all the Aussies on the list. It’s lovely to see such a diverse range of Australian authors mentioned – that is, old favourites as well as new names. And lots of women! I was particularly excited to see Thoraiya Dyer and Jo Anderton on their for their work, so early in their careers – potential Campbell nominees, perhaps? But congratulations to everyone to made it, especially those of you who are friends. Cos, you know. I like my talented friends BEST OF ALL.

Many bookloving folk in Hobart and from farther afield gathered last night to celebrate the double launch of two much-anticipated Australian fantasy novels: Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin) and Reign of Beasts: Creature Court Book Three by Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperVoyager). Sea Hearts was launched by Richard Harland, and Reign of Beasts by Rowena Cory Daniells.

It was lovely to see so many family and friends gathered once again for what has become an annual tradition in recent years – long may it continue! – the launch of one of my books. Even more special was to share this with members of my writing group, who are normally scattered more widely across Australia when an event like this happens.

I began the Creature Court with ROR, who workshopped the first volume through a couple of early drafts, so it felt very appropriate to bring the trilogy to a close with many of them: Rowena Cory Daniells, Margo Lanagan, Dirk Flinthart and Richard Harland, in attendance. Sad of course that we couldn’t be joined by Marianne De Pierres, Trent Jamieson and Maxine McArthur! Their absence was felt.

The Hobart Bookshop put on an excellent launch, as they always do. I was delighted to welcome Tehani, new import to our shores, along with her family, and to finally meet Lian Tanner, another local writer whose path has never entirely crossed mine before.

And, of course, while books and launch speeches and wine are all terribly important things, the MOST important thing is that, yet again, my gorgeous daughters dressed for the occasion, as a lion and tiger respectively. Goodness only knows what I’ll do when I have a seamonster book to launch.

Thanks for coming, everyone who came!

Margo and I were both delighted to see our books hurled into the stratosphere with such panache, and of course those who weren’t able to make the event can assuage their disappointment by picking up copies in good (Australian and New Zealand only for now, sigh) bookshops.

Exciting news!

The Hobart Bookshop are pleased to spread the news that Margo Lanagan will now be joining us on February 2nd for a launch of her new book, Sea Hearts.

Margo and Tansy Rayner Roberts will share the evening, making it a very exciting double launch — don’t miss it!

Thursday February 2nd
5:30pm
The Hobart Bookshop

Rowena Cory Daniells will launch Reign of Beasts by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

This is the final book in The Creature Court trilogy, a fantasy series featuring flappers, shapechangers and bloodthirsty court politics.

Richard Harland will launch Margo Lanagan’s Sea Hearts — an an extraordinary tale of desire and revenge, of loyalty, heartache and human weakness, and of the unforeseen consequences of all-consuming love.

If you’re in the southern Tasmania region next week, please come along to the Hobart Bookshop for much book-related merriment!

The article is about why Australian spec fic writers seem to skew so hard towards writing about icky sinister things instead of, you know, sunshine and beer and prawns. I talked to a bunch of writers (Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti, Kaaron Warren, Peter M Ball, Trent Jamieson, Kirstyn McDermott, Jason Nahrung, Cat Sparks, Rob Hood and Richard Harland) who are well known for their dark, weird short fiction, and they came up all sorts of brilliant answers to my sometimes-silly questions.

You can purchase individual copies or subscriptions of Apex here, and the content of the issue is also available (temporarily) for free on their home page.

These are mine. It’s entirely personal, of course, and based what I’ve actually read (as opposed to the towering To Read pile that will one day cause me major injury) but given that I haven’t done nearly enough this year of reviewing the books I love, I think it’s worth doing.

ADULT FICTION

Jo Walton
Among Others

A wonderful, wonderful book about the reading habits of young girls, with subtle magic and a fabulous theme of iconic SF books. At some point I hope I will write that essay I want to, about my lifelong relationship with Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin and how that book trained me to get the most out of this one despite the fact that I’ve never read Delaney, Zelazny or more than two novels by Heinlein.

Kim Westwood
The Courier’s New Bicycle
Utterly crunchy genderqueer dystopian thriller-mystery with an androgynous protagonist, and a fascinating pretendy future Melbourne. Particularly interesting (and chilling) is the portrayal of a society embracing conservative politics in response to trauma and crisis.

Jo Anderton
Debris
Impressive debut novel – my favourite kind of fantasy, in that it’s about the professional lives of urbanites rather than anything involving bracken, horses or dwarves. It has a contemporary feel about it, and it is to the credit of the novel as well as the author that I spent most of the book trying to figure out for myself whether it was science fiction that feels like fantasy, or fantasy that feels like science fiction. The magic system (pions!) is rigorous and I love the application of it to architecture.

Glenda Larke
Stormlord’s Exile
The third in a fantasy trilogy so good that I regularly pounce on people in the street, pressing battered paperbacks upon them. Like Jo’s work, this has a rigorous magic system, and I adore the use of the geography of the desert cities and dunes, the emphasis on politics, social lives and art alongside battles and other military detail, the subtle interweaving of gender issues in amongst the epic drama and the tight, fast-paced story. It’s just that good. If you haven’t read epic fantasy in a long time, or have wandered away from the genre, this is one worth coming back for.

Trent Jamieson
The Business of Death
Another great third book of a trilogy, this time a Brisbane urban fantasy series with a blokey sensibility and a distinct, easy-to-read author voice. I love where Trent took this book, which is my favourite of the three, and the epic, utterly satisfying end (if it is an end) he wrote for Steve.

Sue Isle
Nightsiders
I am so bad with reading anthologies and collections this year! As in, seriously incompetent. I’m somewhere in the middle of about a dozen. But this one I not only read over two days (hooray for short, excellent books) but am still completely in love with. Sue builds a fascinating future Perth, brought to its knees by climate change and a population that has mostly abandoned the city, and tells its story through some quite intimate character explorations. The world has gone to hell, but it’s the personal tragedies and dramas – a girl betrayed by the woman she thinks of as a mother, a teenager desperate to access gender reassignment surgery, a lost treasure of a script that reminds them of a different time, a teacher worried what will happen to her students when she gets too old to be there for them – that Sue writes with such depth.

Catherynne M Valente
Deathless
A powerful, mighty novel which takes the role of women from traditional folk tales and turns it upside and and inside out, not only inverting it but reinventing it. I admired the prose and the themes but was certain I wasn’t emotionally touched by this book until the last few chapters when it broke me, utterly. I’m still not sure I’ve put all the pieces back together. A masterwork by one of our great modern fantasists.

Keith Giffen & Judd Winick
Justice League: Generation Lost Volume One
A graphic novel (half of a mini-series of 12 titles) which made me unreasonably happy. All those mates of mine who came out of the woodwork since the last Galactic Suburbia to admit that they, too, belong to the secret fandom of Maxwell Lord, Blue Beetle, Fire and Ice, Booster Gold et al… you need this book. So very, very much. It’s what I wanted the new JLI #1 to be, and then some.

YOUNG ADULT

Penni Russon
Only Ever Always
Gorgeous, intense YA that shows a deft hand at all manner of writing techniques, and pulls the reader in and out of suburban tragedy and a surreal otherworld.

Margo Lanagan
Yellowcake
A collection of Margo’s YA-friendly (well, in some cases not exactly FRIENDLY) stories, beautifully packaged. I’d read most of these before but it was a reprint collection I absolutely had to have! Probably one of the best introductions to her work, for those who haven’t yet made the step into Lanagan territory. Here be monsters.

Karen Healey
The Shattering
I really enjoyed Karen’s first book, Guardian of the Dead, but I feel more emotionally connected to this one. The friendships at the core of the story are compelling and wonderful and so utterly lacking in the kind of teen cliches I’m used to seeing. So many issues addressed sensibly and sensitively here, including teen suicide, anxiety disorders, bullying, coming out to your family, and so on, and yet this never feels like an ‘issue book.’ It’s a rollicking, angsty adventure immersed in New Zealand culture, with a kick-ass climax.

Sarah Rees Brennan
The Demon’s Surrender
Another third book in a trilogy – a wonderful series that has gripped, amused and surprised me since it first came out. A sharp, clever example of how you can write a trilogy that is three complete, self contained novels with their own unique identities and protagonists, that is still better than the sum of its parts. I didn’t think I could love this book as much as its precedessors, or be as invested in its concerns and romance, but it far surpassed my expectations.

Kate Gordon
Thyla
The rarest creature imaginable: a paranormal adventure set in my own home town of Hobart, Tasmania. Using were-versions of our most iconic native animals, the Tassie tiger and devils. Yes, really. It’s hard to believe that this is only Kate’s second published novel, and her first fantasy. She takes some great narrative risks with this novel, and it takes off.

Marianne de Pierres
Burn Bright
a gorgeous gothy novel which does something very different with the vampire mythos. She sets up a city of clubbing and decadence, designed to feed the wildest desires of wild teenagers everywhere, then introduces a protagonist for whom that is basically the idea of hell. Very modern and of course, this being Marianne, there are SFnal elements hidden amongst the velvet, the cute boys and the bats.

We went down to the hotel restaurant for a (very) early dinner, correctly guessing it would be our last chance to eat for the night. Some familiar faces were already down there, with the same idea, and we added a table on the end of theirs – and as more and more people arrived, kept doing so, until we had at least 20 people there, and the table had turned into a long L-shape!

Then of course we all had to disappear to frock up, as the new arrivals were looking increasingly glamorous.

The Aurealis Awards were held at the Independent Theatre, a lovely venue only a few minute’s stagger (a bit longer in high heels, but I was wearing flats, hehehe) from the hotel. We met and mingled at the cocktail party (sponsored by HarperCollins), many of us marvelling at how utterly weird it was to be together again so soon after Swancon – when we’re used to an 18 month separation! Of course there were people there who hadn’t been at Swancon, too, so it was a general crowd of happy reunions, gossip and hugging. With champagne. I had lots of lovely conversations with lots of adorable people, though the highlight for me was getting to meet IN PERSON the amazing Nicola, who has edited all three of the Creature Court books with me, one way or another. To get to talk to her in person about the choices we made and how much we love each other’s work was very, very cool.

And oh, the fashions! We are a gorgeously dressed bunch. Tehani referred to it as the ‘night of necklaces,’ and there was certainly some spectacular jewellery on display. Kirstyn wins the prize, of course, for her bird skull necklace that made people go ooh, and then, erkhhhh when they looked more closely…

The theatre itself was the perfect size for an event like this – grand but cozy at the same time, if that makes sense? Tehani and I decided to start a trend by sitting in the front row, since we knew I had to go on stage at some point to present (and we knew Helen would be going up too, but more on that later!). Spec Faction deserve a huge amount of kudos for the event – it ran smoothly, with any dramas rendered pretty much invisible to the rest of us. Cat had put together a hilarious and touching montage of Aurealis Awards photographs (the overall theme was people we knew looking overheated, a bit drunk and terribly happy) which broke the ice marvellously, and there was a really good vibe in the theatre, all that community spirit stuff.

Rob Hood had put together the powerpoint presentation for the awards presentations, with a bunch of quirky images and animations, which added a lovely tone to the whole thing. Garth Nix was a dapper and eloquent MC, and the whole thing went very well I think with a different presenter for each pair of awards. There were some very nice speeches from various presenters, and some lovely ones from the winners. I cannot stress ENOUGH how important it is to prepare what you’re going to say at these things! I felt so much more calmer than my last in-person AA ceremony because I had my little just-in-case speeches there. As I did say eventually in my acceptance speech for Best Fantasy Novel (ahem, because yes, there was that) I think we all learned at Swancon that I in particular lose all ability to improvise when actually winning an award.

I was delighted with all the winners, which seems silly, but isn’t really. I think in most cases there were such strong shortlists that I had many opportunities to be delighted, whatever the outcome. Obviously I knew the results of the Children’s section up front, because I was a judge (and didn’t I panic quietly to myself when Nick Stathopolis, dizzied by the presentation of two tropies, announced it was a tie! But no, in fact there was a trophy for the writer and illustrator of Best Picture Book which was a lovely touch)

Kaia and I lost Best YA Short Story happily to Margo Lanagan, for one of my favourite short stories last year, “A Thousand Flowers,” and it was totally worth it to see Garth Nix (himself Team Unicorn) give both the unicorn salute and the much ruder zombie salute. Poor Tehani was kicking herself she didn’t have her phone ready to snap that particular picture! (you so got off lightly there, Garth) I was also hugely excited to see Karen Healey win Best YA Novel for Guardian of the Dead, not only because it was a book I loved and championed last year, and because Karen’s a friend, but also because I had spent my plane trip to Sydney reading her new upcoming (and amazing!) novel The Shattering, so she was very much on my mind.

I wasn’t familiar with the work or author which won best Graphic Novel, but Helen was squealing beside me, and delighted with the result!

Then it was my turn to present Best Collection and Best Anthology, which was a little nervewracking, especially as I realised at the last minute that my little speech about the importance of indie presses to a thriving short story scene was actually more appropriate to Best Anthology than Best Collection, so I had to extemporise another speech for the first award! I think I was mostly coherent, and was delighted to present Best Collection to Angela Slatter, even if a small part of me would have preferred her to win it for Sourdough because I loved that book so much last year!

Best Anthology was the big one I felt so honoured to present, because I knew Jonathan and Alisa and Marianne were at home together, hanging out for that particular result. And while I was a little wistful for Sprawl, I am delighted that Marianne won her first work nominated for an Aurealis Award! That’s so exciting. Obviously it’s nice for Jonathan too, but he has a lot of trophies at home already Deborah Biancotti gave a very nice speech on behalf of Jonathan and Marianne.

It is a lovely thing about our community that you get to be happy for the winners no matter what, because you end up in a situation where almost everyone on the shortlist is a friend! So I was delighted to see Richard Harland win for Best Horror Short Story (the second ROR win for the night!) and for Kirstyn McDermott to win for Madigan Mine – especially because they were both there to collect, which makes it extra special.

Then we got up to Fantasy and I stopped relaxing again! The short story award was won jointly by Angela Slatter & Lisa Hannett for “The February Dragon,” a gorgeous story that I think was my favourite from Ticonderoga Press last year – dragons and Ancient Rome; and also Thoraiya Dyer for “Yowie.” Now, you all KNOW how much I love Yowie, right? It’s a story I have been raving about for, oh about a year now, so it was hugely exciting to see Thoraiya win for it. She also got bonus points for her lovely speech in which she mentioned how she had been practicing her “Congratulations Angela” face for the last five minutes, and credited Alisa with rejecting several stories from her, without which she never would have written “Yowie” at all!

Then Tehani and Helen started getting all excited about Best Fantasy Novel and I was shushing them to stay cool because you CAN’T get excited about these things, because then if they don’t happen, you look silly. So, you know, I was practicing my best ‘congratulations Glenda/Trent’ face for non existent TV cameras! Hee. So much for staying cool. It was very exciting to have my name read out, and to go up again on stage and see everyone grinning at me! And BOY OH BOY was I glad I had written a just-in-case speech. Extra hooray that Stephanie Smith & Nicola were both there to hear me credit them for their work and support – and Richard was beaming at me from the front row when I thanked ROR for their, lets face it, YEARS of work & support getting this damn book as good as it was.

So yes. That was rather awesome. Thanks everyone who was there to share that with me! It was especially inspiring to have Sean Williams whisper that I was only the second person to have taken out Best Novel Ditmar and Best Fantasy Novel Aurealis with the same book – and he knew that because he was the first. So that’s a rather stylish & exclusive club to be in.

Science fiction was next, and while everyone was laughing at Rob’s exploding robot animation, I still couldn’t relax because I was still nominated in one category! But then I lost gracefully to KJ Bishop (congratulations face), and hooray, I was done for the night! But the Aurealis Awards, weren’t of course. Richard and I still had another ROR flag to fly when Marianne won Best Science Fiction Novel for Transformation Space, the final book in her Sentients of Orion series. This was wonderful, as I know how proud she is of those books, and how they haven’t always received the critical attention they deserve. I think it’s also worth noting how rare it is for the last book of a series to win an award! First and standalone books have a much better chance generally because it’s unfair to expect judges of a particular year to have read all previous volumes… but I liken this one to Return of the King winning all the Oscars. It feels like an award for her entire series, and it’s a magnificent endorsement that she won for this one.

Next up was the Peter Mac – hilariously I had completely forgotten that this award existed and that this was why Helen Merrick had come all this way for the awards. I knew she was the winner because I was one of the convenors who AWARDED it to her, but I was ditzy enough to have forgotten in the mean time. So she legitimately pointed and laughed at my surprise, earlier that afternoon, when I realised. Anyone who knows Helen knows how much she has done, academically and personally, to advance the discussion and critical appraisal of science fiction in this country so yes, she was an obvious winner of this particular award and it was delightful to see her get up and receive it, and know how much it meant to her.

It was also lovely to see the Kris Hembury Encouragement Award continued, from Fantastic Queensland, presented in this case by Kate Eltham to Jodie Cleghorn. I only met Kris a couple of times, but I taught him at EnVision and was so inspired by his commitment to his work, and to the Queensland writing community – very fond memories.

After that, it was party central! We drank the Independent Theatre’s bar dry and then tripped back to the hotel for a very cruisy and relaxed after party. The bar could have done with more staff (HOTELS NEVER LISTEN) but it was really hard to pick any holes in the event at all. As an attendee with little to do but presenting a couple of awards, I have to say that Nathan and Susan and the team did an extraordinary job, and if you didn’t know it was their first time putting on the AAs in Sydney, you would never have guessed. From a professional point of view, I can’t help but think that having it Sydney-based for a while will be excellent as far as increasing the profile with publishers, editors and authors. I know that a big draw for me in coming was a rare chance to see the people I work with in person, and I’m sure that’s the same for many others.

Tehani demanded everyone say happy birthday to me just after midnight!

I crawled into bed at 2am, and rose in surprisingly good spirits for the recovery breakfast – well, Helen and I had to start earlier than most because I had morning plans & had to rush away from everyone (when she FINALLY woke up!). She was an utter sweetheart, though, and as well as getting to chat about Wiscon and academia over eggs & mushrooms, she sneakily got a bunch of people to sign a makeshift birthday card for me, made out of a placemat stolen from the hotel room! I got a present, too, but she has to post it to me because my tiny suitcase was already overstuffed.

Then for the final leg of my whirlwind weekend, I met @zeft for the first time IN PERSON, despite the fact that she’s among the half dozen people I speak most to online, and has been for the last 5 years or so. Since my previous trips to Sydney have always been on the way somewhere and lacking in tourist satisfaction, she took me down to the river and we caught a variety of ferries back and forth, so I could admire the bridge, opera house, Darling Harbour, Luna Park and Circular Quay from a variety of different angles. She also got to laugh at my extreme geographic ineptitude as I repeatedly lost my bearings.

It was a brilliant sightseeing tour packed into only a couple of hours. We also saw giant Lego statues at the Aquarium and failed to steal pieces even though it was RIGHT THERE and so tempting. (Audrey Hepburn would so have walked off with a wodge of Lego horse’s rear in her handbag) Also after we missed one ferry we got to accidentally witness an opening ceremony for a Wall of Welcome at the maritime museum, complete with circus acts and (apparently) celebrity chefs. Oh and entirely by accident, I completed a pilgrimage to the site of the 1996 Aerobics Oz Style episodes, by the fountain in Darling Harbour. Hooray!

A fabulous weekend, but nothing beats that feeling of the plane skimming over the water, coming into Hobart airport. I got home to little girl hugs, stories of family dramas while I was gone (including car disasters and nappy explosions), distributed presents (yes even though I was gone only a day and a half, I’m just awesome like that) and received chocolate, champagne, oysters, pickled octopus and birthday cake.

Raeli’s present to me was a gorgeous Doctor Who picture, which she refused to give me straight away because, spoilers! She and Daddy had already seen The Doctor’s Wife (which went out on the ABC during the Aurealis Awards) but now I got to sit down with them and finally, FINALLY watch it myself. It was worth the wait, as was Raeli’s drawing, which included a little picture of Idris saying ‘hello’ out of the TARDIS as well as pirate Amy (I think Raeli will be drawing her in that outfit for perpetuity and why not?) Rory with cross hatch marks on his hands, River and her gun, the Doctor saying “I’ve got mail,” the Silence and an Ood. Her art makes me happy.

All in all, it was a birthday weekend that will be hard to top in future years!

Pics all by Cat Sparx except the following: Helen & Richard by Tehani, Sydney Harbour & Raeli’s Doctor Who pic by TansyRR

Episode 30 is up, recorded live from Swancon on the morning of Sunday 24 April 2011 with an audience of loyal followers who were prepared to come to a panel at 9:30 AM!

Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.

EPISODE THIRTY

At Swancon 36/Natcon50

In which we talk convention gossip, awards, go through piles and piles of reading for Tansy and Alex, while Alisa patiently explains her position on ebooks.

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Recorded Live from Swancon!

News

Shirley Jackson nominees

PK Dick winner announced

BSFA winners announced

SF Hall of Fame Inductees for 2011

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Kraken, China Mieville; Doomsday Book, Connie Willis; Contact (the movie), Mappa Mundi, Justina Robson; Brasyl, Ian McDonald; Nightsiders, Sue Isle

Tansy: The Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Clare, The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke, Fun Home & Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel, [http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/clockwork-rocks-and-a-tragicomic/] Tales of the Tower: the Wilful Eye edited by Isobelle Carmody & Nan McNab, especially “Catastrophic Disruption of the Head” by Margo Lanagan, Nightsiders (twelve planets 1) by Sue Isle.

Pet Subject: Indie Press: Alisa talks Ebooks!

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