Australian Shadows Awards Finalists 2012

The complete list of finalists in the Australian Shadows Awards 2012 is here and - being parochial again - I'm delighted to see a number of Western Australians on the list as well as my Clarion South mate, Jason Fischer, and two of our tutors at Clarion South, Lee Battersby and Robert Hood.

Congratulations to all on the list.

I Don't Know How I Missed This.

I don't know how I missed this. I guess life was a bit on top of me - there's been a lot of that lately - but the Table of Contents has been released for The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror edited by Liz Gryzb and Talie Helene to be published by Ticonderoga Publications in June, 2011. Included, among an impressive list of talented Australian writers, are stories by three of my Clarion South mates - Peter M. Ball with L'esprit de L'escalier, Jason Fischer's The School Bus and Christopher Green with Where We Go To Be Made Lighter. I've read a number of the stories on this list and they were all gripping so I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

Edited to fix the kitty caused - and unnoticed by me - typo.

Jason Fischer and Ticonderoga Publications

I'm truly excited that my Clarion South mate, Jason Fischer, is to have a collection of short stories, Everything is a Graveyard, to be published by Ticonderoga Publications in late 2013. The press release is here. Ticonderoga Publications has recently put out some outstanding anthologies and Jason should fit well into their list.

I've just been working my way through some of their books that I bought at Swancon. Heliotrope by Justina Robson was a fascinating compilation of stories. This author is well established as a novelist but this is her first collection of short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her stories stretch the imagination and that is always a good thing.

I've also finished Dead Red Heart, a collection of Australian vampire stories, edited by Russell B. Farr, and there are some great stories in there. Who'd ever have thought that the vampire could adapt so well to our harsh, sun-drenched continent. My fellow Egobooers, Joanna Fay and Carol Ryles, figure here. Then came More Scary Kisses, edited by Liz Gryzb, a collection of vampire romances, including two stories by fellow members of the KSP Speculative Fiction group, Annette Backshall and Carol Ryles (yes, she's in two books recently released by Ticonderoga). What sexy creatures these vampires are but it's not at all the way the original vampire stories portrayed them either.

On my list of still to be read is The Girl With No Hands by Angela Slatter, (she blogs here)and another writer whose work I very much enjoy.

What Can Happen in a Couple of Weeks.

While I've been away not having fun - don't ask - lots has been happening in the writing world.

My Clarion South mate, Jason Fischer, has a novella After the World: Gravesend out and available here. It will also be available from newsagents next week.

Russell B. Farr at Ticonderoga Publications has released the Table of Contents for his anthology Belong and I'm delighted to see my fellow Egoboo WA writer (and also a member of the KSP Speculative Fiction Group), Carol Ryles, on the list with her story Deeper Than Flesh and Closer. You can read Carol's latest Egoboo WA post on how she approaches a second draft here.

Also on the Belong Table of Contents is fellow KSP Speculative Fiction Group member (and a finalist in Writers of the Future in 2008), Sonia Helbig with her story Initiation. The complete Table of Contents is here.

A Book of Endings by Deborah Biancotti, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, and published by local Western Australian publisher, Twelfth Planet Press, was shortlisted for the Crawford Award.

The reports from the Judging Panels for the Aurealis Awards are now available here. Scroll down to the end of the page.

Finally, the ballot for the 40th Annual Locus Awards is here. Here's an opportunity to vote for what you consider the best work in 2009 and to nominate others which haven't been listed to date.

A Clarion Blast!

Well it's certainly more than just a success. My Clarion South mate, Jason Fischer, air guitarist and writer of many fantastic (I use the word advisedly) stories, is the winner of the second quarter of this year's Writers of the Future. Can't say I'm surprised. Jason has an incredible imagination and the ability to morph what initially seem outrageous ideas into stories that haunt you long after you read them. On top of that he is a really nice guy. Way to go, Jason.

Writers of the Future

I was very excited to hear my Clarion South mate, Jason Fischer, is a finalist in the second quarter of Writers of the Future after having been a semi finalist in the first quarter this year. He's having quite a year with his writing achievements - and thoroughly deserves it.

Not quite as spectacularly I have an Honorable Mention in the second quarter, my second this year. I'm very pleased. Next story about to be sent.

And it's already February!

Where has January gone, that's what I'd like to know. There was much barking at the front door this morning with Jaz getting highly stressed. When I went to look out there was a bunch of kids in school uniform and on bikes. You know what this means, don't you? School has gone back. School Has Started Again! Do you wonder why I wonder where January went? Scary, that's what it is - especially as not very much seems to have happened during the month.

Well some things have, I guess. Some of it good, some bad. As the bad is connected to the global economy I can hardly do anything about it. The good on the other hand is a series of small joys - a bundle of books bought with my Christmas and birthday money. It's taken years but I've finally convinced most of my family that book vouchers or money are the way to go for me. That gives maximum pleasure in the browsing, the choosing and the reading - and, of course, is where much of my time has gone, it being too hot to be outside.

This year the list is (plus some supplementary purchases that I am not convinced Pisces believes were essential):

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. What can I say? Wow!

The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller. Another Wow!

The New Space Opera ed by Gardiner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. Thoroughly enjoyed it

The Awakening by Bevan McGuiness. I'll be interested to see the rest of this series.

The Aware by Glenda Larke. The first book in the trilogy The Isles of Glory. I missed it when it first came out and so came back to read it after I had enjoyed the following two books. I'm glad I did.

Dreaming Again ed. Jack Dann. A collection of speculative fiction stories well worth reading including several by some of my Clarion South mates - Ben Francisco, Chris Lynch, Christopher Green, Jason Fischer and Peter M. Ball.

On the still to read pile are:

The Daughters of Moab by Kim Westwood

Cosmic Logos by Traci Harding

Royal Exile by Fiona McIntosh

A Forest of Stars by Kevin J. Anderson

The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills

And just to show I do read other than speculative fiction sometimes:

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Two More!

... Clarion South mates that is, with stories you too can read - and they're good. In the latest issue of GUD on sale now we have Think Fast, by Michael Greenhut. I read the first draft of this at Clarion. Highly recommended. Apparently you can buy a PDF version and, after reading the teasers, you'll want to.
Then up at the Daily Cabal is a new short short, Little Bird, by Jason Fischer. I'm generally not fond stories with devolved English but I make an exception for this one. It's clever, it works and it's free.

Katharine Susannah Prichard Speculative Fiction Awards 2008

What a lovely afternoon on Sunday at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre which is perched near the top of Greenmount on the Darling Scarp. The scarp edges the Perth hills and, when it's clear, as it mostly is in Perth, you can see all the way across the coastal plain. It's truly spectacular at night.

The Writers' Centre is located in the house where Katharine Susannah Prichard lived and did much of her writing. Writers can rent accommodation for retreats in the house and very soon several new self-contained writer's retreats will be available too.

But back to the Awards. Even the weather was kind on Sunday. Last year there was a continual grey drizzle that dripped away at the spirits. This year it was a warm and sunny winter's day with the Award presentations and readings followed by afternoon tea on the veranda.

The results and the Judge's Report are here. It was especially exciting for me because Laura Goodin and Jason Fischer, who received commended and highly commended respectively, are two of my Clarion South mates and both are excellent writers.

More Clarion Reads

And today we have a story by Jason Fischer for free at the Daily Cabal and one by Daniel Braum in Full Unit Hookup #9 but to read that you have to buy the magazine.
What a busy lot this batch of Clarionites is.

On Dog Versus Sandwich and Dreaming Again

Until I came across Lyn Battersby's story, Lily's Song, I hadn't really had a look at Dog Versus Sandwich which has been my loss. There are some neat stories here by writers who can really write. I discovered, in my wanderings through the site, stories by Jason Fischer and Peter M. Ball, both fellow Clarion South attendees but even more impressively both also have stories in Jack Dann's recent anthology, Dreaming Again, along with writers of the calibre of Margo Lanagan, Lee Battersby, Kim Wilkins and Rowena Corey Daniels to name only a handful.
Christopher Green, Ben Francisco and Chris Lynch are others from Clarion South 2007 in Dreaming Again too and I was delighted to see Cecily Scutt, a fellow West Australian, has a story in there as well.
Dreaming Again combines so many great writers that all I can say is "Go and read it" but while you're waiting to get to the bookshop try out Dog Versus Sandwich.

The Daily Cabal

Jason Fischer, a Clarion South mate, has joined the Daily Cabal and his flash fiction piece, Sweet Baby Honey, is here
There are also a number of other fine stories including a bundle by another Clarion South grad, Daniel Braum.