Aurealis Awards Shortlists

The Aurealis Awards shortlists are out and I'm so delighted to see some of my favourite authors on the lists, including Glenda Larke and Juliet Marillier - and my Clarion South mate, Jason Fischer. (shortlisted in Best Fantasy Novella) is there, too.

It's especially exciting because Western Australia makes a good showing - Glenda Larke and Juliet Marillier (both shortlisted in Best Fantasy Fiction and also in the Sara Douglass Book Series Award section) are based here as is Meg McKinlay (Best Children's Fiction) and Stephanie Gunn, who is shortlisted twice (in the Best Fantasy Novella section for novellas in Ticonderoga Publications' Hear Me Roar and Bloodlines) is also local. As well, editor Jonathan Strahan has two anthologies shortlisted in the Best Anthology section.

Local publishers are also well represented with Fremantle Press, Ticonderoga Publishing, and Twelfth Planet Press all featuring. Both Ticonderoga Publications and Twelfth Planet are shortlisted numerous times in a number of different categories. Quite an achievement for these two small presses.

Congratulations to all who have shortlisted. You can see the complete list here and I don't know about you but I'm now heading off to read as many of these books as I can.

Edit: I have realised that I should have included Shaun Tan in the WA success stories since he was also shortlisted. I did think about it but somehow it slipped my mind when it came to writing the post.

Call for Submissions

Twelfth Planet Press has released details about Defying Doomsday, a anthology of short stories edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench to be released in mid 2016. Following a Pozible campaign, open submissions will begin on May 1.

Why am I blogging about this? Well, the stories will be about apocalypse survival - nothing new there, you're no doubt thinking - but the twist is the stories will focus on characters with physical impairments, mental illnesses, chronic illnesses, neurodiversity or other similar issues affecting them instead of relegating them to secondary or supporting roles. They will also be expected to entertain with the editors aiming at a range of stories from fun and/or exciting to sad or even horror.

This is exciting stuff. As a person with multiple health issues, most of them invisible, I'm used to being seen as an inconvenience to many around me. No-one likes the person who has to pull out of planned social events on a regular basis, who walks so slowly that everyone else has to slow down or  who can't eat certain things for medical reasons - and I definitely don't like being that person. If, while providing entertaining reading, an anthology like this makes the wider population aware that those of us with disabilities are more than just a collection of inconvenient symptoms and stops them judging or thinking we are exaggerating our problems - something I've experienced from a wide range of people including doctors and nurses who  really should know better - it will do us all a favour.

Twelfth Planet Press is an innovative small publisher, not afraid to tackle the controversial, and I always look forward to their books. I have been buying them as they come out for years and I'll be waiting eagerly for Defying Doomsday.

AWWC 2014: A Trifle Dead by Livia Day

Tabitha Darling, a lover of vintage fashion and with a tendency to get into trouble especially with the wrong kind of men, runs a trendy cafe in Hobart where she and her equally gifted associate, Nin, cook experimental - and delicious - food. The daughter of a popular and now deceased police superintendent, she spends a lot of her time feeling smothered under the protective gaze of much of the local constabulary, including the dishy Leo Bishop, who brings out conflicting feelings in her. They argue loudly and furiously but she also wants to snog him. When a body is discovered in the top floor flat above the cafe, Tabitha can't resist the urge to investigate along with a journalist, Stewart. He's a fascinating man of many talents who works for a news blog on the floor above and, just to add complications, Tabitha finds him very attractive as well. Then things get really complicated. Tabitha's friend and landlord is missing and strange and scary things start happening around her.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Trifle Dead. It's a light hearted (except for the murders, of course, but there's no graphic or sadistic nastiness even there) and often funny mystery with a protagonist whose delight in food and fashion provides an intriguing backdrop to mysterious crimes and murder. Add in her collection of eccentric friends and acquaintances plus twists in the plot and we have a fascinating mix that makes it a real reading pleasure.

Livia Day is the crime writing pseudonym of award winning Tasmanian fantasy writer, Tansy Rayner Roberts. 

Published by Deadlines, the crime imprint of Twelfth Planet Press, in 2013, A Trifle Dead (Cafe la Femme Mystery, Book One) was shortlisted for Best Debut Book, Davitt Awards for Australian Women's Crime Writing and was a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion finalist. It is available as a paperback and an e-book from the publisher as well as Amazon.com.

The second 'Cafe la Femme' book, Drowned in Vanilla, has just been released.

Aurealis Awards Shortlist 2012

The shortlist for the 2012 Aurealis Awards has been released and the complete shortlist is available here.

The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony in Sydney on May 18. I've read a number of the books and stories on the list and I have to say I do not envy the judges their task in having to choose  only one from some very fine work. Selecting a best from any section will not have been easy.

On a purely parochial basis, I'm delighted to see so many Western Australian residents figuring on it. Among them are Jonathan Strahan (three listings), Juliet Marillier, Liz Grzyb and Martin Livings as well as publishers Ticonderoga Publications and Twelfth Planet Press, both with multiple listings. I'm also delighted to see two of my Clarion South tutors, Margo Lanagan and Robert Hood.

Congratulations to all who have made it this far and good luck for the final selection.

Locus 2011 Recommended Reading List

is up on the Locus On-line website.The list is put together by a consensus of the magazine's editors and reviewers. There's a strong field and I'm pleased to see among them a number of Australian authors, editors and publishers, including one of my Clarion South fellows, Peter M. Ball, who features twice. Three of our Clarion South tutors appear as well - Margo Lanagan, Kelly Link and Gardner Dozois. Congratulations to Western Australian publishers, Ticonderoga Publications and Twelfth Planet Press, too, on the list for story collections, and local editor, Jonathan Strahan.
Other Aussies on the list include Jo Anderton, Terry Dowling, Thoraiya Dyer, Greg Egan, Alison Goodman, Ian McHugh, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Lucy Sussex, Kaaron Warren and Kim Westwood. Congratulations to all.

2010 Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Award

Tasmanian writer Tansy Rayner Roberts has won the 2010 Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Award for Siren Beat, a novella published by Western Australian small press Twelfth Planet Press and edited by Alisa Krasnostein.

Twelfth Planet Press has shown it is willing to push some boundaries lately. As an independent small press it is able to tackle the kind of fiction that is not so appealing to the larger publishers. Recent publications include anthologies, collections and novellas. Siren Beat is one of the novellas in the Doubles series where it was partnered by Roadkill by Robert Shearman). Books from this press are sometimes controversial but they are always quality. There is a pile of them sitting on my bookshelf now among my Aussiecon 4 buys.

Things That took My Fancy

From the blogiverse:

Over at Twelfth Planet Press there's an interesting article on the importance of editors and how they can help a writer improve a story.

One of my Clarion South mates, Ben Francisco has his story, Tio Gilberto and the Twenty Seven Ghosts, up on Realms of Fantasy website. I read an early draft at Clarion South in 2007 and it was one of the stand outs among many fine stories. You can read it here. 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.

More Clarion South Goodies

Sadly they're not mine.

First Christopher Green's story A Hundreth Name is up at Abyss & Apex. Why don't you drop over there and try it for yourself. As with anything Chris writes it is worth reading.

Then there's Laura E. Goodin, who, creative person that she is, between writing plays, stories and much else, has set up Outlandish Voices, podcasts showcasing writers from the Wollongong area. The first three stories are by Richard Harland, Robert Hood and Cat Sparks and you'll find them here.

It's been a pretty messy year for me and mine so far and as a result I think I might have missed mentioning that Peter M. Ball's novella Horn published by Twelfth Planet Press is also out in the wide world.

I do try to keep up with all my Clarion South mates but I have a horrible feeling that sometimes I miss one. If I have missed you it wasn't intentional so let me know if you had something published and I'll add you to the ever growing honour roll.

New Ceres Nights

Twelfth Planet Press have put out a press release for a special offer in March.

"Leading up the release of New Ceres Nights Twelfth Planet Press are offering the anthology 2012 at the special price of A$16 to anywhere in Australia including postage or A$20 to anywhere outside of Australia including postage for all of March!

We want to get the word out so we're also offering a free electronic copy of the Aurealis Award nominated "Fleshy" by Tansy Rayner Roberts for every blog entry spreading the word about our 2012 Special Deal for March.

Each of the stories in 2012 presents an original take on the imminent future of humanity. Each has something to say about who we are and who we might want to be. 2012 is both a call to imagine the future of the world and a call to create it.

2012 collects stories written by: Deborah Biancotti, Martin Livings, Dirk Flinthart, David Conyers, Simon Brown, Lucy Sussex, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Kaaron Warren, Angela Slatter, Ben Peek and Sean McMullen

2012 received an Honoroble Mention in the Anthology Category at the Aurealis Awards 2009.
“Fleshy” by Tansy Rayner Roberts, was shortlisted for Best Science Fiction Short Story, Aurealis Awards 2009

2012 March 2009 Special Deal

-- offer ends March 31, 2009 --"

More information here.

Aurealis Awards

Well deserved congratulations to all the winners, especially Western Australians, K. A. Bedford, Best Science Fiction novel for Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait, Jonathan Strahan, editor Best Anthology for The Starry Rift and Shaun Tan, Best Illustrated Book for Tales From Outer Suburbia (even if he has abandoned us for brighter lights). Best collection winner, Magic Dirt by Sean Williams was published locally by Ticonderoga Publishing run by Russell B. Farr and also deserves a mention in the West Aussie list of achievers.

Edit: In West Aussie successes I omitted to mention Trent Jamieson who is not a West Australian but took out Best Young Adult Short Story for Cracks in Shiny Issue 2 put out by Twelfth Planet Press which is Western Australian.

It was good to see Simon Brown, one of the Clarion South 2007 tutors, win Best Science Fiction Short Story for The Empire in Dreaming Again. Coincidentally I had just finished reading this without realising it was a finalist and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The complete list of winners is here but after looking at that you could go here and make the list of finalists a reading checklist. This was a extremely strong field and the judges must have had a very difficult time separating out the winners from such quality. I've read enough of the finalists to want to read the rest. I think you'd enjoy them too.

More Clarion Good News

During Clarion South we were warned that an incoming tutor did not like stories about unicorns or other fantasy creatures so, of course, several Clarionites saw this as a challenge. Peter Ball then proceeded to subvert all the tropes and place his unicorns in a world so far distant from knights and fair maidens that it took your breath away. He's been working on it since and it has now grown into a novella which has been picked up by Twelfth Planet Press to be published as part of their novella series.

This is no surprise to anyone who has read his work. Peter is one of those writers whose stories get under your skin. Since Clarion South he has been published in Dreaming Again and other places and I can't wait to read the expanded version of his unicorn tale.