Aurealis Awards

I had great fun last night following along on Twitter as the Aurealis Awards winners were announced.  Many thanks to everyone who live tweeted the ceremony!

2010 Aurealis Awards, winners in bold

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)
Grimsdon, Deborah Abela, Random House
Ranger’s Apprentice #9: Halt’s Peril, John Flanagan, Random House
The Vulture of Sommerset, Stephen M Giles, Pan Macmillan
The Keepers, Lian Tanner, Allen & Unwin
Haggis MacGregor and the Night of the Skull, Jen Storer & Gug Gordon, Aussie Nibbles (Penguin)

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)
Night School, Isobelle Carmody (writer) & Anne Spudvilas (illustrator), Penguin Viking
Magpie, Luke Davies (writer) & Inari Kiuru (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)
The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator), Penguin Viking
Precious Little, Julie Hunt & Sue Moss (writers) & Gaye Chapman (illustrator), Allen & Unwin
The Cloudchasers, David Richardson (writer) & Steven Hunt (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)

YOUNG ADULT Short Story
‘Inksucker’, Aidan Doyle, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
‘One Story, No Refunds’, Dirk Flinthart, Shiny #6, Twelfth Planet Press
‘A Thousand Flowers’, Margo Lanagan, Zombies Vs Unicorns, Allen & Unwin
‘Nine Times’, Kaia Landelius & Tansy Rayner Roberts, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
‘An Ordinary Boy’, Jen White, The Tangled Bank, Tangled Bank Press

YOUNG ADULT Novel
Merrow, Ananda Braxton-­‐Smith, black dog books
Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey, Allen & Unwin*
The Midnight Zoo, Sonya Hartnett, Penguin
The Life of a Teenage Body‐Snatcher, Doug MacLeod, Penguin
Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy Book Two), Scott Westerfeld, Penguin

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/ GRAPHIC NOVEL
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nicki Greenberg, Allen & Unwin
EEEK!: Weird Australian Tales of Suspense, Jason Paulos et al, Black House Comics
Changing Ways Book 1, Justin Randall, Gestalt Publishing
Five Wounds: An Illustrated Novel, Jonathan Walker & Dan Hallett, Allen & Unwin
Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators, Rocky Wood & Glenn Chadbourne, McFarlane & Co.

BEST COLLECTION
The Library of Forgotten Books, Rjurik Davidson, PS Publishing
Under Stones, Bob Franklin, Affirm Press
Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter, Tartarus Press
The Girl With No Hands, Angela Slatter, Ticonderoga Publications*
Dead Sea Fruit, Kaaron Warren, Ticonderoga Publications

BEST ANTHOLOGY
Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis & Dr Marty Young, Brimstone Press
Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press
Scenes from the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall, Morrigan Books
Godlike Machines, edited by Jonathan Strahan, SF Book Club
Wings of Fire, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon, Night Shade Books

HORROR Short Story
‘Take the Free Tour’, Bob Franklin, Under Stones, Affirm Press
‘Her Gallant Needs’, Paul Haines, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
‘The Fear’, Richard Harland, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
‘Wasting Matilda’, Robert Hood, Zombie Apocalypse!, Constable & Robinson Ltd
‘Lollo’, Martin Livings, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, Apex Publishing

HORROR Novel
After the World: Gravesend, Jason Fischer, Black House Comics
Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, Pan Macmillan*

FANTASY Short Story
‘The Duke of Vertumn’s Fingerling’, Elizabeth Carroll, Strange Horizons
‘Yowie’, Thoraiya Dyer, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
‘The February Dragon’, LL Hannett & Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications
‘All the Clowns in Clowntown’, Andrew McKiernan, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
‘Sister, Sister’, Angela Slatter, Strange Tales III, Tartarus Press

FANTASY Novel
The Silence of Medair, Andrea K Höst, self-­‐published
Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)
Heart’s Blood, Juliet Marillier, Pan Macmillan
Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)*

SCIENCE FICTION Short Story
‘The Heart of a Mouse’, K.J. Bishop, Subterranean Online (Winter 2010)
‘The Angaelian Apocalypse’, Matthew Chrulew, The Company Articles Of Edward Teach/The
Angaelian Apocalypse, Twelfth Planet Press
‘Border Crossing’, Penelope Love, Belong, Ticonderoga Publications
‘Interloper’, Ian McHugh, Asimovs (Jan 2011)
‘Relentless Adaptations’, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press

SCIENCE FICTION Novel
Song of Scarabaeus, Sara Creasy, EOS Books
Mirror Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)
Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)

Those winners I’ve asterixed I’m particularly happy about, since they were amongst my favourites of the year.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.

In which a new book is born

So, I’ve been editing The White Raven.  Trying to pick apart a mess of storylines and find some other, more pleasing weave.

I went through about half of my hard copy of the last draft with a red pen, excising chunks and scribbling many notes to myself.  And at about the halfway mark, I realised that two of my characters were extraneous.  I’d had feedback from beta readers previously which had split feelings about these characters – half of my readers loved them as characters and the other half were just “meh”.  I do love both characters, and I have a feeling that they’ll get used somewhere else – either in a completely different work or in a possible sequel.  But for now, in this book, they have to go.

As I was reading, I realised that the removal of these characters, as well as the other changes I’m making, is going to result in a completely different book.  One that will have a different title, and will only retain a few of the original story threads.  Which means that I’m going to be essentially writing a first draft again.

Thought and Memory. Here we go.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.