Aurealis Awards, here I come ...

This is me with Jack Dann at the Aurealis Awards last year (January 1009).

I had to present one of the categories, which I've done before, butI'm always a little nervous because I don't want to get anything wrong. One year I opened the winner's envelope and it was two people as joint winners. The way it was laid out I couldn't tell which first name went with which last name and I have a terrible moment, where I had to madly scramble to remember the five short listed authors and put the names together.

Last year Richard won an award. When he'd asked me to give his acceptance speech, he told me he was 99% sure he wouldn't win, so I wasn't mentally prepared but I bumbled through. Richard's speech won a few laughs.

This time Tansy has asked me to do her acceptance speech if she wins in the fantasy short story section, so I'm prepared. Siren Beat from Twelfth Planet Press.

The Aurealis Awards are a chance for everyone in the Spec Fic world to put on their glad rags, quaff champagne and mingle. Kudos to the Fantastic Queensland team for the great job they've done organising the award these last five years. And congratulations to all the short listed authors and their editors.

Years of Wine and Roses

Things are going well for the RORees. Why, you ask? Well, it is a combination of things.

For me, it has been hard work and persistence.

My fantasy trilogy King Rolen's Kin (Book one The Bastard Son was critiqued at a ROR back in 2003), will be released in July, August, September. The month apart release plan is a good idea for readers. They get to read the books a month apart, no waiting. Not so good from a writer's point of view. It takes me about a year to write a 100K book. To see them all launched off in three months, leaves me wondering how I will get another three books ready in time when the next contract comes up.

But I have been writing solidly since the Last T'En series came out. I have the first book of three other series with my agent and am 120 pages into the first book of a fourth series. That's five series I have been writing concurrently, while waiting to see what gets picked up. So, yes, selling is nice, but the work has to be there, ready to go. I just wish I knew what series SOLARIS is going to buy next!




Marianne has a new YA Dark Urban Fantasy, Burn Bright, coming out. This is one the ultra cool kids will love, all about partying and saving the world Then there's the second book of her Tara Sharp series. More fun and frolics with the girl who can read body language. And, for the more cerebral readers, there's another Sentients of Orion book coming out. So Marianne has been writing consistently and trying out different genres.

Richard is sweeping all before him with Worldshaker, a YA steampunk book. Rollicking good fun on a quasi Victorian world where monstrous ... no I mustn't, read it and see. Worldshaker cover froms out from Simon and Schuster, (with this front cover for the hardback), in the US in May, 2010, then in the UK in June, France and Germany.







Tansy has her Chicklit mystery coming out with Pulp Fiction Press. Cafe La Femme is set in Hobart and promises to be a delightful read. Her Dark Urban Fantasy, Siren Beat, has just been released. Again set in Hobart, but a very different Hobart from the one we know, where the preternatural is kept at bay only by daring and dedication. And, drum roll, Please .... books one and two of her exciting Creature Court trilogy will be coming out in 2010. Pardon my gushing fan girl moment. This is w whole new take on Dark Urban Fantasy and I really enjoyed it.

Margo is taking a rest from trotting around the world after the success of Tender Morsels.

Dirk is masterfully minding three children while working on a top secret project which has an expression of interest from a publisher.

Maxine is deep in a new project, an historical time slip novel that is in the exciting halfway-through-first-draft stage, being written (kind of) concurrently with another space opera. "Concurrently" is hard when you're working full time as well as writing--it tends to turn into three months on one project, then a couple of months on the other, as each gets bogged/comes off the boil a bit. Her YA fantasy set in medieval Japan is under consideration by a publisher, and there's a children's fantasy out there as well.

And Trent has the first book of his Death Works series, Death Most Definite, a quirky Dark Urban Fantasy due out in 2010. This is one the fans of Jim Butcher and Simon R Green will like. And this is another refreshingly different take on the Dark Urban Fantasy genre.

All of us have families, work and commitments. But writing is what spins our wheels so, somehow, we fit it in. We're always working on new books, spreading our selves across genres. If one thing doesn't get picked up, something else will. The publishing industry is in a state of flux, more so than ever before. All we writers can do is grab the tiger by the tale and hang on. (Deliberate pun there!).

The Quintessential Australian Story

Richard Harland's new book WORLDSHAKER is going to be launched soon and it is already getting a really good reaction. I think of it as a very English sort of story. (not meaning that in a bad way, I thoroughly enjoyed the book when we read it in draft form at ROR).

This made me wonder, if there is a quintessential English style of story and a quintessential American style of story, is there a quintessential Australian story style?

You only have to look at Red Dwarf, to see English humour and world view at work. When the Americans tried to make their own version of Red Dwarf, they made Lister good looking. The humour lies in the fact that he can never win Christine Kachanski. Recently, I've been watching the UK series 'Being Human' about a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost living in a share house in Bristol ( I think). It is downbeat and funny, as well as poignant.

I'm worried that, if parallel importation goes ahead, Australians won't get the chance to develop their own quintessential style of story because the Australian publishing industry won't have the luxury of developing new writers and taking risks. You could argue that we should have already developed this. Maybe we have in some areas, I'm thinking of the movies, The Castle and The Dish, both really good movies, both very Australian.

What have you read recently that was quintessentially Australian inthe Spec Fic genre?

WHoooHoo!

Trent & yours truly at the ceremony.

Well, I'm back from the Aurealis Awards. What a great night. The AA team did a wonderful job. Glitz Glam and Fun.

When Richard sent me his speech, he said he was 99% sure he and Laura wouldn't win best children's picture book. And what happens? They win!

So I did a mad scramble to grab the speeches and get up to the podium trying to look cool calm and elegant. I was so focused on doing my bit as a presenter of the fantasy awards that I wasn't mentally prepared to deliver Richard and Laura's thank you speeches. But I managed to get through it without stumbling. Way to go, Richard and Laura.

Next section was the Young Adult Short Story and who should win but Trent with his story 'Cracks' printed in Shiney #2. Tansy was terribly proud as she had been involved in the editing.

The reactions of the different winners were spontaneous and delightful.

And congratulations to all the finalists. The judges had their work cut out for them. For instance, in the fantasy section there were 156 short stories which one team of judges read and 38 books, which were read by another team of judges. Since most fantasybooks are 100K plus, this was a lot of reading!

A big thank you to everyone involved in the award, judges convenors and helpers on the night.

Cheers, Rowena.