Ditmars!
Wow, awards season is certainly upon us — the Ditmar award ballot has been announced, and I’m so chuffed to see Midnight and Moonshine on the list with so many great books and stories! Doubly-stoked to see Kirstyn McDermott on the lists for Perfections and for The Writer and the Critic (if you haven’t listened to TW&TC podcast yet, hop to it!) Also, triply-stoked to see Kathleen Jennings nominated three times for her artwork, including a nod for her M&M cover illustration! To be honest, there are too many hoorays to list here: I want so many of these works to win, even if it means two- or three-way ties in many categories.
Voters have their work cut out for them this year — so hard to choose the winners, when there are so many great things to read.
Congratulations, everyone!
The 2013 Ditmar ballot is as follows:
Best Novel
————————————————————————
* Sea Hearts, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
* Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth (Random House Australia)
* Suited (The Veiled Worlds 2), Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
* Salvage, Jason Nahrung (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Perfections, Kirstyn McDermott (Xoum)
* The Corpse-Rat King, Lee Battersby (Angry Robot)
Best Novella or Novelette
————————————————————————
* “Flight 404”, Simon Petrie, in Flight 404/The Hunt for Red Leicester
(Peggy Bright Books)
* “Significant Dust”, Margo Lanagan, in Cracklescape (Twelfth Planet
Press)
* “Sky”, Kaaron Warren, in Through Splintered Walls (Twelfth Planet Press)
Best Short Story
————————————————————————
* “Sanaa’s Army”, Joanne Anderton, in Bloodstones (Ticonderoga
Publications)
* “The Wisdom of Ants”, Thoraiya Dyer, in Clarkesworld 75
* “The Bone Chime Song”, Joanne Anderton, in Light Touch Paper Stand
Clear (Peggy Bright Books)
* “Oracle’s Tower”, Faith Mudge, in To Spin a Darker Stair (FableCroft
Publishing)
Best Collected Work
————————————————————————
* Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth
Planet Press)
* Epilogue, edited by Tehani Wessely (FableCroft Publishing)
* Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren, edited by Alisa Krasnostein
(Twelfth Planet Press)
* Light Touch Paper Stand Clear, edited by Edwina Harvey and Simon
Petrie (Peggy Bright Books)
* Midnight and Moonshine by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter, edited
by Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications)
* The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2011, edited by Liz
Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications)
Ditmar Award Nominations Open
It feels like only yesterday that I last mentioned the Ditmar Awards on this website, but apparently a year has passed already! Ditmar nominations are now open — until April 13, 2012.
There is an incredible list of eligible works and potential nominees this year (as is also the case with the Aurealis Awards) — so many great stories for us to read, so much great writing happening in Australia at the moment! You can peruse the list of Ditmar-eligible works here, bearing in mind that this list may need tweaking, and some of the pieces might not be arranged under the right categories at the moment.
People active in Australian fandom and full or supporting members of this year’s Natcon, Continuum8, can nominate works for the Ditmars. The Awards rules are here, and nomination forms are here.
It always feels weird pointing out my own eligible works — it’s a bit of self-promotion I feel awkward doing — but still, here goes. If any of you have liked my stories this year and want to nominate them for an award, here’s the list:
Best Collected Work
Bluegrass Symphony (Ticonderoga Publications)
Best Novella / Best Novellette
‘From the Teeth of Strange Children’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘To Snuff a Flame’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘Wires Uncrossed’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
Best Short Story
‘Down the Hollow’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘Fur and Feathers’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘The Short Go: A Future in Eight Seconds’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘Carousel’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘Depot to Depot’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘Forever, Miss Tapekwa County’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘The Wager and the Hourglass’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘Them Little Shinin Things’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
‘Gutted’, Shimmer, Issue 13
‘White and Red in the Black’ (Dead Red Heart, Ticonderoga Publications)
That’s it for 2011!
Now, on a similar but non-self-serving note, I want to nominate Angela Slatter’s ‘Drive-by’ interview series for a Ditmar. Angela ran this series for a couple of years, including all of last year, and the final post went up at the end of December 2011. Have a look at the breadth of interviews, the variety of excellent speculative fiction writers, editors, artists, and fans that participated — such a lot of work! Such a great series for all of us to read and re-read. It would be cool for it to be recognised with an award of some sort.
Any thoughts on what Ditmar category this series might fit into? ‘Best Fan Publication’? ‘The William Atheling Jr Award’? Please leave me a comment if you know which one would be best!
Tuesday Therapy: Zone and Rhythm
One of the first times I encountered Cat Sparks’ writing was in Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy edited by Ekaterina Sedia. ‘Sammarynda Deep’ grabbed me from the very first line — and I’ve been a fan of her work ever since.
I am clearly not alone in this. Cat was a Writers of the Future prize winner in 2004, she has published more than 50 short stories since the turn of the millenium, and she has received a total of seventeen Aurealis and Ditmar awards for writing, editing and art including the Peter McNamara Conveners Award 2004, for services to Australia’s speculative fiction industry.
This year, Cat also nabbed a coveted Australia Council Grant for Emerging Writers — a huge achievement!
This week, Cat brings a bit of rhythm into our lives:
I’m loathe to suggest to anyone else how they should write because there is no should. Aside from the rather obvious fact that writing involves writing, different methods and techniques work differently for different folks. Having said that, here is what currently works for me:
My writing is all about zone and rhythm. The zone is where I need to be and the rhythm is how I roll. When these two key elements are in simpatico, 2,000 words flow hot like lava. Good, strong words that require little more than gentle pruning.
It’s like a dance: some days you groove, others you’re all elbows, bums and shins.
So forget about word count or time in the saddle and let the boom-tish cha-cha-cha dictate the pace!
Thanks, Cat! *ties on dancing shoes*
Cat Sparks is fiction editor of Cosmos Magazine. She managed Agog! Press, an Australian independent press that produced ten anthologies of new speculative fiction from 2002-2008. She’s known for her award-winning editing, writing, graphic design and photography. Her first collection of short stories, tentatively called The Bride Price, is being published by Ticonderoga Publications in 2013. You can visit Cat online here.
*Author’s photo by Selena Quintrell
Tuesday Therapy: Writing as Sudoku
I’m beginning to feel like the fates have aligned so that each week’s therapy session speaks directly to a writing problem I am currently facing. This hasn’t been prearranged — it’s entirely a fluke — but it’s a happy coincidence. I’ve just passed the 1/3 mark of The Familiar and was starting to wonder if I should be concerned that a lot of the book’s final third is yet unclear, plot-wise. And then I read Kaaron Warren‘s fantastic contribution to this series, and now I have my answer…
Kaaron has been publishing short stories for nearly 20 years — ‘All You Can Do is Breathe’, by the way, is on the ballot for this year’s Stoker Awards — and has recently published three novels with Angry Robot Books. What makes Kaaron’s writing so engaging (and such a joy to read) is that it is so twisted, strange, inventive, and utterly unique. She comes at stories from wonderful, unusual angles — as she has this week’s writing advice.
It struck me last night that writing a story is a bit like filling in a Sudoku puzzle.
You start with a grid, dotted with things you know. Maybe a spark of an idea, a setting, a snippet of conversation. The rest of the grid is blank. Daunting. Some spaces you see straight away how to fill, but others? They seem impossible.
Some of the blanks are easily filled; who’s telling the story? Why? And you can describe your scene, build your character.
Once you’ve done that, the spaces that seemed difficult become easier. The story starts to fall into place until you’re left with only one or two of those impossible-seeming spaces, with the answers now obvious, and you know how your story ends and how you’re going to get there.
Kaaron Warren has won or been nominated for the Stoker Awards, the Australian Shadows Awards, the Aurealis Awards and the Ditmar Awards for her incredible short story collections (Dead Sea Fruit, The Grinding House and The Glass Woman) and her wonderfully creepy novels (Slights, Walking the Tree and Mistification). You can find her online here.
Here’s looking at you, 2011
Last day of the year… so like many of you I’m feeling the urge to commit a bit of retrospective bloggery.
2011 sucked. Then it was awesome. Then it sucked again. Then it got better than ever… And so on. This was the rollercoaster year to beat all others, and it often felt like I was the poster child for the proverbial Chinese curse of “living in interesting times…”
At this time last year, I was staring down the barrel of writing the final three chapters of my PhD thesis. I had January to do it, so I became a hermit and wrote and wrote and wrote. After six years, endless hours of agony, a good dollop of joy, and the hardest work I’d ever done, I finished the draft. HUGE YAY! And then I discovered a Danish scholar’s brand new body of work on a topic that was unnervingly close to mine — so my head exploded. Rewriting ensued, as did tears, frustration, more tears — aka HUGE LOW. But as we know it all worked out, so I’ll move on.
At the same time, I was finishing my first collection of short stories, Bluegrass Symphony. Edits, writing, rewriting all happened while I was freaking out about my thesis… and while my lovely sister and her boyfriend were visiting from Canada (HUUUUGE YAY!!!) It all got done — with time to spare! — and suddenly I found myself with a complete thesis AND a complete book! (YAY!)
Thus armed, I applied for my dream academic job (in English and Creative Writing) — but didn’t get an interview (BOO!). But then discovered that nobody had gotten an interview, and so they would readvertise in a few months (YAY!) and so I still had a chance.
Along with my dear Brain, Angela Slatter, I signed a contract for a second collection of stories, Midnight and Moonshine — which we’re co-authoring (HUUUUGE YAY! We had so much fun collaborating on ‘The February Dragon’!)
I was nominated for three Ditmar awards (YAY! and I had a ball at Swancon) and Angela and I won the Aurealis Award for ‘Best Fantasy Story 2010′ for ‘The February Dragon’ (HUGE YAY!)
Had a massive teaching workload this year — four topics, over 200 students, marking marking marking until I thought my eyes would bleed. Even so, teaching was a bit YAY (because I had some wonderful students!) and a lot BOO (see: marking, eyes bleeding).
The dream academic job was readvertised (YAY!) I applied and had an incredibly strong application (YAY!) but failed to get an interview because of a technicality (not going into details, sorry). Saying ‘HUGE BOO’ here would actually diminish how much this experience affected me. This all happened in June right after I submitted my thesis for examination. So after that great high (thesis finished!!) the whole Job Debacle of 2011 was without a doubt the nadir of my year.
What do they say about reaching rock bottom? The only way is up? Well, that’s pretty much what happened in the second half of 2011. Bluegrass Symphony was published to great reviews and was launched by the ever-fantastic Sean Williams (YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!). My PhD thesis passed with two As, so I didn’t have to change a word (although I did change an accent on one of my Icelandic translations) YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Then another job-related BOO: I quit my non-teaching job after working there happily for 4 years. Again, not going into detail here, but needless to say, it sucked.
But then another HUGE YAAAAAAAAAAY: writing time! And I got the Arts SA grant I applied for, so that writing time continues on, uninterrupted, well into 2012!
Up, down, up, down, up, down… Here’s hoping 2012 is a bit more even-keeled!
To sum up, in terms of dayjobbery, this year has blown. In terms of writing, however, this has been the most awesome year yet:
Bluegrass Symphony (Ticonderoga Publications, 2011)
Carousel
Down the Hollow
Them Little Shinin’ Things
Fur and Feathers
From the Teeth of Strange Children
The Wager and the Hourglass
The Short Go: A Future in Eight Seconds
To Snuff a Flame
Depot to Depot
Commonplace Sacrifices (first published in On Spec 2009/2010)
Wires Uncrossed
Forever, Miss Tapekwa County
‘Gutted’, Shimmer, Issue 13, April 2011
‘White and Red in the Black’, Dead Red Heart, ed. Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications) 2011
NEW STORIES SOLD
Midnight and Moonshine, co-authored with Angela Slatter (Ticonderoga Publications, collection of original stories) Forthcoming November 2012
‘Smoke Billows, Soot Falls’ (Chapbook), ed. Simon Marshall-Jones (Spectral Press) Forthcoming
‘Snowglobes’, Chilling Tales 2: In Words, Alas, Drown I, ed. Michael Kelly (EDGE Publishing) Forthcoming
‘A Girl of Feather and Music’, Postscripts (PS Publishing, UK) Forthcoming
‘Rapacis X. Loco Signa’, Bestiary, ed. Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Forthcoming
STORIES REPRINTED
‘Tiny Drops’, Midnight Echo, Issue 4, 2010 — REPRINTED IN ChiZine, May 2011
‘Soil From My Fingers’, Tesseracts 14, ed. Brett Alexander Savory & John Robert Colombo (ChiZine Press), 2010 — REPRINTED IN The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2010, ed. Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications, 2011)
‘The February Dragon’, co-written with Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, ed. Liz Grzyb (Ticonderoga Publications), 2010 — REPRINTED IN The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2010, ed. Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications, 2011)
BLOGGING
I started the Tuesday Therapy series here, which I’m enjoying immensely;
Brain and I have concocted the Lair of the Evil Drs Brain, which kicks off in January with an interview we recently did with China Miéville;
2 guest posts for the Shimmer blog which you can read here and here;
A guest post for Lee Battersby‘s ‘Treacherous Carrots” art series, which you can read here;
An essay on the weird illustrations of Beardsley, Niffenegger and Gorey for Weird Fiction Review, which you can read here;
And a brief piece on the Weird West in fiction for Random House’s Suvudu site, which you can read here.
Bring on 2012.
Happy New Year, all!
Speaking of Swancon…
In between floating around in clouds of joy over the completion of my thesis and bunkering down in the hotel to work on Midnight and Moonshine stories with Brain, I will also be part of this panel:
Steampunk Style and Substance
Monday, 25 April
11:30 AM
Plaza 1
I’ll also be celebrating great stories at the Ditmar Awards — don’t forget to vote for your favourites! (And I’m not just saying this because up for three awards this year) – as well as partying it up at the launch of the fattest book of vampire fiction ever published You can pre-order Dead Red Heart along with a host of other incredible Ticonderoga titles (including Bluegrass Symphony) for a discounted RRP here.
Come along to Ticonderogapalooza (which I believe is scheduled on the Sunday) to join in the festivities!
Hope to see you all there 
A change to the ballot: Best Achievement
For any of you who may be tempted to vote in the Ditmars for the cover design I did for Angela Slatter’s lovely collection, The Girl With No Hands, please note: this nomination has been reclassified as ‘Best Achievement’ instead of ‘Best Artwork’. I’m delighted and more than a bit relieved at this change (not least because the cover is no longer up against The Incredible Shaun Tan!) because I would have been quite uncomfortable receiving an award for ‘Best Artwork’ when I have always made it clear that the basis for the design is an illustration by Leon Bakst, not a drawing purely of my own invention.
So if you love the cover, if you think I chose well in selecting and adapting this illustration for Angela’s work, if you like the layout and design, then I’d be over the moon to be recognised for ‘Best Achievement.’
(But, oh my, it’s stiff competition in this category too!)
Best Achievement
————————————————————————
* Lisa L. Hannett, cover design for The Girl With No Hands and Other Tales (Ticonderoga Publications)
* Helen Merrick and Andrew Milner, Academic Stream for Aussiecon 4
* Amanda Rainey, cover design for Scary Kisses
* Kyla Ward, Horror Stream and The Nightmare Ball for Aussiecon 4
* Grant Watson and Sue Ann Barber, Media Stream for Aussiecon4
* Alisa Krasnostein, Kathryn Linge, Rachel Holkner, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Tehani Wessely, Snapshot 2010
Best of luck to all!
Ditmar Awards
Yesterday I spent much of the day off the internet — out and about doing Saturday sorts of things, like errands and scribbling and trawling through bookshops — and when I finally logged on I had the great surprise of discovering that I’m nominated for *three* Ditmar Awards!!
Holy crow!
I’m so happy to find ‘The February Dragon’ on the list for Best Short Story — Angela and I had a great time writing this story, so it’s incredible to see that people are apparently enjoying it! And I’m also really stoked to be considered for Best New Talent! Again I say: holy crow! Talk about talent on this list … it’s so bizarre seeing my name up there with such amazing nominees. I feel so lucky!
The third nomination is lovely and also completely unexpected. People have had many positive things to say about the cover I designed for Angela Slatter’s The Girl With No Hands collection (it’s hard to go wrong when the basis for the design is an adapted Leon Bakst illustration! I mean, who doesn’t love a bit of 1930s Russian ballet?) and I’m delighted that the design seems to suit Angela’s wonderful stories. But I wouldn’t call myself an artist the way Shaun Tan is an artist! I designed this cover so that Angela’s unbelievable collection would, hopefully, have some beautiful and eye-catching packaging; anything else is a bonus! And, really, it’s not false modesty to say it’s lovely for this cover to be considered, but really doesn’t stand a chance in winning. I mean, it’s up against Shaun Tan, people. The man won an Oscar. ‘Nuff said.
The complete 2011 Ditmar Awards ballot goes a little something like this:
Best Novel
————————————————————————
* Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson (Hachette)
* Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott (Pan Macmillan)
* Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Voyager)
* Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke (Voyager)
* Walking the Tree, Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot Books)
Best Novella or Novelette
————————————————————————
* “Acception”, Tessa Kum (Eneit Press)
* “All the Clowns in Clowntown”, Andrew J. McKiernan (Brimstone Press)
* “Bleed”, Peter M. Ball (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Her Gallant Needs”, Paul Haines (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Company Articles of Edward Teach”, Thoraiya Dyer (Twelfth Planet Press)
Best Short Story
————————————————————————
* “All the Love in the World”, Cat Sparks (Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Bread and Circuses”, Felicity Dowker (Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)
* “One Saturday Night With Angel”, Peter M. Ball (Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press)
* “She Said”, Kirstyn McDermott (Scenes From the Second Storey, Morrigan Books)
* “The House of the Nameless”, Jason Fischer (Writers of the Future XXVI)
* “The February Dragon”, Angela Slatter and Lisa L. Hannett (Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)
Best Collected Work
————————————————————————
* Baggage, edited by Gillian Polack (Eneit Press)
* Macabre: A Journey through Australia’s Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis and Marty Young (Brimstone Press)
* Scenes from the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall (Morrigan Books)
* Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Worlds Next Door, edited by Tehani Wessely (FableCroft Publishing)
Best Artwork
————————————————————————
* Cover art, The Angaelien Apocalypse/The Company Articles of Edward Teach (Twelfth Planet Press), Dion Hamill
* Cover art, Australis Imaginarium (FableCroft Publishing), Shaun Tan
* Cover art, Dead Sea Fruit (Ticonderoga Publications), Olga Read
* Cover art, The Girl With No Hands (Ticonderoga Publications), Lisa L. Hannett
* “The Lost Thing” short film (Passion Pictures), Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan
Best Fan Writer
————————————————————————
* Robert Hood, for Undead Backbrain
* Chuck McKenzie, for work in Horrorscope
* Alexandra Pierce, for body of work including reviews at Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus
* Tehani Wessely, for body of work including reviews at Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus
Best Fan Artist
————————————————————————
* Rachel Holkner, for Continuum 6 props
* Dick Jenssen, for cover art of Interstellar Ramjet Scoop
* Amanda Rainey, for Swancon 36 logo
Best Fan Publication in Any Medium
————————————————————————
* Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus, edited by Alisa Krasnostein et al.
* Bad Film Diaries podcast, Grant Watson
* Galactic Suburbia podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Alex Pierce
* Terra Incognita podcast, Keith Stevenson
* The Coode Street podcast, Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan
* The Writer and the Critic podcast, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond
Best Achievement
————————————————————————
* Helen Merrick and Andrew Milner, Academic Stream for Aussiecon 4
* Amanda Rainey, cover design for Scary Kisses
* Kyla Ward, Horror Stream and The Nightmare Ball for Aussiecon 4
* Grant Watson and Sue Ann Barber, Media Stream for Aussiecon4
* Alisa Krasnostein, Kathryn Linge, Rachel Holkner, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Tehani Wessely, Snapshot 2010
Best New Talent
————————————————————————
* Thoraiya Dyer
* Lisa L. Hannett
* Patty Jansen
* Kathleen Jennings
* Pete Kempshall
William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review
————————————————————————
* Leigh Blackmore, for Marvels and Horrors: Terry Dowling’s Clowns at Midnight
* Damien Broderick, for editing Skiffy and Mimesis: More Best of Australian Science Fiction Review
* Ross Murray, for The Australian Dream Becomes Nightmare
* Tansy Rayner Roberts, for A Modern Woman’s Guide to Classic Who
The official ballot paper, including postal address information, may be downloaded as a PDF format file from: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2011/2011_Ditmar_Ballot.pdf
Votes can be sent via email to: ditmars@sf.org.au
Online voting is available at: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2011
Huge congrats to all nominees! See you all at Swancon!
