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
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* 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
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* “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
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* “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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* Thoraiya Dyer
* Lisa L. Hannett
* Patty Jansen
* Kathleen Jennings
* Pete Kempshall
William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review
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* 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!
Lisa L. Hannett 