Very, very chuffed to have my latest novel (The Fall of the Dagger)
short-listed for the Aurealis Awards  (Best Fantasy Novel).

That means that every time I have
had a book eligible, I’ve had a short-listing… 10 times it must
be now? 

I love the way the SF community in Australia does so much for
authors, volunteering their time and effort — and perhaps money in lost earnings — just to say, “We love that you folk write, and we love what you write, and we’ll take the time to show you…”

 Many, many thanks to everyone. 

And yes, like every book of the The Stormlord Trilogy which ultimately won the Sara Douglass Series Award, all three of the FORSAKEN LANDS trilogy have been shortlisted for the Aurealis.


Have YOU read it yet?

Congratulations to all the
short-listed authors. And to readers: choose any of them to entertain you. They are all talented Australians.

• For a start, Sara was one of my author heroines.

• Secondly, this is the inaugural award.

• Thirdly, the award covers series written over a number of years, as long as they were completed between 2011 to 2014 — so it covers an awful lot of years and an awful lot of books… (Pity the judges!!) You can read more about the award here.  

No, that’s not me…but my name is on that trophy!!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there, owing to the arrival of a brand-new member of the family in New York, but I was prevailed upon to write an acceptance speech just in case, which you will find at the end of this post. It was delivered for me by a fellow writer, Donna Hanson (above), at the Aussi Natcon 2016 in Brisbane. And I believe there were celebrations…see photo left.

There were a lot more things I could have said in the speech — how much I owe to the then Voyager Australia editor, Stephanie Smith, for example. How much I owe my beta readers for making me a better writer and making those three books better works. How much I appreciate the work put into the awards by the Australian Spec Fic community and the judges.

But here’s what I did say:

When I first read Sara Douglass’s Battleaxe back in the 1990s, I was blown away, not just by the story, but also by the idea that an Australian author could publish a fantasy novel worldwide and find acclaim on a world stage.
At the time I was looking for a publisher for my first book — and Sara’s success was an inspiration. And of course, Battleaxe was just the first of long line of Sara’s groundbreaking novels.

I was delighted to hear that a series award was being created in her name, to acknowledge her pre-eminent position in Australian speculative fiction history. The fact that judges had a massive job of reading the number of series up for the award is a tribute to the present health of Speculative Fiction writing in Australia, a wave of creativity of which Sara was the forefront.

To have been short-listed by the judges for the inaugural award was a breath-taking compliment. The other works on that list are so impressive that I certainly don’t believe, as I write these words, that any work of mine could win. I just love the validation of being on the shortlist though, and I thank everyone involved.

Most of all, I wish you were here, Sara, still with us and still writing.

You an see the original article by Ben Anderson here, from the West Australian newspaper, about all the West Australians who were shortlisted for the awards.
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One is the Aurealis Awards, which is a juried (juryed?) award. 
The book is up for the Best Fantasy Novel 2014.
The winner will be announced in Canberra on April 11th.


The other is the Ditmar Awards, which is a reader/fan-voted award
and it is up for the Best SpecFic Novel 2014.
This will be announced at the Australian National SF Convention over Easter (which is Swancon this year).

This is the eight time I have been shortlisted for the Aurealis, but I think the first time I have had a novel shortlisted for both.

Awards night is May 12th. In Sydney. Oddly enough, I will be in Perth (hoping to meet up with any interested others that night, to celebrate the winners and commiserate with those who didn’t…)

“This is classic fantasy full of all the great elements fantasy readers love: a well-balanced magic system, a complex political world and a series of interweaving storylines told from the perspective of several engaging characters. Full of pace, energy and intrigue, Stormlord Rising is a must read for lovers of high fantasy.”

I had just barely recovered from a bout of euphoria — caught from the news that Stormlord Rising was an Aurealis Award finalist (for Best Fantasy Novel of 2010) — when I was hit by another bout, just as serious.

Stormlord Rising is a Ditmar finalist. Now that probably won’t mean much to those of you from distant lands, so – briefly – it is Australia’s version of the Hugos. In other words, it’s a reader/fan award, where people who go to the Australian National Convention (last year’s or this year’s) are eligible to vote for the works that they like best.

Aurealis is a judged award; Ditmars are a reader popularity vote. And the other rather nice thing about the Ditmars is that the novel award is not divided into SF and Fantasy or young adult, unlike the Aurealis. So a book is up against works in SF and Fantasy and YA works.

So there you are: for the first time, I have a book that is a finalist in both awards.* 
Chuffed? You betcha.
Touched? Oh, yes. This is a reader award. Judged awards are an ego boost, great to have, and I am very proud of my nominations over the years, but reader awards are something else again. Readers liked the book enough to take the trouble to nominate. Some of them will take the trouble to vote. That is very, very special.

So thank you to all those people who nominated the book and bounced it on to the finalist list.

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*I was a finalist for the Best New Talent in 2004 — the year K.J.Bishop won in that category.

Above: winner of fantasy novel award Trudi Canavan, and myself;
Below: with fellow Voyager author, Nicole Murphy

Below: Trudi giving speech of thanks after receiving the award

Below: Cat Sparks, after receiving her award

Below: HarperCollins editor, Stephanie Smith with Cat

Below: Stephanie and myself

Matthew Farrer, Donna Hanson and myself.

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These photos are a bit back-to-front time-wise; I actually haven’t yet seen the ones from the Awards ceremony taken by my husband. All these from him were snapped at the post-awards breakfast, at what has to be the most lovely setting in Brisbane (see the first two, taken looking over the railing.)

Below: with Kate Forsyth and new Voyager author Nicole Murphy

Below: Trudi Canavan (winner for the best fantasy novel) and Kaaron Warren

Below: editor Abigail Nathan, author Karen Miller, writer Donna Hanson, Trudi and myself.

Below: having a serious discussion with Peter M. Ball, who won the SF short story award.

Below: Kathy Jennings, Abigail, Karen.

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Above: Walking on the beach near the family time share on the Gold Coast

Above: catching up with friends – breakfast along the river in Brisbane after the Aurealis Awards
(From left: Karen, Donna, Trudi and self.)

Above: Catching up with some other old acquaintances…

And looking for new ones –
the habitat of the Grass Owl we saw just before we left for home.
Ok, some of you may think that standing in the dark being eaten alive by clouds of mosquitoes isn’t fun, but all that tells me is that you aren’t a birder…
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