last book of The Forsaken Lands Trilogy…

               Shortlisted for…

Best Australian Fantasy Novel, (Aurealis Awards 2016). A judged award.

Best Long Work of Western Australian SF, 
(Tin Duck Awards 2016). A voted award.

Winners announced over Easter weekend.

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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 THE DITMAR are reader voted awards, open to Australian authors/artists and voted upon by the Australia National Science  Fiction Convention attendees. 

Last year’s award for Best Novel was the plaque (see pix to the right), which was awarded to  

This year, Book 2 is up —  

and it has been voted on to the short list of five books. The other four are:

• Day Boy, Trent Jamieson 
• Graced, Amanda Pillar
• Lament for the Afterlife, Lisa L. Hannett
• Zeroes, Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti

 My guess for a winner? I reckon it will be Trent’s year this year, but we will see.

 If you are attending the National Convention, or attended last year, be sure to vote.

And don’t forget:
Book 3 will be long in just 8 weeks…

*it tied with with Trudi Canavan’s novel “Thief’s Magic.”

Well, what a lovely day yesterday was.


SWANCON, the SF convention of Western Australia, was this year also the Australian National SF convention, which for a start is always fun. This year the International Guest was author and blogger John Scalzi ( an inspired choice!) and the National Guest was Kylie Chan (equally fabulous!). And I was sharing a hotel room with Donna M. Hanson, Canberra writer, con-organiser and longtime friend. So all those things = have a great time.


Lots of old friends, uncovered new ones. 
Yesterday I had a kaffeeklatsch with some of the attendees, which gave me an excuse to babble (and thanks for all who came to listen). In the evening, there were the awards, which included the Tin Ducks (for West Australian talent), the Ditmars (the national awards) and the A.Bertram Chandler Award for Contributions to Australian SF.


So what  could  be better than for me to win two awards and for Donna to win the Bertram Chandler (richly deserved, I might say, as there is no one who has worked harder than Donna in the interests of Australian SF). The Ditmar was shared in a tie with the lovely Trudi Canavan (who is touring in Europe at the moment). For my book to be up there with Thief’s Magic is a huge compliment.


So there I am with not one, but two, especially crafted and totally gorgeous trophies and some very golden memories. The photo below is of Donna holding Trudi’s award and me with my Ditmar.

Me looking as supercilious as possible

The presenter was John Scalzi, and that man is SO MEAN. We had been talking earlier on and I’d told him that I’d never won anything and so there was no way he’d be presenting anything to me that night, cos I don’t win things.

When he announced the award, and realising that Trudi was not present, he said “And the winner is Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan!”
That presentation was made and I thought, ‘Oh well, no surprise…’
 And that sneaky man then said, fixing me with a beady eye…  “Wait, there’s more. It was a tie…”

 And here is me (cynically dubious of the depth of his contrition)  wondering if I should forgive him:

Of course no one wins awards without help. 
My beta readers are fabulous for a start. 
My editor at Orbit (Hachette), Jenni Hill, deserves a mention.
 And then there’s all the folk at Swancon and Natcon who worked to organise the awards. And lastly — and perhaps most importantly — all those people who voted. 

Very hard to photogroph because they are clear!

You rock, one and all.