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.

Here’s the latest GLENDA LARKE news.


BOOKS

• “The Lascar’s Dagger“,
  book 1 of a trilogy “The Forsaken Lands” is now out, available as an
  eBook and a paperback worldwide. If you would like to know more about
  it, see a couple of author posts I’ve put up on the www.Orbitbooks.net
  site. Book 2 has already been delivered and is due for publication in
  January 2015.

If you want to help out the author, tell your friends — or write an honest review somewhere or other!

• “The Aware”,
  the first book of the “Isles of Glory” trilogy, is free as an eBook on
  all formats (Apple, Kindle, PDF, Nook, Smashwords etc etc)  until the
  end of the month. I believe it has already had over 2,000 downloads just
  on Amazon! Of course, this is designed to entice you into buying books 2
  & 3…

• “Havenstar” is now available from Tigonderoga Press, Amazon, etc as a hardback or paperback. The eBook is up everywhere except Amazon — try Smashwords, B&N, Apple, Sony, Kobo…

My other two trilogies, The Mirage Makers and The Watergivers (Stormlord books) are available pretty much everywhere as ebooks and paperbacks.


CONVENTIONS

• I will be attending three SFF conventions this year.

The first is Swancon over Easter in Perth, Australia.
The second is the World SF Convention Loncon3 in London in August,
and the third is the British Fantasy Convention in York UK in September. If you’ll be at any of them, please say hi!


READINGS /SIGNINGS

• Some readings, chats etc to look forward to:

Charlottesville Virginia at the B&N in 5th April at 6pm
Forbidden Planet in London post Loncon3, with Karen Miller, date to be decided.

So, what am I doing blogging about a quilt? Because my signature is on one of those white pieces. And on white pieces you will find signatures from people like George R.R. Martin, Carrie Vaughn, Charlie Stross, Shaun Tan, China Mieville, Trudi Canavan, Rob Shearman, Paul Cornell, Kim Stanley Robinson…and some ninety or so other SF/F writers and artists.

A detail of part of the quilt

And this gorgeous thing is for sale!!!!!!!!!

Yep, you can BUY it, personally signed by all those people above.

You can read all about how to go about buying it here: and rest assured, the proceeds go to a very good cause. 

Not in terribly good detail, but you can see some signatures

Conquilt was assembled by Rachel Holkner and award-winning quilter Jeanette Holkner. It is based on the pattern ‘Tribble Trouble’ (Yeah, those tribbles!) by Martha Thompson. It measures 152 cm x 192 cm with a 5cm diameter rod pocket on the back for easy display.

If you weren’t there, I’m sorry. You missed something really, really special.

There were, I think, four main reasons:

The venue – the Hyatt has a big circular open lounge in the middle and all the rooms used were nearby, with the result that everyone passed through this central area on their way to and from panels/art exhibition/dealers’ room etc. That way you couldn’t help but meet everyone sooner or later.
The guests – they were fabulous: Sean Williams, Justina Robson, Ellen Datlow and Sarah Xu.
The size of the con – just right for intimacy but not small enough to be incestuous.
The friendliness of the SFF folk, of West Australia in particular, but of all attendees in general.

Glitches in organisation? Sure, aren’t there always? But everyone was cool and none of it mattered much. Everyone was having way too much fun!

I didn’t take photos, but have a look at Cat Sparks’. See here.

Tomorrow I leave for Swancon/Natcon. I leave around midnight and get in at about 5.30 a.m. I shall be at the lunch for guests, and at the con in the afternoon. Note that Thursday night is FREE.  So if you are uncertain about whether cons are for you, come along. I guarantee you’ll be hooked.

Barring changes,  I have a panel that night:

Thursday 9.30 p.m. 
“Seeing Green – natural imagery in fantastic fiction” with Kaaron Warren and Kate Eltham.

Mind you I will have had no sleep, and may not make too much sense…

My only other panel (so far anyway) is on:

Sunday at 3 p.m. 
“Writing Abroad” with Kaaron Warren, Cristy Burne, Simon Brown

I will also be at the Ditmars on Sunday, at the lunch for guests on Thursday, the Orbit cocktails on Sunday, hanging around the bar…

Please, feel free to chat. We don’t have to have met before. And if you have an online name I would recognise, please tell me. My memory for names is awful and I sometimes have trouble connecting two separate personas, i.e. online and actual.

Back in the days of yore…

Ok, back in about 1997 or 1998, my agent, who lives in UK, told me I should start going to science fiction conventions now that I had my first book accepted for publication. I said, ‘Conventions? What are they?’

She explained, and it all seemed rather strange and alien. I couldn’t imagine me, all alone, rolling up to a place where I knew no one and no one knew me – and not just for one day, either. For several days, and at great expense, seeing as I live in Malaysia where there is no such event.

Yeah, well, I’ve come a long way since then. Once I got the hang of this thing called the internet*, I investigated and it all seemed intriguing. So I decided I’d give one a try. I timed a visit to Perth to see my sister with the Easter holidays, then twisted her arm to come with me for the first day of Swancon 2004.  Fortunately she’s an ex teacher-librarian with a love of SF/F, and she was happy to oblige.

No one knew who I was, my first Oz published books were not long out, but I was welcomed, shoved onto panels, met a whole slew of terrific people many of whom are still friends, and generally had a ball. Tim Powers was the main guest, and was totally delightful. I still remember his GoH speech.

I was hooked for life. I’ve loved cons ever since. Donna Hanson somehow got me to go from Perth to Canberra for Conflux 2004 immediately afterwards. That was the first time I met Russell Kirkpatrick… The main GoH was Greg Benson.
I went back the next year to another Swancon (Charles de Lint was the main guest).
Even now, I still haven’t got over being on the same panel with famous writers.

In 2008 I was totally gobsmacked to be asked to Swancon as their Australian GoH. I was incredibly moved to have my hometown ask me back as a guest. Even more fabulously, the international GoH was Ken McLeod, and writer Rob Shearman of Dr Who fame was a guest as well. What a great con.

So, above you have several reasons to go to a SF Con, especially ones in Perth.

Reason No 3: You make lifelong friends
Reason No 4: You can end up on panels — or attend them

I’ve been to other Australian conventions since: Continuum 2005 in Melbourne, which had one of the funniest debates I’ve ever heard — after all how can you go wrong with Neil Gaiman, Russell Kirkpatrick and Kim Wilkins (Lord, how could ANYONE ever forget her speech???), Poppy Z.Brite and Richard Harland taking sides on the subject of whether humans are creatures natural or unnatural…

Reason No 5: Writers are often also very witty speakers…

Most of that con I actually spent with the Harper Voyager and their authors, including Robin Hobb. I think that was the time I first met author Karen Miller, whom I now count a very special friend.
Then there was Natcon/Convergence in Melbourne in 2007, which was where I first met Dave Freer, who was one of the guests, and was later enticed back to Oz to live.

Reason No 6: You meet some of your favourite authors…

And in the meantime I was also investigating my first Worldcon, in Glasgow in 2005, and my second in Denver in 2008, my third in Melbourne last year.

So, if you live in Oz and aren’t going to Swancon/Natcon – the 50th Natcon, by the way – why not? Come to think of it, you don’t have to live in Oz to go. I don’t.

See here for more info. It’s 21st-25th April (Easter) 2011. And I am one of a whole stack of invited guests. Don’t miss it.
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The wonderful people organising Swancon/Natcon* in Perth Western Australia 2011, have included me in their list of invited guests. Many, many thanks to Alisa and the team.

You can read all about the event here. And just look at the list of people I’ll be getting to spend time with! The main guests are Ellen Datlow, Justina Robson and Sean Williams, but there are loads of other wonderful people going to be there too.

So, of course, that made up my mind. Twisted the arm of my boss (April is a busy month in the project) and said that I’m going. Now to find the money for the fare to get there…  

….#Honey, sweetheart…how many miles have you got on your Malaysian Airlines Enrich card? You don’t really need them, do you?#

 ________________________
* This is the 36th Swancon and the 50th National Australian SF Convention.