The Aurealis Awards nomination list is up. My story, A Scar for Leida, makes the shortlist in the YA section -- along with several other Fantastic Wonder Stories anthology entries!

Woo hoo Ticonderoga! And to all the other nominees, of course.

Results (if those results aren't enough!) announced Jan 26.

In other news, walking home this evening (having artfully waited for the latest tropical storm to pass), I saw a girl in a shirt that read 'i want to be a novel and a strong woman'.

Puzzling over this duality of desire, thinking it something that *sounded* more intelligent than it probably was, I realised it must've said 'i want to be a novel and strong women'. Novel, meaning unique or original.

Still, the idea of being a novel, and being a strong woman, have stuck with me.

glendalarke on the Aurealis Awards (&, indeed, all awards):

...it means that there are people out there who care enough about what we are doing to have organised this prize in the first place, and others who do the work involved year after year, without remuneration, whether it be organization or judging. I find that encouraging; morale-boosting, if you like. [...] I do want to say thank you anyway. Thank you to all the people who have had a hand in this award. To all those who put in the work.

Via benpayne comes the news of the Aurealis Award shortlist, and to my cheerful surprise my story, 'The Dying Light' is on it. In the Young Adult Short Story section.

How excellent!

There is not a snowball's chance in Hell I'll win, of course, since I am in the esteemed company of Simon Brown, a set of triplets creepily all called Margo Lanagan, and Shaun Tan -- who's in the Short Story category with a story that contains no words.

No. Words.

I think this is remarkably cool, a story with no words. Though I do wonder if Shaun should've been in the Novel section. A picture being worth a thousand words & all that.

Regardless, everyone is raving about Shaun's book, The Arrival, and deservedly so. It's a beautiful, moving book that has the power to turn every adult who reads it back into a child. It's mesmerising; a remarkable achievement from the country's most humble man.

Congratulations to all AA nominees, & to the editors & everyone who put in the work to get these reading options out there!

Interesting to see the clustering going on in the nominations, with Lee Battersby, Kaaron Warren & Margo Lanagan in strong positions to win *something*, & both Eidolon 1 & Lothian making bold showings this year.