I knew something weird was going on when my Qantas flight ran on time. AND THEN the crew were friendly and polite. What's with that? (Does Qantas read this blog?)

The charm of the weekend failed to wear off, with the Aurealis Award ceremony being a classy, cheerful & dignified affair.

(No 40-minute self-indulgent speeches starting with the phrase 'I first met J--- back in 1953 or 1954, and here's a real-time account of our ongoing friendship plus a dissertation on how important I've been to his work'. I mean, how does one even KNOW one's at an award ceremony without that marker?!)

(OK, that happened one time, & it wasn't the AAs, but it was very, very boring. It takes years to recover from a trauma like that.)

(That was the same award ceremony where someone in the audience brought an iPod. I offered them the contents of my wallet for a loan. They declined.)

(I am still addressing my issues about that particular award ceremony.)

The AA event last night had a relaxed, welcoming crowd and a genuine bonhomie that couldn't be attributed solely to the open bar. Though the open bar did help.

The highlight of the evening for me would have to be Anna Tambour's beautiful speech (winning for best horror short story). Writers, she said (and I paraphrase), write alone. And to even know your stuff is being read is touching. And to win an award is good.

There was more, but did I mention the open bar?

At some point I won the AA for Best YA Short Story & found myself having to deliver my own speech into the blinding light. I would've assumed the audience had been sucked through the ceiling into oblivion when I stepped under those (blinding) spotlights, but when I thanked Russ B. Farr for editing the antho which had resulted in so many nominees, there was spontaneous applause. So I knew someone was still out there.

I do not like the lights.

John Birmingham, who managed to tick off a generation of fans some years back with a particularly personal interpretation of a local convention he'd attended (that's another story) redeemed himself when collecting Garth Nix's award for best fantasy short story.

Birmo noted that Nix proves it's possible to create great prose & still 'make out like a fucking bandit'.

Sounds like a t-shirt slogan to me. 'Write good prose. Make out like a FUCKING bandit.'

Amongst other highlights, Kate Forsyth celebrated the community by mentioning how many friends she's found here, a humbled David Kowalski & Cat Sparks took out the Golden AAs, Will Elliott assured the crowd he understood what it was like to be in the crowd & NOT win an award you've been nominated for (... 'cos we were all wondering?), Justin Ackroyd bought me scotch (Strath Island, was it, J.? You'll have to remind me one more time), and Terry Dowling was honoured in absentia with the Peter McNamara Convenor's Award.

I met McNamara just once, when he was already extremely ill, but many of us can still feel the footprint he left on the local scene. So the Convenor's Award is always something to watch. And it's marvellous to see Terry celebrated. I'm sure he was chuffed.

Here endeth the infodump.

For winners' list & judges' reports, go here.

Now I'm going to lie down for quite some time.

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.

Woot! Congratulations to the AA winners! The AAs were announced Saturday night (results via benpayne).

Some wonderful results. Did you know stephendedman has never won the AA for Horror before? Gad, his name's *always* in the AA nominees. I'd just assumed...

And Sean Williams won for the first short story he's written in six years. Which would make you think he should write more short stories, except I'm pretty sure his novels keep winning as well. (You overachiever, Williams!)

I'm also particularly chuffed with the Margo Lanagan & Edwina Grey wins. Well done, guys! And of course to no one's surprise, I'm sure, Shaun Tan won the YA category with his wonderful story-without-words (we'd all gotten over our initial surprise he was even *in* that category by then...). Congratulations, Shaun. And an even bigger congratulations for the Golden AA!

Bill Congreve took out the Convenor's Award, I heard. Fabulous news. He's worked pretty tirelessly in small press & bookselling for, oh, about as long as it's been invented, I think. Heh. ;)

And doing a mosey down Mr Payne's blog, I was reminded that it's Ditmar time until March 24.

From the rules:

Works of science fiction, fantasy and horror (SF/F/H) are only eligible for nomination if:
a) they were first published or released anywhere in the world in 2006; and
b) the nominee was an Australian citizen or permanent resident in 2006.

As benpayne says, "Vote for the things you liked best."

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.