Apr 22

Best Ofs, reviews, articles…! General updatery

Commence random-ish updatery function 🙂

The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories will be officially launched at Conflux on Friday (that’s 11am for anyone who can and wants to come!) but some more review copies have been floating around recently, and it seems to be going down well.

Like, say, over at Thirteen O’Clock.

The Bone Chime Song and other stories is a powerful and compelling debut collection from an author who is barely started on her journey and already producing work of incredible quality. I can’t wait to see where she goes from here.

Or Tsana’s Reads.

I highly recommend this collection to spec fic fans who like their fantasy dark or who might want to venture out of their comfort zone and become a little more acquainted with dead things.

Over at Upcoming 4 Me I talk about the ‘story behind’ The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories. Mostly it’s me trying to work out why I have an apparent obsession with bones and rubbish. (*shrugs* I know, weird isn’t it? I didn’t even notice until I saw all these stories next to each other like this)

Oh, and one LAST TINY thing…

“Tied to the Waste” (which was originally published in Tales of the Talisman) has been selected for the Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2012!

Did you see what I did there? I lied! That’s not TINY at all!

The TOC looks absolutely amazing and it’s such a great honour to be on that list. Do check it out! The Years Best will be published in July, and can be preordered here.

 

So that’s it for the random updatery. Conflux on Thursday! Hooray! If you’re going, make sure you come say hi, won’t you? I’d better go get myself organised (and hopefully stop coughing by then!)

Mar 27

Ditmar om-noms!

So the ballot for the Ditmars have just been announced. It looks like a great list, but scariest of all is:

 

Best Novel
————————————————————————
* Sea Hearts, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
* Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth (Random House Australia)
* Suited (The Veiled Worlds 2), Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
* Salvage, Jason Nahrung (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Perfections, Kirstyn McDermott (Xoum)
* The Corpse-Rat King, Lee Battersby (Angry Robot)

 

Best Short Story
————————————————————————
* “Sanaa’s Army”, Joanne Anderton, in Bloodstones (Ticonderoga Publications)
* “The Wisdom of Ants”, Thoraiya Dyer, in Clarkesworld 75
* “The Bone Chime Song”, Joanne Anderton, in Light Touch Paper Stand Clear (Peggy Bright Books)
* “Oracle’s Tower”, Faith Mudge, in To Spin a Darker Stair (FableCroft
Publishing)

 

So… um… eep! Ooooh look at the other people on those lists… O.o

Double eep!

If you are eligible to vote for the Ditmars, then please do! There are so many wonderful people and great stories and damned good work on this list. Let’s vote for them (oh and my stories too if you want to) 🙂

Mar 26

Books! They’re so cool!

So look what turned up on my doorstep yesterday!

The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories is a book! A real book. And it looks fantastic in the papery flesh. And the cover has this nifty laminate that’s kinda soft and squishy, so I have been totally patting them. Like a kitty.

You can still preorder them for a special price! If you want a kitty-book all of your very own 😀

Don’t just take my word for it. Publisher’s Weekly seemed to enjoy it!

More moving than terrifying, the collection explores the human condition with vigor and grace.

I kinda like that vigor and grace bit 🙂

Mar 21

Aurealis Awards!

Thanks to internet and computer troubles I’m running a bit late with this news! But you know, it’s still exciting. So, the finalists for the Aurealis Awards have been announced and I’m on there… three times! Eeep.

I’m SO excited to see Suited shortlisted for the best science fiction novel award! This makes me especially happy, because Debris was shortlisted for best fantasy, and that makes me feel like a proper little genre bender 😀

‘Sanaa’s Army’ has turned out to be the little story that could, being shortlisted for TWO awards – best fantasy short story and best horror short story!

Congrats to everyone who was shortlisted! There are some amazing names on that press release and I’m honoured (and a little stunned) to be on there with them. The award night is going to be such fun, and I hope to see everyone there. Cheers! *clink*

Feb 28

Because awesome stories are awesome

I’m doing my fannish duty. I’m making a list of works from 2012 that I enjoyed reading, and nominating them for the Ditmar awards. Why? Because I can. And because awesome stories are awesome, and they deserve it. And then, when there’s a shortlist, I’m gonna vote! Same reason.

So if you can nominate and vote, you should totally do it. Because awesome stories are awesome.

(other people have said it better, but that’s my version and I’m sticking to it!)

The nomination form and eligibility rules are here.

When award time comes around I’m always grateful to authors who post a list of their eligible works. Because a year’s a long time, right, and you read a lot over a year, right? And I’d hate to miss anything just because my memory’s not what it used to be. So, in the spirit of memory prompting, here’s my list:

Novel:

Suited (The Veiled Worlds 2) from Angry Robot Books

Short stories:

“The Bone Chime Song” in Light Touch Paper Stand Clear, Peggy Bright Books

“Sanaa’s Army” in Bloodstones, Ticonderoga Publications

“High Density”, in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #53

“Tied to the Waste” in Tales of the Talisman, Volume VII, Issue 3

“A memory trapped in light” in Epilogue, FableCroft Publishing

“Always A Price” in Midnight Echo 8.

“Luminaire” in From Stage Door Shadows, eMergent Publishing

There’s a giant list of eligible works here too!

So go forth and nominate if you can, and always celebrate awesome stories. 🙂