Reminder: Aurealis Awards entries

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2012 Aurealis Awards – Enter now

The Aurealis Awards are open for entry, with the end of the entry period starting to loom.

The Aurealis Awards, Australia’s premier awards for speculative fiction, are for works of speculative fiction written by an Australian citizen or permanent resident, published for the first time between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2012.

Categories include novels, short stories, YA, and illustrated works.

Entering work in the Aurealis Awards is easy and free.

All you need to do is go to our website www.aurealisawards.com and fill in the online form. We’ll then send you details of where to send your work for judging.

But hurry! Entries close midnight 23 December 2012. Why are we asking for entries now? All our judges are volunteers, and by encouraging early entry, we ensure that all works are given fair consideration. Works received very late in the reading period may only have a short time to be considered (shortlists are released early in 2013), and some categories have very heavy reading loads. We appreciate your support in ensuring all entries can receive the attention they deserve by entering early!

Nominations for the Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence also close on 31 December 2012. This award is for achievement in speculative fiction or related areas. It may take into account a body of work over a number of years; it can also be for a work of non-fiction, artwork, electronic or multimedia work, film or TV released in 2012 that brings credit or attention to the speculative fiction genres.

Finalists will be announced in March 2013 with winners presented at a special awards evening in Sydney in May 2013.

Congratulations Aussies!

Very excited to see the shortlist for the WSFA Small Press Award out today, with stories by two of my favourite Australian writers, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Joanne Anderton, featuring! I really like the way this award works, with blind shortlisting and voting, and it’s fantastic to see, for the third year in a row, Aussie authors on the list. Tansy WON the award two years ago, and a FableCroft story made the ballot last year – very pleased to see two more writers I’ve published work by (and love reading) here again! Well done Tansy and Jo (and congratulations to all the shortlistees) – now to eagerly await the announcement of the winner!

Productivity!

It’s been a busy but apparently productive couple of days. I think I’ll blame the new iron tablets for the fact I’ve felt like getting stuff done and then actually doing it! From Friday to today I have:

• input all the tax info into spreadsheet and sent both electronic and postal copies off to the accountant.
• completed washing (folding forthcoming in front of Life on Mars tonight!).
• Started marking first batch of uni assignments (and sent first one off to moderation by lecturer – on track!).
• Taken children to two birthday parties, soccer, swimming and playdates.
• Attended and read at National Reading Hour at Launceston LINC (I read from Catherynne M Valente’s “A Delicate Architecture”, reprinted in To Spin a Darker Stair – Dirk Flinthart also attended and read “Best Dog in the World” from Worlds Next Door. I was impressed he got through it without crying, but I think it was a close thing!).
• Mostly tidied kid-messed house (after lovely new cleaner left it so clean on Thursday).
• Read a bunch of submissions for One Small Step (RIP Neil Armstrong).
• Scheduled next week/fortnight of reviews for ASIF and WASLA Reviews.
• Parcelled up books for reviewers and FableCroft purchases.
• Failed to write some outstanding reviews (but managed to read a couple more books!).
• Parcelled up kids’ clothes for passing on to friends/family.
• Troubleshot for stressed uni students (for sessional job).
• Hugged my kids!
• I think there’s more in there, but I’ve forgotten 🙂

Feeling pleased with myself as I’m starting to get on top of things, fingers crossed. Have to keep up, as I’ve a lot of marking over the next eight weeks and can’t afford to get behind as there’s this pressing deadline (currently kicking me madly!) that won’t be put off! Keeping on keeping on – six days of work left!

Photos from the weekend

I put the photos on Facebook but forgot to put any here, from our weekend that was.

Another two days down

Two more days done and ticked of the diminishing tally of days left at work. Just SEVEN left! I woke up this morning thinking somehow it was Friday, but luckily remembered before too much damage was done (except an email apologising to a friend for missing our Skype meeting – which I hadn’t!). Today has been very productive in small ways – had my first appointment with new GP and I’m very happy. Thank goodness! Followed that with a walk to the Mac Shop to take in non-starting Air (verdict: is dead. Ah well, we got our $50 worth out of it!). Then we wandered back to the car to drive out to the airport, where I had to find the car husband had parked there to get the VIN (long story), and then back to our local shops for: visit to chemist (latest bloods suggest iron levels getting low); EB Games for a birthday voucher for kid party on weekend; some shop for birthday cards; first bakery for lunch; newsagent; hairdresser for toddler cut (with bonus screaming but not too much wriggling – win); second bakery for afternoon tea goodies. And then home, to await visit from newly engaged cleaner (at LAST! She’s very nice).

Master Two conked out for a big nap after that, and one of Miss Six’s friend’s mum rang later to ask if I’d like her to collect M6 from school to save me the trip (Master Nine goes straight to soccer) – would I EVER! Meant M2 could sleep himself out, and instead I had two batches of friends visit for a noisy, chaotic and fun afternoon. One two year old, two four year olds and two six/seven year olds plus three adults. Very nice.

Work again tomorrow (and the joy of coming home to a house someone ELSE has cleaned – ah, have missed that feeling!), and I really need to start marking this first batch of assignments on Friday. Hoping to go for a swim or a play somewhere with M2 though (tried to book daycare for Fri but couldn’t get it – will definitely need some next week with all the marking though!). Busy times ahead! Two weeks until school hols!