Continuum X, at which Kirstyn wins an award and I wear a top hat

Home again from Continuum X, the national science fiction convention held in Melbourne at the weekend. Knackered, but happily so, after much catching up with friends old and new. It was a most excellent convention.
Briefly, because the catching up with work is kind of catching up with me, a few of the highlights:

Waving my walking stick around at the launch of a new collection by Rosaleen Love and Kirstyn’s Perfections, new in paperback — an exercise in creative thinking in the latter instance, as a print error caused the book — for this launch only — to be retitled Imperfections, and the author providing a personalised tale on a page unintentionally left blank

Mulling over the challenge presented by guests of honour Jim C Hines and Ambelin Kwaymullina in their speeches addressing equality and appropriation

Chinwagging with Jack Dann and co-host Gillian Polack at the launch of his back catalogue, and specifically Jubilee, and nabbing Janeen Webb’s collection, Death at the Blue Elephant, and seeing Jo Anderton’s trilogy made complete with the launch of Guardian.

Chewing over topics such at witches, the Gothic and the evolution of various critters, on three panels of learned friends

presenting a Ditmar for Best New Talent to an absent Zena Shapter from a quality field

seeing an absent Garth Nix (though he was on the phone!) recognised for a career of achievement with the Peter McNamara award

seeing Kirstyn land a Ditmar for her story, The Home for Broken Dolls — she was also highly commended in the Norma K Hemming for her collection Caution: Contains Small Parts. (Full awards list below)

Photos from Continuum by Cat Sparks

Other things to emerge from the event:

the Chronos awards, for Victorian speculative fiction, need a good, hard think about the continuing inclusion of ‘no award’, and also how to increase publicity and engagement to prevent a slide into irrelevance (a list of eligibles has already been started for next year)

a bar that charges $9 for cider and $15 for wine is a big aid for avoiding hangovers (but good on them for extending their hours to midnight on Sunday)

you can buy awesome burgers and sweet potato chips at Perkup Expresso Bar — even on Christmas Day.

2014 DITMAR AWARDS

Best Novel

Winner: Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead, Robert Hood (Wildside)
Finalists:
Ink Black Magic, Tansy Rayner Roberts (FableCroft)
The Beckoning, Paul Collins (Damnation Books)
Trucksong, Andrew Macrae (Twelfth Planet)
The Only Game in the Galaxy: The Maximus Black Files 3, Paul Collins (Ford Street)

Best Novella or Novelette
Winner: The Home for Broken Dolls, Kirstyn McDermott (Caution: Contains Small Parts)
Finalists:
Prickle Moon, Juliet Marillier (Prickle Moon)
The Year of Ancient Ghosts, Kim Wilkins (The Year of Ancient Ghosts)
By Bone-Light, Juliet Marillier (Prickle Moon)
What Amanda Wants, Kirstyn McDermott (Caution: Contains Small Parts)

Best Short Story
Winner: Scarp, Cat Sparks (The Bride Price)
Finalists:
Mah Song, Joanne Anderton (The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories)
Air, Water and the Grove, Kaaron Warren (The Lowest Heaven)
Seven Days in Paris, Thoraiya Dyer (Asymmetry)
Not the Worst of Sins, Alan Baxter (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #133)
Cold White Daughter, Tansy Rayner Roberts (One Small Step)

Best Collected Work
Winner: The Bride Price, Cat Sparks (Ticonderoga)
Finalists:
The Back of the Back of Beyond, Edwina Harvey (Peggy Bright Books)
Asymmetry, Thoraiya Dyer (Twelfth Planet)
Caution: Contains Small Parts, Kirstyn McDermott (Twelfth Planet)
The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories, Joanne Anderton (FableCroft)

Best Artwork
Winner: Rules of Summer, Shaun Tan (Hachette Australia)
Finalists:
Cover art, Eleanor Clarke, for The Back of the Back of Beyond (Peggy Bright Books)
Illustrations, Kathleen Jennings, for Eclipse Online (Nightshade)
Cover art, Shauna O’Meara, for Next (CSFG)
Cover art, Cat Sparks, for The Bride Price (Ticonderoga)
Cover art, Pia Ravenari, for Prickle Moon (Ticonderoga)

Best Fan Writer
Winner: Sean Wright, for body of work, including reviews in Adventures of a Bookonaut
Finalists:
Tsana Dolichva, for body of work, including reviews and interviews in Tsana’s Reads and Reviews
Grant Watson, for body of work, including reviews in The Angriest
Foz Meadows, for body of work, including reviews in Shattersnipe: Malcontent & Rainbows
Alexandra Pierce, for body of work, including reviews in Randomly Yours, Alex
Tansy Rayner Roberts, for body of work, including essays and reviews at http://www.tansyrr.com

Best Fan Artist
Winner: Kathleen Jennings, for body of work, including Illustration Friday
Finalists:
Nalini Haynes, for body of work, including Defender of the Faith, The Suck Fairy, Doctor Who Vampire, and The Last Cyberman in Dark Matter
Dick Jenssen, for body of work, including cover art for Interstellar Ramjet Scoop and SF Commentary

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium
Winner: Galactic Chat Podcast, Sean Wright, Alex Pierce, Helen Stubbs, David McDonald, & Mark Webb
Finalists:
Dark Matter Zine, Nalini Haynes
SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie
The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott & Ian Mond
The Coode Street Podcast, Gary K. Wolfe & Jonathan Strahan
Galactic Suburbia, Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, & Tansy Rayner Roberts

Best New Talent
Winner: Zena Shapter
Finalists:
Michelle Goldsmith
Faith Mudge
Jo Spurrier
Stacey Larner

William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review
Winner (tie): The Reviewing New Who series, David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts, & Tehani Wessely
Winner: Galactic Suburbia Episode 87: Saga Spoilerific Book Club, Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, & Tansy Rayner Roberts
Finalists:
Reviews in Randomly Yours, Alex, Alexandra Pierce
Things Invisible: Human and Ab-Human in Two of Hodgson’s Carnacki stories, Leigh Blackmore, in Sargasso: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies #1 (Ulthar)
A Puppet’s Parody of Joy: Dolls, Puppets and Mannikins as Diabolical Other, Leigh Blackmore, in Ramsey Campbell: Critical Essays on the Master of Modern Horror (Scarecrow)
That was then, this is now: how my perceptions have changed, George Ivanoff, in Doctor Who and Race (Intellect)

Peter McNamara Award
Garth Nix

Norma K Hemming Award
Winner: Rupetta, N. A. Sulway (Tartarus UK)
Highly commended: A Very Unusual Pursuit – City of Orphans, Catherine Jinks (Allen & Unwin)
Highly commended: Caution: Contains Small Parts, Kirstyn McDermott (Twelfth Planet)
Finalists:
Dark Serpent, Kylie Chan (HarperVoyager)
Fairytales for Wilde Girls, Allyse Near (Random House)
Trucksong, Andrew Macrae (Twelfth Planet)

3 thoughts on “Continuum X, at which Kirstyn wins an award and I wear a top hat”

Zena Shapter | June 18, 2014 at 7:40 am

Of all the conventions to miss, and I miss that one!! Thanks again for reading my name out – I’m thrilled, as you can see from here: http://zenashapter.com/blog/look-what-just-arrived/

🙂
jason nahrung | June 20, 2014 at 10:27 am

Huzzah! It was a top list of ‘new talent’, too 🙂
Zena Shapter | June 20, 2014 at 3:24 pm

I know – that’s why I never expected to win!