I received two Aurealis Awards nominations, and it is fair to say I’m pleased. These are (easily) Australia’s premiere speculative fiction awards. They are also juried – which while carrying its own flaws, I’d take any day of the week over a popular award.
The first is in the ‘Science Fiction Novelette/Novella’ category for my story The Goruden-Mairu Job. This appeared in the cyberpunk anthology ‘Night, Rain, and Neon’ (NewCon Press).
The second is for my debut novel, 36 Streets. Strangely, the primary emotion I felt at being nominated was relief. A novel nomination is huge, and fortunate, and worthy of celebration, but more than anything I was relieved.
I suspect this is because the path to publication was fraught, to say the least. I trunked it for a year, before changing my mind and rescuing the manuscript. My agent hated it, so I dumped him and got another agent. It was rejected by everyone, out on submission for 18 months, and I had made peace with the fact that it would never see the light of day.
But then, after all other publishers said no, Titan Books UK said yes.
After which, it came out to rave reviews from readers, critics, and well-known authors. And now this. Pretty fine line, between success and failure, in this business.
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA
Resembling Lepus, Amanda Kool (Grey Matter Press)
“The Goruden-Mairu Job”, T R Napper (Night, Rain, and Neon, NewCon Press)
“The Sisters of Saint Nicola of The Almost Perpetual Motion vs the Lurch”, Garth Nix (Tor.com)
Cobalt Blue, Matthew Reilly (Pan Macmillan)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
Hovering, Rhett Davis (Hachette Australia)
The Stranger, Kathryn Hore (Allen & Unwin)
36 Streets, T R Napper (Titan Books)
Here Goes Nothing, Steve Toltz (Hamish Hamilton)
Bootstrap, Georgina Young (Text Publishing)
These are my fifth and sixth nominations. I’m enjoying them while I can, before everyone realises I’m a hack, and these accolades dry up like the libertarian ethos during a crypto bank run.
Other News
I’ll be at Supanova Gold Coast (15 – 16 April), and Melbourne (22 – 23 April) signing books, hanging with the geeks, talking about words. I’m not usually across the breadth of popular culture, and so when I’ve been to these in the past, have not watched or read anything by the bulk of the guests.
But this year is different, in particular with the two main stars. The first being Karl Urban, who plays Butcher on The Boys (my favourite streaming show over the past couple of years). The second being Katee Sackoff, who played Starbuck on my favourite show of over a decade ago, Battlestar Galactica (the first couple of season, anyway). I’ll be sure to steal glances at them in the green room.
I‘ve just signed several copies 36 Streets at two of my local stores, Harry Hartog Woden, and Harry Hartog at the Australian National University. This is a particularly local concern, and I suspect entirely irrelevant to 98% of the people who
come to this page. I include it more to make the general observation: signing books, and seeing your novel on the shelf at a store, never gets old. Fucken great.
Finally, there are three projects (no less) under wraps, that I’ll tell you about soon. I prefer not to tease when it comes to these announcements – it’s a pet peeve of mine when other writers do this – but I’ve been sitting on them for so long, and so many readers have been asking when the next book is coming out. So believe me when I say: you will have this information very soon.
