WSFA Shortlisting.

Congratulations to some friends on their nominations for the WSFA Small Press Award.

David McDonald is a crit buddy and a friend. I'm thrilled his story, Set Your Face Towards the Darkness, published in Tales of Australia: Great Southern Land (Satalyte Press), has been shortlisted. Congratulations David, and to Stephen Ormsby, the publisher, who struck twice from the same anthology. Sean McMullen is also on the list.

Tehani Wessely, publisher of FableCroft scored a shortlisting with a story by DK Mok, from the anthology One Small Step. Congratulations, Tehani and DK.

Eric J. Guignard won the Bram Stoker Award for editing After Death. Now Jonathan Shipley has been shortlisted with his story from that collection. Congratulations Eric and Jonathan.

And congratulations to all the others on their nominations.

This annual award, administered by the Washington Science Fiction Association, is highly regarded. According to their press release:

The WSFA Small Press Award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction. The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year (2013). An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author (and publisher) hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story. 

Farewell, Gitte.

It is with great sadness I write this.

My friend and fellow writer, Gitte Christensen, passed away this morning after a long illness. A couple of weeks ago, surrounded by family members, her life-support was switched off.

Even then Gitte showed great courage, as she has done all along. I’ve been told she said that despite the machines being switched off, she would continue to fight.

Gitte was very private, and asked that I not share her situation with anyone until now.

Those who read Gitte’s blog will know that from time to time she mentioned her illnesses, her surgery and her pains. But you will also know she never dwelt on them, or complained about them. And she certainly never went into any details. She just wrote about how they were preventing her from writing.

I spoke to Gitte several times about her health. Gitte never described what was wrong with her, and I never asked. I believed it was cancer, and I’ve now had this confirmed. Gitte was a Danish warrior. Two years ago she was told she would not live to see that Christmas. It was only two months ago she went horse-riding, one of her great loves. 

Gitte was honest, humble and full of integrity. And optimistic – always optimistic. She was a prolific writer, a quiet achiever. Unknown by many in Australia, she had some great publishing credits. Andromeda Spaceways, Aurealis, Eric Guignard’s  ‘Dark Tales Of Lost Civilizations’, ‘The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2010’, and a whole bunch more. Last year one of her stories was selected by Alex Dally McPherson for inclusion in ‘Aliens: Recent Encounters.’

Gitte and I always wanted to share a TOC. This dream was realised only last week, as we both have stories in issue 59 of Andromeda Spaceways. I’m thrilled that in the past month Gitte has sold even more stories, including one only a few days ago. Her family will be maintaining her website, and details will be published there as those stories go to press.

I first met Gitte at a Sean Williams workshop. We said nice things about each other’s writing, and stayed in touch. From there we developed a mutual respect which became a friendship. Gitte and I encouraged, supported and congratulated each other. Every year we would meet up at a convention or writing event. I last saw her at a Jack Dann workshop. She was unable to finish that course due to her health.

Take a moment to wish her well on her travels into the great unknown, and if you are so inclined, donate money to a cancer research organization.

Farewell, Gitte.

She Loves Y'All.

When John Lennon was five years old, he was put in the position of having to choose between his parents. His father, a merchant sailor home from sea, had taken him away for the weekend with the intention of absconding with him. His mother caught on, and there was a confrontation where John was asked to choose which of his parents he wanted to stay with.

He chose his father. And it was only as his mother was walking away he changed his mind and ran back to her. If that had not happened, John may have become a New Zealander and The Beatles might not have happened.

About a year ago I considered writing a story set in an alternate history where this occurred. I just haven't got round to it yet.

Josh Rountree took a similar premise and had John move to Texas as a teenager, only to fall under the spell of Bob Wills and become a country great.  Wills is a musician I had not previously encountered, but since reading the story I've fallen under his spell also.

Rountree's story, Can't Buy Me Faded Love, is the title story in his collection. If you love music and spec-fic, then I would thoroughly recommend this book. Each story comes with liner notes and a recommended playlist. It's fabulous.

I also recently read Snodgrass, by Ian R. MacLeod, which is another Lennon alternate history This time 50 year old unemployed Lennon ponders his life and what he could have been had he not fallen out with McCartney and left The Beatles. "We could have been bigger than The Hollies," he declares.

And then there's I Was The Walrus, my John Lennon re-incarnation story, which was published in Eric J. Guignard's collection, After Death, and had been receiving great reviews. Three John Lennon spec-fic stories in as many months. Anyone know of any more?

Last night I had a dream in which these three stories were published together and did very well.  How about it, guys?

More Award Nominations And Another Sale.

I'm having a great run at the moment.

I've recently posted about this. I had two personal rejections from quality pro-level magazines, a positive review in Publishers Weekly, the release of After Death, a sale to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and a nomination for a Ditmar Award.

Then, to top things off, yesterday I received a copy of After Death, and it truly looks fantastic. Congratulations to the editor, Eric J. Guignard. During the afternoon I received word that I'd finally sold my Melbourne vampire-noir story. I'm truly excited about that one. And then late last night I was informed I'd been nominated for two Chronos Awards - Best Short Story for Fireflies (in Epilogue, published by FableCroft) and Best Fan Writer. (For my reviews in Dark Matter and this blog)

Voting for these awards is important. And, of course, I would appreciate any support from anyone who deems my work worthy.

Eligibility and voting information for the Ditmar Awards can be found here.

Eligibility and voting information for the Chronos Awards can be found here.

Congratulations to all the nominees.

Halfway Through.

I had big plans for this week. Suffice to say life gets in the way, and I haven't done half as much as I'd hoped to.

Still, it has been good so far. I've had my snapshot linked by Deakin University's MyCourseMyCareer page, I've done some writing, done some organising - even done some gardening. I've seen some friends make some great story sales (admittedly with a certain amount of envy in a couple of cases) and sympathised with others who missed out on sure things.

I sold a story about a week ago, to Eric J. Guignard's anthology, After Death. Now this is a sale I really wanted, and the story sold very quickly. I'm happy.

But as for the rest of you editors out there currently sitting on my stories, buy the darned things already.

Please...