Susan Forest

Congrats to Rob, winner of the Aurora for Wake! A fine field of competitors, too! And to Eileen, who won four times over – Auroras for Best Short (English) and Best Other (for 4 Women of the Apocalypse), second place in Writers’ Idol and had a publisher approach her with an invitation to submit. Wow! And I was there for all 4 – vicarious thrills!

The con was good, the people were great, AND I got lots of writing done, too!

I got about 4000 words written, which wasn’t bad considering the new technology I was using. It worked fairly well, too. Mostly, it understood the text I dictated, though I had more trouble with the navigation commands. Still, getting text down was what I really needed, and I was able to do some edits left-handed, afterward, so it all worked out. Still have to learn more!

BTW, congratulations to everyone who was nominated for an Aurora this year. I personally know every nominee for Best Work, Long Form – Leslie, Barb, Ed, Rob and Hayden. Will make voting VERY tough! Also, congratulations to Ivan, who was nominated for short story. Not sure who else was nominated, as the official list isn’t out yet, but already I’m thinking I better book my membership to Keycon!

Should have posted this at the time, but thanks to Brian Hades, who took this photo of me with two Aurora Awards! Randy McCharles is the first person in history to have won in both a professional and fan category: Best Work, Short Form, and Fan Organizational. I was pleased and proud to be asked to accept the awards on his behalf.

Anticipation was wonderful – kept me too busy to post. However, here’s a re-cap: First, I didn’t win the Aurora Award for Best Work – Short Form. But my good friend, Randy McCharles did! So the award comes west, to Calgary, and Randy is awesome! I was able to accept the award for him (and get my photo taken) and it was a great evening. Randy also won for Best Fan Organizational, for running World Fantasy last fall, which he really deserved, so good all round!

I sat on 3 panels, did a reading and 2 signings, volunteered for SFWA and participated in a radio play. Along with visiting Old Montreal, buying (and reading) books and connecting with others, I only managed to hit a few panels, but the ones I saw were good.

In addition, I attended parties with, and was introduced to some well known writers, agents, editors and publishers, and received a couple of offers to submit work, so was very pleased with the weekend from a business point of view as well. Here are some pics:
Sheila Williams presented the Readers’ Choice Award to James Allan Gardner at the Analog / Asimov’s party Friday night.
Renee and I went out to dinner and guess who sat at the table next to us — Nick DiChario!

What better place than the airport to blog about going to Worldcon in Montreal? I’m sitting on 2 panels and moderating a third, doing 2 signings, a reading, and appearing in a radio play. And, of course, the Aurora banquet — as well as volunteering for SFWA and spending some time at the Edge table. Will be a busy weekend! Hopefully, the hotel will have free internet access and I can post every day.

I got the schedule for panel participants for Worldcon in Montreal and programmers have been very generous to me! I have a reading and a signing, and have been invited to sit on panels on Horror and Dark Fantasy, Internet critical reviews and writing for Analog. I had to decline the panel on Battlestar Galactica, because I’m not knowledgeable in that area, having never seen the show. That doesn’t bother me too much, but I may also have to miss the one on Dark Fantasy as my plane will arrive too late for me to make it.

Exciting, though, to be asked to sit on panels with Stan Schmidt, Ellen Datlow, David D. Levine, James Patrick Kelly, Moshe Feder and others! My excitement level just went up three notches!

Thanks to everyone who took a moment to nominate me for the Aurora Award — I have been short listed in the Short Fiction category for my short story in Analog last June, entitled “Back.” Doubly good news, I am in competition with my good friend, Randy, who wrote a humorous novella, “Ringing the Changes in Okotoks, Alberta,” which appeared in Tesseracts 12 by Edge Press last November. Randy was also nominated in the category, Fan Achievement – Organizational for running the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary last fall, which was a great convention.

Thanks to Ron Friedman of my Imaginative Fiction Writers’ Association for compiling this partial list of eligible works for the Auroras — with the slant that all these writers are from Calgary (or were from Calgary or are good friends of Calgarians). Some to consider, at least:

Long-Form Works
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Sawyer, Robert J. IDENTITY THEFT AND OTHER STORIES (collection). Red Deer Press, May 2008
Trenholm, Hayden. DEFINING DIANA. Bundoran Press

Novelettes
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McCharles, Randy. “Ringing the Changes in Okotoks, Alberta.” Tesseracts Twelve, edited by Claude Lalumiere

Short Stories
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Forest, Susan J. “Back.” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 2008

Sawyer, Robert J. “Apple Will Own Margaret Atwood,” The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine, January 2008 (reprinted as “E-Mails from the Future” in Sawyer’s collection Identity Theft and Other Stories).

Trenholm, Hayden. “Love In its Season” On Spec #73, Summer 2008

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Other Non-CanadaSF eligible:

McCharles, Randy (fan achievement) for chairing World fantasy convention.
Jeff Campbell – for editing Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes

Hope springs eternal! Although my story, “Immunity” (Asimov’s, 2006) did not get nominated for an Aurora Award, my good friend, Hayden Trenholm’s story, “Lumen Essence” did, and two good friends (Rob Sawyer for Best Short Form Work in English for “Biding Time” and Randy McCharles for “Best Fan – Organizational”) WON! Congratulations to all three!

Aurora awards for 2007 are upcoming much earlier this year. Instead of a fall award (2006’s awards were presented in October of 2007) Auroras will be presented in the spring (2007 awards will be presented at Keycon in Winnipeg, Manitoba the weekend of May 16-19, 2008). Hence the deadline for entering nominations is March 17, 2008. Simply put, the works with the most nominations wind up on the ballot. This year the form is MUCH easier, as you can enter on line–no need for an envelope and stamp.

Details are at: http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationForm.php. If you have trouble with the detailed address, go to their website at www.prixaurorawards.ca. Click on “English” then click on “nomination form.” Or just google “prix aurora awards.”

Aurora Awards are Canada’s top awards for Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy–writing, art and other works. For a list of all eligible entries, check out the Canadian SF Works Database.

If you would like to nominate me for a “Best Short Form Work in English,” consider checking out my eligible short story, “Paid in Full,” published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, vol. 31 #10-11, the 2007 October/November issue. You can read the full text on my website, www.speculative-fiction.ca.

Or, have a look at THE PHANTOM OF THE SPACE OPERA, a live performance at the August, 2007 Conversion in Calgary, which is eligible for “Best Work in English, Other.” A DVD of the performance is available, and it will be uploaded onto YouTube by early January for general viewing. I directed and edited the movie, and the writer/actors were all Calgary writers.

Other members of IFWA (Calgary’s Science Fiction / Fantasty writing group) with eligible works include:
• Randy McCharles (“Vampires of the Canadian Rockies”) and Susan Forest (“Tomorrow and Tomorrow”) in Tesseracts 11, eligible in “Best Short Form Work in English”
• Randy McCharles’s and Sandy Fitzpatrick’s stories from the Okal Rel anthology, for “Best Short Form Work in English”
• Hayden Trenholm’s novelette, “Like Water in the Desert” from Challenging Destiny #24 is eligible in “Best Short Form Work in English”
• Robert J. Sawyer’s Rollback (Tor) is eligible in the “Best Long Form Work in English”
• Kirstin Morrell is eligible in “Best Fan Organizational” category for chairing last year’s Con-Version

You can nominate 3 works in each category. Please consider nominating a writer from western Canada!

It is time, again, for nominations for the Aurora Awards, Canada’s top awards for Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy: writing, art, fan activities and other works. This year, the Auroras will be presented at Keycon in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the weekend of May 16-19, 2008). Hence the deadline for entering nominations is March 17, 2008.

This year the form is MUCH easier, as you can enter online–no need for an envelope and stamp. For a list of all eligible entries, check out the Canadian SF Works Database. You can nominate 3 works in each category.

If you would like to nominate me for a “Best Short Form Work in English,” consider checking out my eligible short story, “Paid in Full,” published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, vol. 31 #10-11, the 2007 October/November issue. You can read the full text here.

Or, have a look at THE PHANTOM OF THE SPACE OPERA, a live performance at the August, 2007 Conversion in Calgary, which is eligible for “Best Work in English, Other.” A DVD of the performance is available, and it will be uploaded onto YouTube by early January for general viewing.