News: Australian SF Blog Carnival June 2009

Welcome to the Australian SF Blog Carnival for June, 2009. This edition is hosted at HorrorScope, and has been assembled by the AHWA News Editor.

Awards

Winners have been announced for the following prestigious awards:

• The Ditmars Awards.
• The Sir Julius Vogel Awards.
• The Bram Stoker Awards (photos are here).

Other awards news:

• The Aurealis Awards, and the Victorian SF Chronos Awards are open for nominations.
• The 2009 Campbell Award and the 2009 British Fantasy Award finalists have been announced.
• The Australian Shadows Awards are open for nominations; the awards have expanded to include two more categories.
  

Hot Topics

• Paul Haines has urged all good people to nominate the Gawler Foundation to receive funding from The Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation. (Closing date is Friday 26th!)
• Chuck McKenzie offered a writer and bookseller's perspective on parallel importation, and Eneit Press blogged exactly where you should forward your concerns about parallel importation.
• Tansy Rayner Roberts has blogged on perceptions of women and writing, and Alisa Krasnostein has guest blogged about the importance of an open discourse concerning feminism in SF at Hoyden About Town.
• Danny Oz presented a candid crash course in convention history with A Tale of Two Natcons.

Wordsmithing & Unsolicited Advice

• Martin Livings is auditioning beta readers.
• Gillian Polack is taking votes on cover art for The Art of Effective Dreaming.
• Kim Wilkins has finished an epic novel draft.
  
• Tehani Wessely reflected on ASIM #37.
• Graham Storrs wrangled his manifesto, while J.A.Brock offered something similar.
• Benjamin Solah contemplated the space between a draft and an outline.
• Graham Clements considered first and third person point of view.
• Richard Harland and Rowena Cory Daniells blogged about gender and characterization (part one, part two, and part three).
• Dirk Flinthart offered a reflection on where award winning stories come from (or rather, stories that work).
• Gary Kemble churned out an interesting looking Tweet Digest of his writing progress.
• Stephanie Gunn blogged a useful revision checklist.
• Jennifer Fallon identified ten things authors should never blog about.
• Satima Flavell blogged two compendiums of excellent advice.

Publishing Particulars

• Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine is recruiting.
• Shiny #5 has been released.
• Fantastic Planet blogged their bestsellers for May.
• The Nameless Competiton is open until the end of July.
• The AHWA launched a new Horror Market Hive (members only).
• Angela Slatter spruiked the virtues of The Lifted Brow #5 (submissions close July 1).
• A Night of Horror are calling for films and screenplays.

Slam Dunks!

• Kirstyn McDermott was compensated for dodgy secret-keeping skills with a two-novel deal.
• Sean Williams had a world premiere of his short play (and fabulous pink hair).
• Stephen Dedman and Kaaron Warren have fiction forthcoming in Haunted Legends.
• Amanda Pillar has new fiction in Nights of Blood II.
• Karen Miller scored an audiobook deal.
• Robert Hood sold Behind Dark Blue Eyes to Exotic Gothic 3.
• Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels is being marketed as an adult book in the UK (beautiful cover!)

Reading & Teaching

• Gillian Polack gave a fireside reading.
• Simon Haynes appeared on a time travel panel.
• David Conyers ran a workshop: Structuring a Fantasy Novel.

Conventions

Conjecture reports have whizzed around the blogsphere:

• Sean Williams
• Peter M Ball
• Alisa Krasnostein
  
• Dirk Flinthart
• Nicole Murphy
• David Kernot
• Jason Fischer reported in two doses (part one and part two).

Other convention news:

• AussieCon have released details of some guests of honour.
• Kyla Ward reported registration for GenCon Australia is now open.

Reviews

• Benn Peek's novel Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth received an OARSUM review.
• New Ceres Nights has been reviewed in Locus.
• Dirk Flinthart reviewed Peter M Ball's Horn at Cool Shite, as did Nyssa at A Writer Goes On A Journey.
• Jenny Blackford's debut novel The Priestess and the Slave was reviewed at ReadPlus and inCite magazine.
• Martin Livings received a mention in the review of Grants Pass at HorrorScope.
• Marianne de Pierres novel Nylon Angel was reviewed by Mark Chitty.
• Martin Livings reviewed Felicity Dowker's chapbook Phantasy Moste Grotesk.
• Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels was reviewed at A Striped Armchair.
• Kaaron Warren's Slights was reviewed by The Book Smugglers.
• Bren McDibble linked to a slew of reviews.

Culture Vultures

• David Carroll sampled the Sydney Film Festival.
• Grant Watson highlighted the virtues of Perth's Revelation Film Festival.
• Graham Clements detailed the Emerging Writers' Festival in three installments (part one, part two, and part three).

Vale

• Fantasy writer David Eddings passed away. Many people have blogged beautifully about the passing of this talented author, including this sensitive reflection by Ben Payne.
• Paul O. Williams passed away.

Random Acts of Beauty

• Jason Nahrung said, "Now listen here."
• Peter M Ball killed his television.
• Ian Mond reminded us fandom doesn't suck.
• Dirk Flinkhart puckered up for a poem.
• Andrew J McKiernan has made some free fiction available.
• Matthew Tait has made his novella Dark Meridian and a short story collection available for free on the web.
  
• Shane Jiraiya Cummings has offered his novelette Yamabushi Kaidan and the Smoke Dragon for free download, as a taste of his novel-in-progress.
• As part of Sean Tan's nomination for a Hugo Award, you can download free wallpapers of Sean's art.

This concludes the Australian SF Blog Carnival for June, 2009. To report any notable omissions, you may gesture emphatically using the comment function here at HorrorScope - or alternately, email Talie Helene, AHWA News Editor.