2013 in review: an out-and-out skite

My four Aurealises, and my
Horror-Awards-bestowing 
gloves

I've been meaning to compile a list of all the Sea Hearts/ Rollrock achievements, and the end of the year provides a neat excuse, as well as the time, of course *waves cheerily to the day job*.

So here we go. Some of this is from last year, but I wanted all the glory in one place, so forgive me if it gets repetitive. Also, if anyone spots anything I've missed (but I'm not trying to list all online reviews of everything—the holidays aren't that long) please give me a nudge in the comments. By the time I got this much listed I was a bit dizzy:

Sea Hearts/The Brides of Rollrock Island's Big Year:

Reviews:

• the Guardian
• The Times
• Sydney Morning Herald
• NZ Listener
• Locus
• School Library Journal

Starred reviews:

• Booklist
• Kirkus Reviews
• Publishers Weekly
• The Horn Book
• The Bulletin of the Centre for Children's Books

Lists:

• Publishers Weekly Best Books 2012
• Horn Book Fanfare
• Locus Recommended Reading
• 2013 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults

Longlistings:

• Carnegie Medal
• International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (actually a longlisting—shortlist to be announced April 2014)

Shortlistings:

• Stella Prize
• NSW Premier's Awards (Ethel Turner Prize)
• British Fantasy Awards
• Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature (YA—winner TBA March 2014)

Prizes:

• Australian Independent Booksellers Award (Children's and YA section)
• Aurealis Award (Best YA Novel, jointly with Kaz Delaney's Dead, Actually)
• Aurealis Award (Best Fantasy Novel)
• Ditmar Award (Best Novel)
• Norma K Hemming Award
• CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers
• WA Premier's Literary Award (YA)
• Winner, Meanjin Tournament of Books

Cracklescape

My mini-collection Cracklescape from Twelfth Planet Press didn't do too shabbily this year, either:

Reviews:

• Locus
• Tor
• SF Signal

Lists:

• Locus Recommended Reading (Collection and Novelette—"Significant Dust")

Shortlistings:

• Shirley Jackson Award ("Bajazzle")
• Aurealis Award (Best Fantasy Short Story—"Isles of the Sun")
• Ditmar Award (Collected Work)
• Ditmar Award (Novelette or Novella—"Significant Dust")

Prizes:

• Aurealis Award (Best Fantasy Short Story—"Bajazzle")
• Aurealis Award (Best Science Fiction Short Story—"Significant Dust")

Anthologies:

• Focus 2012: Highlights of Australian Short Fiction, compiled by Tehani Wessely, Fablecroft Publishing ("Significant Dust")
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 7, edited by Jonathan Strahan, Night Shade Books ("Significant Dust")
• Award Winning Australian Writing 2013, ed. Adolfo Aranjuez, Melbourne Books ("Bajazzle")
• The Best Horror of the Year, vol. 5, ed. Ellen Datlow, Night Shade Books("Bajazzle")

Yellowcake

My fourth short story collection Yellowcake came out in the US and the UK in May, and it did pretty well for itself too, being reviewed in the Guardian, in the School Library Journal, on Bookslut and on Strange Horizons, and getting starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and a listing in the Scotsman's Christmas round-up by Keith Gray.

Shorts

And I had four short stories published:

• "Angels of Abstinence" in Purgatorio: Australia Today, a chapbook anthology put out for the Melbourne Writers Festival, edited by Ellen Koshland
• "By Desecration Rock" in The Lifted Brow's Melbourne Writers Festival issue
• "Black Swan Event", in Griffith REVIEW's "Once Upon a Time in Oz" issue
• "We Three Kids"—This novelette will be available online during the 12 days of Christmas 2013, and a print chapbook will be published at the end of January 2014.

And Danel Olson's anthology Exotic Gothic 4, from PS Publishing (as Postscript issues #28/29), which led off with my story "Blooding the Bride" won a World Fantasy Award.

So I can't complain about not getting any attention this year.

In 2014 I have, as far as I know, only one, leetle (2500-word) short story coming out, details of which I'll pass on when I get them. I'm hoping to get a novel finished and submitted pretty early in the year, leaving most of the year free to work on, possibly, its sequel, or another couple of projects I've got cooking. It has to be a better novel-writing year than 2013 was.

Meanjin Tournament of Books...

...is all about watery themes this year, so the shortlist is very blue, except where it's green or black. And wonder of wonders, Sea Hearts (a) is on it and (b) has made it through the first round.

Sea Hearts is nominated for the IMPAC

I know, it's outlandish. But it's true. Me and Hilary. And, erm, 150 other authors/books. I am celebrating now, in the expectation of its not getting any further. We'll find out in April.