The jury is in! 2014 Sunburst Award Winners announced

~ A huge thanks to my amazing fellow jurors Paul Glennon, Bob Knowlton, Nicole Luiken, and Derek Newman-Stille. It was my sincere pleasure to serve with you! ~

Sunburst Award Announces the 2014 Annual Sunburst Award Winners of Its $1,000 Literary Prize

Toronto, Ontario (October 1st, 2014) The Sunburst Award Committee is pleased to announce that the winner of its 2014 adult award is A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Penguin Group Canada – ISBN – 9780670067046) and the winner of its 2014 young adult award is The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint (Little Brown Books – ISBN – 9780316053570).

About A Tale for the Time Being, the Sunburst jury said: Cast ashore on Vancouver Island by the Pacific Gyre, a Hello Kitty lunchbox opens upon an ocean of story, connecting Ruth and Nao across space and time. Some books flirt with the fantastic, Ozeki’s dances with it, such that it weaves through the narrative with sinuous grace, embracing evanescence. As Nao declares to the reader at the outset, “You’re my kind of time being, and together we’ll make magic.” All matters therein are given equal weight, yet the novel has a deft touch, often humorous. It is a seriously playful work. A Tale for the Time Being is sui generis, free ranging over fact and fancy, physics and metaphysics, the intimate and the universal; in a true sense it is a Zen koan extended to 422 pages, which is yet another paradox. Like the bumblebee, it shouldn’t fly but it does. Beautifully.

About The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, the Sunburst Jury said: A deceptively simple wish-fulfillment fantasy, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest draws upon the deep tradition of animal fables and fairy tales, upon the folklore of New World and Old, and upon the classic children’s literature of the past two centuries, but distilled into pure de Lint, faithful to its sources yet shaped by his own sensibilities. An enhancement rather than expansion of A Circle of Cats, the collaboration of writer and artist produces a fusion of word and image into a seamless whole, delighting the eye anew with the turning of each page. There are darker tones, to be sure, as snake-bite carries young Lillian past the jaws of death to the tribe of cat, and the magic of the deep wood that restores her humanity will come at a cost, and a debt owed. But that’s what a good fable is, timeless yet always cognisant of time’s passage.

Podcastination

430px-RokebyVenusI’ve just finished reading a story for the Toasted Cake podcast. Here’s a direct link to the audio.

Great, great fun. Much as I love performing my own work, there’s something especially intriguing in reading stories written by others. This week for Toasted Cake, I read “Green Future” by Deborah Walker, set in a future London overtaken by rampant flora and microfauna — algae adhering to every surface, changing everything it touches. Not only is there some great urban decay imagery, but the story itself explores what it would mean to be changed oneself by such a change, what it means to embrace things, to cling to things, to let things go.

Diego Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus (famously slashed as protest by suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914) features prominently in the story. It’s a wonderful choice on Walker’s part, as this particular Venus so saturates the public consciousness, the dialogue about art, fine art, and what it means culturally, that she’s been rendered and re-rendered:  as Snow White; as a Fat Ginger Cat; as a tattooed goddess; as a… whatever these are. Lovely irreverent reverence. An homage made while blowing raspberries. Now I want one in algae, please — or, playing into my own eco-fascinations, lichen.

Bonus Track: my urban decay board on Pinterest.

2014 Copper Cylinder Awards announced

copper cylinder version

Each year, a five-member jury is charged with selecting the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. It was my great good pleasure to have been asked to serve as chair of this year’s jury, and I’m extremely proud of our consensus-derived finalists. In tandem with the juried award, the Society annually presents a Member’s Choice award called the Copper Cylinder. Congratulations to Guy Gavriel Kay and Cory Doctorow! Sunburst Award winners will be announced later this fall.

From the official release:

River-of-StarsSUNBURST AWARD SOCIETY ANNOUNCES THE WINNERS OF ITS THIRD ANNUAL COPPER CYLINDER AWARDS.

Toronto, Ontario (September 19th, 2014) The Sunburst Award Society is pleased to announce the winners of the third annual Copper Cylinder Awards. The Copper Cylinder Award is an annual member’s choice award selected by members of the Sunburst Award Society for books published during the previous year.

The Copper Cylinder Award derives its name from the first Canadian scientific romance, “A Strange Manuscript Found in a homelandCopper Cylinder,” by James De Mille (1833-1880). 

The winner of the 2014 Copper Cylinder Adult Award is River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Group Canada – ISBN – 9780670068401). 

The winner of the 2014 Copper Cylinder Young Adult Award is Homeland by Cory Doctorow (Tom Doherty Associates – ISBN – 9780765333698).

The Sunburst Award Society also confers annually the juried Sunburst Awards for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Both awards celebrate the best in Canadian fantastic literature published during the previous calendar year.                                                                         

For additional information about the Copper Cylinder Awards, Sunburst Award Society membership and the voting process: http://coppercylinderaward.ca

For additional information about the Sunburst Awards, the nominees and jurors, eligibility and the selection process: http://sunburstaward.org.

“Lovely Young Losers” out in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

AHMSEPT2014Hello, all you lovely young. . . things.  The September 2014 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine is out in the world.  This one contains my short story “Lovely Young Losers,” set against the backdrop of beautifully dreary winter (or autumn or spring — anytime but summer) in Vancouver, BC.  Canadian friends and readers will spot a very American sort of error (wholly my own) in the print version of my story (rectified in the e-version) for which I can only say . . . sorry, y’all.  I spent part of that year in Vancouver, part in Montreal, part in Grenada, part in Austin, and part in Portland.  Chaos reigned. . . or more aptly rained, as in dribbled all over my life in itty bitty droplets fine as Vancouver mist.

 

 

 

Interview of Kat Richardson

Greywalker#1 in Czech!

She was dazzling! She was relaxed and funny, and knew a little bit about everything in the universe. She was definitely *not* a dude. And what a relief! I’d been hanging out with all my shortfic writing friends, most of us nascent in our authorial efforts. I hadn’t realized before, but they — we — were all in this sort of special career-embarkation pressure cooker. Most of my writer pals were striving to make “pro” sales, striving to get into prestigious writing workshops, striving to hook agents. . . striving, striving, striving. That was not my path at the time, nor (it turns out) would it ever be, but it was already exhausting me. And here was a dinnerful of novelists, all of whom had agents and publishers, all of whom were several if not many books in to their careers, and they were just so calm, so nice. And Kat Richardson was the calmest and nicest of them all.

My mini-interview of Kat Richardson is live over at Sleeping Hedgehog.

at Norwescon with Stina Leicht

lastdrinkbirdheadAnd it’s live! My little 3 to 3 interview series for Green Man and the Sleeping Hedgie rolls Rayguns Over Texasonward with a nice bit from author Stina Leicht. Stina has a couple novels out, but also a couple short stories. My subversive little anthologist’s heart prompts me to post beautiful anthology covers like these, both of which contain stories by my interviewee.

Of Stina: “When she was small she wanted to grow up to be like Vincent Price. Unfortunately, there are no basements in Texas — thus, making it difficult to wall up anyone alive under the house.”

Rock on, sweet Texas, rock on.

Mini-interview of Ken Scholes

long walksRemember that little mini-interview series I started a while ago over at The Green Man Review’s sister site, Sleeping Hedgehog? I’ve been calling the series 3 to 3, posing 3 questions apiece to three fellow attending pros at various literary events. The latest of these has just gone live, wherein I chat with Ken Scholes, author of this book, this book, and this book, among others.

Does the proximity of the phrase sky bridge to the phrase booze and book wagon affect you in any special way? Me too.

3 to 3: Norwescon 2014 with Ken Scholes

2014 Sunburst Award

Sunburst Award
Sunburst Award

I’ve been lying low recently, reading like a fiend in my capacity as Chair of this year’s Sunburst Award Committee. Each year the Sunburst Award recognizes exemplary Canadian Literature of the Fantastic in both adult and young adult categories published during the previous calendar year.  — Honored! Elated! Busy reading! That’s me.

Read more about the Award and my fellow 2014 jurors Paul Glennon, Robert Knowlton, Nicole Luiken, and Derek Newman-Stille on the official Sunburst site.

3 to 3 interviews at Sleeping Hedgehog

sh_header6In the guise of my alter ego Camille Alexa, I’ve been conducting a short series of brief interviews over at The Green Man Review sister site, Sleeping Hedgehog. The first of these was with opera singer and luxe fantasist Louise Marley.  The second with voracious writer (and master of the Hawaiian shirt) Jay Lake. Watch in the coming days for a fresh interview, this time with fellow 2010 Endeavour Award finalist Kay Kenyon. . .