Continuum 8

The Ditmar subcommittee are pleased to announce the ballot for the Australian SF (“Ditmar”) Award for 2012. Voting is now open, and will remain open for at least 30 days.

The 2012 ballot is as follows:

Best Novel
* The Shattered City (Creature Court 2), Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperCollins)
* Burn Bright, Marianne de Pierres (Random House Australia)
* Mistification, Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot Books)
* The Courier’s New Bicycle, Kim Westwood (HarperCollins)
* Debris (The Veiled Worlds 1), Jo Anderton (Angry Robot Books)

Best Novella or Novelette
* “The Sleeping and the Dead”, Cat Sparks, in Ishtar (Gilgamesh Press)
* “Above”, Stephanie Campisi, in Above/Below (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt”, Paul Haines, in The Last Days of Kali Yuga (Brimstone Press)
* “And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living”, Deborah Biancotti, in Ishtar (Gilgamesh Press)
* “Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Love and Romanpunk (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Below”, Ben Peek, in Above/Below (Twelfth Planet Press)

Best Short Story
* “Breaking the Ice”, Thoraiya Dyer, in Cosmos 37
* “Alchemy”, Lucy Sussex, in Thief of Lives (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Last Gig of Jimmy Rucker”, Martin Livings and Talie Helene, in More Scary Kisses (Ticonderoga Publications)
* “All You Can Do Is Breathe”, Kaaron Warren, in Blood and Other Cravings (Tor)
* “Bad Power”, Deborah Biancotti, in Bad Power (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Patrician”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Love and Romanpunk (Twelfth Planet Press)

Best Collected Work
* The Last Days of Kali Yuga by Paul Haines, edited by Angela Challis (Brimstone Press)
* Nightsiders by Sue Isle, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Ishtar, edited by Amanda Pillar and K. V. Taylor (Gilgamesh Press)

Best Artwork
* “Finishing School”, Kathleen Jennings, in Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (Candlewick Press)
* Cover art, Kathleen Jennings, for The Freedom Maze (Small Beer Press)

Best Fan Writer
* Tansy Rayner Roberts, for body of work including reviews in Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus! and Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth
* Alexandra Pierce, for body of work including reviews in Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus!, Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth, and Randomly Yours, Alex
* Robin Pen, for “The Ballad of the Unrequited Ditmar”
* Sean Wright, for body of work including “Authors and Social Media” series in Adventures of a Bookonaut
* Bruce Gillespie, for body of work including “The Golden Age of Fanzines is Now”, and SF Commentary 81 & 82

Best Fan Artist
* Rebecca Ing, for work in Scape
* Lisa Rye, for “Steampunk Portal” series
* Dick Jenssen, for body of work including work in IRS, Steam Engine Time, SF Commentary and Scratchpad
* Kathleen Jennings, for work in Errantry (tanaudel.wordpress.com) including “The Dalek Game”
* Rhianna Williams, for work in Nullas Anxietas Convention Programme Book

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium
* SF Commentary, edited by Bruce Gillespie
* The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond
* The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
* Galactic Chat, Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Sean Wright
* Galactic Suburbia, Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Alex Pierce

Best New Talent
* Steve Cameron
* Alan Baxter
* Joanne Anderton

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review
* Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene, for “2010: The Year in Review”, in The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010 (Ticonderoga Publications)
* Damien Broderick and Van Ikin, for editing Warriors of the Tao: The Best of Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature (Borgo Press)
* David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely for “Reviewing New Who” series, in A Conversational Life
* Alexandra Pierce and Tehani Wessely, for reviews of Vorkosigan Saga, in Randomly Yours, Alex
* Russell Blackford, for “Currently reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke”, in Metamagician and the Hellfire Club

The official ballot paper, including postal address information, may be downloaded as a PDF format file from: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2012/2012_Ditmar_ballot.pdf

Votes will be accepted via email to: ditmars@sf.org.au

However, if possible, please vote online at: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2012

Postal ballots will be distributed in the near future.

Voting for the Ditmar Award is conducted in accordance with the rules specified at http://wiki.sf.org.au/Ditmar_rules, and is open to members of Continuum 8 (including supporting members) and to members of Swancon 36 who were eligible to vote in the 2011 Award. Voting in all award categories is by the optional preferential system, and each eligible individual may vote only once. All ballots (including emailed ballots) should include the name and address of the voter. If you have questions regarding the ballot or voting procedure, please email ditmars@sf.org.au.

Congratulations to John and Sarah Parker, who’ve just been announced as winners of the National Australian Fan Fund. We look forward to seeing them at Continuum 8!

The Continuum Foundation is proud to announce the ballot for the Chronos Awards for excellence in Victorian Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror in 2011.

Best Long Fiction

• Black Glass, Meg Mundell (Scribe Publications)
• Mole Hunt, Paul Collins (Ford Street Publishing)
• The Key to Starveldt, Foz Meadows (Ford Street Publishing)
• The Last Days of Kali Yuga, Paul Haines (Brimstone Press)
• Scape e-zine, edited by Peta Freestone
• Changing Yesterday, Sean McMullen (Ford Street Publishing)
• Thief of Lives, Lucy Sussex (Twelfth Planet Press)
• No Award

Best Short Fiction

• Neverspring, Peta Freestone (in M-BRANE SF #25)
• The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt, Paul Haines (in The Last Days of Kali Yuga)
• Gamer’s Challenge, George Ivanoff (by Ford Street Publishing)
• One Last Interruption Before We Begin, Stephanie Lai (in Steampowered II: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories)
• So Sad, the Lighthouse Keeper, Steve Cameron (in Anywhere But Earth)
• No Award

Best Fan Writer

• Jason Nahrung
• Alexandra Pierce
• Peta Freestone
• No Award

Best Fan Artist

• Nalini Haynes
• Marta Tesoro
• Rebecca Ing
• Rachel Holkner
• No Award

Best Fan Written Work

• Dear Space Diary, Sam Mellor (Blog – Fiction)
• Tiptree, and a collection of her short stories, Alexandra Pierce (in Randomly Yours, Alex)
• Interview with Meg Mundell, Nalini Haynes (in Dark Matter 3)
• No Award

Best Fan Artwork

• Girl Torque, Nalini Haynes (Cover for Dark Matter 3)
• Dangerous Penguins, Marta Tesoro
• Blue Locks, Rebecca Ing (Scape 2)
• No Award

Best Fan Publication

• The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond
• Galactic Suburbia, Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Alexandra Pierce
• Bad Film Diaries, Grant Watson
• Dark Matter, edited by Nalini Haynes
• No Award

Best Achievement

• Trailer for Gamer’s Challenge, Henry Gibbens (Ford Street Publishing)
• Continuum 7 Opening Ceremony Video, Rachel Holkner (Continuum 7)
• Conquilt, Rachel Holkner and Jeanette Holkner (Continuum 7)

Award Not Presented

The award for Best Artwork is not being presented due to insufficient nominations being received.

Voting Procedure

When completing a ballot, please vote for your first preference in a category by placing a number 1 against it. Further votes in the same category are optional and should be numbered sequentially in order of preference. Voting in all categories is not required.

Completed votes from Continuum 8: Craftonomicon members (full or supporting) may be sent by:

1. email to awards@continuum.org.au; or
2. post to:Chronos Awards Committee
   65A Limestone Ave
   BRADDON ACT 2612

To confirm voting eligibility please include your Continuum 8: Craftonomicon membership number or receipt number.

If you are not a member of Continuum 8: Craftonomicon but wish to vote for the Chronos Awards, a voting membership is available from the Continuum Foundation for $5. If you are interested in obtaining a voting membership please send an email to dozman@netspace.net.au for more information. Voting memberships are only available from the Continuum Foundation, please do not contact Continuum 8: Craftonomicon about voting memberships.

All votes must be received by Sunday 20 May 2012. Late votes will not be considered, late postal votes will be returned to sender unopened. The Chronos Awards Committee is not responsible for any delays in post or mail.

We know you’ve all been eagerly awaiting the list of panels we’re presenting this year, well the wait is over!

We’re looking for people to provide a myriad of viewpoints on a whole lot of different topics to make our convention interesting, informative and entertaining.
You can find the full list over on the Program page of the website.

We’d also like to hear from people who are interested in doing presentations, academic or fun, especially sciencey ones.
And since our theme this year is craft, if there’s a skill you’d like to teach in a workshop we’d love to hear from you.

Of course if the programme is lacking something you’re passionate about, there’s still time to suggest new items.

To put your hand up for a panellist position, or dob in suggest someone you think would be awesome on a particular panel just email programming@continuum.org.au

programme