Hi all –

I know you, like me, are no doubt distraught that the Writers Guild of America strike has meant an end to the glitzy award shows that are so much a part of the Hollywood awards season.

But fear not!

There is a glitzy homegrown Canadian award ceremony awaiting your vote as we speak!

That’s right—nominations are now open for the 2008 Prix Aurora Awards, Canada’s highest award for creative work in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

As you know, I’ve had several publications this past year, and these are eligible for the Auroras in the category Best short-form work in English, which is defined in the contest rules as “a published novella, novelette, short story or poem in the English language by a Canadian writer released in Canada in the previous calendar year (2007).”

For those Canadians amongst you who have read my stories and would like to nominate me for an Aurora Award (sorry–only Canucks can nominate!) your support would be greatly appreciated. Please consider nominating my Writers of the Future Grand Prize winning story “Saturn in G Minor”.

While I’ve had three stories published this year, I’m suggesting “Saturn in G Minor” for the nomination because I think it’s my strongest piece, because it won the Writers of the Future Grand Prize this summer, and to avoid vote-splitting (hey—it’s happened to others…)

Any of you who haven’t read “Saturn in G Minor” please let me know and I’ll be happy to e-mail you a copy of the story for your consideration.

Any Canadian citizen (not necessarily living in Canada), or permanent resident of Canada is eligible to nominate works for the award, and there is no fee to nominate.

This year, for the first time, Canadian fans will be able to nominate and to vote on-line at the Prix Aurora Award website.

You can vote online here:
http://www.prix-aurora-awards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationForm.php

Please only vote once—I don’t need any ballot box stuffing getting me disqualified 🙂

I’ll also take this opportunity to point out that two of the anthologies my stories appeared in this year are also eligible to be nominated under the Best Work in English (Other) category:

Under Cover of Darkness, Julie E. Czerneda and Jana Paniccia, eds., Daw Books, Feb. 2007

Tesseracts Eleven, Cory Doctorow and Holly Phillips, eds., Edge S&SF Publishing, Nov. 2007

The Aurora Awards will be presented at KeyCon 25, held May 16 to 19, 2008 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Nominations are open NOW and close March 17, 2008 (but why wait, right?)

Thanks gang,

– S.