Two of my fellow Clarion South students won awards – Angela Slatter for Best Collection and Lisa Hannett and Angela for the story they co-wrote.

The judges report has some nice things to say about the stories.
http://www.aurealisawards.com/judgesreports2010.pdf

The best part of the weekend was catching up with lots of writing friends and making some new friends.

I haven’t written many new short stories in the last year, my focus has been on writing my YA novel, The Way of Dragons.  Last weekend, I finally finished the first draft.  There is still a lot of work to be done revising it, but it’s a great feeling to get such a big chunk of the work out of the way.

The first draft came in at 105,000 words, which is a little long for a YA book.  The story’s basic premise involves a young man joining a monastery in order to find the cure for his sister that has been poisoned by a dragon.  It features encrypted dragon eggs, cloud painting monks and forbidden numbers.

After I’ve revised the novel I’ll be sending it out for crits.  After that I’ll have to decide what to do with the novel.  The traditional route would be to send it to an agent or publisher, but of course these days there are a plethora of web sites discussing the merits of self-publishing for ebook readers.  Although self-publishing options through Amazon are looking increasingly attractive, I’m still going to first pursue publication through one of the major houses.

http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/2009-nebula-awards-final-ballot/

I really enjoyed the story that won first place – Jessica Lee’s Superhero Girl.  It’s her first published story.

The Winners of the Best Fantasy Story of 2009 Poll and Contest
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2010/02/the-winners-of-the-best-fantasy-story-of-2009-poll-and-contest/

http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2010/01/27/rachel-swirskys-short-story-nomination-recommendation-list-for-the-2009-nebula-awards/

My Reading By Numbers gets a highly recommended.

It only takes one SFWA member to nominate a work to get it onto the list, but I still think it’s pretty cool to get on the list.

Nebula Award Suggested Reading: Short Stories