Aurora Awards

The Dork Round-up!

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It’s been a relatively eventful time for this Renaissance Dork, so I thought I’d recap a few developments from the past several days.  Seems like a good way to get this cold, dark Monday started…

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The Pure Speculation Festival was a lot of fun this past weekend; those of you who made it out know what I mean.  A highlight for me was the Saturday Morning Cartoon panel with Joe Wos, the man behind the Toonseum.  He dropped a little knowledge on us about the origin, rise and decline of the Saturday Morning Cartoon, and it was great to watch some clips of old favourites as well as a few I’d never heard about.  Great presentation by a super-friendly and knowledgeable guy; very glad I took it in!

The Dungeons & Dickens panel with Mike Perschon was well attended by an enthusiastic crowd of steampunkers and RPG enthusiasts.  Though I got the sense the crowd was there more for the Steampunk than the RPG, I think I managed to hold my own talking about my old Eberron and Cthulhu campaigns and how steampunk informed them.  In any case I had a blast, so thanks again to Mike Perschon the SteamScholar for allowing me to take part!

Most of the rest of Pure Spec for me was Pathfinder-related.  Sadly, my scheduled Saturday game was cancelled when all the players decided to go home.  But that just meant I had more energy for Sunday, much to the delighted chagrin of my table.  With their characters in mortal danger right from the start the group had a fun ride as they tried to prevent devilish hordes from destroying the city!  Amid much cephalopodic shenanigans they finally succeeded in saving the city and received their just reward.  A good time had by all!

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I’ve spoken before about the Aurora Awards, and may have mentioned that I was nominated for one.  Well, the award ceremony happened yesterday at SFContario/Canvention 31 and…I didn’t win.  But it was honour enough to be nominated and have Pure Spec acknowledged for the fine Festival it has become.

Here are your 2011 Aurora Award winners, my geeks!

  • Best Novel – English: WWW: Watch, by Robert J. Sawyer
  • Best Short Form – English: “The Burden of Fire,” by Hayden Trenholm
  • Best Poem/Song: “The ABCs of the End of the World,” by Carolyn Clink
  • Best Graphic Novel – English: Goblins, by Tarol Hunt
  • Best Related Work – English: The Dragon and the Stars, edited by Derwin Mak and Eric Choi
  • Best Artist: Erik Mohr
  • Best Fan Filk: Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers
  • Best Fan Organizational: Helen Marshall and Sandra Kasturi for Toronto SpecFic Colloquium
  • Best Fan Other: John Mansfield and Linda Ross Mansfield, Aurora Award pins

I recommend picking up some of the winning works, you won’t be disappointed.  Thanks to everyone that voted, your support of excellent Canadian SF is appreciated.  Keep your eyes open for next year…

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My Venture-Captain duties are ticking along nicely; I’ve already fielded requests from several people for help starting PFS in their areas including Calgary.  I can see a great deal of fun busyness in my future, spreading the good word of Pathfinder (Can I get an Initiative roll!?).  But keep it coming; if you are a store looking for a great organized play game event, track me down.

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That’s it for this Monday.  It is dreary and cold out there today, perfect weather to huddle indoors and work on my freelance projects.  Of course I’d still work on them if it was sunny and bright, but this way it seems like less of a sacrifice.  So until tomorrow, my tens of readers, when I will regale you with  daring tales of browser games!  Cheerio!

Humpday Links for October 12

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Even though this is a short work week for most of us, that is no excuse to skimp on the links!  I have spared no effort or expense in bringing you the finest cuts of URL to be found on the internets.  Dig in, and let me links whisk you through your humpday…

– There are still tickets left for this month’s Edmonton Girl Geek Dinner!  This month’s guest speaker is Victoria Arbour, and she will be talking dinosaurs!  Dinner with geek girls and dinosaurs; what’s not to love?

– Apparently sci-fi authors have a job to do, and they need to start doing it.

– Extra Life is your opportunity to raise money for charity by doing something you love: playing video games. You can do that for 24 hours, right?

– The voting deadline for the Aurora Awards is this Saturday and you should get your vote in.  If you vote for me, groovy.  But voting is the important part, if you want to show your support for Canadian SF and fandom.

– And if you want some behind-the-scenes looks at the Aurora Awards, check out their eFanzine.

– While we are still on sci-fi, if you have a Holiday themed SF story inside you, Carina Press wants to see it.

– If, like me, you weren’t at PAX 2011, you may have missed out on a truly momentous D&D event.  Here is your chance to watch the heroic antics of Acquisitions Incorporated.

– I found this site for the Creative Play Project, based out of Tucson AZ, and I think this is pretty great.  It has actually made me consider setting up something similar here…

– The next Media Camp Edmonton is coming in 2012, and they would like your input!

– If you are a newbie writer, LitReactor is a site worth checking out.

– Think you know everything about Star Trek: The Next Generation?  Here are some things you might not know…

– Adam Levermore is starting a new poster series that looks awesome, and you robot-lovers should get in on it!

That is all for this week!  If you have links to share or wish to laud/lambaste me for mine, the comments are below.

 

Aurora Awards Update

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Those of you that have hung around my blog long enough may remember that I was nominated for an Aurora Award.  For those what missed that, I posted about it back in May.

I bring it up again because voting is now open.  I would encourage you to register, vote and show your support for Canadian SF.  The Aurora Awards is our chance to honour the best our country has in sci-fi/fantasy literature, art and fandom.  It deserves a moment of your time.

A few things about voting: if you aren’t already you will need to become an Aurora member, which is free.  Just fill in the form and you’ll have your membership number straight away, which allows you to vote (It also allows you to nominate people for the 2012 awards, so keep your eye open for that).  Voting can be done online or by mail-in ballot, and the deadline is October 15, 2011.  There is a small fee to cover administration costs ($5.50 if you vote online, $5 if you mail-in), which is a pretty small price to pay in support of Canadian SF.

I hope you will take the time to vote.  The Aurora Awards are an important part of the SF landscape here in Canada, delivering much-deserved recognition to our community.  There are a lot of people on the ballot this year that deserve that recognition.  Plus me. \end self-depreciating humour\

On a personal note, I was chuffed to just get on the ballot for this year.  To have the work that the Festival Committee and I did for Pure Spec recognized like that is an amazing honour.  Winning the Fan Organizational award is not even something I’m contemplating at this point, up against such heavy-weights as Liana K. at FutureCon and Alex von Thorn at SFContario, never mind the Constellation Awards!  Anything is possible, of course, and we could get a whole flock of supporters coming out of the woodwork.

And I will admit, it sure would be sweet to see my name on an Aurora Award.

So tell me what you think.  Aurora Awards, like/dislike?  What do you think about awards in general, or any of the things I’ve talked about?  I’m interested in your comments…