More Aurora Award Stuff!

Good morning, Readers!

The ballot for the Aurora Awards this year have been released, and while there are categories I'm not decided on yet, as the decision is not well informed, I do have a few picks I'm voting for already.

You can review the ballot yourself here if you like, and let me know if you have any favourites you'd like to see win in each category.

I will be revisiting the vote when I can make a more informed decision on the nominees.  These are the categories I'm not deciding on yet:

• Best Novel
• Best Young Adult Novel
• Best Graphic Novel
• Best Related Work

I have a lot of reading to do before I can vote on those categories, but I do have my picks for the others.

Best Short Fiction
While I haven't read every story on this list (and will before I make a more definitive decision), I feel strongly that Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal el-Mohtar, in The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, from Saga Press will probably get my vote.  There is a lot about this story that I love, not least of all the beauty of the language used.  I'm a sucker for beautiful language.

Best Visual Presentation
This, for me, has to go to Dark Matter.  It's such an interesting show, and so well done.  I have a few other things to watch (I haven't, for example, watched Murdoch Mysteries), but I think that Dark Matter will still have my vote when all is said and done.  I am open to a mind change, if something really blows my mind.

Best Artist
Melissa Mary Duncan gets my vote.  Her artwork strikes a chord in me, and I really love it.

Best Fan Writing and Publications
I'm torn here, as there are two people vying for my vote.  Speculating Canada has been a winner in past years, and for damned good reason, but Nerd is the Word is also a great little magazine, and I am leaning more towards it for this category.

Best Fan Organizational 
This is no contest.  Derek Künsken and Marie Bilodeau, executive, Can*Con 2016, Ottawa will be getting my vote.  I have been to other conventions, and I always return to Can*Con so happy it exists.  Other conventions are great, don't get me wrong, but nothing has beaten Can*Con for me.  It's such a warm, friendly, uplifting convention, and Derek and Marie work bloody hard.  They really do deserve this award.

Best Fan Related Work
Speculating Canada is my favourite on this list.  Derek Newman-Stille does a fantastic job with it, and he really does deserve this award, in my opinion.

And the category and vote that I'm most excited about and that people who know me will be least surprised by:

Best of the Decade
From the Prix Aurora Award website:

This is a special category for this year’s awards for works published between January 2001 and December 2010. Note: Items in italics are for multi-volume works. Multi-volume stories were considered if they began prior to 2001 but ended before or close to 2011. We defined a multi-volume story as one with a continuous narrative. Finalists were chosen by an eight-person jury from across Canada. The ​winner will be chosen by our membership’s votes.

Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson.

That's my pick.

I know, I know.  No surprise.  But this series is absolutely incredible!  The world is vast, varied and absorbing.  The characters... oh! The characters!  They are deep, and interesting and fully-formed.  And the language!  I told you I'm a sucker for beautiful language, and Erikson writes in such a way that pleases my linguistic aesthetic so wholly, I have literally gushed about his choice of words to more than one person more than once.

So, yeah.  That amazing series is by far and away the worthiest on that list, in my opinion.

So, these are my picks so far.  Who would you choose and why?  I'd love to hear from you.  For now, I have to dash.

Ciao!