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2014 Copper Cylinder Awards announced

copper cylinder version

Each year, a five-member jury is charged with selecting the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. It was my great good pleasure to have been asked to serve as chair of this year’s jury, and I’m extremely proud of our consensus-derived finalists. In tandem with the juried award, the Society annually presents a Member’s Choice award called the Copper Cylinder. Congratulations to Guy Gavriel Kay and Cory Doctorow! Sunburst Award winners will be announced later this fall.

From the official release:

River-of-StarsSUNBURST AWARD SOCIETY ANNOUNCES THE WINNERS OF ITS THIRD ANNUAL COPPER CYLINDER AWARDS.

Toronto, Ontario (September 19th, 2014) The Sunburst Award Society is pleased to announce the winners of the third annual Copper Cylinder Awards. The Copper Cylinder Award is an annual member’s choice award selected by members of the Sunburst Award Society for books published during the previous year.

The Copper Cylinder Award derives its name from the first Canadian scientific romance, “A Strange Manuscript Found in a homelandCopper Cylinder,” by James De Mille (1833-1880). 

The winner of the 2014 Copper Cylinder Adult Award is River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Group Canada – ISBN – 9780670068401). 

The winner of the 2014 Copper Cylinder Young Adult Award is Homeland by Cory Doctorow (Tom Doherty Associates – ISBN – 9780765333698).

The Sunburst Award Society also confers annually the juried Sunburst Awards for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Both awards celebrate the best in Canadian fantastic literature published during the previous calendar year.                                                                         

For additional information about the Copper Cylinder Awards, Sunburst Award Society membership and the voting process: http://coppercylinderaward.ca

For additional information about the Sunburst Awards, the nominees and jurors, eligibility and the selection process: http://sunburstaward.org.

puppet reviews!

folmanis-octoSo, like, my alter ego Camille Alexa has been busy over at Sleeping Hedgie reviewing puppets. You’ve got your his & her Royals (spoiler: I apparently have a Neighborhood Trolley fetish); you’ve got your adorbs Grunting Piggie (who knew grunting could be so cute?!?); and last but certainly far from least, you’ve got the best Octopus plushie ever. . .

Austin bound

barton springs
Barton Springs [photo from Wikipedia creative commons]
Packing for tomorrow’s flight to Austin to hang out for ArmadilloCon 2014.  As always, there’ll be some amazing literary talent splashing around in this Texas pool (I know it’s going to be hot, so expect all my metaphors to be infected with dreams of Barton Springs…)

Come join me and high-caliber writer, artist, scientist, and editor types such as Ian McDonald, Ted Chiang, Jacob Weisman, Mario Acevedo, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Joe R. Lansdale, Sigrid Close, Howard Waldrop, and a zillion other wonderful pros. Looking forward to meeting my workshoppers! As for panel discussions, come hear me talk about:

Novels of the Year, Fri 10:00 PM-11:00 PM: The best science fiction, fantasy and horror of the year. Great for filling up your reading list.  Feeling rather pumped about this one because, you know, I did just read nearly every spec-fic book in Canada (or written by a Canadian anywhere in the world) for the Sunburst Awards.

Required Mystery, Fri 11:00 PM-Midnight: Cupp*, Brust, Crider, Lalumière, Lansdale, Renwick…We aren’t telling you the description.   Chuffed because, hello! Look at that panel lineup. So great. And by midnight I’ll be giddy and slappy and punch drunk.

Alcoholic Drinks in Fiction, Sat 5:00 PM-6:00 PM: Discussing the drinks mentioned in stories, movies and tv.   Speaking of punch drunk…