Well, I didn't see this coming.

My story "Mooncalf" (my first post-Clarion story, as I recall) has received a "Commended" award in the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre Speculative Fiction/Fantasy Awards 2008. Apparently there were over a hundred entries, and my "Commended" means mine was in the top seven. This is cool. The judge's report is here. (Yes, alert readers may notice that the contest was judged by Lee Battersby, who is a friend of mine, but the entries were read blind — for those who don't know the term, that means no names on the stories. So all is well.)

A bit of encouragement is always nice! (I guess I should keep trying to sell the story. It's been rejected by a few markets, but perhaps persistence is warranted in this case.)

In other encouragement news, "I'm Too Loud" came second in the "vote for this story" thing that Antipodean SF runs each month for its stories. It's still readable in the archive. If you're one of the ones who voted for it, many thanks!