Yay!!

Congratulations to Peter M. Ball and Christoper Green, who have picked up an Aurealis Award each on the weekend. Peter's is for the fabulous science-fiction short story "Clockwork, Patchwork and Ravens," and Chris's for the entirely-too-menacing fantasy short story "Father's Kill."

I am highly fortunate to count these two writers as not just Clarion buddies, but actual, non-Clarion buddies as well. I wish that just being in the same Clarion as these guys meant that I was somehow automatically of their calibre. Instead, I need to turn the incredible luck of being able to learn from them into the determination to keep making my own writing ever more worthy of the time and attention they (and others) have already lavished on it.

Sidebar: Peter's winning story started out as a Clarion draft; I was blown away just by the first, hurried, sleep-deprived draft Peter gave us all to read. That's one of the really cool things about Clarion, those of you who are thinking of applying (go here to find out more about Clarion South): over the next few months and years as stories start rising like rockets, you get to say "I read that in first draft — it was awesome!"

EDIT: I've just been informed that Chris's story was presented to us in Week 1 in Clarion! I must have been too shell-shocked to remember the details. Sorry, Chris! EDIT EDIT: No, I was right the first time — "Father's Kill" was not a Clarion story. Whew!

Chris and Peter, you are two of my writing heroes.

Addendum: Congratulations also to my non-Clarion buddy Cat Sparks, who won best YA story for "Seventeen" (which, incidentally, appeared in an anthology that also contained a story of mine — I am at the very heels of greatness!).