The award went to Marianne de Pierres' Transformation Space. I'm reading the first in that four-part series now - unfortunately slow going because I'm concurrently reading three other books. This mirrors my writing process - I'm working on multiple things. Focus has not been my strong suit lately.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Judges' report on Song of Scarabaeus
I found something today I thought must exist but couldn't previously find even though it's sort of in plain sight: the Judges' Report on the 2010 Aurealis Awards finalists, which is linked from the Aurealis Awards main page. I'm not sure when it went up but I only just stumbled upon it. Generally speaking I'm interested in what others think of my work, as I'm sure most authors are. In this case I was interested in finding out why Song of Scarabaeus was nominated. Anyway, the judges called the book a "well balanced" and "excellent debut" with "the feel of a contemporary thriller in the way it pulls the reader through a number of emotional and action-based conflicts."
5 comments:
I'm not sure what they meant by 'well balanced'. I tried balancing my paperback copy of Song on my head. It didn't work. So I tried various other paperbacks I own, no luck there either, even when I tried different genres. Then I moved on to a hardcover...well that just hurt my foot when it fell. What gives?
Maybe it's because my head is shaped similarly to Patrick Stewart's. Oh well.
I do agree with the rest of what they said. One of my favorite things about Song was the way you layered the conflict. Definitely worthy of a nomination.
Have you heard anything about any awards for Children? From what I read it seemed great. Unfortunately I did have to put it down temporarily. I really started making great progress on my book and I always feel like if I try to write SciFi while reading SciFi, I just end up doing a poor impression of the author I'm reading.
But I'll definitely be getting back to it when I'm done with this draft.
No (re. awards). It wasn't until early 2011 that SONG's award nominations came up so there may be hope yet.
I know what you mean about reading while writing. I'm reading a few different genres at the moment, some for "research" (e.g. YA), some because I feel like I should (e.g. Urban Fantasy, which is/was so hot that I thought I should give it a try).
I agree wholeheartedly with the Judges' assessment--and feel it applies to both books. I read them avidly, back to back, a few months ago and wish there were more novels featuring the characters! The pacing of the plot, the depth of character, the description of the world (*without* infodump)... It's wonderful! And my first choice for handing to folks who want to read action sf with strong characters and meaningful relationships.
Dan, thanks for your comment - I'm so glad you liked the books. I am working on something else in the series at the moment, in between all the other things on my plate - I hope it'll work out - from Finn's POV.
Ooo! Goody! I look forward to it. :-)
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