More on the Sir Julius Vogel Awards
I think the full ConText and Sir Julius Vogel Award ceremony reports may have to be several posts because I have so many convention highlights to report. But I will start with a little more on the Sir Julius Vogel Award ceremony because The Heir of Night jointly winning the award for Best Novel was definitely a defining moment of my weekend.
The evening began with the convention banquet, followed by the award ceremony, and I was very pleased to have my partner there with me, as well as my publicist, Karen (from Little Brown), my friend Emily who had driven three hours just to get there, and a number of other writing, artist and SFFANZ friends. So even before the awards ceremony, the evening was a convivial and friendly end to the main part of the convention.
The Award ceremony was hosted by Norman Cates and Lynelle Howell of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards committee, with the professional awards primarily being presented by international guests of honor, Catherine Asaro, and Donald Wolcott. I was also honored to be asked to present the award for “Best New Talent.”
The Award for “Best Novel” was first off the award presentation blocks, so I was not kept in suspense long—and was absolutely thrilled when The Heir of Night was announced as joint winner with Lyn McConchie’sย The Questing Road. I felt—and feel—tremendously honoured to receive such an accolade for Heir from readers of SFF, but also to share the podium with Lyn McConchie who has been pioneering New Zealand-based SFF in the international arena (almost?) as long as I have been reading it.
Of course, then I could relax—and fully enjoy the bottle of bubbly that Karen bought for our table—as the remaining awards were announced. Although I was back on tenterhooks again when the Best Artwork award came up, because The Wall of Night map from Heir, drawn by Peter Fitzpatrick, was a finalist. Although disappointed that the map did not win the award, I was still thrilled when the award went to Frank Victoria, the husband of my friend Mary Victoria, for the cover of Tymon’s Flight, Mary’s first novel in the Chronicles of the Tree series.
Other moments of tension—despite the insulating effect of those bubbles ;-)—came during the short story award, where my friends Ripley Patton and Lee Murray were both finalists, but the award went to Paul Haines forย High Tide at Hot Water Beach. My other major moment was announcing the award for “Best New Talent” where both contenders,ย Mary Victoria and Karen Healey, are writers whose work I very much admire—and whom I like very much as well.ย I was correspondingly glad that I only had to announce the result and not actually make it—and in the end the award went to Karen Healey, author of Guardian of the Dead.
So like all such ceremonies, there were both disappointments for friends and their work, as well as the joy of being able to congratulate others on their success. The latter included both Simon Litten, who won the award for “Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror”, and Paul Tobin who received the award for “Best Production/Publication” as editor of the anthology White Cloud World.
The full list of professional awards given was as follows:
Best Novel:
- The Heir of Night (Orbit) by Helen Lowe
- The Questing Road (Tor) by Lyn McConchie
Best Novel: Young Adult:
- Summer of Dreaming by Lyn McConchie
Best Novella/Novelette:
- A Tale Of The Interferers – Hunger For Forbidden Flesh (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight magazie) by Paul Haines
Best Short Story:
- High Tide At Hot Water Beach (A Foreign Country anthology) by Paul Haines
Best Collected Work:
- A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction (Random Static) eds. Anna Caro & K Buchanan
Best Production/Publication:
- White Clouds World Anthology, ed. Paul Tobin
For the full list of categories and finalists, both professional and fan, please see here.
Awesome! Congratulations, Helen, Karen, Mary… heck, everyone! Wonderful news to see such talented people winning ๐
I am so full of happy for you ๐ Congrats Helen, you deserve it.
So stoked to hear about Anna Caro! Frank didn’t remember that one… bummed for Ripley but there WILL be another occasion! Yeahhhhhhhhhhh NZ specfic. All great choices, I would have had a hard time voting.
Mary, I was thrilled for Anna and Kelly—and all the short story writers with stories included—that A Foreign Country was recognised as well.
I hope you made good on your promise and had a video made of your reading? Frank said it was EXCELLENT. ๐
Mary, I am glad Frank thought I made a good job of reading your books—I definitely practiced first! (More than just the once, too.) I am posting about the rest of ConText, including the reading, tomorrow & in it I say that we have a recording but it may take a day or so to get it up. I certainly have my fingers crossed that the quality of the recording will be as it should be!
Helen,
Just a bit of confusion. You list Karen as the YA winner in your post, but have Lyn the winner in the list.
But yes, congrats to all, especially The Heir of Night:)
No, that’s my mistake. So sorry. Lyn for YA. Karen for Best New Talent.
Must still have Fuzzy Con Brain.
Ripley: “no worries!” Because of my fuzzy con brain I did not do a “full report” in the chronological sense so can well understand! And thank you for the congrats for “Heir.” Awards aside, I thought it was a great evening, overall—wonderful to catch up with so many other specfic writers in the one place. The SpecFicNZ get-together you organised on the Saturday evening also had a great feeling of synergy, but also of purpose, about it.
Wen, Sharon: Thank you much both of you for your ongoing, sterling support and best wishes.:)
You’re welcome! And I must go congratulate Anna too!
Congratulations, Helen
Huzzah for everyone! *boogie* \o/
Fantastic news, Helen, congratulations!
Such great news, Helen – wow! And well done ; ).
Congratulations Helen, it’s wonderful news. I had such fun at the NZ Natcon last year, I wish I could have made it again this year but it wasn’t to be. Maybe in 2012? ๐
Congratulations Helen! Fantastic news!
Congrats Helen!
Due to fuzzy con brain, the list of winners will be released after everyone has been contacted.
Congratulations, Helen! And to everyone!
Congrats!! Cool looking award too.
Congratulations to all the winners.
It was a festive evening and the banquet was quite good. The Barrycourt Quality Inn in Parnell, Auckland did a very good job with the food and service.
Thank you, everyone, for the warmth of your support. It’s a real buzz to arrive back home and see all your comments here.:)
June: I agree that the Barrycourt was a very good venue; I thought the whole weekend was very successful.
Donna, the award is very cool: it was designed by Weta Workshops of “The Lord of the Rings” fame, in fact!
Nicole, I am planning to attend 2012 if I possibly can and it would be great to see you there.:)
I’m sorry the map didn’t win the award. It’s beautiful!
Anyway, congrats again, Helen! ๐
I think Fitz and I always knew it was going to be tough for the map, being interior art up against cover art, but Fitz says that he still feels very honored to have been nominated and even more so to be a finalist—and that Frank Victoria’s winning cover rocks!:) Thank you again for the congratulations.
Congratulations Helen I am sooo proud of you and think it is well deserved A powerful and gripping read and pleased you have been recognised for this… now get that next book out heehee just kidding ..maybe not.
Thanks Megan, I really appreciate the support—including the encouragement to make that 1 July deadline! ๐