{"id":13974,"date":"2012-06-04T21:53:42","date_gmt":"2012-06-04T09:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=13974"},"modified":"2012-06-04T21:53:42","modified_gmt":"2012-06-04T09:53:42","slug":"natcon-fun-the-sir-julius-vogel-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/06\/04\/natcon-fun-the-sir-julius-vogel-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Natcon Fun & The Sir Julius Vogel Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The "plot hole" panel<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s taken some time, but here it is at last—the report on my Day 2 at UnCONventional, the national Science Fiction Fantasy convention, and the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for excellence in science fiction, fantasy and horror<\/p>\n

I started Day 2 by checking in with my partner, Andrew, on the “Plot Holes” panel, \u00a0chaired by Russell Kirkpatrick<\/a>, where they were discussing, well, \u00a0holes,<\/em> in the plots of movies and books—with some enthusiastic input from the audience. Clearly this was a subject that sparked interest and debate, but the overall feeling of both panel and audience seemed to be that readers would generally overlook plot holes so long as the flow of the story remained unbroken.<\/p>\n

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"Promoting Your Book"<\/p><\/div>\n

Then it was on to the “Promoting Your Book” panel with Trudi Canavan, Stephen Minchin of Steam Press<\/a> and Grace Bridges of Splashdown Books<\/a>\u00a0where the discussion focused on the efficacy of social media and there was general agreement that a website or blog was essential. Trudi stressed the importance of having all essential information on a website\/blog for ease of access for other writers, booksellers and readers, while Grace also emphasised that the most important thing for a writer to do was to write the next book. All the panelists underlined the importance of differentiating between the public and the personal when using social media for promotion.<\/p>\n

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Signing...<\/p><\/div>\n

The afternoon was given over to book signing and readings, where the pictures probably speak a thousand words… But in terms of the reading I read from “The Gathering of the Lost”<\/em>: from the chapters “Across the River” and “The Wolfpack” as well as the section that brings in my “Tuckerization” character from the launch of “The Heir of Night”<\/em>—Jan Butterworth.<\/p>\n

And the evening, of course, was all about the Sir Julius Vogel Awards—with some wonderful success for friends and fellow authors from SpecFicNZ<\/a>. The awards are given for excellence in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror written or produced by New Zealanders or those resident in New Zealand. The full list of winners will appear on the Sir Julius Vogel Award website in due course but here are some of the awards made last night:<\/p>\n

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Mary Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

Best Novel: <\/strong>“Samiha’s Song” <\/em>(Book Two, Chronicles of the Tree)\u00a0by\u00a0Mary Victoria<\/p>\n

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Lee Murray<\/p><\/div>\n

Best Novel — Youth:<\/strong> “Battle of the Birds” <\/em>by\u00a0Lee Murray<\/p>\n

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Best Novella:<\/strong>\u00a0 “Steam Girl”<\/em> by Dylan Horrocks<\/p>\n

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Best Short Story:<\/strong> “Frankie and The Netball Clone”<\/em> by Alicia Ponder<\/p>\n

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L-R: Kevin Berry, Trudi Canavan, Lee Murray, Mary Victoria, Alicia Ponder<\/p><\/div>\n

Best Collected Work:<\/strong> “Tales for Canterbury”<\/em> edited by Cassie Hart & Anna Caro, Random Static<\/p>\n

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Simon Litten & GoH Trudi Canavan<\/p><\/div>\n

Best Professional Artwork:<\/strong> The book jacket of “Oracle’s Fire”<\/em>\u00a0(Book Three, Chronicles of the Tree) by Frank Victoria.<\/p>\n

Best Dramatic Presentation:<\/strong> “The Almighty Johnsons” TV series<\/p>\n

Best New Talent:<\/strong> KD Berry<\/p>\n

Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror:<\/strong> Ripley Patton<\/p>\n

Best Fan Writing:<\/strong> Simon Litten<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s taken some time, but here it is at last—the report on my Day 2 at UnCONventional, the national Science Fiction Fantasy convention, and the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for excellence in science fiction, fantasy and horror I started Day 2 by checking in with my partner, Andrew, on the “Plot Holes” panel, \u00a0chaired by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13974"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14011,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13974\/revisions\/14011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}