Because I am not going to allow that last piece of self-indulgence to sit at the top this blog for any longer than necessary, here is the first of my Closing Tabs posts.
Earlier this month, the nominees for the 2010 British Fantasy Awards were announced and I was extremely pleased to see that Rob Shearman has received no less than three well-deserved nods. “Roadkill” and “George Clooney’s Moustache” have been nominated in the Best Novella and Best Short Story categories respectively, and the book in which you can find them both, Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, is also in the running for Best Collection. (It’s also worth noting that “Roadkill” was first published by Twelfth Planet Press, an Australian small press which is producing some truly stunning and significant books.) Love Songs is a brilliant collection, witty and poignant and dark and uplifting all at the same time. I cannot recommend it more highly.
In news closer to home, the somewhat-still-prestigious Miles Franklin Award was won by crime writer Peter Temple for his novel Truth. I haven’t read any of Temple’s work, but it’s great to see genre fiction being recognised in what has been very much the province of capital-L-literary fiction. Could this open the way to more speculative fiction?
Lastly, this year’s Ditmar Award nominations (for works published in the 2009 calendar year) are now open and you can nominate your favourite works on the online nomination form. To help refresh your memory, Tehani Wessely of FableCroft has created a work-in-progress spreadsheet of eligible works over all categories. Feel free to contact her to fill an gaps you might spot.
And that’s half a dozen tabs closed right there!
Kirstyn McDermott 
Nice round-up!