News travels at light speed around the interwebs these days, so this post is most definitely old hat by now. But as I keep this blog as much for my own memory banks as for anything else these days, I’m very pleased to report that Perfections won the 2012 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel over the weekend. (Edgar’s not part of the trophy — he just likes getting his photo taken.) It was a wonderful night, filled with good friends, good wine and good cheer, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone who played a part in bringing Perfections to publication. Not least of all my beloved, Jason Nahrung, who fed me chocolate by the family-size block and put up with almost never seeing me for the last month of writing. (You want to feel ambivalence in its purest form? Try winning an award for which your husband was also nominated and thus didn’t win. A most curious emotional state indeed.) The novel and I are still not really talking to each other — she tried to kill me, I tried to kill her; it’s a thing — but we can probably stand to be in the same room as one another now. With our backs pressed firmly to the wall, of course.
SpecFaction did a brilliant job of organising and hosting the Aurealis Awards in Sydney over the past three years and I’m sure it’s with a mixture of both sadness and relief that they pass the baton — the Conflux convention team will be bringing the Awards to Canberra from next year, with the ceremony tipped to be held in March. Cat Sparks was buzzing about with camera in hand and captured some wonderful images of the night, while Sean Wright has storyfied the Twitter feed.
The full list of winners are below. Congratulations to everyone, but especially to the indomitable and debonair Margo Lanagan who carried away no less than FOUR Aurealis Awards on the night — two for Sea Hearts and two for stories from Cracklescape, her Twelve Planets collection. An extraordinary achievement indeed and not one that will be easily — if ever — matched!
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Aurealis Awards Winners 2012
BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION (TOLD PRIMARILY THROUGH WORDS)
Brotherband: The Hunters by John Flanagan(Random House)
BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION (TOLD PRIMARILY THROUGH PICTURES)
Little Elephants by Graeme Base (Penguin)
BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY
‘The Wisdom of the Ants’ by Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld)
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
(Joint winners)
Dead, Actually by Kaz Delaney (Allen and Unwin)
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen and Unwin)
BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/GRAPHIC NOVEL
Blue by Pat Grant (Giramondo)
BEST COLLECTION
That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote by KJ Bishop (self-published)
BEST ANTHOLOGY
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six edited by Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books)
BEST HORROR SHORT STORY
‘Sky’ by Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls, Twelfth Planet Press)
BEST HORROR NOVEL
Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott (Xoum)
BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY
‘Bajazzle’ by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)
BEST FANTASY NOVEL
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen and Unwin)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY
‘Significant Dust’ by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (HarperCollins)
PETER MCNAMARA CONVENORS’ AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Kate Eltham
KRIS HEMBURY ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD
Laura Goodin
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Kirstyn McDermott 
Witnessing the birthing of that novel, even if only from a distance, was a most educational experience… and one I’m not likely to forget. Congratulations on the recognition — truly deserved.