Sir Julius Vogel Award Nominations - 2012

                         Best Dramatic Presentation

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Examples of June's writing are:

1. Book reviews:
    Game Of Thrones
    Heartless
 
2. General writing:
    http://www.concatenation.org/conrev/context_2011.html
    This last article was not published in New Zealand

For the following 3 articles published in Phoenixine 2011 editions:
   2020 and Counting - Issue 262
   To Ban a Fan - Issue 263*
   An Evening with Nalini Singh - Issue 262
All were also published in Novazine 2011 editions.

*This was published in Novazine under the title "Why Would a Convention Declare a Fan Persona Non Grata?"

For the column Strange Matter, which was published monthly in the Phoenixine 2011 editions.

For the column Uncorked, which was published monthly in the Novazine 2011 editions.

For all her writing published in the Novazine 2011 editions.

(Nominations are numbered because otherwise the text of the descriptions of each nominee may make it hard to determine where each entry begins and ends -- the number has no other significance).

Writers are "supposed" to have had many jobs, all providing experiences they can draw on to enliven their novels. I gave up counting at 30 distinctly different kinds of vocation; from managing a nursery (the plants for sale kind), to teaching in Tonga, being a clerk class 2/3 in Oz, and trading sharemarkets.

I have always written. Somewhere there is a 64,000 word science-fiction novel written in longhand in three exercise books, and also a handful of partially completed works typed on computers - enough to be able to send off the occasional three chapters and a synopsis to publishers overseas.

Today I am in my fifties and have returned to the province in which I was born - Taranaki. However, something has changed in my writing . . .

In 2007 I completed a Masters degree in Guidance, and was finally able to understand and flesh out the postformal thinking that had always been a part of me.

Characters became more complex, as did plotlines. Nothing was black and white any more, and evil was always tinged with good (and good with evil). Technically speaking, postformal thinking is always historically based and exists only in context (sorry about that, the uni makes you write these long, turgid essays around concepts like these, and then you can't ditch the habit!)

So, from my post-postformal period, the books I have written are (all self-published, some in libraries and some sold over TradeMe):

2007 - Financial - Psychology and the Sharemarket (one of the "Best NZ Book" awards for that year).
2008 - Financial - Zen and the Art of Sharemarket Investment.
2009 - SciFi - Starfire Scourge  (First book in the Prometheus trilogy)
2010 - SciFi - Orouth (Second book in the Prometheus trilogy)
2011 - A short story adapted from the first chapter of Starfire Scourge won the ConteXt short story award.
2011 - SciFi - In the Heart of Stars (Third book in the Prometheus trilogy, accepted into the final ballot of the SJV Awards for 'Best Novel' and 'Best New Talent').
2012 - Fantasy - The Unsound Prince (Undergoing editing at the moment).

For those of you wanting to read the first chapter of Starfire Scourge that the winning short story was based on (longer and with more background material as it sets up the book to come), or to read In the Heart of Stars for either the 'Best Novel' or 'Best New Talent' categories, you will find them at http://users.actrix.co.nz/wmgibson/ .

Otherwise, enjoy the convention and I wish I was there with you.

All the best,
Warwick Gibson.

P.S. There are two copies of In the Heart of Stars floating around somewhere, try the 'Best Novel' table.

K. D. Berry is the pen name of Kevin and Diane Berry. They graduated with science and arts degrees respectively from Canterbury University, New Zealand. They spent a lengthy stint in London, England, where Kevin worked in IT and Diane worked in travel, but occasionally they escaped the office to hone their creative imaginations in the remoter regions of the UK, Italy and mountain walking in Switzerland. In 2005 they returned to Christchurch, New Zealand. Kevin and Diane used to be married, but aren't any longer. Still friends, they co-parent their two fantastic boys, and each continue to write and edit fiction. The website highlighting their humorous fantasy novels can be found at http://www.kdberry.com.

Their first novel, Dragons Away!, was published by Bluewood Publishing in November 2011 and has gained several four and five star reviews on Amazon and on other review sites. It is one of the shortlisted nominations for 'Best Novel' in this year's Sir Julius Vogel awards.

Their second and third novels, set in the same fantasy world, will be published later this year. These are Growing Disenchantments and Fountain of Forever.

This nomination is based on the consistent good quality of his Young Adult genre novels starting with the HarperCollins New Zealand series consisting of The Bone Tiki (2009), The Taniwha's Tear (2010) and The Lost Tohunga (2011). This nomination also includes the three published titles Pyre of Queens (2010), Swayamvara (2011) and Souls in Exile (2011), of the four book series "The Return of Ravana", first published by Penguin India. All three HarperCollins novels can be read as stand-alone novels by adults and Young Adult readers alike. These books will appeal to readers who like urban fantasy that is well written, with good characters and well done action. Set in a modern New Zealand with fantasy and history running in parallel, it is a finely developed setting for a story. They also have a huge advantage in that they are upbeat stories, something that is lacking in NZ YA literature.

David Hair spent several years in India, with his time there productively spent as witnessed by his "The Return of Ravana" series. These are proper urban fantasy stories set in modern India, with episodes going back to local Indian history, even if the book covers give the impression of dark fantasy. Swayamvara is published by Penguin New Zealand as The Ghost Bride. Both sets of books are available in New Zealand, with publication year given in brackets on this nomination.

I first ran across the author and his works when The Bone Tiki was being launched at Dymocks, on the corner of Lambton Quay and Willis Street in Wellington. This particular Dymocks was a favourite book store of many local science fiction and fantasy fans, with a good reputation for retailing a decent cross-section of quality genre books often not found in other stores, so I knew it would be worth my time and money. The Bone Tiki enjoyed an elegant launch at Dymocks on the Tuesday 21st April 2009 to wine, fruit juice, cheese and crackers, and David Hair publicly started his career as an author. He proved to be a good public speaker too, and was already talking about his trip to India at this launch.

David Hair has proven that he is a genre writer that has consistently produced good fantasy stories that entertain the reader.

I am nominating Jacqui and Keith Smith for Services to Fandom.

I first met Keith Smith and Jacqui Dunford at ConVerge, a regional science fiction convention held in Wanganui over Labour Weekend in 1988. Keith by then was already a seasoned convention attendee, but it was Jacqui's first convention. I have photographs from ConVerge, courtesy of Keith being the nearest thing to an official convention photographer, both then and now. This service provided by Keith is wonderful if you want photos. Over the years, there have been a few occasions where I have needed to contact Keith to supplement my own photographs of a convention.

Keith has been taking photographs at New Zealand conventions for a very long time now, since WellCon B in 1980 (his first convention), providing a service to fans who want photographs.

In one of my ConVerge photographs taken by Keith is Jacqui in a Star Trek uniform. Jacqui has always been into costuming, right from the start, and usually manages to wear a costume of some sort to a convention. Jacqui and Keith have kept costuming alive at New Zealand conventions just by being one of the few fans who have often come in costume.

Jacqui was chair of the convention committee of AbbeyCon, a regional convention held up in Auckland in 1991. I've heard AbbeyCon mentioned numerous times by the fans who attended, so it must have been good!

Discontinuity or DiscCon for short was an Auckland regional convention held in 1992. Jacqui was on the convention committee, working hard behind the scenes. This was a convention that was a lot of fun.

Keith was the Fan Guest of Honour at Conquest 1995. This was the national convention held in Auckland. Jacqui was by then Jacqui Smith, and was on the convention committee of Conquest doing the Publicity and Help. Conquest was again quite a lot of fun. Their Con Book also has a handy bio on Keith which includes "While living in Wellington, in those early years he had had a hand in helping to run a couple of local minicons". Keith moved to Auckland in 1990, and became the Treasurer of the Science Fiction Modellers Club for four years. Keith was also a founding member of Aotearapa (an early New Zealand fanzine).

Keith was on the convention committee of OdysseyCon 2001, a hugely successful Auckland national convention where he is listed as the Photographer of SF conventions.

Then there was ConClave in 2006. This was the national convention and Jacqui was the Con Chair, with Keith as the Secretary. ConClave was enjoyable, fun and one of the more memorable conventions in recent years for the right reasons.

In between their convention activities, they have also been very active as local fans. Jacqui has been both Chair and Secretary to the Science Fiction Modellers Club, now known as Stella Nova. Keith has been Treasurer to Stella Nova. Jacqui is currently the Editor of Novazine, the fanzine of Stella Nova. Keith is the current serving President of Stella Nova and is Novazine's chief photographer. Jacqui has also been President of Stella Nova. When you have been active in fandom for as long as they have, roles get repeated every few years.

Outside of New Zealand, Jacqui and Keith have attended World Cons - LA Con IV, Denvention and AussieCon IV. Both are serious fans and enjoy between them - reading, film and TV media, photography, costuming, role-playing and computer games.

When she discovered there wasn't a New Zealand speculative fiction writers' association, Ripley rolled up her sleeves and set one up, embarking on a quest to find all those writers working in isolation and bring them together. Thanks to the hard work put in by Ripley and all the other members of the core committee, SpecFicNZ has grown into a thriving organisation with one hundred members, regular meet-ups around the country. The SpecFicNZ website and newsletter are a great resource for publishing news and when a SpecFicNZ member has a new publication they make a big noise about it! And it's just getting started. SpecFicNZ has big plans for 2012 and beyond.

Ripley is currently president of the SpecFicNZ core committee but she will be stepping down next year. I believe now is the perfect time for Ripley's contribution to the New Zealand writing community to be recognised.