Highly cool doings
December 17, 2015
At the ACT Writers Centre Christmas Party earlier tonight, The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry edited by Tim Jones and myself, was highly commended in the Poetry category of the Publishing Awards. The winner was John Stokes, whose collection Fire in the Afternoon is quietly brilliant. Congratulations John!
Shortly after that photo was taken, I felt I had to get home and rest. I have had a strange and emotionally intense week, as one of my dogs (the idiotic Staffie) managed to eat bones without actually chewing, necessitating urgent vet action. $1000 later, she is nearly better. Our credit card is also exhausted.
I want to write a serious article about the morality of pet ownership some time, somewhere. But that time is definitely not tonight, as I sup and sip and pat the dog who has yet to learn that bones must be chewed, as she is not actually a crocodile, despite the ludicrous strength of her jaws. She will never be offered another bone though!
Close up of the certificate, in case one image is not enough. The judges were Michele Seminara and Tim Metcalf:
UPDATE: This is a link to the official announcements and the judges’ reports in all categories.
PS Cottier 
Congratulations Penelope and Tim! I have also had an adventurous day with the canine, as mine (a big slobbery Labrador) ran off with a doggy friend and led me on a merry chase around the neighborhood for no less than three hours! They are worse than children sometimes, although slightly more resilient. I hope you enjoy a less eventful, more peaceful Christmas, and well done once again on publishing (and writing) some spectacular speculative poetry!
I just added the judges’ names Michele!
I am so looking forward to vegging over Christmas. Vegging includes reading, writing and reflection; so it’s more a salad than a single carrot.
A wonderful Christmas (without the dog houdini-ing) will be coming your way too. I hope! I feel that you work to much, with the editing and (exceedingly accurate) judging and all…(-:
The Great Houndini was what I wanted to write. I am truly tired!
Congrats on the certificate. Sorry to hear about the dog.
She is as happy as Larry’s idiot budgie now, Sean. It did make me think (a) first world problems, to which the answer is, yes, Canberra is in the first world, and (b) thank God we have a decent medical system, so that people aren’t turned away if they can’t pay for human treatment (not that Australia is a paradise for everyone, of course).
Thanks for the congratulations. And (despite your most egregious scepticism!) have a wonderful Christmas. Hope it’s not egregiously hot there, but I suspect it gets a tad warm.
Egregious. There, that’s a hat trick.
It’s hot enough for me to contemplate that we may, in fact, be living in Satan’s sweaty a*rse crack. We have also decided to celebrate Saturnalia, prancing around in Togas and getting wildly drunk roman style.
And Merry Christmas to you too 😀
Mmm, the togas sound good. But the wildly drunk sounds better. So long as it doesn’t lead to crucifixions, as that would be unseasonal.