On Being Notable...

Just time to bash out a quick post before the midday announcement of the Children's Book Council of Australia's annual 'Book of the Year' shortlist.

I found out about half an hour ago that my book 'Daywards' has made the list of 2010's Notable Books, which puts it in contention for the shortlist (though I'll be honest and declare that I think it's probably an outsider) alongside some lovely people and fantastic writers. Michael Pryor, Melina Marchetta, James Roy, Cassandra Golds, Kirsty Murray, Scottie Gardner, Cath Crowley, Randa Abdel-Fatah and lots of others. Whatever happens fifteen minutes from now, it's really lovely to see my book on the same list as all theirs and before they make the big announcementI just wanted to say congratulations to all of the notable writers. I couldn't hope to be in better company.

Missed the List, and the fun of Honkers...

Okay, so last week, while I was no doubt stuffing my face in some fantastic little Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong, I missed the announcement of the shortlist and Notables lists for the CBCA Book of the Year.

So huge, and somewhat belated congratulations to the various listees - it's a really great array of books and authors up there this year. I was really thrilled to see a lot of new faces, including some I got to meet recently at Somerset, up there. I hesitate to name names, because I don't want to miss anyone out, but there were a few little highlights for me:

I was stoked to see Dust by Christine Bongers up on the notables list, also Mama's Song by Ben Beaton - an old friend of mine from Uni days, Penni Russon's Little Bird, Penny Tangey's Loving Richard Feynman, Lili Wilkinson's Angel Fish, Kate Constable's Cicada Summer, and John and Stella Dinalis' Schumann the Shoeman.

There are a lot of others, too. Far too many for me to list here. Congraulations to everyone who made the lists, (and commiserations to those who deserved to but didn't - it's awful being a 'notable exception') Going over the list this afternoon has been one of the highlights of my day. It's also highlighted the amount of reading I have to catch up on in the next couple of months... sigh...

So now I'm back at work, have moved into my new office (which is smaller than my old one, but in which I can actually open the window - joy!), I have the month from hell pretty much behind me, and will probably get to do some more regular blog posts. Or not. I should have learned by now that it's dangerous to make promises along those lines.

Last week in Hong Kong was fantastic. It was my first visit there, and I'm so glad I went. Even if our flight home took us through far too many Australian capital cities (Canberra via Melbourne via Adelaide), we at least got a lot of practice entertaining an overtired 15 month old in a confined space. It's quite amazing the games you can play with an airline saftey card and a packet of pretzels. (Actually, Toby was a little trooper for the most part. He even slept for 7 of the 8 hours on the way from Hong Kong to Adelaide, which was *lovely*)

And Hong Kong itself was just an incredible experience. Toby was very popular everywhere we went, and at several restaurants people kept bringing out little treats for him to eat such as smoked eggs and marinated tofu. I'll be honest and admit that his parents did pretty well out of these situations, too.

What I found most intriguing about the trip was the incredible population density - I've been to some big cities before - Bankok, New York, London, Paris etc..., but this was the first time I've been to a city that size trapped on an island roughly half the size of the ACT. As a result, the way people live in Hong Kong is like nothing I've ever seen - from the freeways you look down through the layers of the city, into deep valleys formed by skyscrapers, with humanity evident at every window, flouro-lit by a million advertisements, and filled with the smells and sounds of people from every walk of life. So much of it reminded me of the physical environment of Blade Runner. (Including the air - we've all come back with nasty chest coughs)

We did all the usual things - the major tourist destinations like 'The Peak' and the various markets, but also took any opportunity to get off the tourist track - eating in small restaurants where we were the only europeans, catching the trams from point A to B, and just walking around the various districts, taking in the sights. The photo below (which those of you who follow me on Twitter might have already seen) is of the central city skyline at night, taken from the Kowloon ferry - one of the most incredible skylines I've ever seen. The photo, sadly, doesn't capture the movement or general 'twinkliness' of the reality. (For that, you have to watch the most recent Batman film, which featured quite prominantly the tall building just right of centre)


And just as good as all this, I came up with a few very exciting story ideas, which is one of the best aspects of travel. It also means I can go back there on a tax deductible research trip, if I decide to follow up with any of them :) (Actually, in all seriousness, I suspect this trip is going to have a huge impact on my Orion novel, research trip or not...)

But, for now, it's back to reality for me. We're into the second half of the semester, which promises to be interesting, then I have the Sydney Writer's Festival in May, followed by my first ever academic conference (at least, as an actual academic) in Woolongong in June. I'm delivering a paper. I'm already absolutely crapping myself. More on that later...

Oh, and blogging. Lots more regular blogging.

Promise.

A Very Good Day Indeed...

*Apologies for the lack of graphics and hyperlinks in this one: I'm working on a strange computer with reticent internet, while in a horribly sleep-deprived state....*

So...

It's been a good day today. Now I can finally talk about it, too.

Why so good?

Well, today was the announcement of the CBCA Book of the Year Award, and I'm thrilled that Into White Silence picked up an honour book award in the Older Reader's category. The winner was my mate Shaun Tan, for his very funny and thought-provoking Tales from Outer Suburbia. A few years ago, Shaun was generous enough to launch one of my other books; Fireshadow and I remember in his launch speech he joked that perhaps he and I could become one another's nemises (nemisi? Neminesses?) I guess he was more serious about this than I gave him credit for :)

But in all honesty I'm thrilled for Shaun - and really proud and honoured to have my book deemed good enough to be among the action, too. The other honour book was Jackie French's beautiful A Rose for the ANZAC Boys - one of the best YA novels I've read this year, and one which I'd really hoped to see get up there, so that's another thrill too.

The rest of the Older Reader's shortlist was also really strong and, of course, the thing with awards is that for every book lucky enough to make the shortlist, there are lots of other equally fantastic reads that have to miss out.

If this seems a little disjointed, then please forgive me. In addition to being a really good day, it's also been a *really* long one. My poor little boy has a tooth coming through at the moment, so last night involved me getting about two hours sleep, before having to get up at 4.45am to get my plane up to the awards ceremony in Queensland. I'm now sitting in the Virgin Blue lounge at Brisbane airport, waiting for my 7.30 flight home. Needless to say, I'm feeling a little zombified.

The ceremony was lovely, though. Held in the unusual surrounds of the Seal performance enclosure at Seaworld. A lot of my writing cronies were there including Matt Ottley, Frane Lesac and Mark Greenwood, Shaun (of course), Catherine Bateson, James Moloney and lots of others.

The other good news is that this morning, Into White Silence also made the shortlist for the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, which are announced in a couple of weeks. Coming on top of the great news yesterday about the Inky's, I'm feeling pretty damn good right at the moment.

Anyway, I'm going to go and have a bite to eat, do some reading for the Melbourne Writers Festival next week, and try to stay awake long enough to get to my flight.

Congrats again to all the shortlisted authors in both the CBCA and the QLD prems. I'm in very good company...