[Caitlin]

The Silences of Home has just been nominated for an Aurora Award (a Canadian sf/f prize). Although I'm up against some insurmountable competition (Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Charles Wilson...), it would still be nice to get a couple of votes - so to all my Canadian sffworld readers, check out the ballot! It's only in pdf format for now, but there's an html one coming.

http://www.sentex.net/~dmullin/aurora/

[KatG]

Congratulations Caitlin! August company indeed, but I just finished Silences and I think you should win. :) Of course to be fair, I haven't read the other novels, but why let that stop us.

[Caitlin]

August company indeed, but I just finished Silences and I think you should win. :) Of course to be fair, I haven't read the other novels, but why let that stop us.
Indeed! :) So are you intending to post your response to the book somewhere here? (she typed hopefully!)

[KatG]

Everytime I sit down to do it, something comes up. But I'll try soon.

[Nic_C]

Congratulations, Caitlin! Will be reading Silences this summer... :)

[Miriamele]

Caitlin, I just visited that link up top and noticed that Silences is listed as one of the five finalists for best long work in English. Congratulations! I'm so happy for you. :)

Are they going to narrow it down to one winner in each category, now? Or do 5 people really get to win? Either way, you must be really proud. :)

[Caitlin]

There was indeed a winner in "my" category - and although it wasn't me, it was the next best person! ;) Karin Lowachee, who's a good, good friend of mine (since our Del Rey Online Writing Workshop days) won for her wonderful sf novel, Cagebird. I continue to be totally thrilled for her. Now I exhort everyone to go out and buy her three books, if you haven't already: Warchild, Burndive, and the aforementioned Aurora-winner. They're fantastic.

[KatG]

If you can't win, best to lose to a friend, and a talented one at that. :) That you were nominated means that you are starting to get some well-deserved recognition in your home country.

[Caitlin]

I hope you're right about the recognition, KatG! My first book was also nominated for an Aurora, in 2004, and this didn't seem to do much for my profile here...but maybe I'm wrong. I'm extremely happy that I'm 2 for 2, in terms of nominations - surely there'll be a cumulative effect, at some point? ;)

[KatG]

I think part of the problem is that the Canadian sff community is highly respected but not near as vocal as the U.S. one (plus it has the virtues and disadvantages of being smaller.) I had not heard of the Aurora award before, which is a shame. I do think though that this sort of recognition is something publishers keep an eye on and makes it more likely for fans to hear of you.

Who would you say, besides yourself of course and Scott, and now Karin -- who is getting good buzz -- are the up and comers on the Canadian scene?