Less than two weeks are left to nominate for the Prix Aurora Awards! Once again, I’ll be a last minute voter. I’m still frantically trying to squeeze some reading in before the deadline.

If you haven’t made your nominations yet, my second novel, Tombstone Blues, is eligible in the Best Novel category and alongside my co-chair Samantha Beiko, I’m eligible for Best Fan Organizational for work in the Winnipeg arm of the Chiaroscuro Reading Series.

Instruction for how to nominate a story are available on the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association’s site. But why should you vote? Ottawa author Matt Moore wrote an excellent blog post on why we should participate in the Aurora Awards. The more people participate, and the more they care, the more these awards will matter.

If you’re looking for a couple of last minute things to fill out your ballot, here’s a list of of stories and things I enjoyed in 2013 (Huge thanks to Michael Matheson for maintaining the CanSpec list!):

Novels:

• Armstrong, Kelley. Omens. (Dutton) August 2013
• Kay, Guy Gavriel. River of Stars. (Viking) April 2013
• Rowe, Michael. Wild Fell. (CZP) December 2013
• Sawyer, Robert. Red Planet Blues. (Penguin) March 2013

YA Novels:

• Beiko, S.M. The Lake and the Library. (ECW) May 2013
• Marshall, Clare C. Stars in Her Eyes. (Faery Ink Press) May 2013

Short Fiction:

• Bambury, James. “Dig for Fire“, AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review, AE Micro 2013, April 2013
• Bell, Eileen. “Angela and Her Three Wishes”, The Puzzle Box, The Apocalyptic Four, (EDGE) June 2013
• Bilodeau, Marie. ”The Kevlar Canoe”, Masked Mosaic, Claude Lalumière & Camille Alexa, eds., (Tyche Books) February 2013
• Braun, Shen. ”Wizard’s Sacrifice”, On Spec, #93, Summer 2013
• Charish, Kristi. “Canadian Blood Diamonds”, Masked Mosaic, Claude Lalumière & Camille Alexa, eds., (Tyche Books) February 2013
• Chen, E.L. “Nocturne, Masked Mosaic, Claude Lalumière & Camille Alexa, eds., (Tyche Books) February 2013
• Church, Suzanne. “Fun Sucker”, Urban Green Man. Adria Laycraft & Janice Blaine, eds., (EDGE) August 2013
• Fuller, David Jón. “Sin a Squay”, Tesseracts Seventeen: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast to Coast, Colleen Anderson & Steve Vernon, eds., (EDGE) October 2013
• Gander, Geoff. “White Noise“, AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review, September 2013
• McCharles, Randy. “The Awakening of Master March”, The Puzzle Box, The Apocalyptic Four, (EDGE) June 2013
• McFadden, Ryan. “Ghost in the Machine”, The Puzzle Box, The Apocalyptic Four, (EDGE) June 201
• Marshall, Helen. “The Hanging Game“, Tor.com, March 2013
• Milholland, Billie. ”Autumn Unbound”, The Puzzle Box, The Apocalyptic Four, (EDGE) June 2013
• Moore, Matt. “The Leaving”, Blood Rites: An Invitation to Horror, [?] ed., (Blood Bound Books) January 2013
• Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. “Cemetery Man”, This Strange Way of Dying. (Exile Editions) [?] 2013
• Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. “Iron Justice versus the Fiends of Evil”, Masked Mosaic, Claude Lalumière & Camille Alexa, eds., (Tyche Books) February 2013
• Nickle, David. ”Knife Fight”, Masked Mosaic, Claude Lalumière & Camille Alexa, eds., (Tyche Books) February 2013
• Rimar, Mike. “A Bunny Hug for Karl”, Masked Mosaic, Claude Lalumière & Camille Alexa, eds., (Tyche Books) February 2013
• Wickham, Sandra. ”Purple Vine Flowers”, Urban Green Man. Adria Laycraft & Janice Blaine, eds., (EDGE) August 2013

Poetry/Song:

• Clink, David. “A City of Buried Rivers“, The Literary Review of Canada, November 2013
• Marshall, Helen. “The Collected Postcards of Billy the Kid”, Postscripts to Darkness, Issue 4, October 2013
• Parisien, Dominik. “I Am Learning to Forget“, Strange Horizons, September 2013
• Wentz, Maaja, “Fallow God”, Urban Green Man. Adria Laycraft & Janice Blaine, eds., (EDGE) August 2013

Graphic Novels:

• Ford, Scott. “Romulus + Remus: Issue 2: A Watcher in the Depths part 2 of 2“, July 2013
• Kindzierski, Lovern. Shame: Pursuit, (Renegade) April 2013
• Lemire, Jeff. Sweet Tooth Vol. 6: Wild Game, (Vertigo) June 2013
• Wiebe, Kurtis J. Wiebe. Rat Queens (Image)…You could actually not go wrong filling up your ballot with Kurtis’ books, check out Drumheller and Peter Panzerfaust, also!

Best Related Work (Magazine/Anthology/Single Author Collection)

• AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review, Duff McCourt, ed.
• Innsmouth Magazine, Silvia Moreno-Garcia & Paula R. Stiles, eds. (Innsmouth Free Press)
• On Spec, Diane Walton, ed. (Copper Pig Writer’s Society)
• Dead North, Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. ed., (Exile Editions) October 2013
• Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing, Sandra Kasturi & Samantha Beiko, eds., (CZP) July 2013
• Masked Mosaic, Claude Lalumière & Camille Alexa, eds., (Tyche Books) February 2013
• Urban Green Man. Adria Laycraft & Janice Blaine, eds., (EDGE) August 2013
• Marshall, Helen. The Sex Lives of Monsters. [Poetry] (Kelp Queen Press) October 2013
• Moloney, Susie. Things Withered. (CZP) December 2013
• Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. This Strange Way of Dying. (Exile Editions) September 2013

Best Artist:

• Mohr, Erik. ChiZine Publications cover art, (CZP) All titles for 2013
• Chomichuk, GMB, Imaginarium 2013 (CZP) cover art

Best Fan Publication:

• Keycon 30 Programming Book. Labelle, Levi.
• Speculating Canada. [blog and review website] Derek Newman-Stille.
• Suzenyms. [blog] Susan MacGregor.
• Valkyire Books [blog], Samantha Beiko

Fan Organizational:

• Anderson, Colleen. Chiaroscuro Reading Series (ChiSeries Vancouver). Quarterly, 2013 [Vancouver]
• S.M. Beiko & Chadwick Ginther. Chiaroscuro Reading Series (ChiSeries Winnipeg), Quarterly, 2013 [Winnipeg]
• Sandra Kasturi & James Bambury. Chiaroscuro Reading Series (ChiSeries Toronto). Monthly, 2013 [Toronto]
• McCharles, Randy. Chair, When Words Collide. August  2013 [Calgary]
• Brian Mitchell & Levi Labelle. [Co-Chairs] Keycon 30. May 2013 [Winnipeg]
• Moore, Matt. Chiaroscuro Reading Series (ChiSeries Ottawa). Quarterly, 2013 [Ottawa]

Best Fan Music:

• Maaren, Kari. Beowulf Pulled My Arm Off CD. [?] 2013
• Debs & Errol (Linden, Deborah and Elumir, Errol). CTRL+ALT+DUETS EP (digital only). [?] 2013