Sometimes the nicest things happen – and they are totally unexpected. City of Lies was shortlisted for the 2011 Aurealis Award (Best Children’s Fiction), which is the Australian prize for fantasy and science fiction. This is the prize that Museum of Thieves won last year (which was the 2010 award), so while I was really pleased to be shortlisted, I didn’t think I had a chance of taking it out twice in a row. Especially given that the competition this year was so strong. In fact, I’ve been telling everyone that I definitely wouldn’t win this year.

But I won! [insert loud cries of disbelief, astonishment and joy.] And I am now going to have two of those beautiful awards sitting on my mantlepiece. What an exceptionally nice thing to happen on a cold, rainy Sunday morning. You can see all the winners below, copied from Mark Webb’s website.

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)

• City of Lies by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)

• Sounds Spooky by Christopher Cheng (author) and Sarah Davis (illustrator) (Random House Australia)

YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

• “Nation of the Night” by Sue Isle (Nightsiders, Twelfth Planet Press)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• Only Ever Always by Penni Russon (Allen & Unwin)

ILLUSTRATED BOOK / GRAPHIC NOVEL

COLLECTION

• Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa Hannett (Ticonderoga Publications)

ANTHOLOGY

• Ghosts by Gaslight edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (HarperVoyager)

HORROR SHORT STORY

• “The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt” by Paul Haines (The Last Days of Kali Yuga, Brimstone Press)
• “The Short Go: a Future in Eight Seconds” by Lisa L. Hannett (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

HORROR NOVEL

• No shortlisted or winning novel

FANTASY SHORT STORY

• “Fruit of the Pipal Tree” by Thoraiya Dyer (After the Rain, FableCroft Publishing)

FANTASY NOVEL

• Ember and Ash by Pamela Freeman (Hachette)

SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

• “Rains of la Strange” by Robert N Stephenson (Anywhere but Earth, Coeur de Lion)

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood (HarperVoyager)

Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award

• Galactic Suburbia podcast (Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts)

Kris Hembury Encouragement Award for Emerging Artists