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The Prix Aurora Awards has a category for Fan Achievement - Organizational.I attend various science fiction awards ceremonies, and one of the best organized and entertaining is undoubtedly the Constellation Awards, held annually at the Polaris Science Fiction Convention. It's got videos that work, comedy skits, celebrity emcees, and Canadian actors, actresses, and models. And it's also the best-dressed of the Canadian science fiction award ceremonies (Fashion TV should do a report from the Constellations).Andrew Gurudata organizes this ceremony, so please consider nominating Andrew Gurudata for the Constellation Awards Organization.You can nominate him online at: http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationVoting.htmAlso please nominate people and works in other categories as well.Act now! The nomination deadline is February 15!
Eric Choi is my co-editor of The Dragon and the Stars.
Eric Choi's short story "Another's Treasure" is indeed that rare treasure: a humorous science fiction short story published in a time when most science fiction writers are trying to exceed each other with serious, pessimistic themes. My warped sense of humour liked it, which is why I'm nominating it for Canada's national science fiction award, the Prix Aurora Award, in the category of Best Short-Form Work in English.
"Another's Treasure" was published in the anthology Footprints, edited by Jay Lake and Eric T. Reynolds, from Hadley Rille Books. See it here at Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Footprints-James-Van-Pelt/dp/0981924395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262752154&sr=1-1If you're a Canadian citizen (even if not necessarily living in Canada) or permanent resident of Canada, you too can nominate the story for the Prix Aurora Award, Best Short-Form Work in English category, online at: http://www.prix-aurora-awards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationForm.php
January 1: meeting David Miller, Mayor of Toronto, at his annual New Year's Day levee at Toronto City Hall. Levees are an old Canadian tradition for mayors to greet the people. In the background is City Councillor Pam O'Connell.
February 6: an otherwise dull winter livened up when Robot Chicken made a surprise appearance at the Scotibank Theatre to promote the Teletoon TV network.
April 6: with my fellow announcers at the Constellation Awards press conference: Liana K. (host of Ed and Red's Night Party) and Andrew Gurudata, chairman of the Constellation Awards, Canada's awards for science fiction film and television. The press conference to announce the nominees was held at the Royal Canadian Military Institute, Toronto.
June 6: With Major General Richard Rohmer, the D-Day 65th Anniversary Ceremony, Queen's Park, Toronto, June 6, 2009. Gen. Rohmer flew over Normandy on D-Day. His daughter, Anne Rohmer, is a well-known City TV presenter. Interestingly, Gen. Rohmer is also a science fiction writer of a sort; in the 1970's and 1980's, he wrote some "future history" novels such as Separation (Quebec separates) and Ultimatum (U.S. invades Canada) and technothrillers such as Starmageddon (U.S.-Soviet space war) and Periscope Red (Soviet submarine).
July 11: I might not win many science fiction awards, but I'm lucky enough to present them with some awesome women. The awesome woman this time is Pamela Mars, an actress and model who has appeared in the movie Land of the Dead, four Playboy special editions, and fashion shows at Toronto Fashion Week. We're holding the envelope containing the title of the winner for Best Overall 2008 Science Fiction Film or Television Script. Constellation Awards at Polaris Science Fiction Convention, Richmond Hill, Ontario.
Pam and I on stage.
With Karen Cliche, actress from Mutant X, Flash Gordon, and Vampire High. Karen was mistress of ceremonies of the Constellation Awards.
With CP 24 traffic and weather reporter Pooja Handa and Paul Bliss, CTV Queen's Park Bureau Chief,
who were presenters at the Constellation Awards.
With actress Kate Hewlett from Stargate: Atlantis, another presenter at the Constellation Awards ceremony.
With actor Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica at the Constellation Awards ceremony.
The presenters and performers of the Constellation Awards after the ceremony.
August 7: at Anticipation, the World Science Fiction Convention, in Montreal, I represented China by announcing the winners of the 2008 Galaxy Awards, awarded by the Chinese science fiction magazine Science Fiction World. At this event, science fiction writers and fans from nine countries announced their countries' various awards for science fiction writing, as well as the Canada's Constellation Awards for science fiction film and television.
Immediately after the International Awards Showcase, I went to the ceremony of the Prix Aurora Awards, Canada's national science fiction writing awards, to present one of the trophies.
With my fellow presenters at the Prix Aurora Awards: Liana K. (host of Ed and Red's Night Party), Gina Desjardins (from Musique Plus), and Donna Mei-Ling Park (from the TV show The Electric Playground). Other writers got shiny aluminum trophies. I got to have dinner with these three beautiful, talented and incredibly intelligent ladies.
September 17: w
ith British actor James Purefoy, who plays the title character in the movie Solomon Kane, based on the character by Robert E. Howard. Purefoy also played Mark Antony in the HBO TV series Rome and Vlad the Impaler in the Doctor Who audio drama Son of the Dragon. Toronto International Film Festival, Scotiabank Theatre, Toronto.
October 28: I gave the annual Hallowe'en lecture at the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto. My subject: Mary Shelley and the creation of Frankenstein.
December 19: I met Margaret Kerry, the reference model for Tinker Bell and a red-haired mermaid in Walt Disney's Peter Pan, aboard the Disney Cruise Line ship Magic as it sailed from Port Canaveral to Key West. Here we are at the ship's art gallery.
