If you pop over to the Australian Horror Writers Association's website, click to the Australian Shadows Awards and check out the 2013 Shadows Awards judges, you'll spot yours truly suspiciously lurking on the Short Works / Collections / Edited Works panel.
How did this come about?
Well, I received an email in 2012 inviting me to participate, and I almost jumped on board then, being both interested in the behind-the-scenes process and wanting to give something back to an organisation that has so many sterling volunteers giving up their precious time to help their fellow writers. One cannot just be a taker. I'd just had major surgery and knew I was going to be off recuperating for 8-10 weeks. I thought I'd quickly recover and have oodles of time for reading (and writing.) But I also worried things might go pear-shaped and that I wouldn't be able to fulfil my obligations, so I declined, telling the awards director to try me again this year (and thank goodness I did, given that I spent most of my days until the end of October napping, and my brain was mostly zonked out on painkillers.) One year later, almost to the day, in comes another email. This time, after much thought, I decided to do my bit for the organisation, and so there I am, on a panel, judging...
I'm already well into it, reading a story a day and letting each one swill around inside my head for a goodly while before I make my call. And believe me, being one of those anal, overly responsible types, I take the whole business very seriously.
So, yes, much to do until the end of February 2014
2 comments:
Good luck with that big task. As you say, judges and readers are often shadowy figures, so it's nice to think that someone I know - in a virtual sense, lol - is one of those people.
Thank you - so far so good. I've set up a system so as to stay on top of it and stuck with said system for a whole week. :) I'm finding that this judging gig is an excellent way of getting to know the local talent.
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