I was over the moon this morning to read an e-mail sent by writing buddy Sonia Helbig to the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre SF group, telling of the success of our friend and fellow group member Helen Venn in the Centre's SF competition for 2007. This competition is an annual event, receiving scores of entries from all over the country. Previous prize winners and commended entries have come from people who have gone on to make names for themselves in the Aussie SpecFic scene including Lee Battersby; Dave Luckett; Karen Simpson Nikakis; Tansy Rayner Roberts; Carol Ryles; Cat Sparks and Lyn Triffitt (now Battersby). Helen herself has been on the short list at least twice before, which just goes to show that hard work and persistence will pay off eventually - if, of course, you are in the right place at the right time. Well, this was the right place and right time for Helen and also for Sonia, whose name appears among the commended authors. A million congrats and big woohoos to both of them and to all the other shortlisters. The full list can be found on Helen's blog

OK, Satima, I hear you ask, WTH are you doing about your writing? Well, I'm pleased to say that the WIP has grown to over 50,000ww in the five weeks since I returned from my wanderings. If I keep on at this rate I should have a decent enough first draft within the next couple of months. I'll keep you posted. I shall try to be more regular in my blogging, too (apologies to those who've been complaining and writing to ask if I'm ill!) but I've been busy getting my head back together after the peripatetic peripeteia of the last few years. Furthermore, my ISP has been speed limiting me too often, and as blogging is a hog for kilobytes I've been trying to be careful. Well, that's my excuse, anyway:-)