I'm on the 2013 Aurora Ballot!

Submitted by Douglas Smith on Tue, 2013/05/14 - 4:35pm

I'm happy to announce that my short story "The Walker of the Shifting Borderland" made the final ballot for the 2013 Aurora Awards. Woo hoo! Thanks to any and all of you who read the story and nominated it. "The Walker..." is one of five stories on the ballot under the "Short Fiction" category.

Voting is now open and closes on September 13. The winners will be announced at the CanCon convention in Ottawa, Oct 4-6.

Your support by way of a vote for "The Walker..." would be truly appreciated, and if you nominated anything this year, then voting is free for you.

You can download a copy from my online bookstore in any of .mobi (Kindle), .epub (every other ebook reader), or PDF formats.

"A very different sort of tale. ... A cosmic story of gods which seems to be inspired by the works of Michael Moorcock, and I think he would not be ashamed of it."  —SF Crowsnest Reviews

"A tale of epic love when a mortal gets caught between a battle of the gods. Smith reminds us that we have the potential to change the world around us and that self-sacrifice can be a means of making the world around us better." —Speculating Canada

How to Vote

To vote, go to the Aurora site.

If you've registered in the past to nominate or vote for the Auroras, you can simply sign in with your email address and your 4-digit society number. If you've forgotten your society number, just click on "Forgot your Society Number?" link and follow the instructions. 

The Auroras now require a registration fee of $10 each year, which allows you to both nominate and to vote for the stories that make the final ballot.

If you nominated something this year, then you've already paid the 2013 $10 fee, so voting is free. 

If you've never registered before, click on "Register" under "Become a Society Member," and complete the registration form. Once you've registered or logged in, click on the "Pay Now" button and you'll be taken to a PayPal screen. You don't have to have a PayPal account to pay this way! Just click on "Don't have a PayPal account?" and you'll have the option of paying by any form of debit or credit card. Still with me? Once you've paid, you'll be taken back to the Aurora Award site.

Once you're registered and paid, you can click on the "Vote Now" button to access the online ballot, or click on "Mail-in ballot form" if for some reason you want to go snail mail. "The Walker of the Shifting Borderland" is listed under "Best Short Form -- English." The ballot pages contain instructions for how to vote, but basically you put "1" for your top choice in a category, "2" for your second, etc.. You don't need to vote in all categories, and you don't need to vote for multiple entries in a category.

Note that this year, the Aurora committee is providing a "voter's package" containing the majority of the nominated fiction works in a variety of downloadable formats. You'll be able to access the voter's package once you reach the ballot page.

Any Canadian citizen (not necessarily living in Canada) or permanent resident may vote for the Auroras. The voting period closes Friday, September 13, 2013.

Thanks again for any consideration!