Zoom!

That went fast, last night.

I need to write a real post but I am pathetically tired after less than 3 hours' sleep and the kids are about to descend on me for yet another 4-day holiday.

So I'll just say that I was in a lucky position last night.  I was sitting next to Patrick Ness, who is a major YA writer.  He has been particularly kind to my work and I was happy.  I was on the list myself but with no expectation of winning, so I could enjoy the spotlight without anxiety.  I expected the award to go to ianmcdonald, whose work I have admired for a fair many years before he was so famous as now.  But I felt from the beginning that if anybody could challenge Ian, it was Lauren Beukes.  And talking to her at Eastercon, what can I say?  She wowed me, absolutely knocked me out.  So it was a delight to see her win the Clarke Award.  My feeling is that Lauren is only beginning to do wonderful things in the world.

I'll post a bit more about the evening when I have more energy.  For now, just want to say that I'm feeling most optimistic about SF.