Now I’ve had a day to get my brain back in order, I wanted to add a few things and thank a bunch of people. Firstly a HUGE shout out to Belinda Hamilton who supported my library visit, my book signing at Pulp Fiction and Supanova. She is an absolute trooper! I love her to bits. Cels Jansink also brought her mum and son to my Vicky Point library event on Thursday night. I really appreciated her support, and to see Robbie Kirk and Ruth and Loretta Cohen there as well. Karen Tyrell dropped by the store on the weekend, as did other Visionaries including Ben Payne and Arun. Missy and Fel (my Supa-girls) were fantastic as always and very accommodating with my son and his BFF who came up on Sunday. Bob Dobson and Trent Jamieson plotted a sock puppet convention.

Highlights for me were the Forlorn Gaze and Sheldon D’Arc‘s (damn photo’s too blurry to post!) performance (Jud you should be acting!), seeing Charisma Carpenter again, meeting the gentlemanly Tahmoh Penikett, having all my Brisnova readers come and tell me their news of the last year, Trent’s opening ceremony moment of risque, the Birdee bar conversations with Peter Budd (Apollo Awards), Ian Irvine and Lionel Midford (Publicist) and having Harshini watching our back at the Dymocks stall. (Sandra and Ineke were great bookseller hosts and had lots of our stock)

Rewind to Friday night: Beau at Pulp Fiction was fab and I got to have some lovely catch ups with peeps, namely Maree Kimberley, Azra Alagic, Yasmina Spiros, Rachel and Matt, Alex Adsett. YAY to you all!

I’ve been promising you an interview with Melanie Teychenne-King and Peter Budd, part of the genius behind The Apollo Awards. This is an in depth look at what I predict will become the biggest entertainment award in the world. Please share the interview far and wide so the word gets out. Can’t stop the signal…

What are the Apollo Awards?

MISSY: In its simplest form, The Apollo Awards are a gala awards ceremony honouring the best of science fiction and fantasy film, television and multimedia from around the world, and throughout the history of genre entertainment on screen. The winners will not only be voted by the fans, but nominated by them as well. The aim is to let everyone have their say on what is popular without having to choose between only five or so nominations dictated to them. Everything is in the hands of the fans!

In keeping with this culmination of a united worldwide audience, the awards ceremony – held in Queensland, Australia in the latter half of the year – will be streamed live online, to an audience of millions of viewers around the world.

Supporting The Apollo Awards, and a fundamental part of the concept, will be the Apollo Website. It will be shaped and executed in a way that is interactive and inclusive, bringing together the scattered sci-fi & fantasy communities from all over the ‘net. Not only will fans be able to nominate and vote in the awards, interact with each other, and read news and blogs aggregated from a plethora of genre websites, but they’ll shape the growth of the site through user generated content and promotion of independent works such as film, art, literature, web series, v-logs or reviews.

PETER: The Apollo awards represent an opportunity for fans worldwide to voice their support for their favourite contemporary and past film, TV show, actor or media event in the world of Sci-fi/Fantasy. They are the Oscars meet MTV. Sci-fi/Fantasy is poorly represented in award recognition and yet they are among the top money makers. This is probably due to past prejudices; the belief that if it’s not real-life drama it’s not really acting or good. We’re not out to change the mind set of the world, only to give voice to those who deserve to be heard. As we say, “You Vote. You Decide. Be heard.”

EXAMPLE CATEGORIES (does not indicate exact title of category, the entire list of categories, nor whether they will be included in the 2011 awards. These are examples only): Best Series, Best Film, Best Actor/Actress, All-Time Legend.  Awards for best… space ship or vessel; space battle; land battle; magical world; talking creature; character death; villain; on-screen partnership; love match; robot/AI; genre parody; genre music video; short film – original; short film –  fan film; trailer for novel/game; webseries.
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Well Team Apollo are so busy that we haven’t had a chance to get our conversation done, so I’m pre-empting what was going to be an interview with them and give you the exciting news and a link to a detailed article at SciFi Talk. Two of my peeps, Melanie Teychenne-King and Peter Budd (aka Missy and Pete) have launched the Apollo Awards.

“101010 Productions have partnered with Australia’s award winning production and web entertainment companies TPD Media and Zone4 to introduce a worldwide Film and Television award ceremony unique to the internet…

Peter Budd, Director of 101010 Productions said, “What makes The Apollo Awards unique is that the choice is truly and firmly in the hands of the worldwide audience. From the Americas and Europe to Africa, Asia and Oceania, both nominations and votes are in the hands of the people”.

For this global alliance of fans, The Apollo Awards will be delivered online, live and worldwide, rather than through broadcast or cable TV.

Co-creator of the Apollo Awards, Melanie Teychenne-King says, “The internet is the future of television, of breaking down the barriers between regions and time zones. By streaming the award ceremony live across the globe we’re giving everyone the chance to participate on an even level, to know they have ownership of the show.”