One strange virtue about being in Australia is that female spec fic writers are everywhere. Panels at the NatCon were mostly female (on the short story panel, for instance, the only male was Jonathan Strahan, who was there as an editor) and the writing Ditmars were won mostly by women. Bookshops automatically have books by Trudi Canavan and Jeniffer Fallon in places of prominence. But reviews are still skewed towards male writers, by and large.

A new writer came up to me and asked me about women's writing, and looked over at the dance floor (it was during the masquerade) and said "All of them, over there, dancing wildly." It was a sobering moment though, for, despite the prominence of women right now in Australia's spec fic, he had to ask.