The tale of a race of amphibians struggling for survival on a water planet recently earned Regina writer Edward Willett the top prize for writing at the World Science Fiction Convention, held in Montreal.

Willett's book Marseguro won the Aurora Award, Canada's top prize in the science fiction genre, in the category of Best Long-Form Work in English, last Friday.

"When you get an award like this, it's just a great indication that there are people out there who are actually reading what you wrote and they're enjoying what you wrote," Willett told CBC News. "It's extremely gratifying and it makes me want to do better and better things with future books."

Willett's prize was delivered by an unusual character: the presenter in his category was the cigar-smoking puppet known as Ed the Sock.

"It was a little odd," Willett observed, "but as long as I got the award, I didn't mind."