diff --git a/gwcelery/tasks/avro.py b/gwcelery/tasks/avro.py
index c29a27878ba6e1ff3411d63d580fd1f35278ebcd..b290ba28b99acd7460214da098d283c8c7cec85b 100644
--- a/gwcelery/tasks/avro.py
+++ b/gwcelery/tasks/avro.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from ..import app
+from ..import kafka
 from . import gracedb
 
 import fastavro
@@ -11,11 +12,11 @@ from requests.exceptions import HTTPError
 parsed_schema = fastavro.schema.load_schema('~/userguide/_static/igwn.alerts.v1_0.Alert.avsc')
 
 @gracedb.task(shared=False)
-def _attempt_skymap_download(superevent_id)
+def _create_alert_payload(superevent_id)
     try:
         skymap = io.BytesIO()
-        with open(gracedb.download.s('bayestar.multiorder.fits',alert_dict['superevent_id']), 'rb') as f:
-            skymap.write(f.read())
+        with open(gracedb.download.s('bayestar.multiorder.fits', superevent_id), 'rb') as payload:
+            skymap.write(payload.read())
         return skymap.getvalue()
         
     # FIXME WHat is the correct thing to do here
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@ def create_alert_dict(message):
     alert_dict = {}
 
     with open(message, 'rb') as f:
-        voevent = voeventparse(f)
+        voevent = voeventparse.load(f)
 
     params = {elem.attrib['name']: elem.attrib['value'] for elem in voevent.iterfind('.//Param')}
     alert_dict['author'] = voevent.Who.Author.contactName
@@ -37,9 +38,9 @@ def create_alert_dict(message):
     # FIXME Should the time_created field be the same as the voevent?
     alert_dict['time_created'] = voevent.Who.Date
     alert_dict['superevent_id'] = params['GraceID']
-    alert_dict['is_public'] = True if params['OpenAlert'] else False
+    alert_dict['is_public'] = bool(params['OpenAlert'])
     # FIXME Do we need to check for software injections?
-    alert_dict['is_injection'] = True if params['HardwareInj'] else False
+    alert_dict['is_injection'] = bool(params['HardwareInj'])
     alert_dict['urls'] = {'gracedb': params['EventPage']}
     # FIXME Track this ourselves when we move the voevent generation out of gracedb
     alert_dict['event_revision'] = params['Pkt_Ser_Num']
@@ -63,7 +64,7 @@ def create_alert_dict(message):
                 'HasNS': params['HasNS'],
                 'HasRemnant': params['HasRemnant']
             }
-            'skymap': _attempt_skymap_download(alert_dict['superevent_id']) if alert_dict['AlertType'] != 'PRELIMINARY' and alert_dict['AlertType'] != 'RETRACTION' else None
+            'skymap': _create_alert_payload(alert_dict['superevent_id']) if alert_dict['AlertType'] != 'PRELIMINARY' and alert_dict['AlertType'] != 'RETRACTION' else None
         }
 
     
@@ -74,10 +75,12 @@ def create_alert_dict(message):
             'observatory': params['External_Observatory'],
             'search': params['External_Search'],
             'time_difference': params['Time_Difference'],
-            'time_coincidence_far': params['Time_Coincidence_FAR'] if 'Time_Coincidence_FAR' in params else None,
-            'time_sky_position_coincidence_far': params['Time_Sky_Position_Coincidence_FAR'] if 'Time_Sky_Position_Coincidence_FAR' in params else None
+            'time_coincidence_far': params.get(['Time_Coincidence_FAR']),
+            'time_sky_position_coincidence_far': params.get(['Time_Sky_Position_Coincidence_FAR'])
         }
     except KeyError:
+        # FIXME Currently this logic will cause the task to silently ignore
+        # external coincs that are missing keys but otherwise are valid
         alert_dict['external_coinc'] = None
 
     return alert_dict
@@ -91,7 +94,7 @@ def send(self, message):
 
     alert_dict = create_alert_dict(message)
 
-    message = io.BytesIO()
-    fastavro.writer(message, parsed_schema, alert_dict)
+    stream = io.BytesIO()
+    fastavro.writer(stream, parsed_schema, alert_dict)
 
     # TODO Actually send to a kafka broker