I'm pleased to post the nominees and (two life achievement winners) for the World Fantasy Awards. Some really great works this year. Looking forward to the announcement of the winners at the World Fantasy Convention in Oct/Nov.
LIFE ACHIEVEMENT
Leo & Diane Dillon
Patricia McKillip
NOVEL
Fangland, John Marks (Penguin)
The Gospel of the Knife, Will Shetterly (Tor)
The Servants, Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications)
Territory, Emma Bull (Tor)
Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc)
NOVELLA
"Cold Snap", Kim Newman (The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club)
Illyria, Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing)
"The Master Miller's Tale", Ian R. MacLeod (F&SF May 2007)
The Mermaids, Robert Edric (PS Publishing)
"Stars Seen through Stone", Lucius Shepard (F&SF Jul 2007)
SHORT STORY
"The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics", Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea)
"The Church on the Island", Simon Kurt Unsworth (At Ease with the Dead, Ash-Tree Press)
"Damned If You Don't", Robert Shearman (Tiny Deaths)
"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change", Kij Johnson (The Coyote Road)
"Singing of Mount Abora", Theodora Goss (Logorrhea)
ANTHOLOGY
The Coyote Road, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Viking)
Five Strokes to Midnight, Gary A. Braunbeck & Hank Schwaeble, eds. (Haunted Pelican Press)
Inferno, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tor)
Logorrhea, John Klima, ed. (Bantam Spectra)
Wizards, Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Berkley)
COLLECTION
Dagger Key and Other Stories, Lucius Shepard (PS Publishing)
Hart & Boot & Other Stories, Tim Pratt (Night Shade Books)
Plots and Misadventures, Stephen Gallagher (Subterranean Press)
Portable Childhoods, Ellen Klages (Tachyon Publications)
The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club, Kim Newman (MonkeyBrain Books)
Tiny Deaths, Robert Shearman (Comma Press)
ARTIST
Ruan Jia
Mikko Kinnunen
Stephan Martiniere
Edward Miller
John Picacio
SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL
Allison Baker & Chris Roberson (for MonkeyBrain Books)
Alan Beatts & Jude Feldman (for Borderlands Books)
Peter Crowther (for PS Publishing)
Jeremy Lassen & Jason Williams (for Night Shade Books)
Shawna McCarthy (for Realms of Fantasy)
Gordon Van Gelder (for F&SF)
SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL
G. S. Evans & Alice Whittenburg (for Cafe Irreal),
John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)
Rosalie Parker & Raymond Russell (for Tartarus Press)
Midori Snyder & Terri Windling (for Endicott Studios Website)
Stephen Jones (for Travellers in Darkness: The Souvenir Book of the World Horror Convention 2007)
Even before my World Fantasy Award duties began our three bedroom townhouse was hardly coping with the number of books we were buying. Now, we've reached the tipping point and the random piles are just too... random.
The first answer was to stack books against a wall but now I've started a cull some of our books. The first cut wasn't too hard because I began with old non fiction books that I was keeping out of habit - random works from the 1970s and '80s. That hardly made a dent though and now I have to get a bit meaner.
Of course, it was all made a bit more special when on the weekend my daughter looked at one of the random piles of books and announced: "You and Katie live in a library."
Books are good. I love going to a bookstore and buying a cool new book. Sometimes I'll go into Borders after work and buy a few books. Sometimes I'll grab a few books and a magazine or two. Every now and then I'll buy a few books, a couple of magazines and a DVD or two.
But it's a very special day when you come home from work to find a box of books on your doorstep. Today was one of those days, with Tor sending their books published last year for consideration for the World Fantasy Awards. This pile includes a few I've already come across but mostly they're books I haven't yet read.
The process is going well but I now understand why they only ever get judges to do it once. It's a lot of reading. But there's some great stuff out there - not all of it from well known authors.
Luckily this weekend is another long weekend. Thankfully I'm not on call for work. And my daughter is with me too. If only she was a bit older, I could get her to do some sly reading for me on the side.
Last weekend was a slow weekend where fewer new books came in than I got through that week. Don't think that's going to be happening this week somehow.
Oh, and if you're wondering - on top of the pile is the Clarion South mascot Gary the Lion.
I suspect for the next six months I won't be getting a lot of science fiction read or much of my daily diet of non fiction either. Plus new stuff from Aussie authors will probably have to wait until the end of the year. My non fiction books at home are likely to take a hit as well with me needing to cull something to find bookshelf space so I can keep a watch on what I've read and haven't read and easily retrieve books as needed.
To give you an quick idea, the picture above shows the works I've received from publishers in the first three weeks judging has been open. I'm off to the post office shortly to pick up any more that are there. I know there are already more on the way because my fellow judges in the northern hemisphere are already mentioning works here and there.
I'm intending on weighing all the works at the end. Anyone wanting to take a punt on the final weight can register their guess here. I'm sure I can work out some sort of suitable prize.
I'm really excited by the honour and I'm looking forward to half a year of solid reading (and reading and reading). It's even better because Kate and I had already decided to make the trip to Canada for the convention this year. So I'll be there to see the awards presented.
I'm really keen to encourage locals to nominate. If you've got a great fantasy work, please send it in.
For the full list of judges, details of categories and nomination timelines etc go here.
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roberthoge- Robert Hoge
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