Ditmar Awards

I’m very happy to announce that my novel Mistification has been nominated in the Best Novel category of the Ditmar Awards, and my short story All You Can Do is Breathe in the Short Story category.

Some incredible work on the shortlist; what a strong year for Australian short fiction. The rest of the short list is here.

Both Mistification and Jo Anderton’s Debris, also nominated, are still on special at the Angry Robot ebook store.
The Ditmar Awards will be held at the Australian National Convention, which is in Melbourne this year. Kelly Link is the Guest of Honour!

In the lead up to the awards, I thought I’d post some teasers from Mistification. The book is full of footnotes and appedices. I’m going to post a footnote every couple of days, and I might even post a recipe or two.

Here’s the first!

 

1. Raining Cats and Dogs. As his first foolish saying, Marvo investigated its meaning. He discovered that the saying came from Norse legend, where dogs were symbolic of wind, and cats were believed to be able to conjure up storms. Marvo, on discovering this, went out to the alleys of his city and found the right cat. Storm and mist, together. He also learnt that at times it had indeed rained some odd things; fish, coins, frozen faeces and frogs. He found out all sorts of odd things about frogs; he found a frog which gave birth from its back.

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Shirley Jackson Awards

I’m very happy to post the shortlist for the Shirley Jackson Awards. What an amazing six months of reading and discovery. I’m very happy with the shortlist. It was an incredibly strong year for fiction across all categories, and I’ll post about some of my discoveries (new authors, new books) once the winners are announced and I officially become an ordinary reader again!

Many thanks to the dedicated and rather brilliant organisers of the Awards, especially Paul Tremblay and JoAnn Cox. Thanks also to the other jurors; Maura McHugh, Laird Barron, Gary K. Wolfe and Matt Cheney.  it was fun to share thoughts, both negative and positive with you.

 

NOVEL

• The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday)
• The Dracula Papers, Reggie Oliver (Chômu Press)
• The Great Lover, Michael Cisco (Chômu Press)
• Knock Knock, S. P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan (Canongate Books, Ltd.)
• Witches on the Road Tonight, Sheri Holman (Grove Press)

NOVELLA

• “And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living,” Deborah Biancotti (Ishtar, Gilgamesh Press)
• “A Child’s Problem,” Reggie Oliver (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• “Displacement,” Michael Marano (Stories from the Plague Years, Cemetery Dance Publications)
• The Men Upstairs, Tim Waggoner (Delirium Books)
• “Near Zennor,” Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• “Rose Street Attractors,” Lucius Shepard (Ghosts by Gaslight, Harper Voyager)

NOVELETTE

• “The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine,” Peter Straub (Conjunctions 56)
• “Ditch Witch,” Lucius Shepard (Supernatural Noir, Dark Horse)
• “The Last Triangle,” Jeffrey Ford (Supernatural Noir, Dark Horse)
• “Omphalos,” Livia Llewellyn (Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Lethe Press)
• “The Summer People,” Kelly Link (Tin House 49/Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, Candlewick Press)

SHORT FICTION

• “Absolute Zero,” Nadia Bulkin (Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters, Prime Books)
• “The Corpse Painter’s Masterpiece,” M. Rickert (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept/Oct, 2011)
• “Hair,” Joan Aiken (The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories, Small Beer Press/ The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/Aug, 2011)
• “Max,” Jason Ockert (The Iowa Review 41/1)
• “Sunbleached,” Nathan Ballingrud (Teeth, HarperCollins)
• “Things to Know About Being Dead,” Genevieve Valentine (Teeth, HarperCollins)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

• After the Apocalypse: Stories, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press)
• The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)
• Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Livia Llewellyn (Lethe Press)
• The Janus Tree, Glen Hirshberg (Subterranean Press)
• Red Gloves, Christopher Fowler (PS Publishing)
• What Wolves Know, Kit Reed (PS Publishing)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

• Blood and Other Cravings, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
• A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones (Jo Fletcher Books)
• Ghosts by Gaslight, edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (Harper Voyager)
• Supernatural Noir, edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse)
• Teeth, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (HarperCollins)
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Harper Voyager)

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