Well, this is a first!

I’ve never written an awards eligibility post before – not because I haven’t had any eligible stories (I must be pushing on close to fifty publications by now) but mostly because of chronic authorly reticence when it comes to self-promotion. I understand this is something shared by many writers and that it’s simply necessary to push on through and just do it. So I’ve given myself a stern talking to and ordered the brain weasels who are always whispering But who cares? to take a back seat just for once.

I’m proud of all my stories. I think anyone who gets anything published in this day and age should feel proud. But pick of the bunch this year has to be Places You Have Never Been published right back at the start of the year in the Jan/Feb issue of Analog. Placing a novelette-length story with Analog felt special (and was a first for me). Reader reviews that I happened across were all positive which was nice. (Confession time: turns out it’s not hard to ‘happen across’ reader reviews if you google your name and story title. I know I shouldn’t but…) Places You Have Never Been also got a very positive review mention by A. C. Wise and made the Locus recommended reading list for that month. Here’s what she said:

I’m also sitting on some exciting anthology news regarding this story which I’ll share just as soon as I get the green light.

What else? What Remains of the Rainbow was a little short story published in Offshoots: Humanity Twigged, one of the Third Flatiron anthologies which are always fun collections full of stories which span the whole SF/F genre and loosely centred around a particular theme. This one amuses me because it has its genesis in a running joke with my wife. She came up with the title years ago while we were on holiday driving and saw a beautiful rainbow in the distance. Ever since, she likes to claim she has ‘basically written the story for me having gifted me the title – and please, why have I not finished it off and published it?’ Ideas swirled around for a year or two before I finally came up with something that worked and the editors at Third Flatiron took it for this anthology. So now I have ‘finished it off.’ So this one is for you, Vanessa!

In passing, I’ll note that this year also saw a couple of anthology reprints: Blue Shift, Passing By in the Best of British SF 2023, edited by Donna Bond and How Does My Garden Grow reprinted in Journeys Beyond the Fantastical Horizon (a Galaxy’s Edge Anthology). The latter counts as my most successful story so far, having been picked up for two best-of anthologies in addition to the original publication. However, neither of the above stories saw first publication in 2024 so are unlikely to be eligible for any award other than an anthology-related one.

So there it is. If you happen to have read Places You Have Never Been or What Remains of the Rainbow (details of where to find them are on my Fiction page) and like them enough to consider nominating them for an end of year award, I would be most honoured. (E.g. the Nebula Award ballet is open until Feb 28th 2025 here: https://www.sfwa.org/forum/ballots/)

There. Did it! Now I need to go lie down in a darkened room and recover.