I was thrilled when my Analog story “Places You Have Never Been” made the Locus Recommended Reading List (which you can find here). I’ve never made the Locus Reading List before, so this is a new experience for me. It also means my story automatically appears on the listings for the Locus Award Poll – which I’m preserving for posterity here. (See? I said I was excited, didn’t I?):

However, If you missed it first time round, you can now read “Places You Have Never Been” for free! The publishers of Analog have kindly put their award-eligible 2024 stories up on their website for all to read. If you go here, you’ll find not only my story (eligible in the Best Novelette category) but also the wonderful “The Handmaiden-Alchemist” by Marie Vibbert (eligible in the Best Short Story category) which, coincidentally, was published in the same Jan-Feb 2024 issue of Analog as my story.

(Note: at the time of writing, the links to the two stories seemed to have been swapped over but you can still access both stories in full. I’m sure Analog’s web-master will fix this soon.)

And if you are thinking of voting in the Locus Poll you can do so via this link. Obviously, I’d be thrilled if you wanted to add “Places You Have Never Been” to your ballot in the Best Novelette category but there are still lots of great stories and books to vote for even if not. But don’t delay! Voting closes in just over a couple of weeks on April 15^th.

The Locus Awards are voted on each year by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine Locus, although you don’t have to be a subscriber in order to vote; it’s open to anyone if you go here. There’s a brief survey to complete and then you’ll be emailed a link to the voting page. You don’t have to vote in all the categories if you don’t want to, and you can nominate up to five choices in order of preference in each category.

It’s a fun thing to do! So what are you waiting for?