Awards Eligibility Post 2021

2021 is almost in the record books! I can't say it was an easy year, but it was a busy one. I published nearly as many stories and essays this year and as last year, and I'm hard at work on stories for 2022. 

If you're catching up on work for awards, I've collected links to all of my fiction and non-fiction right here in this post. Where possible I've included the categories, lengths, and dates of publication. See anything you like?

NOVELETTES

"That Story Isn't The Story" at Uncanny Magazine Issue #43,

9033 words, November 1st, Fantasy/Horror 

Direct Link

Anton has long been a familiar for the abusive Mr. Bird. He finally attempts escape with the help of the last friends he has, and tries to break his bond with Mr. Bird through therapy and healing rather than magic. But Mr. Bird isn't done with him.

SHORT STORIES

"For Lack of a Bed" at Diabolical Plots,

2724 words, April 16th, Fantasy 

Direct Link

Noemi has suffered from chronic pain for years, but she's found a cure: the most comfortable sofa in the world. The trouble? It might be alive - and eating her.

"We Are Not Phoenixes" at Fireside Magazine,

817 words, March 1st, Fantasy 

Direct Link

Pyromancers seek to entertain and bring some last comforts to the patients in hospice - a place all pyromancers will one day wind up.

"Gender Reveal Box, $16.95" at Fireside Magazine,

755 words, June 1st, Fantasy/Horror

Direct Link.

So what if gender reveal parties are actually cosmic horror events? With this hot new product, you'll have the *best* gender nightmare possible.

"Guidelines for Appeasing Kim of the Hundred Hands" at Fireside Magazine,

552 words, August 1st, Fantasy

Direct Link.

A list fiction about problems with the wish-granting statue at a local university, told via all the rules students have been breaking about her.

 

"Godfather Death, in His Own Words" at Fireside Magazine,

964 words, November 9th, Fantasy

Direct Link.

Death himself drops by to give the account of his godson, and how Death's plan to help him get ahead in life backfired.

"The Tyrant Lizard (and Her Plus One)" at Drabblecast,

2617 words, August 2nd, Science Fiction

Direct Link.

 A deaf security guard realizes that the tyrannosaurus that's been attacking her settlement might also be disabled. Could this be the beginnings of a buddy comedy?

"The Best Part" in the Curtains: Concert Visions to Benefit #SaveOurStages,

540 words, February 1st, LitFic

A grip working to set up stages for touring bands has slowly gone deaf over his career. He hasn't heard a note in years. This story follows one day in his life, and what he still loves about music.

 

NON-FICTION

Weird Plagues: How Fear of Disease Mutated into a Subgenre at Uncanny Magazine Issue #38,

1322 words, January 1st 

Direct Link.


Arnold is a Survivor Girl: Why Predator is a Slasher Movie at Nightmare Magazine, 

1331 words, June 1st

Direct Link.

What Are We Supposed To Be Afraid Of In Blair WitchProject? at Uncharted Magazine, 

1197 words, August 11th

Direct Link.

 

So, dear readers. See anything you liked?

"Open House on Haunted Hill" is a World Fantasy Award Finalist!

I was quite a surprise the other day to scroll through the list of World Fantasy Award nominees and see my name. Yes, I've been blessed this year by kind receptions to my work. Yet I hadn't heard a peep from anyone about this. 

"Open House on Haunted Hill" is now a nominee for the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, alongside four other excellent shorts. It is a ballot full of writers who I admire.

I am quite emotional right now. I'd like to unpack some of that emotion for you kind folks.

I'm a Hugo Finalist!

It's been a year of wonderful firsts. I got my first sale to a Year's Best anthology, and my first Locus and Nebula nominations. Now I'm thrilled to announce one more.

"Open House on Haunted Hill" is a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

It's my first time being nominated for a Hugo Award. In fact, it's also the first time anything published in Diabolical Plots has been nominated.

What a wonderful first. And I have you all to thank for you. The outpouring for "Open House on Haunted Hill" is unlike anything I've experienced before in my career.

So thank you everyone who's read my story. Thank you from myself, and from 133 Poisonwood.

"Open House on Haunted Hill" is a Nebula and Locus Awards Finalist!

"Open House on Haunted Hill" is one of my favorite short stories that I've ever written. It follows a haunted house that has been lonely for years and just wants someone to live in it. It won't harm you. It won't trap you. It wants to keep you warm and safe as your family grows. But can anyone get over its creepy vibe and stay?

It turns out that the world likes this story, too. This week it was announced that it will appear in Paula Guran's Years Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. This handsome collection will be out from Pyr books later this year, and includes works the likes of Caitlin Kiernan, Kelley Armstrong, and Victor LaValle.

The story is also now a finalist for two major industry awards.

On Monday night, the Science Fiction Writers Association announced "Open House on Haunted Hill" is a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. It is in the top six candidates, and will be voted on by members of the association. The winner will be announced later this year.

Earlier, Locus Magazine placed "Open House on Haunted Hill" on their 2020 Recommended Reading List, making it a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Short Story. This award has open voting for anyone who signs up at Locus's site. If you've enjoyed the story, I'd be grateful if you'd give it a vote.

All these accolades are humbling. It's wonderful to see my stories touching so many people - every week I get tweets from new people who've just read it and want to thank me. My best way of showing my gratitude is to write you all many more stories. I'm working at it every day.

Thanks for sending me over the moon, everybody. It's a thrilling time!

Live Reading this Wednesday, and Lots of Good News!

Being cooped up inside is tough, especially with March coming up again. For many of us it's an anniversary or quarantine. We readers miss our book stores and conventions.

That's why I'm happy to take part in the Ephemera reading series. On Wednesday, February 17th, Ephemera is summoning World Fantasy Award-winning short story writer G.V. Anderson, World Fantasy Award-winning novelist C.L. Polk, and... me! We're all bringing our favorite stories on the theme of Friendship.

The group reading begins at 7:00 PM US EST, and is free to everyone. It will stream live on their Youtube channel and will be archived for you after. The live chat is warm and welcoming to all comers, and there may be time for a Q&A with the audience.

So if you're frozen at home right now, drop by and say hello. I might have a story about a friendly tank for you.

In advance, I have two lovely pieces of news!

Firstly, my story "The Bottomless Martyr" got a groundswell of support from the readers of Uncanny Magazine. Today Uncanny announced the results of their reader's choice poll and "The Bottomless Martyr" ranked #3 out of everything they published in 2020. It's pretty wild for the first fiction piece I've ever published in Uncanny. It shares a list with incredible writers like Martha Wells, T. Kingfisher, and Eugenia Triantafyllou. I can't thank y'all enough.

Secondly, the Locus Recommended Reading List was announced and I've made it onto there for the first time in my career! "Open House on Haunted Hill" was listed in their Best Short Fiction category. That means it automatically qualifies for the Locus Award, as well, and if you're voting, I'd be honored if you'd consider 133 Poisonwood for your ballot.

Again, thanks to all my readers for their support. You're why I'm digging deep in the middle of a new novel right now. Come out Wednesday night and we'll celebrate together.

2020 Awards Eligibility Post

This year is actually almost over! Sure, some part of you says it's still March, but that part is sleep deprived and needs a hug. 

And because 2020 year is almost over, awards nominations are starting to open up. That leaves us writers with the nervous task of collecting our awards-eligible material.

Below, I humbly present the stories and articles I've written this year. This has been the most fruitful year of my career, with more publications and fan outreach than ever. I'm profoundly grateful to everyone who has enjoyed my weirdo stories. "Open House on Haunted Hill," for instance, is the single most popular thing I've ever written, despite being exactly the sort of thing so many people told me I couldn't and shouldn't write. Thank you all who proved those voices wrong.

Thank you to anyone who has space on their ballots and end-of-year-lists for any of my work.

Bathroom Monologues Movie Awards for 2018

It's almost March 2019, so of course we're all talking about the best movies of 2018. Naturally I'll disagree with some of the Oscar winners. More naturally, I don't understand what some of the categories mean. But nothing shall dissuade me from telling a democratic body of people who devote swaths of their lives to film that their mass conclusions were wrong. So here we go!

The Robbed Award

Going to the movie that got no play last year

and is just as good as whatever won Best Picture

THE FLORIDA PROJECT

My 2018 Publications

It's been a busy year! Most of my writing time this year has gone into the hardest novel I've ever written, which was a heck of a climb, and left me a better writer than I've ever been before. 2018 is my first year having something published my Uncanny Magazine, the first year I had a story get featured on Boing Boing, and the first year an editor accepted my story *in person*. It makes me feel fortunate both to have such supportive markets, and to be working in a time when so many other inspiring writers are putting out work.

I have three stories eligible for awards in 2018, as well as two non-fiction pieces I'm particularly proud of.

Fiction

Tank!

(~900 words)

Diabolical Plots, June 1st

Free to read at this link.

A sapient tank tries to make friends at their first Sci Fi convention.

Buyers' Remorse and Seven Slain Cause 'Adorable' Robot Dinosaur Stock to Plummet Tuesday

(932 words)

Robot Dinosaurs, May 25th

Free to read at this link.

A small town newspaper chronicles how the perfect holiday gift backfired at a local retailer.

 

Fascism and Facsimiles

(~900 words)

Fireside Magazine, June

Free to read at this link.

Two henchpeople learn the hero they've always fought is colluding

with their employer, and they have a crisis of faith in evil.

Non-Fiction

The Stories Our Games Tell Us: Excellent Game Narratives of 2017

Uncanny Magazine, January

Free to read at this link.

On the wildly diverse kinds of stories and storytelling in modern games.
Includes Pyre, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Night in the Woods,
Divinity Original Sin 2, Hollow Knight,
What Remains of Edith Finch, and NieR: Automata.

The Expendable Disabled Heroes of Marvel's Infinity War

Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, September

Free to read at this link.

On the MCU's historic failure of writing people with disabilities
and how it culminated in exploitation throughout their most popular film.

I can't talk about upcoming 2019 publications yet, but have some announcements coming. Thanks to everyone for your support!

My True Convention Story That I Wish Was Fiction

We're going into convention season, and I keep meeting new writers who are nervous about making bad impressions. Especially early on, you dread that anything you do will kill your career. In order to make some anonymous writers feel a little better, I want to share a story that I wish wasn't true.

My greatest convention shame began with a great short story. It was nominated for an award at this con I was attending, and was one of the funniest Science Fiction shorts I'd ever read. It was vicious, sometimes repulsive, using impossible plots for hilarious ends. It was so funny that I got up in the middle of it to annoy friends by reading random passages aloud.

As I spread glowing reviews across social media, I discovered something: most reviewers hated this story.

Many of the reviewers were attracted just because it was nominated for this Prestigious Award; they argued that it was too morbid, too awful, or not even a story. After a while, I felt the author was being wronged. Dear reader, I argued on the internet.

Bathroom Monologues Movie Awards 2015

It's almost March 2016, so of course we're all talking about the best movies of 2015. If all the griping on Twitter is any indication, I'm once again happy to have skipped the Academy Awards. Naturally I disagree with some of the winners. More naturally, I don't understand what some of the categories mean. But nothing shall dissuade me from telling a sizable democratic body of people who devote swaths of their lives to film that their mass conclusions were wrong. Here we go.

Everyone's Angry About the Hugos

John Scalzi has argued that the Hugo nominations shouldn't be announced so close to Easter since too many people are busy to get caught up in them. Cleverly, the voters circumvented that this year by nominating people that would piss everyone off.

The most outrage is about Vox Day's novelette, Opera Vita Aeterna, published in The Last Witchking. Everyone was furious without having read the story. Why? Because Vox Day is also a cartoonishly bigoted blogger, most famous for writing unforgivable things about N.K. Jemisin. Here his fiction has been nominated, not the person, but liberal voters have a difficult time extricating the two, or even seeing why they should bother. It's the most brazen example yet of Hugo voters copping to the awards not being exclusively about the works nominated.

The nomination presents a fascinating problem for WorldCon. We knew about 10% of SFWA members voted for him to be their president before he was kicked out of the group. Now we know enough WorldCon members are willing to vote in his work, and it feels like there's a reactionary element here, hoisting him up in retribution for his booting.

But what do we do about this? Kick out anyone who votes for him? Go make a new club that doesn't let "the wrong kind" of people in? For all the negativity flowing right now, I don't see any reasonable solutions proposed.

Bathroom Monologues Movie Awards 2013

It's March 2014, so of course we're all talking about the best movies of 2013. If all the griping on Twitter is any indication, I'm once again happy to have skipped the Academy Awards. Naturally I disagree with some of the winners. More naturally, I don't understand what some of the categories mean. But nothing shall dissuade me from telling a sizable democratic body of people who devote swaths of their lives to film that their mass conclusions were wrong. So here we go.

The Robbed Award
Going to the movie that got no play last year
and is still on my mind more than whatever won Best Picture

Beasts of the Southern Wild

The Too Little/Too Late Award
Going to the movie I missed by several years,
but have now seen and wish I'd been on the bandwagon for at the time

Lawrence of Arabia

Super Sweet Blogging Award

My friend Catherine "Ganymeder" Russell bestowed upon me the most colorful blogging award I've seen yet. It's also the most appetizing.

I actually postponed posting about this one until I was allowed to snack. I've been on a strict diet during my editing sprints, but today I got a little candy, and life got a little better.

The rules are fairly standard. Answer five sweet questions, and the pass the hop onto whoever you like. Here we go:

1. Cookies or Cake?
If this counts ice cream cake, then cake. If not, then cookies.

2. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Vanilla is highly underrated, but it's chocolate. It has too many applications independent of ice cream and baking.

3. Favorite Sweet Treat?
Shifts on the mood, definitely. Sometimes I've got to have Reese's Cups, or ice cream cake, or muddy buddies. None of which I'm allowed right now, so I've just made myself miserable!

4. When do you crave sweet things the most?
Usually as I'm passing through a stressful self-regulated activity, like marathon editing. I want that reward, and holding it off is big. Typically I crave that snack more in the throes of the labor than when it's done and I'm allowed it. I also don't often allow it.  Today I'm on my last push on Last House in the Sky, having nearly all the revisions done. I hit my penultimate landmark last night, and am celebrating right now with a couple handfuls of Reese's Pieces.

5. Sweet Nick Name?
Invincible Jello. You'll have to ask my friends why.

My Three Sweet Recipients
-Danielle La Paglia: has put up with so much from me lately, and is generous with digital Fritos.

-Theresa Bazelli: my favor writing baker. I sometimes avoided her blog for fear of the cravings her kitchen photos would give me.

-Chuck Allen: just this week he took to Twitter offering to help any writer who was stuck and needed to talk out problems. That's a sweetheart.

I Won Two More Liebsters!

So I've been bad about awards in the last couple of months, given all my health problems and family distractions. Last night I made a point of making good on at least two blogger goodies handed to me by very considerate people who didn't deserve to have me take this long. I've won a pair of Liebsters, which require you to answer eleven questions, reveal eleven personal facts, and tag eleven more bloggers. Given that I've won this at least three times before, I'm going to track down even more people. I will, however, give you the darned dirt.

The more recent came from Franny Stevenson, a buddy from the A-to-Z Challenge. She had these eleven questions for me:

1. Do you have a nickname?

People play around with my last name; "The Wiz," or Monica Marier calls me "Wisard," which I like. But mostly people just call me "John."

2. Who’s your favourite writer?

I don't have a singular favorite author; what inspires and entertains me changes so often. But some of my favorites are Homer, J.R.R. Tolkien, Shirley Jackson, Douglas Adams, Mark Twain, Dante Alighieri, Eudora Welty, Gail Simone, Akira Toriyama, Hiroaki Samura and Stephen King.

3. If you could switch life with someone who’d you choose? And why?

Bathroom Monologues Movie Awards, 2012

It's almost March 2013, so of course we're all talking about the best movies of 2012. If all the complaining on Twitter is any indication, I'm once again happy to have skipped the Academy Awards. Naturally I disagree with some of the winners. More naturally, I don't understand what some of the categories mean. But nothing shall dissuade me from telling a sizable democratic body of people who devote swaths of their lives to film that their mass conclusions were wrong. So here we go.

The Too Little/Too Late Award

Going to the movie I missed by several years,

but have now seen and wish I'd been on the bandwagon for at the time

Big Trouble in Little China

The Raddest Scene Award

Going to the raddest scene in a motion picture

Raid: The Redemption, the brothers face Mad Dog

For the Shorties, OR, The Terminus/Validation Award

Going to the short film I wouldn’t shut up about all year

Paperman

The Best Soundtrack Award
John's already used the "going to the obvious thing-award" joke,
so this is embarrassing

Raid: The Redemption

The Dark Horse Award

Going to the movie that was way better than you all led me to believe it would be

Lockout

You're Actually All Great At This

Going to the best ensemble in a motion picture,

since a great cast is way more impressive than a single great performance

Silver Linings Playbook

The Frank/Nixon Memorial Award

Going to all actors who performed as well or better

than Frank Langella did in Frost/Nixon

For the fifth year in a row, No One

The "There's No Such Thing As The Best Movie of the Year" Award

Seeing as there is no such thing as a best movie amidst a field of
comedies, dramas, musicals, period pieces, speculative fiction, animation,
blockbusters and an international film market we're both not watching enough of as it is,
the award that simply goes to whatever movie brought me
the closest to both crying and laughing last year 

The Secret World or Arrietty

 
Other great movies I was too unambitious to invent awards for:
Robot & Frank, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Delhi Belly, Safety Not Guaranteed

Movies of 2011 Awards
Movies of 2010 Awards

Very Inspirational Award

So a little while ago Cindy Vaskova bestowed this Very Inspiring Blogger Award upon me. The real compliment  was Cindy finding my writing inspirational at all. It's one of the nicest things a writer can say to another. I mean, unless it turns out I inspired you to strangle your neighbors. Then I'd probably be closer to 'Neutral' than 'Flattered.'

The game requests you reveal seven things about yourself, and that you hand it over to fifteen other people. I've played a lot of games where you reveal personal details, and tried my best to come up with new stuff this time. Please tell me if I repeated something. I'll probably owe you a private revelation if you get me.

1. I root for the villains a lot. For instance, I’ve always thought the Ring Wraiths were really cool, and enjoyed the way they adapted into the movies. When the Nazgul attack in Peter Jackson’s Return of the King, I cackled so much that a friend turned to me, put her hand on my arm and said, “You’re enjoying this too much.” If only I could dive-bomb some good guys on my pet pterodactyl.

2. I’ve never had a drink of alcohol.

3. I’ve never smoked anything. For a year in my teens I needed a nebulizer for my lung medicine, which I guess counts as inhaling controlled substances.

4. I once dieted and exercised so hard that my gallbladder overreacted and I had to have it removed. I almost went bankrupt with medical bills. Healthy living, everybody.

5. One time while I was in the hospital, my brother and father gave me a bunch of rare football cards. I was so surprised that I flatlined.

6. I don’t have as much of a conscience as I have a modular sense of what some people might object to. When I love what I’m writing, even this modular sense goes on the fritz, and sometimes I’ll ask a friend to read it over to ensure it’s not horribly amoral. The most recent case was Exorcising Mother (thanks be to Max Cantor).

7. One reason that I’ve never bought Meme Theory is that human beings are not unconscious repetition machines. It’s not blind luck or survival traits that necessarily cause us to adopt an idea or behavior; we are quite often intelligent designers, altering a notion upon reception, or after a period of mulling it over. For instance, I’m changing how this award works. I’m going to pass it to three people, and I’m going to include the stipulation that you have to tell why you’re naming them.

So, I'll be passing this on to...

1. Stephen Hewitt of Café Shorts. While his blog is updated infrequently, every story he posts is lovingly crafted with provocative language, characterization and plotting. He is one of those fiction bloggers who not nearly enough people read. I deeply admire writers who experiment with different material, and Stephen does this with almost every piece. Sometimes the inspiration is simply that I should be as good at crafting the whole piece of fiction, with all its wiggling bits, as he is.

2. Elephant’s Child is obviously not her real name. However, it’s what she goes by on the internet, and I respect that. EC has one of the most positive blogs on the web. Even when she’s grappled with health problems and personal tragedies, she’s fostered compassion from her community of friends and followers. It’s something I’d like to be able to inspire as easily as she makes it look.

3. T.S. Bazelli is very transparent about her writing process. There are status updates, she's also happy to discuss what she got out of an article, a writing camp, or even her latest set of edits. She's been incredibly kind to me as both a beta reader and discussing her own process. I love transparency in how we get fiction to work.

John's Versatile Answers, EST 2012

You may recall that I recently fixed the Versatile Blogger Award. In doing so I added six interview questions to the award, but would only answer them after all six of my recipients did. Well, they have, and so now I have to admit things about myself. I promise to make them uncomfortable.

1. What's the last sentence (from any of your work) that made you feel pride in writing?

--After receiving some theta manuscripts back recently, I’ve found I like more of my book than feels appropriate. I love this weird thing. The last line that made me almost ashamed of myself to enjoy having found was this relationship advice:

“You can go find her. When you do, if she’s worth it, take no excuses and abide. If she isn’t, masturbate. Words of my father.”

2. What’s the last work of fiction that left you envying the creator? In what way did you envy he/she/it/them?

--Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 hit me pretty hard. There is not one page for at least the first hundred pages whereon he didn’t write at least one notion, one sentence or paragraph unlike anyone else has ever written. Vastly culturally literate while being unafraid of silliness, intimately knowledgeable about people’s pettiness and the frequent apathy of fate, culminating in a game of Strip Trivia. I don’t necessarily want to have written The Crying of Lot 49, but I write late into many nights pursuing that enticing output.

3. In your entire life, what have you most catastrophically failed at cooking or baking?

--My culinary arts are limited, and so my failures are mostly mundane. However, I am still haunted by a calamitous case of macaroni. I returned to the kitchen after only a few minutes to find all the water boiled away, and every macaroni having gone vertical and burned to the bottom of the pot, so that I was faced with a cast coral reef of inedible dinner. Some of the macaroni-ends even wriggled and puckered in the heat, in such a sphinctorial fashion that I was off pasta entirely for months. It took an hour to scrape all that crap off.

4. What field of science most frequently inspires you?

--Physics. It unites all things miniscule and enormous. We are made up of things so small we can’t see them, and we contribute to a world so big we can’t recognize it. Physics also rings both those scales into viewable context. Like G.K. Chesterton, I feel distinct awe that everything and everyone is made of the “one stuff.” It’s a versatile stuff.

5. What task most recently frightened, grossed you out or otherwise intimidated you, such that you got someone else to do it?

My family recently bought me a cell phone so that I won’t die in a ditch somewhere without calling. Upon arrival it required some thirteen different calls to activate and set up. After about four I was ready to shatter the device against a wall, and so you could say I was intimidated to the point where I asked them to do the rest. I hate you, automated operator.

6. Who is your favorite dead author? Or, if there is no single such person, name six of your beloved dead authors (in no necessary order).

You may have guessed that I have no single favorite. But here are six beloved writers: Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, Douglas Adams, Homer, J.R.R. Tolkien and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Fixing the Versatile Writer Award

Last week Steven Green gave me the Versatile Blogger/Writer award, and Richard Bon re-upped it with a shout-out. This marks at least the sixth time someone has been kind enough to think of me in their listing: I’ve previously received it from Marianne Su, Larry Kollar, Stacey Turner, Mari Juniper (who is apparently alive?) and Helen Howell.

It's been interesting to receive this award so many times. I mean, it's flattering. It's damned flattering, and thank you, it's staving off suicide, but it's interesting because over time the Award-game has lost all its game-properties. Now you just pass it on.

Well I'm not just passing it on, my friends. If winners can remove rules, then this winner is adding some. In honor of my sixth receipt, I’ll pass this on to six sundry bloggers, but they must answer six sundry questions.

1. What's the last sentence (from any of your work) that made you feel pride in writing?

2. What’s the last work of fiction that left you envying the creator? In what way did you envy he/she/it/them?

3. In your entire life, what have you most catastrophically failed at cooking or baking?

4. What field of science most frequently inspires you?

5. What task most recently frightened, grossed you out or otherwise intimidated you, such that you got someone else to do it?

6. Who is your favorite dead author? Or, if there is no single such person, name six of your beloved dead authors (in no necessary order).

As for the six writers I’d like to label Versatile this morning, in no necessary order:

-Laurita Miller

-TS Bazelli

-Craig Smith

-Lisa Vooght

-Carrie Clevenger

-Mark Kerstetter

If my six sundry targets answer the questions, then I guess I’ll have to as well. Since I have a writing convention next week, it’d be a great way to return home, and something fun to do on the train back. I’m only sure about #3.

Now I Get a Liebster Award

Last week Joshua "Judge Whisky" Londero bestowed the Libester Blog Award upon my person. He said it was the least he could do after I'd entertained him for so long, which is one of the more flattering things anybody's said to me in quite a while. I'd like to thank him both for the compliment and the award.

I'm a little disappointed that this one doesn't come with fun rules like "admit seven embarrassing things about yourself" or "post a picture of you and the sharpest object in your house." However, it does prescribe passing itself on to folks who, presumably, you like. The description goes:

The Liebster Blog Award originated in Germany

(Liebster means “favourite” or “dearest” in German)

In accepting this award, the recipient agrees to:
1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks for the award and let them know.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people in the blogosphere.
5. And, lastly – have fun and spread the karma!

I think my recipients posting pictures of themselves with the sharpest object in their homes would fit the definition of me "having fun." Regardless, I'm only command to pass it on, and since I didn't pass on my recent redundant awards, I'll dust off my Bookmarks for this one. Here goes.


1. Mark Kerstetter's The Bricoleur is the first blog that came to mind. Mark is in the process of figuring out what e-book project he'll take, and the blog is a great jumping-off point for content, as he's shared essays, thoughts on literature, poetry, stories and photos there. He is one of the most candid essayists I know.

2. Holt Right There has one of my favorite titles on the internet. It's run by young Jack Holt, who writes some of the weirder stuff I consume weekly, including occasional flash fiction based on movie titles (like "Shark Knight").

3. Inkstained is the blog of TS Bazelli, one of my beta readers. She's had a couple of very strong running features, including the current international bestiary "Creature Compendium." I'd never heard of The Church Grim before, had you?

4. Tim Van Sant is one fine man, and a pillar of the #fridayflash community. He writes at the OTOH, and creates a lot of the riskier and cheekier stories in the community. A stand-up guy.


5. Lastly, I bestow the Liebster upon Cathy Webster of Life on the Muskoka River. She's had a rough time lately between eye surgery and a lack of junk food. Presently she's been running a "letters from friends" event that's quite pleasant, and features at least one of the above writers.

Now, none of the above are technically obligated to photograph themselves with particularly sharp objects. I will say, though, that whomever poses with the sharpest object will win something special in my heart.

EDIT: This is actually open to all my readers and fellow writers. Snap a photo with the sharpest thing in your house. If enough people do it, we might run a formal competition.

"Simply Lost" at Calling Shotgun

This week my flash story "Simply Lost" was featured at Laurita Miller's Calling Shotgun. It won an Honorable Mention from her and Alan Davidson's Lost contest. Their challenge was to write something on the theme of being lost. Naturally, I wrote about the show Lost. Even though I thought the story was a little dreary, it won points for humor with the judges.

You can read "Simply Lost" at this link.

Some folks are having trouble leaving comments at Calling Shotgun. I've left this post open if you want to leave your thoughts here.