2006 World Fantasy Award Nominations

Interrupting blog-silence to share the astounding news that my novella"The Lineaments of Gratified Desire" has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award!

To which I say: Woo!

Once again I find myself in extremely stellar company: Jeff Ford, Mary Rickert, Norman Partridge & Kim Newman.

I know it's an old saw: it's an honour to just be nominated. But hey, you know, it's true. I haven't done much short fiction and have found the medium to be quite a chore. I remember when I was sure that this blasted story would never ever ever be finished. Then once it was finished I was sure it would never sell. Then once it was sold (Yay to Gordon Van Gelder) I thought it would just be a fly-by-month. Instead, it has been included in various Year's Best Anthologies, and now this.

So ayah, it it is honour just to be nominated.

Oh and also, nominated for Best Novel: Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword, an absolutely divine swash-buckler that absolutely deserves to win, and had better or I'm sure Tremontaine will have something to say. Something very cutting.

If you haven't read The Privilege of the Sword, I suggest you do so now. It's a divine book, engaging, entertaining and clever. Let's face it, the swashbuckler genre is pretty paltry these days. In fact, the only other writer I can think of working in that field is Arturo Perez-Reverte, and while his Captain Alatriste novels are good, they are not nearly so urbane or witty, and they don't have Duke Tremontaine, who is truly one of the Great Ones.

(A dinner party with Tremontaine, Lymond and Hardhards--now that would be either a joy or a bloodbath!)

I dare not offer Madama Kushner a vulgar woo. Instead, I give her a more decorous but no less heart-felt huzza!