Flora's Honours!

In my long Period of Silence, I have been lax about chortling over two huge honours that FLORA SEGUNDA has recently received.

One, of course, is the nomination for the Andre Norton Award, given out annually by the voting membership of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. I'm in supremely good company here, for the other nominees include Sarah Beth Durst, Steve Berman, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, and Rex Adam. The award, which is specifically for young adult fantasy and science fiction, has only been around for two years, but it's the only award out there that targets the YA SF&F audience, so it's a great honour to be nominated.

Also a great honour was FLORA SEGUNDA making the James Tiptree Award Honours List. The Tiptree Award is given out specifically for books that explore or expand our concepts of gender. Since gender is one of my compelling interests, and exploration of gender is one of my driving forces--and an important aspect of my writing. I think about gender construction constantly when I write, and constantly as I world build, and it pleases me greatly that the Tiptree Jury recognized this!