Honour Amongst Writers

Very pleased to wake up this morning to find that Signature Walk has made the (very) long list of stories on Ellen Datlow's Honourable Mentions for Best Horror of the Year. It's weird to be mentioned on the same list as Christopher Fowler, Stephen King, Rob Shearman, Neil Gaiman and Lawrence Block... at least without the words "not nearly as good as" being used.

Anyway, better yet the list also includes three tales from Scenes from the Second Storey: The Blind Man by Felicity Dowker, Ego by Robert Hood and The Desert Song by Andrew J McKiernan. Big congrats to them, as ever I'm immensely proud. Of course, I'm duty-bound to suggest this as further reason to vote for all of these stories in the upcoming awards. Check out my previous post for details on how to show your support, now you've got further proof that they're deserving.

If that's not good news enough, the list is further populated by talented individuals from Down Under: Kirstyn McDermott, Kaaron Warren and Paul Haines all make the list, as do Chris Green, Mark Farrugia and Amanda Spedding from the AHWA critique group - as good an advertisment for the fine work that the group does as you're likely to see. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's no way you can overestimate the quality of the service these guys provide. My writing would be a lot poorer without them.