Mon, 07 May 2012 British Fantasy Awards 2012 – nominees

The short-lists have been announced for the 2012 British Fantasy Awards:

Novel

• 11.22.63 by Stephen King (Scribner)
• Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor Books)
• Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith (NewCon Press)
• A Dance with Dragons by George R R Martin (Bantam)
• The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)
• The Ritual by Adam Nevill (Pan)

There will be two awards in the best Novel category: The August Derleth Award for best horror novel and The Robert Holdstock Award for best fantasy novel.

Novella

• ‘Alice through the plastic sheet’ by Robert Shearman (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• ‘Ghosts with Teeth’ by Peter Crowther (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• ‘Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God’ by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
• ‘The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer’ by John Ajvide Lindqvist (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• ‘Near Zennor’ by Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• ‘Terra Damnata’ by James Cooper (PS Publishing)

Short Fiction

• ‘The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter’ by Angela Slatter (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• ‘King Death’ by Paul Finch (Spectral Press)
• ‘Sad, Dark Thing’ by Michael Marshall Smith (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• ‘Dermot’ by Simon Bestwick (Black Static, TTA Press)
• ‘Florrie’ by Adam Nevill (House of Fear, Solaris Books )

Anthology

• A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones (Jo Fletcher Books)
• House of Fear, edited by Jonathan Oliver  (Solaris Books)
• Gutshot, edited byConrad Williams (PS Publishing)
• The Weird, edited by Jeff and Ann Vandermeer (Corvus)

Collection

• Everyone’s Just So So Special by Robert Shearman (Big Finish)
• A Glass of Shadow by Liz Williams (NewCon Press)
• Mrs Midnight by Reggie Oliver (Tartarus)
• Rumours of the Marvellous by Peter Atkins (Alchemy Press)

Screenplay

• Attack the Block written by Joe Cornish
• The Awakening written by Stephen Volk, Nick Murphy
• Kill List written by Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump
• Melancholia written by Lars von Trier
• Midnight in Paris written by Woody Allen

Magazine/Periodical

• Black Static, edited by Andy Cox (TTA Press)
• The Horror Zine, edited by Jeani Rector (thehorrorzine.com)
• Interzone, edited by Andy Cox (TTA Press)
• SFX , edited by Dave Bradley (Future Publishing)

Comic/Graphic Novel

• Animal Man by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman  (DC Comics)
• Batwoman by JH Williams III and W Haden Blackman (DC Comics)
• Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez  (IDW Publishing)
• The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo)
• The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard (Image)

The PS Publishing Independent Press Award

Jurors:

• Sandy Auden
• Peter Crowther
• Nicholas Royle
• Peter Tennant
• Darren Turpin

Shortlist:

• Chômu Press – Quentin S Crisp
• Gray Friar Press – Gary Fry
• NewCon Press – Ian Whates
• Spectral Press – Simon Marshall-Jones

Artist

Jurors:

• Guy Adams
• Anne Sudworth
• Christopher Teague

Shortlist:

• Ben Baldwin
• Vincent Chong
• Les Edwards
• Daniele Serra

Non-Fiction

Jurors:

• Djibril al-Ayad
• Roz Kaveney
• Adam Roberts

Shortlist:

• Case Notes by Peter Tennant (Black Static)
• Lest You Should Suffer Nightmares: A biography of Herbert Van Thal by Johnny Mains (Screaming Dreams)
• Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen since the 1960s by Kim Newman (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Studies in Terror: Landmarks of Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby (Signum Books)
• Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero by Grant Morrison (Jonathan Cape)

As a member of the jury reading the various fiction categories I’ll have a lot of interesting titles to contemplate in the coming months. My fellow jurors are James Barclay, Hal Duncan, Esther Sherman, and Damien G. Walter.

The winners in all the categories will be announced at the British Fantasy Awards Ceremony during FantasyCon in Brighton from 27-30 September, 2012.

Fri, 04 May 2012 Jennifer Wilde 2 now available

The second issue of Jennifer Wilde – the comic book I’m writing for Atomic Diner – is on the shelves of SubCity Comics in Dublin.

It’s wonderful to have the second issue out. As usual I’m indebted to Stephen Downey, the terrific artist who is bringing Jennifer’s world to life, and to Robert Curley for making the comic book happen.

Jennifer Wilde issue 2 should be available from other retailers and the Atomic Diner web site very soon.

Mon, 23 April 2012 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Short-list

For the past six months I’ve been serving on the jury of the Shirley Jackson Awards. It’s been time-consuming and far more work than I anticipated, but it’s also been richly rewarding. I’ve enjoyed reading extensively across the fields of dark fantasy and horror, I’ve discovered new authors, and developed a deeper appreciation for firm favourites.

At last, the 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees has been announced:

NOVEL

• The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday)
• The Dracula Papers, Reggie Oliver (Chômu Press)
• The Great Lover, Michael Cisco (Chômu Press)
• Knock Knock, S. P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan (Canongate Books, Ltd.)
• Witches on the Road Tonight, Sheri Holman (Grove Press)

NOVELLA

• “And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living,” Deborah Biancotti (Ishtar, Gilgamesh Press)
• “A Child’s Problem,” Reggie Oliver (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• “Displacement,” Michael Marano (Stories from the Plague Years, Cemetery Dance Publications)
• The Men Upstairs, Tim Waggoner (Delirium Books)
• “Near Zennor,” Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• “Rose Street Attractors,” Lucius Shepard (Ghosts by Gaslight, Harper Voyager)

NOVELETTE

• “The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine,” Peter Straub (Conjunctions 56)
• “Ditch Witch,” Lucius Shepard (Supernatural Noir, Dark Horse)
• “The Last Triangle,” Jeffrey Ford (Supernatural Noir, Dark Horse)
• “Omphalos,” Livia Llewellyn (Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Lethe Press)
• “The Summer People,” Kelly Link (Tin House 49/Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, Candlewick Press)

SHORT FICTION

• “Absolute Zero,” Nadia Bulkin (Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters, Prime Books)
• “The Corpse Painter’s Masterpiece,” M. Rickert (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept/Oct, 2011)
• “Hair,” Joan Aiken (The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories, Small Beer Press/ The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/Aug, 2011)
• “Max,” Jason Ockert (The Iowa Review 41)
• “Sunbleached,” Nathan Ballingrud (Teeth, HarperCollins)
• “Things to Know About Being Dead,” Genevieve Valentine (Teeth, HarperCollins)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

• After the Apocalypse: Stories, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press)
• The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)
• Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Livia Llewellyn (Lethe Press)
• The Janus Tree, Glen Hirshberg (Subterranean Press)
• Red Gloves, Christopher Fowler (PS Publishing)
• What Wolves Know, Kit Reed (PS Publishing)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

• Blood and Other Cravings, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
• A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones (Jo Fletcher Books)
• Ghosts by Gaslight, edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (Harper Voyager)
• Supernatural Noir, edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse)
• Teeth, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (HarperCollins)
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Harper Voyager)

Congratulations to all the nominees!

The 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented on Sunday, July 15th at Readercon 23, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts. Shirley Jackson is the Memorial Guest of Honor. Readercon 23 Guests of Honor, Peter Straub and Caitlin R. Kiernan, will act as hosts.

I’d like to thank my fellow jurors Laird Barron, Matthew Cheney, Kaaron Warren, and Gary K. Wolfe for their insight and dedication, and in particular the Shirley Jackson Awards administrator JoAnn F. Cox, and Paul Tremblay who have been invaluable facilitating the awards and aiding the jury.

Fri, 02 March 2012 Eagle nomination

Yesterday the final short-list of nominations for the Eagle Awards was released, and much to my delight, Jennifer Wilde, the comic book I write for Atomic Diner, is one of the contenders in the Favourite European Comic Book category. A special shout-out to Stephen Downey, whose artwork brings Jennifer to life, and to Robert Curley at Atomic Diner, who also nabbed a couple of other nominations.

Voting is open now in all sections until April 2nd.

The final results will be announced at the Eagle Awards ceremony at London’s MCM Expo on Friday, 25 May 2012.

It’s a fitting category for Jennifer Wilde, especially as the series is decidedly European – Jennifer conducts a three-nations tour (France, England, Ireland) during the storyline.

Issue 2 will be going to the printers in the coming days, so fans of the series will be able to read her English adventures in a few weeks.

Just a couple of other notes: on the Forbidden Planet International blog today I review Irish artist/writer Leann Hamiliton’s self-published comic Finn & Fish, and on ComicBuzz recently I reviewed the graphic novel anthology Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, volume 1, published by Archaia Entertainment.

I’m off to P-Con in Dublin today, so I’m looking forward to catching up with friends and colleagues over the weekend.

Tue, 28 February 2012 BFS Awards juror

It’s been officially announced: I’m a member of the inaugural jury for the 2012 British Fantasy Awards.

My fellow jurors are:

• James Barclay
• Hal Duncan
• Esther Sherman
• Damien G. Walter

So I’m in excellent company.

I’m currently in the last throes of reading for the Shirley Jackson Awards, so I’ll be keeping the momentum going into the BFS Awards.

I will enjoy being given a short-list of material to read, and not every title/story that’s eligible.

If you’re a member of the BFS please nominate your peers for this year’s Awards, and give the jury grounds for a lively debate.

I may not want to read anything else for a couple of years afterwards, however!

Fri, 17 February 2012 In Dublin and Maynooth

Later today I’m taking the road to Dublin, as Stephen Byrne, Robert Curley and I will be signing copies of Róisín Dubh in the Library Bar in the Central Hotel, Dublin from 7pm onwards.

Tomorrow the three of us will be attending Epic-Con in Maynooth, where we’ll be talking about the project and appearing on a few other panels.

This week I’ve also had a couple of reviews appear on ComicBuzz.com: first was a review of the graphic novel Hector Umbra, written and drawn by Uli Oesterle, and published by Blank Slate Books. The second was a review of Underwire, a collection of cartoons by Jennifer Hayden, and published by Top Shelf Productions.

It’s quite remiss of me, but I forgot to mention back in January that I offered my input as part of a series of ‘Best of 2011′ posts on the Forbidden Planet International blog. I honed in on low-budget or Indie projects that I thought deserved getting a signal boost. There were many other films/tv/comic books I wanted to mention, but I was restricted to picking three.

Fri, 27 January 2012 this evening

Evenings like this make up for the remorseless grey days of winter.

Thu, 26 January 2012 Dublin signing

Stephen Byrne, Robert Curley and I will be signing copies of Róisín Dubh in the Library Bar, Central Hotel, Dublin from 7pm onwards on the 17 February.

Come along and have a chat with us.

If you can’t make it, we hope to meet you at Epic Con in Maynooth the following day.

Fri, 20 January 2012 starfarer

And then there are days when words don’t describe it.

So I do this instead.

Thu, 19 January 2012 Epic Con 2012

I’ll be attending Epic Con in Maynooth as a guest along with Róisín Dubh teammates Stephen Byrne and Robert Curley.

The event is going on the weekend of 18-19 February in Maynooth, and the three of us will be there all day on Saturday, 18 February.

Epic Con is run by the Omega Society, NUI Maynooth’s sci-fi, anime and fantasy organisation, and 2012 marks the society’s ten-year anniversary.

There will be a variety of events going on throughout the weekend ranging from panels, workshops, cosplay and screenings. There’s even an art/writing competition being held during the convention.

We’re looking forward to meeting old and new fans of the comic book.