New Story Published

My short story, "The Changeling and the Bully" was published today in Mythic #17. It's the first story in my urban fantasy series: not quite the origin story since our protagonist's backstory comes out bit by bit as things progress, but this is the story where the major characters meet for the first time. (It does not go well.) Previous stories in the series have been published by First Line Literary ("Ransom and the Open Window") and Apex and Abyss ("Ransom and the Xmas Tree").

I currently have six more finished, two more that are half done....and a bunch more ideas that may or may not work out. The plan was to follow these characters from high school until old age, but they went and had kids in "Ransom and the Baby" so now it looks like the kids are going to keep the series going....

Aurora Awards (Canadian Speculative fiction) for 2020

Best Fan Related Work

Derek Newman-Stille, Speculating Canada

Best Fan Organizational

Derek Künsken and Marie Bilodeau, co-chairs, Can-Con, Ottawa

Best Fan Writing and Publications

Polar Borealis, Issues #9 to #12, R. Graeme Cameron editor

Best Artist

Dan O'Driscoll, covers for Bundoran Press and cover for On Spec Magazine #110

Best Visual Presentation

The Umbrella Academy, Steve Blackman, Dark Horse Entertainment

Best Related Work

On Spec Magazine, Diane L. Walton, Managing Editor, The Copper Pig Writers Society

Best Poem/Song (tie!)

At the Edge of Space and Time by Swati Chavda, Love at the Speed of Light, Ancient Hound Books

Bursts of Fire by Sora, theme song for book trailers

Best Graphic Novel

Krampus is My Boyfriend! by S.M. Beiko, Webcomic

Best Short Fiction

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, Saga Press

Best Young Adult Novel

5 by Susan Forest, Burst of FireLaksa Media Groups Inc

Best Novel

The Gossamer Mage by Julie E. Czerneda, DAW Books

I was blown away this year by the quality of the shortlist: there was no one nominated who didn't deserve to be there. Even though there were several categories where the winner wasn't the work I had voted for, it didn't matter because the winners were still works that I greatly admired.  The winners and shortlist makes me proud to be Canadian. The genre of Canadian speculative fiction, both in quantity and quality, has come a very long way since 1980 when the Award started.

I also have to say that the awards ceremony sets the new bar for virtual ceremonies. There were almost no glitches and host Mark Leslie Lefebvre covered perfectly, never fazed. The organization, the smooth switching from site to site, from speaker to speaker, was clearly the result of careful planning and behind the scenes workings of a dedicated logistical crew. It could not have gone better, and in many ways, was better than live (except could actual applause). 

Hall of Fame Inductees for 2020

Cory Doctorow; Matt Hughes, Heather Dale

Another Essential Editor Publishes this week.

And no sooner had I entered the last post, than another Essential Edits editor has a release:

Halli Lilburn has a story out in the just released Tesseracts 22 from Edge Publishing (co-edited by my former boss, Loria Stevens, and Susan McGregor, whose first novel I edited years ago). Halli's story is "Joint Eaters" and she shares the Table of Contents with some very big names in Canadian speculative fiction.

TimeFall

Just received my copy of Alison Lohans' Timefall in the mail from the publisher. I was the structural editor for this revised and updated ominbus edition, and am pretty happy with the results . . . and am loving the Ann Crowe cover!

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam is a list of common cliches in fantasy, so if you find any of these elements in your own story, you need to immediately edit them out... I think this was intended to be humorous, but as an editor, I'm not laughing because I indeed see all of these things across my desk way too often.

Fantasy Author Exam

Is your fantasy novel ready for professional editing? Take this test to see if you can identify and eliminate fundamental problems with your fantasy novel before submitting it for expensive editing.

Thanks to On Spec Twitter feed for tip