This weekend, SFWA held the annual Nebula Awards ceremony.
A number of my writer friends were on the ballot in various categories. And, two of these friends won!
Rachel Swirsky won in the novella category, beating out some excellent competition. Noteworthy about that is the very difficulty in actually selling a novella-length piece of fiction. This is, as defined by SFWA, 14401 words to 39,999 words, sitting between the novelette and novel categories. Her story is called The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window, originally appearing in Subterranean Magazine.
Eric James Stone won in the novelette category, a category in which I know from Codex almost all the nominees. Eric’s the first winner in recent memory that was published in Analog magazine. Eric told me a few weeks ago that I played a minor role in the creating of this story. That role involves how the two of us met Harlan Ellison at the 2006 Nebula Award weekend in Tempe, AZ. To quote Orson Scott Card, anyone who has been in the same room as Ellison for more than 5 minutes has a story. But I digress.
Eric wrote the excellent That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made, which is available for Nook, and probably in other forms as well. As I said, it originally appeared in Analog magazine.
A hearty congratulations to both of my friends!