Home, the Award and such

I landed in Perth at noon on Thursday. I’d been traveling for thirty two hours and, even though the flights were fairly gentle and the whole experience was cushioned by the comforts of the Qantas Lounge, I was nonetheless more than a little fatigued by the whole experience. I think that’s why it has taken me so long to get around to saying:

HOLY CR@P. I WON A WORLD FANTASY AWARD!!!

There literally is almost no way I can communicate to you how strange, startling and wonderful that is.  I want to thank everyone — from the judges and WFC organisers to all of the people who contributed to the books that led me to being eligible.

I’d especially like to thank all of the contributors to Eclipse Three (which I suspect is the main reason for the award), my friends and publishers Jason Williams,  Jeremy Lassen, Ross Lockhart etc at Night Shade Books (I’d not only not be doing this without them, but would never have had the chance without Jason’s support), and my mentors and friends through the years: Eric Harding, Peter McNamara, Jack Dann, Charles N. Brown, Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber, and many others.  And of course Marianne, Jessica and Sophie. It’s really their award. I could not do any of my editing work without their love and support.

I’d also like to congratulate Karen Joy Fowler, whose story “The Pelican Bar” was a highlight of Eclipse Three, which won the WFA for Best Short Story. I was possibly more delighted by that, than by my own win.

Having got that out of my system, I’ve got to say I had a grand trip and that principally comes down to the kind hosts I stayed with and the friends I saw. My especial thanks for Nick and Adrian, Ellen,  Liza & the gang, and Gary, who were fine hosts and made my stay in their respective parts of the world a real joy.  I won’t go through all of the friends I saw on the trip – they know who they were – but it was magical seeing them.

And now I’m back. Friday was jetlag day. Saturday I moved to being 95% complete on the table of contents for Year’s Best 5, recorded a podcast, and followed up on Eclipse Four. This morning I checked in with everyone on Under My Hat, edited the December columns for Locus, edited the podcast because of a dumb error on my behalf, and did some more reading.

What next? Well, I have several proposals to write, a short story comp to judge, next month’s columns to think on, recommended reading to launch, and lots more.  Things are going to be very busy here between now and year’s end. This if, of course, not new.  I’m lucky.