I wasn’t able to make it to the World Fantasy Awards in Austin this year, was traveling abroad at the time, on a family vacation to Easter Island. And boy, we saw the strangest thing while we were out hiking around…

Huge thanks to the WFA judges for naming “Voluntary Committal” best novella, and giving me the coolest looking literary prize out there, the Gahan-Wilson designed HP Lovecraft head.

Huge thanks to the WFA judges for naming “Voluntary Committal” best novella, and giving me the coolest looking literary prize out there, the Gahan-Wilson designed HP Lovecraft head.
It may be trite to say, but winning a World Fantasy Award has been a dream of mine for a long time, and I’m tremendously grateful and honored to have received one. Congrats as well, to the winners in the other categories, and to everyone who made the final ballot.

Here’s the complete list of this year’s winners:

NOVEL: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
SHORT FICTION: “CommComm” by George Saunders
ANTHOLOLGY: The Fair Folk, ed. Marvin Kaye
COLLECTION: The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers
ARTIST: James Jean
SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL: Sean Wallace, editor, Prime Books
SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL: David Howe & Stephen Walker, Telos Books

The endless flight back from Easter Island wasn’t an easy one – what is it with me and planes lately? I mean, just look at what happened to us while we were passing over New York:

It turns out thanks are also due to the judges of the 2006 International Horror Guild Awards, for voting 20th CENTURY GHOSTS the best collection of the year.

The opening story in 20th CENTURY GHOSTS concerns the editor of a year’s best horror anthology, who goes on a quixotic quest to find the elusive author of a frightening and unlikely short story. In the course of his travels, my hero winds up at a convention, speaking on a panel about scary short stories. He says that since all fiction is make-believe, fantasy is more honest (and valid) than realism. And since fiction derives all its power from suspense, horror fiction is literature in its rawest, most intense state. I believe that myself, and so I can’t understate how much I appreciate my IHG award.

Other winners:

NOVEL: Lunar Park by Brett Easton Ellis
SHORT FICTION: “There’s A Hole In The City” by Rick Bowes
MID-LENGTH FICTION: “La Peau Verte” by Caitlin Kiernan
LONG FICTION: “Kiss of the Mudman” by Gary Braunbeck
PERIODICAL: Postscripts, ed. Pete Crowther (yay Pete!)
NON-FICTION: Supernatural Literature of the World, ed. S.T. Joshi & Stefan Dziemianowicz
ART: Clive Barker for Visions of Heaven And Hell (And Then Some) an Exhibition.

Apologies to anyone who may have e-mailed me in the last few weeks, and not heard back. For some reason yet to be determined, I’m not getting about half my messages. Hopefully I’ll be able to sort the problem out in the near future.

That’s enough for now, but next month I should have a heap of new information about this: