Darrell and His Other Brother Darrell
I took a one-day vacation yesterday to celebrate a momentous occasion. No, not St. Patrick's Day. That's what all of YOU were celebrating. I selfishly chose to focus on my own birthday.
Yes, I was born on St. Patrick's Day. I think that's why my middle name is Kathleen. I spent the thirty-first anniversary of my birth with a good friend, her son and my son. There are worse things in the world than watching two boys who pretend to be brothers play in the backseat.
There shall be a longer post on the Most Haunted Small Town in America, which we explored in a half-day driving tour. Oh yes, there shall be a post. When I figure out how to upload pictures onto this thing.
At any rate, my birthday was enlivened by a few people singing into my voice mail, numerous text messages and e-cards... and the arrival of a box of books. SETTING SUNS has finally arrived - two weeks later to me than to the customers! - and I can start sending out copies to all the kind people who have ordered them from me.
It was also brightened by the official news that A MORE PERFECT UNION is a finalist for the Darrell Award. The Darrell, in case you don't know, is a juried literary award granted to mid-southern science fiction, horror and fantasy. NOCTURNAL URGES won the award last year, along with being a finalist for the Prism and came in fifth among 188 novels in the Preditors & Editors Reader Poll. I've worked hard to be able to say all that in a sentence.
Seriously, I love that MPU is finally getting some love. My faithful readers know it was hit by the Katrina Curse: the book came out a week after Katrina struck. No one was buying books that week - all our money went to relief efforts. And no one was buying books that week - all our attention was on the news. Rightly so. There were many people who lost a hell of a lot more than I to Katrina. But MPU sank fast and quiet, and I've always regretted that, because I think it's a good book. Not everything I write is good, believe it or not! I've written some stinkers. But MPU isn't one of them.
If it wins, my father says I'll have "Darrell and his other brother Darrell," a joke he's been dying to make since I won the Darrell last year. I'll find out next weekend, at Midsouthcon in Memphis.
In the meantime, console yourselves by.... um, buying a book? MPU is still available as an ebook from Cerridwen Press. In a few months, however, NU and MPU will be released in a single print paperback - available at your local Borders, a feat even my blessed SETTING SUNS has been unable to achieve. Oh yeah, that's available from New Babel Books and on Amazon.com. See how I did that? They throw you out of the Small-Press Midlist Authors' Guild if you don't find a way to work your book into every conversation.
Now to go enjoy some sunshine. Happy Hangover Day!
Yes, I was born on St. Patrick's Day. I think that's why my middle name is Kathleen. I spent the thirty-first anniversary of my birth with a good friend, her son and my son. There are worse things in the world than watching two boys who pretend to be brothers play in the backseat.
There shall be a longer post on the Most Haunted Small Town in America, which we explored in a half-day driving tour. Oh yes, there shall be a post. When I figure out how to upload pictures onto this thing.
At any rate, my birthday was enlivened by a few people singing into my voice mail, numerous text messages and e-cards... and the arrival of a box of books. SETTING SUNS has finally arrived - two weeks later to me than to the customers! - and I can start sending out copies to all the kind people who have ordered them from me.
It was also brightened by the official news that A MORE PERFECT UNION is a finalist for the Darrell Award. The Darrell, in case you don't know, is a juried literary award granted to mid-southern science fiction, horror and fantasy. NOCTURNAL URGES won the award last year, along with being a finalist for the Prism and came in fifth among 188 novels in the Preditors & Editors Reader Poll. I've worked hard to be able to say all that in a sentence.
Seriously, I love that MPU is finally getting some love. My faithful readers know it was hit by the Katrina Curse: the book came out a week after Katrina struck. No one was buying books that week - all our money went to relief efforts. And no one was buying books that week - all our attention was on the news. Rightly so. There were many people who lost a hell of a lot more than I to Katrina. But MPU sank fast and quiet, and I've always regretted that, because I think it's a good book. Not everything I write is good, believe it or not! I've written some stinkers. But MPU isn't one of them.
If it wins, my father says I'll have "Darrell and his other brother Darrell," a joke he's been dying to make since I won the Darrell last year. I'll find out next weekend, at Midsouthcon in Memphis.
In the meantime, console yourselves by.... um, buying a book? MPU is still available as an ebook from Cerridwen Press. In a few months, however, NU and MPU will be released in a single print paperback - available at your local Borders, a feat even my blessed SETTING SUNS has been unable to achieve. Oh yeah, that's available from New Babel Books and on Amazon.com. See how I did that? They throw you out of the Small-Press Midlist Authors' Guild if you don't find a way to work your book into every conversation.
Now to go enjoy some sunshine. Happy Hangover Day!
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteWhen NU and MPU appear together in print, please PLEASE please drop me an email so I can order several of them from my local stores -- best way to get them on the shelves is to order some.
Also, if you would be so kind as to have them mention the Darrell Awards (see http://darrellawards.org for more info) in that, I might just buy extras. So far, after a decade of presenting the Darrell Awards for Best Midsouth Fiction (in the SF/F/H genres), the closest we have gotten to Big Time Notice was when one of our Novel winners had a "Darrell Award Winner" blot on the cover -- for an edition that appeared in some Slavic language ! So, you would have my sincere gratitude if you could manage to get the Darrell Awards mentioned in your printed book.
-- Tim Gatewood, Chairman, Darrell Awards Jury memphissf@cs.com