I Made Tangent Online 2015 Recommended Readling List with American Golem

So it looks like I made Tangent Online 2015 Recommended reading list. This is super important to me because when I first started writing in the late 1990s Tangent Online was one of my GO TO places to get inspiration, look for markets, and learn the craft of writing. So to be mentioned there is seriously very special.

There were 416 stories on this year's list: 353 short stories, 47 novelettes, and 16 novellas.

Here's how they were graded:

"As is our custom, there are four sections to each length category. Those making the list in the short story, novelette, and novella lengths but having no stars, and those with either one, two, or three stars, according to how well the reviewer or reviewers valued a particular story."

My short story American Golem received three stars. Very cool. I was so pleased to be in John Joseph Adam's anthology Operation Arcana with so many talented authors. This was one of those rare times I was asked to be in the anthology and was terrified that I'd mess it up. Fans of the story will be pleased to know it will be available in Audio soon. More on that later.

I also wanted to give a shout out to fellow Operation Arcana author Genevieve Valentine for her story "Blood, Ash, Braids." Very well done!

You can view the full list here.

Grunt Life Chosen As Top 5 Books for 2015

The end of the year tends to be a time for reviewers and readers to reflect on what they

thought was he best things they read the previous year. I'm sure you've seen a lot of things posted about it. You might have written your own list. I know I still plan on doing it, but I'm a little behind.

On the heels of Sci Fi Gazette choosing Grunt Traitor as one of their Top 3 Sci Fi novels of 2015, comes this. The review site Shattered Ravings just listed Grunt Life as one of the Top 5 Books they read in 2015. This is very timely and apropos since I've just finished the third book in the series that Grunt Life began. And to think that the publisher and I were worried that Grunt Life and the ensuing books which dealt in great detail about PTSD and its deleterious effects wouldn't be read and would be panned. I'm honestly glad I was able to pull it off.

Thank you Matthew Scott Baker and thanks Shattered Ravings. And congrats to the others who were on the list.

For the full review, go to Shattered Ravings.

Sci Fi Gazette Selected Grunt Traitor as One of Their Best Novels of 2015

In this season of awards and recognition, it's super nice that such a hallowed site as Sci Fi Gazette would take the time to not only read Grunt Traitor but select it as one of their Top 3 Science Fiction Novels of 2015. Mentioned along with Fallout 4 and The Expanse, this is truly a top honor!

Both Grunt Life and Grunt Traitor have received rave reviews from fans, but it's another thing to get a critical reception by reviewers whose job it is to not necessarily enjoy a book, but to break it down and look at its components for concrete and existential value and THEN enjoy it. It's also difficult sometimes for Military Sci Books to get reviews because well... they're military focused and have guns and blood and guts and stuff that not every sci fi fan wants. But I've always thought that the best Military Sci Fi has a lot of heart as well. With my characters suffering from PTSD in an end of the world alien invasion scenario, I took care to try and pull this off. It seems that it worked.  Whew!

Here's a snappy of the page.

For the full article about Sci Fi Gazette's Best of 2015, you can find it here.

Thank you, Sci Fi Gazette!

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT - REIGN OF EVIL WINS AWARD

I'm extremely delighted to share the good news. Reign of Evil won the New Mexico - Arizona Book Award for Best Adventure - Drama Novel. The award ceremony was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico last night. I would have attended, but we had Great Dane rescuing to do, which is immensely more important. Still, that does not overshadow the people who helped work on the book, from my editors Brendan Deneen and Peter Joseph, as well as Mr. Thomas Dunne for publishing the book, my agent who represented the book, Robert Fleck, and everyone in between. Thanks also to the readers and judges at the New Mexico - Arizona Book Awards.

SEAL TEAM 666 SWEEPS AWARDS

Last Year When Age of Blood Won

Amazingly, all three SEAL Team 666 books won this award in consecutive years. It just goes to show the popularity of the books. From a writer's perspective, the very last thing we think of when we're slogging through the book, second guessing ourselves, fighting with pacing and grammar and character arcs is an award. So the utter surprise I have for the book (s) winning awards continues to amaze me.

Here's a link to the full list of winners. 63 awards were given out in 56 categories. For more information on the awards, here's a link to the non-profit who runs them. 

Reign of Evil Finalist for New Mexico - Arizona Book Awards

I'm once again honored to have a SEAL Team 666 novel nominated for the New Mexico - Arizona Book Awards. SEAL Team 666 was a finalist and won the award in 2013. Age of Blood was a finalist and won the award in 2014. Now with Reign of Evil poised to win the award again, the books are poised to do a clean sweep.

I am so happy that the awards presenters and judges love these books. I know a lot of you love them as well, so it's nice to see your love getting the credit it deserves.

The only difference between this year and years past is that the book is in a different category. While in 2013 and 2014 it was in the Sci Fi Fantasy Category, this year it is in the Adventure Drama Category. Let's hope that the judges in this new category love the SEALs as much as the previous judges.

Here's the full category finalists. Best of luck to everyone involved. Writing and being published is such hard work. Everyone deserves to win.

Standing proud at the ceremony in Albuquerque

Fiction – adventure or drama

The Big Wheel
Jones, Scott Archer
Southern Yellow Pine Publishing

The Height of Secrecy
Mitchell, J.M.
Prairie Plum Press

Reign of Evil
Ochse, Weston
St Martin’s Press

Sparky and the King
Baldwin, Dan
Four Knights Press

What the Owl Saw
McFarland, Gerald
Sunstone Press

Zorn and Grayall Find Murder By The Way
Chanda, Val
Wasteland Press



For the full list of finalist books and all categories, 
go to the NM - AZ Book Award Page

Yvonne and I will be attending the awards in Albuquerque this year.

And thank you to Thomas Dunne of Thomas Dunne Books for publishing the SEAL Team 666 Series!!! 

Not a Chance in Hell… But!

The finalists for the Bram Stoker Awards, presented by the Horror Writer's Association, came out last week. I won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel in 2005, but it’s been crickets since. In the intervening years I've done a lot of writing and become better because of it. This years nomination marks the third time in five years I’ve been a finalist -- for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction, Short Fiction, and now, Fiction Collection. Interestingly enough, the works that were nominated for Long Fiction and for Short Fiction are in the Collection that has been nominated.

Here’s my Bram Stoker Award history by year:

2005: Scarecrow Gods by Weston Ochse

• The Hides by Kealan Patrick Burke
• Siren Promised by Alan M. Clark and Jeremy Robert Johnson

2008: Miranda by John R. Little

• The Shallow End of the Pool by Adam-Troy Castro
• Redemption Roadshow by Weston Ochse
• The Confessions of St. Zach by Gene O'Neill

2009 : "In the Porches of My Ears" by Norman Prentiss

• "Keeping Watch" by Nate Kenyon
• "The Crossing of Aldo Ray" by Weston Ochse
• "The Night Nurse" by Harry Shannon

And now for 2011

Connolly, Lawrence C. — Voices: Tales of Horror
Fowler, Christopher — Red Gloves: The London Horrors
Kiernan, Caitlin R. — Two Worlds and In-Between
Morton, Lisa — Monsters of L.A.
Oates, Joyce Carol — The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares
Ochse, Weston — Multiplex Fandango

Borrowed from Lawrence Connolly's site

It’s an exceptionally strong field. 

Lisa Morton has already won Bram Stoker Awards in the last few years for Superior Achievement in First Novel, Anthology, Long Fiction, and Short Fiction. An HWA officer since at least 2005, she’s also won the President Richard Laymon Award, twice. If I was a betting man, Lisa would win this one a well.

Caitlin’s work is always impeccable. She was nominated in 1998 for her First Novel SILK, but lost out to Mike Marano (although Silk did win an International Horror Guild Award, as well as the Barnes and Nobles Maiden Voyage Award). She did win three other IHG Awards and was a James Tiptree Jr, Award Honoree. Incredibly, she’s had over 20 award finalist nominations.

 Joyce Carole Oats, who has appeared on Oprah and every other television show and magazine of import, was nominated in 2000 for Long Fiction, but lost out to Steve and Melanie Tem’s ‘Man on the Ceiling.’ But that was one of the only times this sensational luminary has found herself in someone else’s shadow. Just take a look at this list compiled by Wikipedia.

Winner:

·         1968: M. L. Rosenthal Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters - A Garden of Earthly Delights

·         1970: National Book Award - them

·         1973: O. Henry Award - "The Dead"

·         1990: Rea Award for the Short Story

·         1996: Bram Stoker Award for Novel - Zombie

·         1996: PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story

·         2002: Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award^[35]

·         2003: Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement

·         2005: Prix Femina Etranger - The Falls

·         2006: Chicago Tribune Literary Prize^[36]

·         2006: Mount Holyoke College Doctor of Humane Letters ^[37]

·         2010: National Humanities Medal^[38]

·         2011: Honorary Doctor of Arts, the University of Pennsylvania^[39]

·         2011: World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction - Fossil—Figures

·         2012: Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement, Oregon State University

Yeah. Notice that Bram Stoker Award for Novel? She's won that, too.

Then of course there’s Christopher Fowler. I just love his work. Roofworld is just a terrific creation and I covet my signed copy of Paperboy. Chris has been nominated for many awards and is winner of the Edge Hill prize 2008 for 'Old Devil Moon' and the Last Laugh prize 2009 for 'The Victoria Vanishes'. On top of that he's a swell guy.

Last but not least is Lawrence  C. Connelly. A writing instructor and visiting professor at Seton Hill, he’s been well published the last few years. Although I haven’t read his work (I will now), I’ve heard terrific things about it.

So as you can see, by the credentials held by the other nominated folks, I don’t have a chance in Hell. 

But let's look at the Bram Stoker Award for a moment. What does the award do for you if you win? When I won for First Novel in 2005, the skies didn’t open up, publishers didn’t begin calling, agents didn’t flock to my door, and not a single woman I passed by lifted her blouse to show me her breasts. So what good is the award? It looks handsome on the shelf in my office. If a burglar came in and I couldn’t get to my Ruger long barrel .357 magnum fast enough, I could use it as a weapon. I could bang it against my computer the next time it hangs.

But in all seriousness, here’s what I think. I believe that to come this far you have to have demonstrated a certain amount of ability to tell a story that is at once memorable and accessible. I also think that if you make the final ballot, you’ve managed to hit on something a little bit better than everyone else – probably talking the literary equivalent of a millimeter. Having the membership and the additions jury tell you this is pretty cool, too. 

It does make me happy inside. It’s a warm fuzzy feeling. Because I do love and appreciate my Bram Stoker Award. In addition to it being a possible weapon, it symbolizes to me that for one fine moment I achieved an excellence that moved other people to point to me and say, "Hey! Look at that guy. Look at what he did! It's awesome!" And because of that, when I sit at the Awards Ceremony in SLC next month, I’ll be pretty nervous. Because even if I don’t have a chance in Hell, there’s one thing that I do know… even a blind squirrel can find a nut on a clear day in March.

Good luck to all of you. I’m humbled to be amongst you. I hope we all win.