“The Weight of the Sunrise” won the Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History! I’ve always wanted to win that award and I’m so excited. 🙂 Haven’t posted til now because I was too busy with London. London was amazing. I especially liked the Tower, the Churchill War Rooms, and our side trip to Bletchley Park.

Upcoming: Fall is always my low-travel, high-productivity season. Here we go!

Ink of My Bones, Blood of My Hands is published at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Woot!

Warning: This is very dark. Some of you like that. I’m just saying, be warned.

The Weight of the Sunrise is a finalist for the Sidewise Award for alternate history! I’ve always loved this award (no surprise) and I am excited to be nominated. 🙂

The Weight of the Sunrise won a Nebula for Best Novella of 2013! I haven’t had brain or time to blog until now.

Rainbow Dash captures how I felt at that moment. 🙂

Thank you everyone–to those who read and nominated the story, to those who voted amongst a great set of nominees, to those who’ve flooded my inbox with congratulations.

The ceremony is available here if you’d like to watch it. Jump to 1:25:00.

Here’s a pic of Shannon and me before the ceremony. Doesn’t he look like an evil professor?

The Weight of the Sunrise is a finalist for the Sturgeon Award!

http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/sturgeon-finalists.htm

“The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year was established in 1987 by James Gunn, Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at KU, and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon’s children, as an appropriate memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction.”

Yay! Lots of good fiction on that list.

I’m stoked.

My novella The Weight of the Sunrise is nominated for a Nebula!

I’m so delighted and honored. Thank you all! I can’t wait for the awards weekend. I promise to wear something lovely. 🙂

Here’s the full nominee list.

General life stuff.

Keeping weird hours for the last few months. Up late, sleeping late. I’ve gone semi-nocturnal. This is something that happens to me periodically, and eventually I return to a normal day cycle.

I’m an auntie! My first nephew was born a week ago. I sent him a newborn-safe stuffed dinosaur to encourage his interest in paleontology. I’ve always been an eccentric auntie in search of a nephew. (I do also have an honorary niece who lives in Indiana.) Now installing closet to Narnia.

Playing Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I am the most persistent money-grinder you will see. I am happy to mow an entire field of grass for 7 Rupees. Also? Bug-catching. I am the master. Storyline? What storyline? We all know the real point of Skyward Sword is to play the mini game Thrill Digger.

Going to Dundracon this weekend, the local gaming convention. I’m running a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic game. Some friends playtested it and it’s totally 20% cooler than other roleplaying games.

Ponies!

I’m up at Daily Science Fiction with Spellsketching. I’ve gotten a number of reader comments on this one, which is always fun. If you’re a fan of Narnia or Oz, you might particularly like this story.

You can leave comments on the DSF Facebook page if you like.

If you’d like to hear about the gingerbread apocalypse, you can hear Through the Cooking Glass in 5-minute podcast form at Toasted Cake.

Or you can read it here. Under 750 words.

Hey guys!

If you’ve published stories this year, I would like to read your best work and consider nominating it for an award.

I read/nominate for Hugos and Nebulas (and Campbell). I’ll read short stories, novelettes, or novellas. Tell me the category when you send the work. Please send only one item per category. Make sure you use the subject line AWARD READING 2014 so I see it. Doc or rtf files are best. You don’t need to sales-pitch me in your email note; that really turns me off, I’m afraid. Just say hi and tell me what you’ve got for me. Entertaining me is optional. 🙂 Thanks. web AT vylarkaftan DOT net.

If you’re also reading stories in order to nominate, I would be delighted if you’d consider my novella The Weight of the Sunrise, which was originally published in Asimov’s. It’s an alternate history where the Incan Empire survives into the 19th century and bargains with the Americans for the smallpox vaccine. If you’d prefer a mobi or epub file, just contact me and I’d be happy to give you one. (I may put them up on the page, but I haven’t yet.)