Shoutouts, News + Notes

Good stuff to share, while I continue cranking away on lots of new work:

* Congrats to FAST FORWARD 2 which was just selected as one of 2008's best anthologies by LOCUS' latest Recommended Reading List. Several FF2 stories were also cited amongst the year's best including Nancy Kress' "The Kindness of Strangers"; Paul Cornell's "Catherine Drewe"; Ian McDonald's "An Eligible Boy"; Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Gambler"; and Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow's "True Names".

One very important clarification: to anyone considering Paul Cornell's story "Catherine Drewe" for Hugo Award consideration, LOCUS has the story listed as a novelette but by Hugo Award word-count standards, Cornell's story (6,674 words) is best considered a SHORT STORY. So if you're nominating "Catherine Drewe" for a Hugo, please slot it as a short story (thanks to Mr. Cornell himself for the clarification). However, when LOCUS conducts its online Locus Award Poll, they'll likely slot the story as a novelette because their word-count standards may have suddenly changed from what they used to be. Whew -- 'make sense? Hope so. :)

* Subterranean Press recently unveiled the finished front cover layout for their limited edition of Dan Simmons' DROOD. I did the cover illustration, but I'm not sure who did the typography. Probably Desert Isle Design, but I won't know until I receive comp copies and see the credits. At any rate, this book is getting rave reviews including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. Congrats to Dan and to Sub Press! :)

* I just registered as a member of the ConceptArt.org community. It's looking like I'm going to attend their March workshop. More on this soon.