This isn’t the Eastercon report post (will have a longer one when I do get home), and I imagine that by now everyone has seen the news, but just in case 🙂

Delighted (and still a bit shocked, two days after the fact) that both The House of Shattered Wings and “Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight”, have won a BSFA Award.

I’m told by Farah Mendlesohn that this is the first time anyone has walked away with the two fiction awards in the same year (previously Keith Roberts won both art and short fiction in 1986). The Guardian has a lovely piece here, courtesy of David Barnett (and yeah this is me going “OMG I’m in the Guardian” in case you had any doubts).

My thanks to everyone who read and voted in the awards and to everyone involved from the BSFA. I was also honoured to be part of two very strong shortlists and highly suggest you check out the other finalists.

Me with Gillian Redfearn and John Berlyne in the bar shortly afterwards.

Just a heads-up that my Xuya story “A Salvaging of Ghosts” is now up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies for their Science Fantasy month.

Thuy’s hands have just closed on the gem—she can’t feel its warmth with her gloves, but her daughter’s ghost is just by her side, at the hole in the side of the ship’s hull, blurred and indistinct—when the currents of unreality catch her. Her tether to The Azure Serpent, her only lifeline to the ship, stretches; snaps.

And then she’s gone, carried forward into the depths.

Read more/audio

Over at Twitter, Irene Gallo posted the fabulous art for my forthcoming Tor.com piece, “Lullaby for a Lost World”, courtesy of Alyssa Winans .

Isn’t it *so* pretty? (I love tor.com’s art. Such wonderful pieces).

Ok, it sucks, but. At 112,000 words, the first draft of The House of Binding Thorns is now complete.
Now for filling in all the inconsistencies and getting it into shape for beta-readers…

Have a snippet:

In the House of Hawthorn, all the days blurred and merged into one another, like tears drops sliding down a pane of glass. Madeleine couldn’t tell when she’d last slept, when she’d last eaten– though everything tasted of ashes and grit, as if the debris from the streets had been mixed in with the fine food served in porcelain plates–couldn’t tell when she had last woken, tossing and turning and screaming, with pain shooting up her calf and blood seeping from the wound on her right hand, the one that had inexorably tied her fortunes back to those of the House.

I’m off to find copious amounts of chocolate.

Glad to announce that on March 23rd I’ll be interviewed by the fabulous Ed Cox at The Artillery Arms (102 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8ND), as part of the BSFA London meetings. (and ahead of my stint as GoH at Mancunicon)

MAP LINK

Start Time: 19:00, room open from 6pm, fans gathering in the bar downstairs from 5pm onwards (I’ll likely be in the bar around 5pm because I’m arriving pretty early in London).

This is a free event, and you don’t have to be a member of the BSFA to take part (non-members are welcome, in fact!). The interview will start at 7 pm.

There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes. I’m also quite happy to sign anything that has my name in it (ok, not blank checks or IOUs, but you get the idea!)

Official SFWA post here. Very very strong ballot: shoutout to Kate Elliott (I kind of wanted BLACK WOLVES on there but COURT OF FIVES isn’t bad :p), Fran Wilde (2x!), Ken Liu, Rose Lemberg, and so many many friends with strong stuff on there. Now I have a lot of reading to catch up on!

(also, Nimona!!! Loved the comic)

Novel

Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen (Tor)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)

Novella

Wings of Sorrow and Bone, Beth Cato (Harper Voyager Impulse)
“The Bone Swans of Amandale,” C.S.E. Cooney (Bone Swans)
“The New Mother,” Eugene Fischer (Asimov’s 4-5/15)
“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn,” Usman T. Malik (Tor.com 4/22/15)
Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
“Waters of Versailles,” Kelly Robson (Tor.com 6/10/15)

Novelette

“Rattlesnakes and Men,” Michael Bishop (Asimov’s 2/15)
“And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead,” Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed 2/15)
“Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds,” Rose Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/11/15)
“The Ladies’ Aquatic Gardening Society,” Henry Lien (Asimov’s 6/15)
“The Deepwater Bride,” Tamsyn Muir (F&SF 7-8/15)
“Our Lady of the Open Road,” Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 6/15)

Short Story

“Madeleine,” Amal El-Mohtar (Lightspeed 6/15)
“Cat Pictures Please,” Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld 1/15)
“Damage,” David D. Levine (Tor.com 1/21/15)
“When Your Child Strays From God,” Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld 7/15)
“Today I Am Paul,” Martin L. Shoemaker (Clarkesworld 8/15)
“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” Alyssa Wong (Nightmare 10/15)

•••

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Ex Machina, Written by Alex Garland
Inside Out, Screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original Story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
Jessica Jones: AKA Smile, Teleplay by Scott Reynolds & Melissa Rosenberg; Story by Jamie King & Scott Reynolds
Mad Max: Fury Road, Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris
The Martian, Screenplay by Drew Goddard
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Written by Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt

•••

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy

Seriously Wicked, Tina Connolly (Tor Teen)
Court of Fives, Kate Elliott (Little, Brown)
Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan UK 5/14; Amulet)
Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace (Big Mouth House)
Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee (Flux)
Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older (Levine)
Bone Gap, Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)
Nimona, Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)

Just a quick reminder that today, 15th Feb 11:59pm PST, is the deadline for nominating for the Nebula Awards.

If you’re still looking for stuff to fill your ballot or just want to jog your memory, my updated awards eligibility/recs post is here. (*cough* The House of Shattered Wings *cough*).

Fran Wilde also had an excellent one here.

Two PSAs: first, my annual reminder to please please nominate even if you don’t feel you’ve read widely in the genre this year. First off, there are so many works it’s impossible to have read *everything*. Second, experience has shown that people who have scruples about “not reading widely” tend to be overwhelmingly women/minorities, leading to skewed awards ballots. If you have (a) favourite thing(s), do nominate it!

Second, insofar as the Nebulas are concerned, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen has been determined to be eligible for 2015 due to Baen selling ARCs in 2015. I don’t know what the Hugo ruling is going to be (it’d only get made if the novel made the ballot), but there’s a strong suspicion that if you do want to nominate it for the Hugos, this year would be best too.

Honoured that The House of Shattered Wings and “Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight” have both made the BSFA Award shortlist. The BSFA Awards are voted on by the members of the British Science Fiction Association and the members of Eastercon: this year’s award will be handed out at Mancunicon (where I am one of the Guests of Honour).

It is. Er. Rather a strong shortlist: in novel you’ll find Ian McDonald, Dave Hutchinson, Christ Beckett and Justina Robson (and I am super super glad Glorious Angels is on this list, because it’s an awesome book that in my opinion didn’t get the press it deserved). And short fiction pits me against Gareth L Powell, Paul Cornell, Nnedi Okorafor, and Jeff Noon. *gulp*

(also, Forbidden Planet in London now has a stack of signed The House of Shattered Wings copies, following my Saturday visit. Just saying, if you wanted to see what the fuss was all about 🙂 )

And on a totally different subject: Chúc Mừng Năm Mới, happy new year of the fire monkey to everyone who celebrates! Here’s some hoa mai flowers, because it’s not really Tết without them.

Just a quick note that I’ll be dropping by Forbidden Planet in London (179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JR) to sign some stuff Saturday 6th February at 15:30.

So, a. there will be signed stock from Saturday afternoon onwards, and b. I’ll be hanging out a bit afterwards to check out new releases, so if you have spare Bodard stuff lying around and happen to be in London I’ll be quite happy to sign your books ^-^

I’ll be in Forbidden Planet signing some stock around 15:30 on Saturday February 6th (and hanging around afterwards to check out the shiny new releases). So a. if you’re also around I can sign stuff for you, and b. there should be some signed stock of House of Shattered Wings after I’m done 🙂