Oh, my friends. I can’t even tell you how it feels. I guess I’d say it feels like SHOCK, and being dumbfounded, and so grateful at the same time. My short story “Loving You Darkly” which was published at Tethered By Letters made it to the final ballot, so it’s officially a Bram Stoker Award-nominated story. Out of all of the wonderful, wonderful stories that came out this year (I read hundreds upon hundreds for Gamut Magazine), it is truly an honor to make the top five on the ballot.
As a special aside, my collection Beautiful Sorrows was originally going to be called Loving You Darkly, but it didn’t fit the collection quite as well as I wanted. Believe me when I say this story was a long time coming.
“Loving You Darkly” is available to read online. It’s dark and lovely and full of pain and hope. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.
I’ve read most of the works mentioned below, and they’re really quite good. I’d suggest adding them to your reading list! The other nominees are:
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Golden, Christopher – Ararat (St. Martin’s Press)
King, Stephen and King, Owen – Sleeping Beauties (Scribner)
Malerman, Josh – Black Mad Wheel (Ecco)
Miskowski, S.P. – I Wish I Was Like You (JournalStone)
Tem, Steve Rasnic – Ubo (Solaris)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Cabeen, Robert Payne – Cold Cuts (Omnium Gatherum Media)
Davidson, Andy – In the Valley of the Sun (Skyhorse Publishing)
Hayward, Matt – What Do Monsters Fear? (Post Mortem Press)
Hepler, Jeremy – The Boulevard Monster (Bloodshot Books)
Thomas, Scott – Kill Creek (Ink Shares)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
French, Gillian – The Door to January (Islandport Press)
Leveen, Tom – Hellworld (Simon Pulse)
Liggett, Kim – The Last Harvest (Tor Teen)
Lukavics, Amy – The Ravenous (Harlequin Teen)
Porter, Sarah – When I Cast Your Shadow (Tor Teen)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Carey, Mike and Arvind, Ethan David – Darkness Visible (IDW)
Duffy, Damian and Butler, Octavia E. – Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (Abrams ComicArts)
Ferris, Emil – My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Fantagraphics)
Hickman, Jonathan – The Black Monday Murders (Image Comics)
Liu, Marjorie – Monstress Volume 2: The Blood (Image Comics)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Edelman, Scott – Faking it Until Forever Comes (Liars, Fakers, and the Dead Who Eat Them) (Written Backwards)
Jones, Stephen Graham – Mapping the Interior (Tor.com)
Kiernan, Caitlín R. – Agents of Dreamland (Tor.com)
Taylor, Lucy – Sweetlings (Tor.com)
Waggoner, Tim – A Kiss of Thorns (DarkFuse)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Bailey, Michael – “I Will Be the Reflection Until the End” (Tales from the Lake Vol. 4) (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Chambers, James – “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills” (Shadows Over Main Street, Volume 2) (Cutting Block Books)
Mannetti, Lisa – “Apocalypse Then” (Never Fear: The Apocalypse) (13Thirty Books)
Neugebauer, Annie – “So Sings the Siren” (Apex Magazine #101) (Apex Publications)
Yardley, Mercedes M. – “Loving You Darkly” (F(r)iction Magazine #8) (Tethered by Letters) This is me! Ahhhh!
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Hill, Joe – Strange Weather (William Morrow)
Kiste, Gwendolyn – And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe (JournalStone)
Malerman, Josh – Goblin (Earthling Publications)
Matsuura, Thersa – The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales (Independent Legions Publishing)
McGrath, Patrick – Writing Madness (Centipede Press)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Del Toro, Guillermo and Taylor, Vanessa – The Shape of Water (TSG Entertainment, Double Dare You Productions)
Duffer, Matt and Duffer, Ross – Stranger Things: MadMax, Episode 02:01: Chapter One (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre)
Frost, Mark and Lynch, David – Twin Peaks, Part 8 (Rancho Rosa Partnership, Inc.)
Palmer, Chase, Fukunaga, Cary, and Dauberman, Gary – It (New Line Cinema)
Peele, Jordan – Get Out (Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, QC Entertainment)
Shyamalan, M. Night – Split (Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Brooks, Kinitra, PhD., Addison, Linda D., and Morris, Susana, PhD. – Sycorax’s Daughters (Cedar Grove Publishing)
Datlow, Ellen – Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales: An Anthology (Pegasus Books)
Maberry, Jonathan and Romero, George A. – Nights of the Living Dead: An Anthology (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Manzetti, Alessandro and Lester, Jodi Renee – The Beauty of Death Vol. 2: Death by Water (Independent Legions Publishing)
Murano, Doug – Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities & Undefinable Wonders (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Brittany, Michele – Horror in Space: Critical Essays on a Film Subgenre (McFarland)
Brooks, Kinitra D. – Searching for Sycorax: Black Women’s Hauntings of Contemporary Horror (Rutgers University Press)
Hendrix, Grady. Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror Fiction (Quirk Books)
Jones, Stephen – The Art of Horror Movies: An Illustrated History (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books)
Mynhardt, Joe and Johnson, Eugene – Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre – (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Frazier, Robert and Boston, Bruce – Visions of the Mutant Rain Forest (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Manzetti, Alessandro – No Mercy (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Simon, Marge and Turzillo, Mary – Satan’s Sweethearts (Weasel Press)
Sng, Christina – A Collection of Nightmares (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Wytovich, Stephanie M. – Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare (Raw Dog Screaming Press)