So some lovely news I had this week – The Poison Song has made the British Fantasy Award shortlist for the best fantasy novel. It’s a banging shortlist all over really, packed full of brilliant people, and you should definitely go and have a butcher’s so you can add a load more stuff to your reading/watching/listening pile. Incredibly this is the sixth time I have been nominated for a British Fantasy Award, and I am hugely honoured and proud that the previous books in the Winnowing Flame trilogy – The Ninth Rain and The Bitter Twins – have won awards in previous years too. This funky trilogy, with its weird insectoid bugs, science fiction leanings and, lest we forget, full cast of human (and Eboran) disasters, has found readers that love it, and really, that’s the best thing you can ask for as a writer.
This nomination is especially important to me because for various unfortunate reasons I haven’t been as present in the community this past eighteen months as I normally would have been. A lot of grim personal life stuff has meant I had to cancel appearances at conventions, and even in this year of just everything in general being cancelled, I haven’t had the practical or mental space to join in with stuff like online panels or readings. It’s been rough, but both me and my partner have received some tremendous support from so many lovely people, and the fact that even though I haven’t been round as much people still haven’t forgotten me or my book, means a lot.
On that note, I will be making an online appearance for the Cosmia festival, alongside fellow best fantasy novel nominee RJ Barker, Adrian Tchiakovsky and Kit Gonzo. We’re supposed to be talking about dystopias… But I strongly suspect shenanigans will ensue. It’s all happening this Sunday, November 1st at 8.30pm, so keep an eye on our twitter feeds for details!
Folktober is still ongoing, and incredibly, I have managed to keep up with it (so far) – I usually last around a week before I lose track of time or just entirely run out of ideas. Since I hate posting a blog with no pictures at all, here are a couple of (especially autumnal) images I enjoyed drawing lately…
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