APRIL 25, 2018
What a week!
I was blessed to get married this past weekend to my girlfriend of thirteen years and spend an amazing weekend with family from all over the country, my son and great friends. I’ve just returned from a short honeymoon and can properly address some good news on the publishing side, as well.
I was thrilled to have my debut collection, Behold the Void, win “Story Collection of the Year” from the UK’s home of horror — publisher / podcaster / news aggregator / reviewer extraordinaire THIS IS HORROR. For the book to receive this recognition means so much, especially since it is voted on by readers.
Having only been in the genre-writing game a few years (my first published story was “Mother” in November, 2015), I was already feeling fortunate to have my stories collected and published by JournalStone Publishing in early-2017 with a brilliant and humbling introduction from one of my favorite writers, Laird Barron.
Positive reviews from press and readers followed, including an unexpected push from The New York Times, and the book was able to find it’s footing and scratch and claw its way into bookstores and homes and kindles and iPads around the world.
But to think readers would vote BTV the “Story Collection of the Year” is unthinkable and surreal. I’m so thankful to everyone who has read, listened to, shared, posted, tweeted, reviewed, and enjoyed this debut collection of stories, and I hope it continues to find its way into new hands and minds as time goes on.
I’m also thrilled for the foreign editions of BTV to hit the market soon, including a Spanish edition coming in October, 2018 from Dilatando Mentes Editorial, as well as a second (not yet announced) foreign translation / edition coming in 2019.
I want to throw a quick shout-out to the other winners this year: S.P. Miskowski (novel); Stephen Graham Jones (novella); Looming Low (anthology); Black Static (magazine); Crystal Lake Publishing (publisher); Pseudopod (fiction podcast); The Horror Show with Brian Keene (nonfiction podcast).
Thanks again to the team at THIS IS HORROR, and to all the awesome readers for the support. This has been a week I will not forget.
PF