Ketchup

For you cultureless heathens who don't already know, Philip K. Dick was a prolific science fiction writer who saw little commercial success in his lifetime but has since become Hollywood's love muffin, his novels forming the basis of movies such as "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," "Next," and "Minority Report." Most of his novels were paperback originals. The PKD is a juried award with a twenty-five year history, presented annually to the best science fiction paperback original, which leads us to Plague War. Wednesday morning, when I got online, I had several emails that War had been shortlisted.

Previous winners include several of my favorite writers, such as William Gibson, Robert Charles Wilson, and Richard K. Morgan. Wow. It’s really, really nice to feel like I must be doing something right — you know, despite the lady who fed Plague Year to her dog, took pictures of it, and sent them to me. Nice!

As you can imagine, we’re very excited. My family. My editors. My agents. Heck, I got congratulatory emails from my publishers in Europe, who must skim the sf news sites with their evening drinks.

Even better, I'm sort of competing with myself. I’m on the ballot 1.14 times, which must be unusual. One of the other five contenders is Pyr Books' Fast Forward 2, which includes my short story "Long Eyes" along with thirteen other pieces, hence the .14, although maybe it should be .15 with another sliver cut out for Lou Anders, the mastermind behind the anthology.

Looks like a tough crowd this year. The envelope, please... Oh, wait. It won't be opened until April 10th at Norwescon!

Labels: Philip K. Dick Award finalist, Plague War