A.C. Wise

*Let’s see if he’s paying attention.

For a rabidly obsessed fan, it’s been a shockingly long time since I posted about the Marvelous Mr. Gaiman (add a Fantabulous Shop/Circus/Cavern of Wonders and you have a great children’s book title. To be fair, I suspect he actually does have a fantabulous shop/circus/cavern of some sort already, probably full of trained raccoons and lap-pandas, but I digress).  To make up for being so remiss, I give you the all Neil all the time post.

The Graveyard Book won the Newbery Medal and the Marvelous Mr. Gaiman confirmed that said book will be made into a movie. I’m already looking forward to it.

And speaking of movies, check out this delightfully creepy trailer-type-thing for Coraline. Neil Gaiman Talks About Buttons

Isn’t his library gorgeous?

… has been reviewed over at The Fix, and they had some very nice things to say about Cloth from Flesh, Flesh from Bone. Woohoo!

I was very pleased to find out today that +The Horror Library Volume 3+ made the preliminary ballot for the 2008 Stoker Awards - a big congratulations to everyone involved! Two of the individual stories, “Consumed” by Michael Louis Calvillo and “The Haven” by John Palisano also made it, so extra-congrats to them.  “The Lagerstatte” by Laird Barron made the list too, which makes me happy since it was one of my favorites from The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Good luck to everyone in making the final ballot.

…which everyone seems to be doing lately, here are some things I wrote that are probably eligible for something or other.

Matthew published in ChiZine, January 2008.

Strange Fruit published in Paradox, April 2008.

Blessed published in Reflection’s Edge, July 2008

Teeth published in Horror Library Vol. 3, October 2008.

Cloth from Flesh, Flesh from Bone published in Ideomancer, December 2008.

And here are some handy-dandy links to the Nebula, Stoker and Hugo Awards. *Self-pimpage ends here*. I feel kinda dirty now.

Despite December being a fairly quiet month, I fell behind on my short fiction/online reading. There’s something to be said for ‘the less you have to do, the less you feel like doing’ axiom. (If that isn’t an axiom, it really should be.) With a slew of new issues coming out in January, however, I felt I should attempt to catch up, or at least not fall further behind. While I’m not even close to being caught up, what I have read so far seems to indicate that the year is starting off strong. So, for your reading pleasure, I recommend:

Pretty much all the fiction from Issue #39 of ChiZine, though I especially enjoyed Nub Hut by Kurt Dinan.

And both fiction pieces from Clarkesworld #28, though again, I especially enjoyed Celadon by Desirina Boskovich

For your dead-tree variety reading pleasure:

I would highly recommend The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia and Fast Ships, Black Sails edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

And finally, speaking of recommending stuff - Fantasy Magazine is conducting their Second Annual Reader’s Poll. Head on over to their site and vote for your favorite story (or three favorite stories as the case may be). As an extra bonus, this year the author of the winning story gets a nifty prize. Readers also have a chance to win a nifty prize by commenting on their favorite stories.

The good folks at Cutting Block Press are offereing to send copies of +Horror Library Vol 3+ to any voting HWA members who would like to consider it for the Stoker Awards. They’ve also made a PDF version available sin case you don’t want to wait on the mail. If you’re interested, drop me an e-mail at a.c.wise@hotmail.com. The cutoff for Stoker nominations is January 15, 2009.

My short story, Sisters of the Blessed Diving Order of Saint Peter and Saint Andrew is now available over at Strange Horizons. Go check it out!