Last week, I got the call that Mechanique was nominated for a Nebula(!). I am still processing that, but I am honored to be on a ballot alongside such amazing writers, and have been beyond thrilled at the congratulations I’ve received. It means more than I can say. (I’ll interpretive-dance it for you sometime if you want; ask me when you see me!)

And in the rest of today’s news, I have a story in Lightspeed! “The Gravedigger of Konstan Spring” is part homage to the cozy Western, part horror story, set in an alternate-history Canada and peppered with creeps.

This week I’ll be catching up on wordcount from last weekend, which was Boskone, which negated anything resembling studiousness. It’s always a fun con, despite the odd juxtapositions in the hotel (this time was Boat Show and Underage Preteen Sexy-Dancing Academy) that mean a series of subcultures warily circling one another in the lobby. It was lovely to see the Boskone regulars, and I sat in on my first panels and didn’t even pass out from stage fright! Success!

So, I’ve been looking for a nice excuse for a giveaway, and today I crossed the thousand-follower line on Twitter, which seems as good a reason as any, if slightly random.

So, let’s do a slightly random giveaway!

Leave a comment on my LJ or on my website, preferably about the strangest movie or TV show you saw in 2011 (just to keep a theme going), and I’ll send you…something! It will probably be a book vaguely related to me – an anthology I’m in, Geek Wisdom, Mechanique – but it could be something else entirely. I’ve been poking around with the apartment recently, trying to make it look like a grownup lives there, and I’m enjoying that, so maybe I’ll just send you a bud vase! A vintage photograph! A doorknob*! A completely unrelated book with a picture of me shoved inside like a big creeper**!

And since we’re celebrating because of Twitter, there should probably be a Twitter component – if you’d prefer, tweet about said shitmazing film/tv item,, tag it with #QTT (for obvious reasons), and @-reply me because I am 85 years old and don’t always trust hashtags to actually make it through!

Rules and stuff: Contest runs through Monday February 6 at 10pm Eastern Time-ish. Open to the US, Canada, and international readers who enjoy receiving very lightweight prizes. Winners will be chosen by random draw. You can enter once on LJ, Twitter, and my site if you want to, but you can only win once. Number of winners to be dictated by the number of books and/or tiny silver bowls available, to be determined later.

* I am not sending anyone a doorknob. I need all mine.
** I will probably not do this. Probably.

So, a few days back I got a phone call informing me I had won the 2012 Crawford Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. It might say something about how bowled over I was that I forgot to blog about it here for two days.

The ballot this year was incredibly strong, and the list of prior winners is intimidating, and I am truly honored to have been chosen.

Thanks so much to everyone who has offered well-wishes; I’ve been smiling for two days straight. I hope that events will conspire to allow me to attend ICFA this year (both so I can accept in person, and so I can squint at the sun and say things like, “I don’t know about all this…brightness.”)!

A little while ago, I got a very kind email from a book club in CA who had read Mechanique and enjoyed it, which is just the sort of flattery an author likes to hear. However, one reader had been inspired enough by the book to actually sculpt Alec, the Winged Man(!!), and that is too damn cool not to share.

(The group in question, posted with kind permission! I smiled a lot when I opened this picture, I can’t even pretend otherwise.)

The artist, Talitha Sherman, writes, “They are made, as is only right, entirely from things I had laying around,” which I could not love more. (I also really dig the very early-Gothic icon-y Alec against the sweep and movement of the wings – just awesome!)

Thanks to Talitha, Shannon, and the whole book club for pretty much making my week!

In between rewatches of Catherine Cookson this weekend, I got some lovely news: RT Book Reviews has put Mechanique on the ballot for Fantasy of the Year!

I’m in excellent company, and am flattered and thrilled by the nomination.

*

The Catherine Cookson was not as thrilling. I am really trying to wrap this puppy up, but some of these are surprisingly ponderous. Not Dwelling Place bad, because how could you be, but pretty dull in their own special ways, including one I have watched twice where I literally cannot keep track of anything after about the one-hour mark because my eyes just glaze over, so when someone drowns in the river I think it’s the hero’s sister, but also there are like a dozen neighbors? We’ll see. It’s a journey.

(At least the screencaps will be slightly better than the ones from The Dwelling Place, whose screencaps I would redo except it would mean watching it again and some things are just not going to happen.)