Everyone in science fiction, fantasy, and horror is talking about award nominations. The Hugos have opened for nominations. The Nebulas are wrapping up their award nomination period. The Locus award has opened for votes. For creative folks working in these spaces, it’s the time to frantically promote your work while feeling bad you either aren’t doing enough to promote your work or that you’re doing too much self-promotion.

I’m proud of the work I did last year, but because I didn’t have any books or short stories released (or at least no short stories that came out in a major venue), I get to spend this season loafing around and being relaxed. Of course I’m very proud of the work Nightmare Magazine did — we have two stories on the Locus Recommended Reading List and a handful of works on the Stoker Long List — but since the magazine itself doesn’t qualify for any awards, I’m not sweating it.

I guess I do qualify in the Locus and Hugo’s editorial categories! For both of those awards, those are categories that tend to get overlooked, and the few people who do nominate tend to just write in the most famous editors in the industry. I’d love to see more recognition for editors like E. Catherine Tobler (The Deadlands), Danai Christopoulou (khōréō), DaVaun Sanders (Fiyah), Scott Andrews (Beneath Ceaseless Skies) and Alex Hofelich (PseudoPod)!

I guess what I’m saying is that if you read a short story in 2024 and you loved it, you should nominate the person who edited the magazine. There are a ton of great folks making short fiction awesome right now, and it would fill them with joy to be nominated for one of the few awards that recognize editors.

Before the ’90s, the Pacific Northwest just wasn’t culturally relevant. When my sister studied abroad during college, other Americans not only didn’t know how to pronounce the word “Oregon,” they made fun of her for living in a cultural backwater (one particularly nasty jerk joked: “Aren’t you all still fighting the Indians out there?”).

Twin Peaks changed all of this. It’s the reason why so many horror novels, movies, and video games are set in the Pacific Northwest. It created an entire aesthetic that’s wet and green and weird.

Because of who I am and what matters to me in the world, most of my work has fallen squarely into that aesthetic. I think whatever small success I’ve had has been due to that label. An Oath of Dogs was described as “Twin Peaks in Space.” In Tor Nightfire’s announcement about buying Girl in the Creek, my editor used the words “eerie Twin Peaks vibes.”

I am endlessly grateful for him for building that place for my work.

I did write more about David Lynch and how I feel about him in a free post over on my Patreon, if you want to hear more.

You can now preorder my forthcoming novel THE CREEK GIRL (due out Feb. 2025) — at least from Barnes & Noble!

From 4/17-4/19, all preorders are 25% for B&N Rewards members (and 35% off for Premium members), which is a screaming deal.