Yesterday morning, I woke up to the news that two of my works had been included in the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards: “The Slipway Grey” (from Michael Kelly’s anthology, Chilling Tales 2 released by EDGE Publications) in the short fiction category and The Sex Lives of Monsters in the poetry category.
Awards are funny things–and the Bram Stoker Awards are perhaps more hotly debated than most in recent years–but as an author there is always an undeniable thrill in discovering your work has found an audience. So, thank you to everyone who took the time to read the field this year (no mean feat given the number of publications!) and thank you to the respective juries of each of the categories for discovering works that might easily be neglected or undervalued.
Below is the full Preliminary Ballot as well as a short story’s worth of footnotes on protocol (!).
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Michaelbrent Collings – Darkbound (Amazon Digital Services)
Michaelbrent Collings – The Colony: Genesis (Amazon Digital Services)
John Harwood – The Asylum (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Joe Hill – NOS4A2 (William Morrow)
Stephen King – Doctor Sleep (Scribner)
Lisa Morton – Malediction (Evil Jester Press)
Fuminori Nakamura – Evil and the Mask (Soho Crime)
Sarah Pinborough and F. Paul Wilson – A Necessary End (Thunderstorm/Maelstrom Press)
Christopher Rice – The Heavens Rise (Gallery Books)
Gord Rollo – Only the Thunder Knows (JournalStone)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
L.C. Barlow – Pivot (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Michael Bray – Whisper (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
J. Lincoln Fenn – Poe (47North)
Geoffrey Girard – Cain’s Blood (Touchstone)
Kate Jonez – Candy House (Evil Jester Press)
Christian A. Larsen – Losing Touch (Post Mortem Press)
John Mantooth – The Year of the Storm (Berkley Trade)
Rena Mason – The Evolutionist (Nightscape Press)
Jonathan Moore – Redheads (Samhain Publishing)
Royce Prouty – Stoker’s Manuscript (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Charles Day – The Adventures of Kyle McGerrt: Hunt for the Ghoulish Bartender (Blood Bound Books)
Patrick Freivald – Special Dead (JournalStone)
Kami Garcia – Unbreakable (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Geoffrey Girard – Project Cain (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Hannah Jayne – Truly, Madly, Deadly (Sourcebooks Fire)
Tom Leveen – Sick (Harry N. Abrams)
Joe McKinney – Dog Days (JournalStone)
Cat Winters – In the Shadow of Blackbirds (Harry N. Abrams)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Ed Brubaker – Fatale Book Three: West of Hell (Image Comics)
Caitlin R. Kiernan – Alabaster: Wolves (Dark Horse Comics)
Brandon Seifert – Witch Doctor, Vol. 2: Mal Practice (Image Comics)
Cameron Stewart – Sin Titulo (Dark Horse Comics)
Paul Tobin – Colder (Dark Horse Comics)
NOTE: As there are only five selections, the Graphic Novel category will not appear on the Preliminary Ballot but will move directly to the Final Ballot. Word of warning: these are not considered “nominees” until the Final Ballot is announced.
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Dale Bailey – “The Bluehole” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2013)
Gary Braunbeck – “The Great Pity” (Chiral Mad 2, Written Backwards)
James Chambers – Three Chords of Chaos (Dark Quest Books)
Benjamin K. Ethridge – “The Slaughter Man” (Limbus, Inc., JournalStone)
Gregory Frost – “No Others Are Genuine” (Asimov’s Science Fiction, Oct./Nov. 2013)
Greg F. Gifune – House of Rain (DarkFuse)
Eric J. Guignard – Baggage of Eternal Night (JournalStone)
Dustin LaValley – The Deceived (Thunderstorm Books)
Rena Mason – East End Girls (JournalStone)
S.P. Miskowski – Astoria (Omnium Gatherum)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Colleen Anderson – “The Book With No End” (Bibliotheca Fantastica, Dagan Books)
Michael Bailey – “Primal Tongue” (Zippered Flesh 2, Smart Rhino Publications)
Max Booth III – “Flowers Blooming in the Season of Atrophy” (Chiral Mad 2, Written Backwards)
Patrick Freivald – “Snapshot” (Blood & Roses, Scarlett River Press)
David Gerrold – “Night Train to Paris” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan./Feb. 2013)
Lisa Mannetti – “The Hunger Artist” (Zippered Flesh 2, Smart Rhino Publications)
Samuel Marolla – “Black Tea” (Black Tea and Other Tales, Mezzotints)
Helen Marshall – “The Slipway Grey” (Chilling Tales, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)
John Palisano – “The Geminis” (Chiral Mad 2, Written Backwards)
Michael Reaves – “Code 666” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2013)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Fabien Adda and Fabrice Gobert – The Returned: “The Horde” (Ramaco Media I, Castelao Pictures)
Brad Falchuk – American Horror Story: Asylum: “Spilt Milk” (Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Productions)
Bryan Fuller – Hannibal: “Apéritif” (Dino De Laurentiis Company, Living Dead Guy Productions, AXN: Original X Production, Gaumont International Television)
Daniel Knauf – Dracula: “A Whiff of Sulfur” (Flame Ventures, Playground, Universal Television, Carnival Films)
Glen Mazzara – The Walking Dead: “Welcome to the Tombs” (AMC TV)
NOTE: As there are only five selections, the Screenplay category will not appear on the Preliminary Ballot but will move directly to the Final Ballot. Word of warning: these are not considered “nominees” until the Final Ballot is announced.
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris (ed.) – Horror Library: Volume 5 (Cutting Block Press)
Marc Ciccarone (ed) – Blood Rites: An Invitation to Horror (Blood Bound Books)
Eric J. Guignard (ed.) – After Death… (Dark Moon Books)
Michael Knost and Nancy Eden Siegel (ed.) – Barbers & Beauties (Hummingbird House Press)
Ross E. Lockhart (ed.) – Tales of Jack the Ripper (Word Horde)
Lori Michelle (ed.) – Bleed (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (ed.) – The Grimscribe’s Puppets (Miskatonic River Press)
Jeani Rector (ed.) – Shadow Masters: An Anthology from the Horror Zine (Imajin Books)
Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson (ed.) – Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror, Volume One (Grey Matter Press)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Nathan Ballingrud – North American Lake Monsters: Stories (Small Beer Press)
Laird Barron – The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories (Night Shade Books)
Max Booth III – They Might Be Demons (Dark Moon Books)
Kenneth W. Cain – Fresh Cut Tales: A Collection of Dark Fiction (Distressed Press)
James Dorr – The Tears of Isis (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
K. Trap Jones – The Crossroads: A Collection of Narrative Horror (Hazardous Press)
Caitlin R. Kiernan – The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories (Subterranean)
Chantal Noordeloos – Deeply Twisted (TMH Publishing)
Gene O’Neill – Dance of the Blue Lady (Bad Moon Books)
Reggie Oliver – Flowers of the Sea (Tartarus Press)
S. P. Somtow – Bible Stories for Secular Humanists (Diplodocus Press)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan (ed.) – Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic (Fairleigh Dickinson)
Gary William Crawford (ed.) – Ramsey Campbell: Critical Essays on the Modern Master of Horror (Scarecrow Press)
William F. Nolan – Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing about the Master of Science Fiction (Hippocampus Press)
Jarkko Toikkanen – The Intermedial Experience of Horror: Suspended Failures (Palgrave Macmillan)
Robert H. Waugh (ed.) – Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors (Scarecrow Press)
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (ed.) – The Works of Tim Burton: Margins to Mainstream (Palgrave Macmillan)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Vincenzo Bilof – The Horror Show (Bizarro Pulp Press)
Bruce Boston – Dark Roads: Selected Long Poems 1971-2012 (Dark Renaissance Books)
G.O. Clark – Scenes Along the Zombie Highway (Dark Regions Press)
David C. Kopaska-Merkel – Luminous Worlds (Dark Regions Press)
Helen Marshall – The Sex Lives of Monsters (Kelp Queen Press)
Marge Simon and Sandy DeLuca – Dangerous Dreams (Elektrik Milk Bath Press)
Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob, and Linda Addison – Four Elements (Bad Moon Books/Evil Jester Press)
Bryan Thao Worra – Demonstra: A Poetry Collection (Innsmouth Free Press)
Stephanie M. Wytovich – Hysteria: A Collection of Madness (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Please note that if there are only one to five works appearing on a Ballot these works progress automatically to the Final Ballot (but must NOT be referred to as “Bram Stoker Award nominees” until the Final Ballot is formally announced on February 23). If six or more works appear on a Ballot, voting proceeds.
Our voting members will vote on these Preliminary Ballots, with voting closing on February 15 (only Active and Lifetime Members are eligible to vote).
Works appearing on these Preliminary Ballots are NOT “Bram Stoker Award nominees” and authors, editors, publishers, and others should not refer to any of these works as such – doing so is a severe breach of etiquette – voting members tend to notice such breaches and may consider them when determining which works to vote for on the Ballot.
