Congratulations to all the writers on this year’s Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot, which was recently announced by the Horror Writers Association.

I won’t be attending StokerCon myself this year, sadly, but I wish all the nominees the best of luck. I think it’s a pretty good list, with strong candidates in every category, although I confess I have a few personal favorites for which I am rooting. However, since I haven’t read all the books in every category, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself for now, as I do my best to read a few more before the winners are announced.

You can read the full list of nominees here.

As for myself, I’ve been sticking to a fairly regular (for me) writing schedule of late, with two major projects in the works and 5-6 short stories out in the world under consideration at various venues, fingers crossed.

Also, I’m leading a short genre fiction writing workshop at Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network, which meets once a week and is (I think/hope) going really well so far. I am looking forward to reading what all the participants come up with for their final stories.

And I’ve been reading, of course. I’ve finished 13 books so far this year. My favorite “discovery” has been David Goodis, whose name I knew but I hadn’t yet read anything of his before January. Since then I’ve blown through four of his books and I’ve got to say the hype is legit. The guy wrote lean, mean, black-as-pitch noir that stands (or slouches, at least) shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford, two of my all-time favorite authors of hardboiled fiction.

Goodis’ life makes for interesting reading on its own – give the Wikipedia article a skim if you are interested in the seamier and sordid side of American Lit – and one of my favorite podcasts, Paperback Warrior, did a great episode about his life that’s very much worth your time to check out.

Thanks for checking in with me – more stories and updates to come!