I’ve been biting my tongue since Monday because the Shirley Jackson Awards committee wanted to keep the news secret until its site could be updated, but I can now reveal here that my short story collection What Will Come After is a nominee in the category of Single-Author Collection.

Since you can easily find the full ballot elsewhere, I won’t repeat the list, but here are the nominees in my category. (And I hope it won’t be seen as an insult to the writers with whom I’ve appeared on any previous ballot if I say that collectively, this is the most talented group with whom I’ve ever competed. Seeing those other names fills me with awe and has me thinking … “Do I really belong there?”)

Occultation, Laird Barron (Night Shade)
The Ones That Got Away, Stephen Graham Jones (Prime Books)
The Third Bear, Jeff Vandermeer (Tachyon)
What I Didn’t See, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer Press)
What Will Come After, Scott Edelman (PS Publishing)

The winners of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards will be announced in July at Readercon, a convention I’ve been attending since 1987. I love that con more than any other, and the sense of anticipation I’ll be feeling throughout that weekend could make it the best Readercon yet!

Hope to see you there!