A few minutes ago, the Horror Writers Association announced the preliminary ballot for the 2015 Bram Stoker Awards, and guess who’s on it in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction? Me!

Check out the ten stories which made the cut.

Braunbeck, Gary A. – Paper Cuts (Seize the Night) (Gallery Books)

Eads, Ben – Cracked Sky (Omnium Gatherum)

Edelman, Scott – Becoming Invisible, Becoming Seen (Dark Discoveries #30)

Gunhus, Jeff – The Torment of Rachel Ames (Seven Guns Press)

Mannetti, Lisa – The Box Jumper (Smart Rhino Publications)

McGuire, Seanan – Resistance (The End Has Come) (Broad Reach Publishing)

O’Neill, Gene – At the Lazy K (Written Backwards)

Parent, Jason – Dia de los Muertos (Bad Apples 2) (Corpus Press)

Partridge, Norman – Special Collections (The Library of the Dead) (Written Backwards)

Yardley, Mercedes M. – Little Dead Red (Grimm Mistresses) (Ragnarok Publications)

Fingers crossed that enough HWA members enjoy my story to vote it on to the final ballot.

If “Becoming Invisible, Becoming Seen” should make it there, that would be the sixth time a story of mine will be a Stoker Awards finalist. I’ve previously been there for “The Hunger of Empty Vessels” (on the 2009 ballot), “Petrified” (2008), “Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man” (2007), “The Last Supper” (2003), and “A Plague on Both Your Houses” (1997).

One reason I’d love to move on to the next stage, aside from what fun it is to spend a few months being a nominee, is that according to Locus, even if I get there only to lose, I’d still win!

Because I’d then be tied for the most nominations without a win ever!

Voting on the preliminary ballot will occur from February 1 through February 15, and the final ballot will be announced on February 23. If you’re an Active or Lifetime members of the HWA and would like a PDF of “Becoming Invisible, Becoming Seen,” let me know!