I woke this morning to a press release from the Horror Writers Association announcing the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot—and look who appears in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction—

Me!

Anderson, Paul Michael – Bones Are Made to be Broken (Bones Are Made to be Broken) (Written Backwards)

Boden, John – Jedi Summer with the Magnetic Kid (Post Mortem Press)

Cushing, Aric – Vampire Boy (Grand & Archer)

Cushing, Nicole – The Sadist’s Bible (01Publishing)

Drinkwater, Karl – Harvest Festival (Organic Apocalypse)

Edelman, Scott – That Perilous Stuff (Chiral Mad 3) (Written Backwards)

LaValle, Victor – The Ballad of Black Tom (Tor.com)

Malerman, Josh – The Jupiter Drop (You, Human) (Written Backwards)

Matthews, Mark – All Smoke Rises: Milk-Blood Redux (Wicked Run Press)

Shane, Simmons – Raw (Silent Screams: An Anthology of Socially Conscious Dark Fiction) (Serpent & Dove Speculative Fiction)

Waggoner, Tim – The Winter Box (Darkfuse)

You can find the full preliminary ballot here.

Please note that this does not make me a Bram Stoker Award nominee or finalist—those will be determined by members of the HWA voting from February 1 through 15, and the lucky few who make the final ballot will be announced on February 23. But hey, I’m thrilled to have gotten this far!

If you’re a voting member of the HWA, and would like to receive a copy of my story to consider as you make your final decisions, please let me know and I’ll send one off right away.

And whatever happens next, I hope to see you at Stokercon!