John Joseph Adams has just posted the complete table of contents for his upcoming zombie anthology The Living Dead, of which my Stoker-nominated tale “Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man” will be a part.

I won’t repost the entire TOC here, but I do want to point out how proud I am to be collected between the covers with such strong stories as Doug Winter’s “Less than Zombie,” Dan Simmons’ “This Year’s Class Picture,” and Adam-Troy Castro’s “Dead Like Me.” Just reading those titles brings back powerful memories from when I experienced each of them for the first time. If you haven’t read them yet, it will certainly be worth picking up the book for that trio alone. But since the book will feature 34 stories and more than 230,000 words, you won’t want to stop there.

The Living Dead won’t be out until September, but since it’s already listed on the Night Shades Books Web site, why not order it now?

My first original short story of 2008, “Petrified,” was published last weekend in Desolate Souls, the souvenir program book for this year’s World Horror Convention.

Since the convention took place in Utah, the editors were looking for desert-themed horror stories, so I set mine in Petrified Forest National Park. The book includes a mix of original and reprint stories, with a list of contributors that includes F. Paul Wilson, Orson Scott Card, Dennis Etchison, Yvonne Navarro, Linda Addison, and others.

As I was flying home from Salt Lake City, however, I discovered that due to a publishing glitch, the story didn’t appear entirely as I’d intended it. Because of that, I’d rather “Petrified” not be judged by how it appeared in Desolate Souls.

So if there’s anyone out there who would like to receive a PDF of the story as it was meant to appear, please e-mail me and I’ll send one along.

Unless there’s a shake-up to my publishing schedule, my next story to come out will be “A Very Private Tour of a Very Public Museum” in the Worldcon 2008 Special Issue of Postscripts magazine.

As you may have noticed, even though I blog here about writing and publishing matters, I don’t tend to write much about the actual writing process itself. I don’t share about how many words I get written each day, or my struggles with solving story problems, or my sorting through alternate story titles to find the one I really like.

To be honest, I only very rarely discuss those things with friends either. Until I’ve finished several drafts of a story, it’s almost as if my work doesn’t exist. Even when I’ve workshopped, the manuscripts I share tend to be in as nearly marketable a form as I can make them on my own. I guess I’ve always agreed with Vladimir Nabokov that sharing rough drafts was “like passing around samples of sputum.” Of course, that might be simply because my first drafts tend to be much more raw than those of other writers.

And then there’s also the fact that I’m slightly superstitious about it all, and I’m afraid of jinxing a story. Shedding too much light on on a story before it’s finished might kill it.

But in the interests of opening the window slightly into my writing process, I’m sharing a page from the first draft of a new short story, “Petrified,” which will appear this coming weekend in the program book of the 2008 World Horror Convention. I doubt that you’ll be able to read it anyway, as it’s written by hand, and I’ve always had the world’s worst handwriting. (more…)

According to a press release issued by the Horror Writers Association and the administrators of this year’s World Horror Convention, the Stoker Awards ceremony will be broadcast live on the Web a week from Saturday. This means that should I have a reason to take to the stage, you’ll be able to see and hear me from the comfort of your home, without the need to wend your way to Salt Lake City or eat rubber chicken.

Here are the details from the joint press release: (more…)

The Horror Writers Association has just sent me this nifty certificate to prove that I haven’t been fantasizing and “Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man” actually is a finalist in the Long Fiction category.

It’s my third such certificate, as I was also nominated for my previous stories “A Plague on Both Your Houses” and “The Last Supper,” but making it this far is just as exciting as ever.

As to whether I’ll be the one lucky enough to end up with the trophy, that will be determined on March 29 at the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City.

I hope to see you there!

Voting opens today on the final Stoker Awards ballot, and will remain open through March 7. Winners will be revealed at the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City on March 29.

My novella “Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man,” originally published in PostScripts 12, is on the ballot in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

If there are any active members out there who would like to see a copy of that piece for possible consideration, please zap me an e-mail and I’ll get one right to you!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

As Co-Chairman of the HWA Stoker Awards Committee, I’m proud to announce the nominees for the 2007 Bram Stoker Awards. Below is the Final Ballot for this year’s awards. The winners will be announced at the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City during the Stoker Awards Banquet on March 29th.

This information is for immediate dissemination and publication.

Please contact me or HWA President Deborah LeBlanc if you have any questions or need further information.

Thanks in advance.

Hank Schwaeble (more…)

Yesterday’s mail brought a copy of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Two, edited by George Mann. I noted the presence of contributors whose work I’ve long admired, such as Paul Di Filippo, Robert Reed, Michael Moorcock, and others, and I looked forward to hunkering down with it over the weekend.

This morning, in a wonderful example of synchronicity, I received an e-mail from editor George Mann in which he accepted an 8,200-word short story of mine, “Glitch,” for the third volume of his anthology series, due out in exactly a year. What remarkable timing!

“Glitch” is my first original fiction sale of 2008 (but not my first sale, as I did place a reprint last month with John Joseph Adams for his forthcoming zombie anthology). I can’t wait to learn who’ll be joining me on that table of contents!

As I mentioned here earlier, two of my stories are on the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards, given out each year by the Horror Writers Association. Voting is still going on to determine the nominated stories which will make up the final ballot.

This is just a gratuitous, self-serving reminder to all Active Members that their votes must be received by 11:59 p.m. today, which means that fewer than 16 hours remain.

My two stories appearing among the final twelve recommended in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction are:

“Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man” (originally published in Postscripts)
“Survival of the Fittest” (originally published in Summer Chills)

If there are any voting members out there who haven’t yet made up their minds and would like to receive electronic copies of my stories for review during these final hours, please let me know.

The Horror Writers Association has just released its preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards, which will be given out at this year’s World Horror Convention, held March 27-30, 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Active HWA members will now vote from this list to create the final ballot. Awards will be given out in the categories of Superior Achievement in a Novel, Long Fiction, Short Fiction, Anthology, Collection, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Congratulations to all the potential nominees.

I’m extremely pleased to be able to say that two of the 12 stories on the preliminary ballot in the Long Fiction category were written by yours truly. Here’s the final dozen:

“Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway” by Gary Braunbeck (Five Strokes to Midnight)
“Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man” by Scott Edelman (Postscripts)
“Survival of the Fittest” by Scott Edelman (Summer Chills)
“You Never Got Used to the Needle” by John Everson (Needles and Sins)
“Blood Coven” by Angeline Hawkes & Christopher Fulbright (Dead Letter Press)
“General Slocum’s Gold” by Nicholas Kaufmann (Burning Effigy Press)
“Placeholders” by John R. Little (Necessary Evil Press)
“Blood Wish” by Michael McBride (Delirium Books)
“Frayed” by Tom Piccirilli (Creeping Hemlock Press)
“Lost in Translation” by Gord Rollo (NYX Books)
“An Apiary of White Bees” by Lee Thomas (Inferno)
“Trolling Lures” by Steve Vernon (Hard Roads)

My thanks go out to all those HWA members who liked my stories enough to recommend them. Now that voting is about to begin, if there are any active HWA members out there who’d like to receive copies of either of these two stories for further consideration, please let me know. Voting closes February 10, and the final ballot is to be mailed by February 15. I have no idea what will happen next, but that gives me three weeks or so to be happy and hopeful.