Obligatory Ditmar and Stoker Awards eligibility post.

It’s award season again and when this time of year comes around there’s always varying degrees of discomfort in how we make our eligible work known without acting like car salesmen or insecure hermits. And everything in between. However, I’ve long since come to be comfortable with the idea that writers should make clear what their eligible work is and where to find it. I wish more writers would do it in order for me to not forget good stuff I’ve seen, or for me to find good stuff I may have missed. And I always encourage more people to get involved so the awards are a better reflection of fandom, as they should be. The juried awards look after themselves, but the fan awards need loads of participation. So get on board.

The Stokers can only be recommended by HWA members and they know who they are, so anyone reading this with the ability to get involved there can skip straight down to the stories I’ve listed. Stoker Awards rules and etiquette can be found here: http://www.horror.org/awards/stokers.htm

The Ditmars can be nominated by “natural persons active in fandom”. That means we can’t just get all our family and friends to nominate, as the committee will check who’s nominating. But if you are a fan, you can use the online form to nominate and to give a referee for you eligibility to nominate. If you’re a blogger, a convention attendee, an avid reader, active in any way in fandom, you qualify. The nomination form is here and all the relevant details are on it. So if you’re allowed to, please get involved. There’s a massive (though not exhaustive) list of eligible work here. I have two things that I think are my strongest works of 2015, and that I’d like to see attract more attention. They’re listed below and I’ve made a PDF of each available for you to read and consider. If you think they’re worthy of your nomination, I thank you in advance.