No FitzJames and Moyo stories this year (though I have published one, “The Little Friend” in Fission #2), but Management Lessons from Game of Thrones and three short pieces, “Mnemotechnic,” “The Memory Spider” and “The Slow Deaths of Automobiles” are all on the BSFA Award Longlist! And two out of three of those are stories about Things.
Congratulations to all my fellow listees!
Tag: Cars
FitzJames and Moyo make the BSFA Award Shortlist (again!)
The BSFA Award Shortlist has been announced, and my FitzJames and Moyo story, “Things Can Only Get Better”, about a surgical bot repurposed as a taxi who cracks a gambling ring, is on it! This is their second time on the shortlist, after 2020’s “Jolene”, and what can I say but it’ll be an honour to lose to such amazing people.
You can read my story at the link to Abyss and Apex above, and vote at bsfa.co.uk.
The list:
Best Book for Younger Readers
The Raven Heir by Stephanie Burgis, Bloomsbury Children’s Books
A Snake Falls to Earth, by Darcie Little Badger, Levine Querido
Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao, Rock the Boat
Redemptor, by Jordan Ifueko, Hot Key Books
The Empty Orchestra, by Elizabeth Priest, Luna Press Publishing
Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep by Philip Reeve, David Fickling Books
Best Novel
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, Tor
Blackthorn Winter by Liz Williams, NewCon Press
Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts, Gollancz
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tor
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley, Solaris
Green Man’s Challenge by Juliet E. McKenna, Wizard’s Tower Press
Best Shorter Fiction
‘Fireheart Tiger’ by Aliette de Bodard, Tor.com
‘Light Chaser’ by Peter F. Hamilton, Gareth L. Powell, Tor.com
‘O2 Arena’ by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Galaxy Edge Magazine
‘Things Can Only Get Better’ by Fiona Moore, Abyss & Apex
Best Non-Fiction
Cyberpunk Culture and Psychology: Seeing Through the Mirrorshades, by Anna McFarlane, Routledge
Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color, by Joy Sanchez-Taylor, Ohio State Press
The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture, by Mark Bould, Verso Books
Worlds Apart: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. Francesca T. Barbini, Luna Publishing
Octothorpe Podcast, by John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty, Octothorpe
Science Fiction and the Pathways out of the COVID Crisis, by Val Nolan, The Polyphony
Best Artwork
Cover of Eugen Bacon’s Danged Black Thing, by Peter Lo / Kara Walker, Transit Lounge Publishing
Cover of Eugen Bacon’s Saving Shadows, by Elena Betti, NewCon Press
Cover of Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm, by Dan dos Santos / Lauren Panepinto, Orbit
Cover of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (ed.)’s The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction, by Maria Spada
Glasgow Green Woman by Iain Clark, Glasgow2024
FitzJames and Moyo Make The BSFA Longlist!
I can’t believe it! I’m on the BSFA Award longlist *twice!* It’s for my stories “The Ghosts of Trees” (climate fiction about accepting the things you can’t change and changing the things you can) and “Things Can Only Get Better” (a FitzJames and Moyo Mystery about a surgical bot turned taxi who cracks a gambling ring) Both are available for free at the links. Members can read the full list and vote here— deadline is 21 February.
New FitzJames and Moyo!
I’ve got a new FitzJames and Moyo mystery story out at Abyss&Apex this month: “Things Can Only Get Better“, where Detective Wilhelmine FitzJames of the London Met’s Automotive Division, and Noah Moyo, freelance car psychologist, come to the aid of a surgical bot turned smart taxi, and crack an artificial-intelligence gambling ring! Click the link to read for free; if you like FitzJames and Moyo, you can read the award-nominated “Jolene” on this blog, and/or check out other stories about AI in trouble in “Automotive Dreams“.
Automotive Dreams
I’ve made a small chapbook of seven of my early short stories available as an ebook! Including the BSFA Award-nominated “Jolene”, and the origin story of the self-driving car mysteries, “The Little Car Dreams of Gasoline”.
If you enjoyed Driving Ambition (my novel! Available in print or electronic formats!), or if you want to get a sense of the sort of thing I write– well, it’s only the price of the proverbial cup of coffee!
Buy or download it here.
The Lori is loose!
My story “The Lori” is now up on Clarkesworld!
This one had an interesting genesis. I woke up one morning with the first line, “the problem with sentient battle tanks is their drivers” running through my head, and the story just unfolded from that line.
Click the link to read it for free.
And here’s a picture of the skull I bought to celebrate!
Live reading: “The Little Car Dreams of Gasoline”
Here’s a video of me doing a reading for the BSFA Vector Solidarity Salon reading series. The story is “The Little Car Dreams of Gasoline”, published in On Spec magazine in 2016.
And one of my cats gets involved.
BSFA Vector Solidarity Salon #7
I’m going to be giving a reading this Thursday in the BSFA Vector’s Solidarity Salon! I’m on at 8:45, following Chinelo Onwualu at 8:15. The Facebook event page is here, and I’ll provide a link to the video after the event.
I’ll be reading “The Little Car Dreams of Gasoline,” which is my first published self-driving car story, and is a stand-alone prequel to my novel Driving Ambition.
Praise for “Jolene”
Nicholas Whyte has kind things to say about “Jolene” in his BSFA rundown!
You can read “Jolene” for free here.
(PS– book bundle)
Book bundle!
Exciting book news:
Driving Ambition is one of many great books in the Bundoran Buddies book bundle! For just $15, less than the price of a trade paperback these days, you get 12 books, by the likes of Robert Sawyer, Tanya Huff, Brad C Anderson and Madeline Ashby, and, well, I’m in there too.
Also, self-driving-car bonus: one of the anthologies in the bundle, Lazarus Risen, includes “Seal”, my story about sentient care-home robots going horribly wrong.
Beat the lockdown blues with books!
Link here:
A Doctor Of Many Things 