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Not Even Close

It turns out my Stoker predictions last night didn't fare too well. I only ended up guessing 3 for 8. But the winners have been posted, and congrats to Hint Fiction anthology contributors Gary A. Braunbeck, Joe Lansdale, Nick Mamatas, and Peter Straub on their wins tonight! The awards ceremony was streaming live via Ustream. I didn't watch. Instead, I followed the Stroker Awards and their always delightful commentary. Such as:

Bram Stoker Award Predictions

Tomorrow night is the Bram Stoker Award banquet, thrown by the Horror Writers Association. The Stoker Award is not a juried award but rather an award voted upon by all its active members. Which means that, oftentimes, what's nominated is not always read but yet voted for anyway. This is why the term "Stoker grubbing" has become an almost common term around every award season. Of course, sometimes the members vote simply on name recognition too, as they believe that will give more credibility to their organization. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to pick some random winners. I have not read hardly any of what is nominated and am choosing based simply on a gut feeling (or just randomly if I'm not sure). We'll see how close my predictions are tomorrow night. If you'd like to play along, tell me who you think the winners will be in the comments section for each category. Whoever comes closest to the right answer after tomorrow night gets a free book.

Novel

HORNS by Joe Hill ROT AND RUIN by Jonathan Maberry DEAD LOVE by Linda Watanabe McFerrin APOCALYPSE OF THE DEAD by Joe McKinney DWELLER by Jeff Strand A DARK MATTER by Peter Straub

First Novel

BLACK AND ORANGE by Benjamin Kane Ethridge A BOOK OF TONGUES by Gemma Files CASTLE OF LOS ANGELES by Lisa Morton SPELLBENT by Lucy Snyder

Long Fiction

THE PAINTED DARKNESS by Brian James Freeman DISSOLUTION by Lisa Mannetti MONSTERS AMONG US by Kirstyn McDermott THE SAMHANACH by Lisa Morton INVISIBLE FENCES by Norman Prentiss

Short Fiction

RETURN TO MARIABRONN by Gary Braunbeck THE FOLDING MAN by Joe R. Lansdale 1925: A FALL RIVER HALLOWEEN by Lisa Mannetti IN THE MIDDLE OF POPLAR STREET by Nate Southard FINAL DRAFT by Mark W. Worthen

Anthology

DARK FAITH edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon HORROR LIBRARY IV edited by R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris MACABRE: A JOURNEY THROUGH AUSTRALIA’S DARKEST FEARS edited by Angela Challis and Marty Young HAUNTED LEGENDS edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas THE NEW DEAD edited by Christopher Golden

Collection

OCCULTATION by Laird Barron BLOOD AND GRISTLE by Michael Louis Calvillo FULL DARK, NO STARS by Stephen King THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY by Stephen Graham Jones A HOST OF SHADOWS by Harry Shannon

Nonfiction

TO EACH THEIR DARKNESS by Gary A. Braunbeck THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE by Thomas Ligotti WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE by Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman LISTEN TO THE ECHOES: THE RAY BRADBURY INTERVIEWS by Sam Weller

Poetry

DARK MATTERS by Bruce Boston WILD HUNT OF THE STARS by Ann K. Schwader DIARY OF A GENTLEMAN DIABOLIST by Robin Spriggs VICIOUS ROMANTIC by Wrath James White

Dean Koontz On Writing

When asked how important college creative-writing courses were to his success, Dean Koontz answered:

I’m sure that the right teacher, in a well-designed course, can be a great help to beginning writers who are trying to find their way, but I have no personal experience of that. I found my own way by doing two things. First, I read 150 books a year, sometimes more, (very little TV, later no blogging, no e-mail, that’s how), fiction in all genres, contemporary novels but also the classics, poetry, and a variety of nonfiction. Second, I revise every page of a novel twenty or thirty times, whatever it takes, before moving on to the next page. This line-by-line immersion focuses me intently on language, character, and theme. I began this ceaseless polishing out of self-doubt, as a way of preventing self-doubt from turning into writer’s block: by doing something with the unsatisfactory page, I wasn’t just sitting there brooding about it. I have more self-doubt than any writer I know, which seems healthy to me, and now this method of working, this line-by-line immersion, no longer seems arduous; instead, it delights me. While my conscious mind is on the micro world of a single page, my unconscious is always working on the macro world of the entire novel.

Say what you will of Koontz -- for me, he's hit and miss, and, unfortunately, I think a lot of his recent stuff is miss -- but the man is a machine. Unlike some best-selling authors, he writes all his novels, and is currently releasing two books a year (which might not always be a good thing, of course). He has a few more interesting thoughts on writing at his website. And for the record, I like pre-toupee Koontz better (update: I'm told that it's not a toupee, but some kind of hair restoration and that it was very painful. Yikes!).

Did you enter the "Multiplicity" contest yet? If not, you have until midnight EST, so enter now.