I'm happy to announce that yesterday I learned
The Gemini Effect won the 2016 Silver Falchion Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
So...the next obvious question is, "What the heck is a 'Falchion?'" Um, it's a sword, so now that we've taken care of that, we'll continue on to the next obvious question...which is...
"What the heck is a Silver Falchion Award?" Hah! Thanks for asking! This might shed some light:
*
"The Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award™ is committed to
discovering new writers, as well as superlative books by established
authors and, upon discovery, sharing those writers and their works with
new readers.
This year, the awards were announced at the 2016 Silver Falchion Award Ceremony on August 20, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of the Killer Nashville Writers Conference.
The Conference was founded in 2006 by writer and filmmaker
Clay Stafford as a trademarked charitable production of
American Blackguard, Inc.
Since then, it has developed a reputation as a leading advocate for
writers and readers of all genres. Media analysis conducted by a third
party in the fall of 2012 found that Killer Nashville was the most
written about writers conference on the web..."
*
So there you have it! This
link shows all the 2016 finalists and award winners.
"But wait," you ask, "if the awards were announced in August, why are you telling us now?" Well, to make a short story long, I'd asked my publisher, 47North, if they'd be willing to enter
The Gemini Effect in the competition...and then I promptly forgot about it. I'm 52. It's a common theme these days. For example, I have no idea why I'm writing this right now, and I think I'll go downstairs and--OH YEAH! Now I remember! So, I was Google'ing myself last night (get your mind out of the gutter, Francis), looking to see if there might be any hidden early reviews for
The Argus Deceit lurking out there, and I saw an entry for the Silver Falchion Award. "Why the heck would that be coming up?" I wondered, then after I clicked on it, I saw why. "I'll be darned," I said, then promptly forgot about it. Again. Until now.
I was certainly surprised, and happy. I'm honored that my crazy novel won the award, and
very honored to join such past winners as Dean Koontz, Lisa Jackson, and John Sanford.
Thank you Killer Nashville, and to all the people who voted for
The Gemini Effect. Way friggin' cool.