The Rainbow Awards and A Seditious Affair
Big, amazing, thrilling news: The 2015 Rainbow Awards have been announced and I’ve done, er, rather well.
Best Gay Book 1st place tie: The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal (with Amy Lane’s Beneath the Stain).
Gay Paranormal Romance 1st place: The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal
I want to take a moment here. The Secret Casebook is a gay Victorian occult detective romance rooted in British folklore and Victorian pulp. It started off as a squib, a short story for an anthology, but the characters wouldn’t go away. It led to a collaboration with Jordan L Hawk (Remnant, still free!) which remains one of my most enjoyable writing experiences ever. And then when I wrote the whole Casebook it turned into a story about stories, and writing, and hiding, and the toll taken by concealment and social injustice. In some ways it’s a pulp paranormal romance romp and in some ways it’s very serious indeed, and it’s a novel in short stories which is not exactly usual anyway, and to be honest I’ve always felt grateful to my editor Anne Scott and publisher Samhain for letting me have my head and do it, because I couldn’t have blamed them for asking, ‘what the hell is this?’ (They didn’t just let me have my head: they gave me a gorgeous Kanaxa cover. Can’t ask for more.)
And now it’s walked away with two wins in the Rainbow Awards including joint Best Gay Book, which…wow. So there you go. I’ll just be over here purring quietly for the next month.
And furthermore…
Gay Historical Romance 2nd place: A Fashionable Indulgence
Gay Fantasy Romance 4th place: Jackdaw
LGBT Anthology 3rd place Charmed & Dangerous (including my story, ‘A Queer Trade’).
I’m immensely proud of and honoured by all of this. Huge thanks to my editors and publishers (Samhain, Loveswept, JCP Books), and I recommend checking out the full Rainbow Awards results for what I can only describe as a massive and magnificent shopping list. So many excellent books, so much work put into this by judges and organisers, and publishers and editors and cover artists (let alone the authors). It’s a privilege to be part of it.
In other news (but still me me me, sorry), the blog tour for A Seditious Affair begins tomorrow, with the book publishing on 15th December. I have done lots and lots of posts about stuff, and there’s giveaways running, so do check the stops out. Links go to site homepages.
Just Love Romance 09-Dec Excerpt
Ellie Reads 10-Dec The Past and Points of View
Boys in our Books 11-Dec A Kink without a Name
Sinfully… 12-Dec Putting the Romance into History
The Breakfast Octopus 13-Dec Interview
All About Romance 14-Dec Mind Your Language. On getting historical vocabulary rightish
Ever After Romance 15-Dec Standalones and Overlaps: telling several stories at once
Joyfully Jay 17-Dec Historical attitudes and Regency Radicals
I will probably mention it when the book publishes. *cough*
Congratulations! you really do deserve it 🙂 (an adoring fan here).
I read the excerpt, and now I’m torn between crying because it’s so good, to crying because it’s so sad, so being overjoyd that I’ll get to read the book in just a few days.
I generally do not write comments, but this excerpt touched my soul somehow, so thank you.
*if I have made some grammar mistake please forgive me; English is not my first language.
A. V. Your English is excellent – much better than some native speakers!
Thank you! That’s lovely. 🙂
Congratulations! I love all your books, but The Secret Casebook has a special place in my heart. 🙂