Sadly, not the actual award

Awards never seemed particularly important to me… it seems to take at least as much work to get noticed for award consideration, as it does to do work that merits one. And "serious" award-grabbing works are often worlds away from real entertainment. But this one means everything to me.

My first collection, Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars, received the Wonderland Award for Best Bizarro Collection of 2009 at this year's Bizarro Con in Portland. The voters were authors and fans of Bizarro fiction, with no secret judges' panels or esoteric recommendation regimen, and the other nominees were uniformly excellent. I was so overwhelmed by the moment that I neglected to pour out my gratitude to Alan Clark for his phenomenal cover art, or to my unbelievably supportive and patient wife. I'm pretty sure I just made armpit farts until I was escorted off the stage.

Thank you, Bizarros!