Jason Sanford

A reminder, some praise, and a great SF essay

A few items of note:

1) I'm attending Epic ConFusion this weekend in Detroit. I'm taking part in a number of panels, will be autographing Never Never Stories at the main autograph session at 5 pm on Saturday, and plan to have a ton of fun. My complete schedule is here.

2) Over at the SF Site, D. Douglas Fratz has some amazing words for my fiction. To quote:

Over the decades that I have been reading science fiction, there have been occasions when a new writer with a singular new style and vision appears whose fiction seems destined to have lasting impact on the field. Jason Sanford is one such a new writer. He writes with a confidence and skill that makes it difficult to believe that he burst onto the scene only in the past few years.

Wow! Many thanks to Fratz for the kind words and support.

3) Cory Doctorow's essay "A Vocabulary for Speaking about the Future" in the Jan. 2012 Locus is flat-out one of the best SF essays I've ever read. I plan to write more on the essay in the near future, but until then go and read it!

4) And no, I haven't forgotten about this year's Million Writers Award. Look for the initial announcement about the award next week.

Suggest Stories for the Million Writers Award anthologies

Early next year Spotlight Publishing, which recently published my short story collection Never Never Stories, will release two anthologies of Million Writers Awards stories. I will edit both anthologies, which are titled:

• Million Writers Award: The Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy
• Million Writers Award: The Best New Online Voices

These anthologies will feature stories from the last eight years of the storySouth Million Writers Award. I'm currently pulling together table of contents for both books, but I wanted to also offer readers and writers the opportunity to suggest stories for inclusion. After all, a key aspect of the Million Writers Award is that the public has a voice in the award process. I'd like it to be the same with these anthologies.

Here's the deal: only stories which made the award's notable story list, top ten list, or won the award are eligible for consideration. The Million Writers Award: The Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy is, obviously, focused on those respected genres. Million Writers Award: The Best New Online Voices focuses on the most exciting new and upcoming authors who have had stories in the award over the last eight years. If you'd like to suggest stories, either use the comment box below or email your picks to me. Be sure to mention which anthology your suggestions are for.

Pasted below are links to the last eight years of Million Writers Award stories. If you have some suggestions, please send them to me by September 20th.

Last 8 Years of the Million Writers Award

• 2011 award
• 2010 award
• 2009 award
• 2008 award
• 2007 award
• 2006 award
• 2005 award
• 2004 award
  

Winners of the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award

The public vote for the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award is now complete. We had nearly 1150 votes. Here are the winning stories, along with their percentage of the vote:

1. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine) – 18%
2. "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" by Eric Maroney (Eclectica) – 16%
3. "The Green Book" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine) – 15%

The prizes for this year's award are:

• First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
• Runner-up: $200
• Honorable mention/third place: $100

Thank you to everyone who votes and nominated stories. Next year's award will kick off in early 2012.

Spotlight Publishing to Release Million Writers Award Anthologies

As I mentioned yesterday, Spotlight Publishing is a small press which recently relaunched with a new focus on science fiction and fantasy books. Among their first new titles are my own Never Never Stories, Edmund R. Schubert's The Trouble With Eating Clouds, and James Maxey's There Is No Wheel. Following these inital books will be the anthology InterGalactic Awards Anthology Vol. I, edited by Orson Scott Card and Edmund R. Schubert. 

Now obviously having my short story collection come out is extremely exciting. But equally as exciting is that Spotlight has agreed to publish two anthologies of stories from the last eight years of the Million Writers Award. These anthologies will be titled Million Writers Award: The Best New Online Voices and Million Writers Award: The Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy.

The first anthology will focus on the exciting new authors and voices to emerge through the Million Writers Award, while the second anthology will focus on the many SF/F stories our judges and readers have loved. I will edit both anthologies, which will feature stories from all levels of the award process (i.e., winners, finalists, and notable stories).

In the coming months I'll be contacting authors to arrange reprint rights for their stories. The publication date for the two Million Writers Award anthologies is early 2012.

Last Day to Vote for the Million Writers Award

We now have just over one day left in the public vote for the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award. The public vote will be open through 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on July 6, 2011. Readers and writers may vote one time for their favorite story by clicking here.

The latest vote tally is available here.

The prizes for this year's award are:

• First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
• Runner-up: $200
• Honorable mention/third place: $100

Update on July 6: Voting ends tonight a minute before midnight. Since there has been a rush of last-minute voting, it will take me a day or so to verify that all the votes are valid and release the results. Look for the official word on the winners on Friday.

Final Week of Voting for the Million Writers Award

We now have one week left in the public vote for the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award. With just over 800 votes tallied, the leading stories have continued to change positions. "The Green Book" is once again number one while "Arvies," "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso," and "Most of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires" are close behind.

Before I go into this week's voting details, I should note I've seen a large number of attempts to vote using fake names and email addresses. These attempts were all deleted. The supporters of one author in particular seems to be waging a campaign to stuff the ballot on this author's behalf. If this continues I will name the author and list all the IP addresses and fake names and email accounts used on this author's behalf. Doing this would likely enable some cybersleuth to easily figure out who is doing this. All I can say is you've been warned.

Anyway, here are the current vote percentages, ranked from highest to lowest.

1. "The Green Book" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine) – 16%
2. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine) – 15%
3. "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" by Eric Maroney (Eclectica) – 14%
4. "Most of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires" by Amber Sparks (Barrelhouse) – 13%
5. "Do You Have a Place for Me" by Roxane Gay (Spork Press) – 12%
6. "Cancer Party" by Nicola Mason (Blackbird) – 9%
7. "Hell Dogs" by Daphne Buter (FRiGG: A Magazine of Fiction and Poetry)  – 8%
8. "Arthur Arellano" by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Narrative Magazine) – 7%
9. "Here is David, the Greatest of Descendants" by Spencer Kealamakia (Anderbo) – 4%
10. "Elegy for a Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean Magazine) – 2%

Remember, the public vote is open through July 6, 2011. Readers and writers may vote one time for their favorite by clicking here.

The prizes for this year's award are:

• First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
• Runner-up: $200
• Honorable mention/third place: $100

Second Week Vote Tally for Million Writers Award

So far I've received nearly 600 votes in the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award. There is a small shakeup from last week's numbers, with the former number one story "The Green Book" dropping to number three while "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" and "Arvies" surged to numbers one and two. However, I should point out that it doesn't take many votes to do this and that all of the top five stories are very much in contention for the top prize.

Anyway, here are the current vote percentages, ranked from highest to lowest.

1. "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" by Eric Maroney (Eclectica) – 17%
2. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine) – 15%
3. "The Green Book" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine) – 13%
4. "Most of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires" by Amber Sparks (Barrelhouse) – 13%
5. "Do You Have a Place for Me" by Roxane Gay (Spork Press) – 12%
6. "Cancer Party" by Nicola Mason (Blackbird) – 8%
7. "Hell Dogs" by Daphne Buter (FRiGG: A Magazine of Fiction and Poetry)  – 8%
8. "Arthur Arellano" by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Narrative Magazine) – 7%
9. "Here is David, the Greatest of Descendants" by Spencer Kealamakia (Anderbo) – 4%
10. "Elegy for a Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean Magazine) – 3%

Remember, the public vote is open through July 6, 2011. Readers and writers may vote one time for their favorite by clicking here. And please note that I had to delete a number of duplicate votes this time. If you don't provide a valid name and email address your vote won't be counted.

The prizes for this year's award are:

• First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
• Runner-up: $200
• Honorable mention/third place: $100