Today I was greeted with a congratulations tweet from Jamie Todd Rubin, a local sci-fi writer who posted the arcane message: “Congrats for being a GoodReads Choice nominee” This was confusing as I had no idea there was such a thing as a GoodReads Choice Award, much less that I was nominated, or had the ability to be nominated. Mr. Rubin knew more about me than I did.
I followed this link and discovered I was indeed in the running for best in fantasy for 2010. There are only 15 books in my category, and if we were playing the “What thing doesn’t belong” game, The Emerald Storm, would be the easy choice. Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks, Guy Kay…these are all big names, all put out through major publishers. And then there is Emerald Storm? That’s sort of like, lion, tiger, bear…spaceship.
Something like this happened once before, about six months ago when Avempartha was nominated for the BSC’s fourth annual Book Tournament. Pitted against a number of similarly accomplished authors, my book did manage to win, but that was a far more limited pool where my fans were able to take bully-clubs and bats to the opposition. Voting on the BSC site ranged in the forties; GoodReads has well over a million users. I don’t think my Riyrian Army has much of a chance against those odds.
Granted I didn’t expect to survive my first round on the BSC and ended up winning, but given the difference here, given the dramatic change in venue, and the quality of my fellow nominees; I think this is one of those situations where I can truly say, it’s enough to just be nominated. Well, actually, it’s amazing, shocking, astounding, and even a bit bewildering–but in a good way. So thanks to those GoodReaders who put me on the list. And thanks to Jamie for the heads-up. Now I have to figure out who I should vote for.