My novelette “We Built This City” was chosen as one of six finalists for the 2022 Novelette Nebula. (For works between 7,500 and 20,000 words long.) (Full list of nominees here.)
My first thought is of all the years I watched the big award announcements with covetous envy. I personally know some works that must have been very close to making the final list, things I voted for that didn’t make it. Know that you are free to gripe and complain in my presence and I am 100% sure you deserve this honor as much or more than I do.
I wrote this post about the complicated feelings awards generate, and I would hate to be hurting anyone with my joy.
The spate of online congratulations was about three times what I’d get for a new publication in a big market? I feared it would never end, but it did quiet down this morning, same as a new publication announcement would. I got maybe a dozen new followers on social media. My dog and my co-workers reacted alike with disinterest.
(Well, the dog was interested in me stopping the cheering and starting the walkies.)
I don’t expect this to change my life in a major way. I am mostly just hoping I sell maybe a few more books? Maybe? It’s definitely going in all my query letters here on out! Maybe I’ll get an agent at last? Maybe? But I know that no one will give me that shot if they don’t like the next thing I am writing, and that has nothing to do with this story, or who I am.
Whatever happens, it’s not really about me. It’s about this story, which is not just my work, but also the research by Dr. Geoffrey A. Landis that inspired the story it is a sequel to, and the tireless work of all my workshop-mates and friends, especially Nyla Bright and Charles Oberndorf, who I made read drafts with bad endings, and the Literary Cleveland class that gave me the first scene. Really, this novelette took a village. Read this blog post for a real deep-dive into the whole process!
I am happy. I am so, so happy. I am going to be marveling that this happened to me for a long time, potentially forever, and I am so very excited to go to the Nebula Awards this year, to be one of the Stars with a special ribbon on my name badge! I’ll get to congratulate fellow nominees in person and hopefully meet those I don’t know!
Getting nominated IS an award, on its own. A lovely award I get to share six ways with amazingly talented writers, including some I have looked up to for years. I look forward to the conference as to being a member of Prom Court. It will be a wonderful party, and the day after, life will return to normal.
And I still have to walk the dog.
