A poll, some awards, and an icon.

A POLL

What do you think of authors publishing short stories that tie in with their novels? For example, Sarah Rees Brennan posting "Sorcerer and Stone," a short story that depicts the background of Gerald from The Demon's Lexicon? Or Marie Brennan publishing "Deeds of Men," which takes place between her novels Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie? Or those Silverberg-edited Legends anthologies featuring stories set in Westeros (George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire), The Dark Tower universe (Stephen King's, of course), and Neil Gaiman's version of reality from American Gods? Marie Brennan is looking for thoughts from writers and readers regarding this very topic in this poll at fangs_fur_fey.


MYTHOPOEIC AWARDS

I don't even remember if I managed to post the finalists for this year's Mythopoeic Awards, which I feel awkward about considering I'm a member of the Mythopoeic Society! In any case, I'm here to share the results now:

Literature Awards

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature
Winner: Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone by Carol Berg
Others nominated: Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory, Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip, and An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature
Winner: Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Others nominated: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones, Savvy by Ingrid Law, and Nation by Terry Pratchett.

Scholarship Awards

Mythopoeic Award in Scholarship Studies
Winner: The History of the Hobbit, Part One: Mr. Baggins; Part Two: Return to Bag-end by John Rateliff
Others nominated: Charles Williams: Alchemy and Integration by Gavin Ashenden, Tolkien on Fairy-stories: Expanded Edition, with Commentary and Notes, eds. Veryln Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson, Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Michael Ward, and The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology: A Study of the History of Middle-earth by Elizabeth A. Whittingham.

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies
Winner: Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children’s Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper by Charles Butler
Others nominated: Folklore and the Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction by Jason Marc Harris, Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn, One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle and Orson Scott Card by Marek Oziewicz, and Oz in Perspective: Magic and Myth in the Frank L. Baum Books by Richard Carl Tuerk.


HELL YES, I WROTE THAT!

And, finally, catvalente posted a passionate essay today on how writers are not, in fact, mere vessels for the divine muse. This essay induced a lot of Amen!'s from readers and culminated in the following text:

"And that's the thing. It isn't easy. It shouldn't be. It's scary and hard and it takes forever. Own that, for fuck's sake. Flex your bicep and say: hell yes, I wrote that book. Not my characters. Not my muse. Me. Every verb, every article. I've got the carpal tunnel to prove it.

Writers aren't fragile Mina Harkers, occasionally filled up with Dracula's literary fluids. We're Rosie the Riveters. We always have to roll up our sleeves and do the damn work.

That text caused me to throw up my fist in solidarity and spontaneously generate the following icon:



Take, use, credit as you wish!