I am a fraud because I don’t think I’ve actually written about dragons. Much of the time though, I’m not too far removed from the fantastically speculative sphere in which they might be found, and I do have several. They spend their observable time in static states – metal, ceramic and the like – transforming to wreak havoc at times only cats can see and who are mostly complicit in the resultant wreckage. Also, if it hadn’t been for the raining thread, I would have moved to Pern and got myself a flock of fire lizards. So I am accepting this award, kindly conferred by Sarah Higbee, on those spurious grounds, and to be consistent with my roundabout qualification for it, I’m going to mess with the rest of the rules too.

Let’s get the fifteen onward nominees out of the way first: as I know of very few (my problem, not theirs) and Sarah is one of them I’m going to risk setting up a perpetual loop in which WordPress continually refers to itself by citing the ones on her list – minus me, of course because that would be proper silly, wouldn’t it?

– Mhairi Simpson – Crazy Creative

– Lizzie Baldwin – My Little Book Blog

– Sara Letourneau’s Official Website & Blog

– Michael D. Griffiths – Yig Prime

– Joanna Maciejewska – Melfka

– Sophie E. Tallis

– Leiah Cooper – So I Read This Book Today

– From Couch to Moon

– Anastasia – Read and Survive

– Zeke Teflon – Rip-roaring reviews

– D. Parker – yadadarcyyada

– Ionia Martin – Readful Things Blog

– Siamese Mayhem – Musings on YA novels and pop culture

– Humanity’s Darker Side – A book review blog

And Sarah, of course.

I’m going to add some favourite stories too, in case you haven’t come across them or their authors. First up, Sara Maitland’s Moss Witch and Other Stories. Sara often injects real science into her stories but so expertly woven that you’d never guess. Then there’s Margo Lanagan’s Black Juice collection the first of which, Singing My Sister Down, demonstrates the sideslip of Lanagan’s imagination. And what about Catherynne M Valente’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time? This is an extraordinary mix of SF, fantasy, and philosophy – and it’s in audio too so you can sit back and listen instead of taxing your eyeballs. Another mind-grabber is Aliette de Bodard’s 2013 Hugo nominated Immersion which is about wearable avatars. Finally, Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie which swept the board of SF awards in 2012.

So now the facts-about-me thing.

Hm.

Hm.

Hm.

Ok, here’s one: I was a Captain in the Territorial Army for a short while and was put on standby for the first Gulf war. They sent the other field hospital which was fortunate as no one had shown me how to wear all the various hats in the manner befitting.