It shares this honor with four other excellent novels by some of the best tie-in authors in the business:
• Star Wars: The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray
• Star Trek: Picard – Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller
• HALO: Divine Wind by Troy Denning … and
• Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil by Timothy Zahn
Man, that is some MAJOR competition.
I won’t lie to you — I’d really love for Oblivion’s Gate to win this thing, but looking at that list even I have to admit my book is one of this year’s underdogs.
If you previously nominated Oblivion’s Gate for the 2022 Dragon Awards, check your email for a link to the final ballot, and vote for Oblivion’s Gate to win!
If you missed the nomination phase,you can still vote on the final ballot for free! All you need is a valid email. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO VOTE.
I’m grateful to all the fans who signed up and nominated my book for this honor. Of course, my tome is up against some serious heavyweight competition, so the odds of me taking home the award are slim, at best.
Still, I urge you, whoever you are, to sign up to vote now if you haven’t already — it’s free, and all it takes is an email — and please, if you think my book deserves it, give it your vote as Best Alternate History Novel.
In addition, some of my friends have works on this year’s final ballot, in other categories. If you’re willing, I hope you’ll consider casting your votes for their works, as well:
Best Military SF Novel:Uncompromising Honor by David Weber
Best Media Tie-in Novel:Star Trek: Discovery – The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack
Best Horror Novel:100 Fathoms Below by Steven L. Kent, Nicholas Kaufmann
Best Graphic Novel:Monstress Vol. 3 by Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda
Thanks to all who have supported my work up to this point, and to all who vote for it to win!
Also nominated this year in the Best Media Tie-in Novel category are Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray, Before the Storm by Christie Golden, Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson, Fear Itself by James Swallow, and Legacy of Onyx by Matt Forbeck. It’s a formidable field of very talented authors and superlative works.
If you’ve already registered to vote in the Dragon Awards, you should receive a ballot soon, if you haven’t already.
If you would like to cast a vote for this year’s awards (and be able to nominate works for future ballots), you mayregister until Friday, August 31, at 11:59pm EDT, at this URL:
If you decide to cast a vote in support of Desperate Hours, you will have my deep gratitude. If you want to vote for one of the other works, that’s okay, too. They are all excellent novels, deserving of praise and recognition.
I’ve been a guest of three weekend conventions in the last four weeks, and I’m exhausted.
No doubt, the veteran road warriors of the convention circuit scoff at me for that opening declaration. But you need to understand, this isn’t my usual gig.
I haven’t attended many conventions per year during my two decades as a professional writer, but this year and next year are seeing an uptick in my planned appearances. In the last month, I’ve been a guest at Shore Leave in Baltimore, Md.; LI-Con 2 in Ronkonkoma, NY; and, this past weekend, Dragon Con in Atlanta.
And fool that I am, I traveled to all three by car.
That was no great hardship for the first two shows. Shore Leave is about four or five hours’ drive from home for me. LI-Con is even closer, just over an hour’s drive outside New York City.
But the road trip that Glenn Hauman and I just made to Atlanta (for which he did nearly all the driving, because the man is a demigod) … that was an adventure.
We had to haul nearly sixteen hours each way, starting each day at oh-dark-hundred, then driving through the daylight hours and back into the night.
Fortunately, we had glorious hospitality awaiting us in Georgia, at the home of my dear friends Jon and Jen. They generously hosted Glenn and me in their guest room, treated us to a steady flow of Old Fashioned cocktails and good wine, and made the Labor Day long weekend a joy.
This was my first trip to Dragon Con, and I had a fantastic time. All of my panels were quite well attended, and though I feared no one would come to my Sunday morning signing or even notice me at the show, I was kept busy during my signing, and I sold more books on one Sunday at Dragon Con than I have ever sold at any other show. Don’t tell me there are no readers at Dragon Con — if I can move books at this con, anyone can.
I also got to spend some time in lovely Decatur, Ga., and I had the joy of dining at such venerable Atlanta institutions as The Varsity — a retro-style drive-in near the Georgia Tech campus — and Fat Matt’s, home of the finest barbecue ribs I’ve ever eaten. And, as one might imagine, the road trips down and back were punctuated by visits to Waffle House.
The atmosphere of Dragon Con is intoxicating; Glenn described it as “the Mardi Gras of genre events,” and I think that’s an apt description. The cosplayers were impressive, and the sheer scope of the con was daunting, but also exciting. I hope I am able to return as a literary guest next year, and for years to come after that.
But next time, I’ll be traveling to Atlanta by plane.
If you’re planning on going to either Shore Leave this weekend in Hunt Valley, Md., or to Dragon Con in Atlanta over the Labor Day long weekend, you might be one of the lucky few to score an ARC (advanced reading copy, aka an uncorrected proof) of 24: ROGUE or one of these gorgeous, glossy cover flats that just arrived in today’s mail:
I haven’t decided yet exactly what my criteria will be for who gets one of these bad boys. I think I might ask Marco Palmieri to give away some ARCs at his “Coming from Tor Books” panel at Shore Leave tomorrow night; after that, I think I will see who amuses me, or who’s most willing to demonstrate their love of 24.
Let the games begin, and — DAMN IT! WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME! WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?
I am also waiting to hear whether I will be accepted as a programming guest for Balticon 49 (May 22–25, Hunt Valley, MD) and/or Readercon 26 (July 9–11, Burlington, MA). More on those when I hear back from the conventions’ respective programmers.
It shares this honor with four other excellent novels by some of the best tie-in authors in the business:
I also got to spend some time in lovely Decatur, Ga., and I had the joy of dining at such venerable Atlanta institutions as The Varsity — a retro-style drive-in near the Georgia Tech campus — and Fat Matt’s, home of the finest barbecue ribs I’ve ever eaten. And, as one might imagine, the road trips down and back were punctuated by visits to Waffle House.
