Wednesday, June 17, 2009

2009 Chesley Award Nominations

The 2009 Chesley Award Nominations are up.

And I am very pleased to announce that we have no less than 3 book covers up for awards.

In the hardcover category: Dan Dos Santos is up for his cover for Mike Resnick's Stalking the Vampire (wonderful design by Nicole Sommer-Lecht).

And for paperback: Todd Lockwood is up for his cover for Tom Lloyd's The Stormcaller (wonderful design by Grace Conti-Zilsberger ), while John Picacio is also up for his cover for my anthology, Fast Forward 2 (wonderful design by Jaqueline Cooke)

Of lesser interest, and a testament to the wonderful illustrators and in-house designers we have on our covers, I am also on the ballot. More important, I think, is that in a field that may produce 1000 original covers in a year, we have a whoppin' three Pyr books in the list.

Also, it should be pointed out, our pal John Picacio is nominated in FOUR CATEGORIES!!!

Check out his beautiful black&white artwork for interior illustration here (from Del Rey's Elric: The Stealer of Souls):

"The Chesley Awards were established in 1985 as ASFA's peer awards to recognize individual works and achievements during a given year. The Chesleys were initially called the ASFA Awards, but were later renamed to honor famed astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell after his death in 1986. The awards are presented annually at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon)."

Congratulations to all the nominees, and to the authors who are so lucky to have such wonderful art! I have always maintained that the history of SF&F illustration that we enjoy is a unique asset of our genre that should be celebrated, so this is very rewarding to see.

8 comments:

ces said...

I just saw the list on SFSignal - MANY talented artists in that list! And excellent editors too!

Congrats, and good luck to you and those artists you use!

and on another note - I just received, about 10 minutes ago, Age of Misrule 3! (from amazon)

Lou Anders said...

Hang on to it. That's a first edition, and it was sold out before it came back from the printer. I didn't get one, and when I do get my copies, they'll be from the 2nd printing!!!

ces said...

Well, I'm fine with a 2nd printing, so if you'd like to trade, just let me know.

I finished ANATHEM last night.

Lou Anders said...

No, thank you, I'm okay. Just thrilled its sold out.

How was ANATHEM?

ces said...

It was REALLY good! The ending kind of fell down a little - I felt it was somewhat anticlimatic. My husband will love it! But I actually only read about 1/2 of it - a lot of it, being math&philosophy-oriented, just went over my head, so I ended up just kind of skimming it. But the story was engaging, and the characters did exactly what you thought they would do all the way through the book. A very interesting way of looking at one's world. Not for the "casual" reader though. And not a "I recommend this for the reader new to science fiction."

I'm ready for the new Tim Akers book. Do I need to read his first one first?

I'm thrilled also that Age of Misrule 3 is sold out? What's he writing next?

I've just spent 2.5 hours trying to get my back-up to make a back-up! I have now removed it entirely from my computer and ordered a new one! Bah humbug.

Lou Anders said...

I really, really want to read ANATHEM but just can't put that much time aside from reading for Pyr. Even reading short fiction outside the line these days is hard.

RE: Tim - they are separate books, no connection between then. However, I loved Heart of Veridon so why not? (And of course, support for Tim's first novel will carry over in bookstore support for his second.)

Misrule is sold out on our ends. It's in stores, but we have no more left. It was sold out before it printed and is now in a second printing. Chadbourn has a book, Lord of Silence out from Solaris. It's a swords & sorcery but I've not read it. And then in November, we are publishing his The Silver Skull, a novel set in 1588 about an Elizabethean superspy in a cold war with the Fae kingdom. It's fantastic. I finished it two weeks ago and was blown away. My wife is reading the manuscript now and can't put it down. Which is saying something, because she finds it *very* easy to put things down and never pick them back up.

ces said...

Ooooo, THE SILVER SKULL sounds neat! Thanks for the heads-up! Time to visit amazon - as if I really need an excuse. :-)

Lou Anders said...

Wife, who hasn't read a Pyr book since my son was born several years ago, now deeper in. In the last few weeks, she's read Blood of Ambrose, This Crooked Way, and now a chunk of The Silver Skull. Glad I'm finally impressing her.