One surprising thing to know about me is that I have a horrible pervasive fear that the authors I most admire would think I was a putz if they met me or read my work, Shirley Jackson perhaps most of all.

“Well, I’ll hand it to you, Will: you’ve toned down about 10% of the inherent fascism in Scouting.”

HOWEVER…

I am very honored that my novella A Scout is Brave (heard of it?) has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award.

While not actually judged by Shirley herself, I do believe superstitiously that she uses her witch-like powers from beyond the grave to influence the jury who does, and I’m so very pleased that they enjoyed it enough to give me the nod (with or without her otherworldly shenanigans).

I’ll be attending the awards gala at Readercon in Boston (July 18-20)!