The finalists for this year’s World Fantasy Awards have been announced. Locus has the full list.

I’m very pleased to see Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country on the Novel list.

The Long Fiction list looks very familiar. Huge kudos once again to Lee Harris and his colleagues at Tor.com for some amazing output. I am, of course, rooting for Seanan.

The Short Fiction contains a name that was new to me: G.V. Anderson. However, the excitement on Twitter soon revealed that she is local, living in Dorset. Not only that, but she had been at BristolCon last year. In fact she had attended a writing workshop with Gareth Powell. Her story, “Das Steingeschöpf”, is her first professional sale.

Clearly we have an emerging talent here. I’m keen to get her to Fringe at some point, though we are booked up for this year. Maybe I’ll get to chat to her on the radio as well. I need a recommendation for the best spicy pizza in Bristol.

Finally it is great to see Children’s Fantasy Literature: An Introduction by Michael Levy & Farah Mendlesohn getting some recognition. As many of you will know, Mike succumbed to cancer in April of this year. He was a lovely bloke, and I’m very pleased to see his work being honored in this way. Very best wishes to Farah too. When you write a book with someone you get to know them very well.