Goodreads 2014

So um.  Yes.  Well.  I’m excited!  And scared.  And a little worried about my own soul.  But mostly excited!

The reason for my excitement is this…

https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-science-fiction-books-2014

‘Cos obviously, Harry August is there, in the final round.  With Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett.  And there are obviously numerous things about this which are totally awesome.  There’s the company the book is keeping (which is immense), but perhaps even more awesome is the fact that this is a prize voted for by readers.  By actual human beings, as compared to grey-eyed judges, and I say this with all the wonder as someone who is for a second year running, a grey-eyed judge on the Kitschies and know how quickly joy mingles with despair every time a new box of 100 books arrives for your consideration.

But this isn’t that: this is just people who like books, saying so.

That’s the exciting awesome part.

The slightly scary, soul-curling part is this: I find, to my astonishment, that I care.  I mean, I don’t hugely expect to win – getting to the final round was itself astounding, given how many incredible books were on the list – and life will go on regardless.  But a tiny glimmer of hope, a little spark of ‘wouldn’t it be awesome if?’ has raised its ugly head from within my soul and it is in this vein that I say… if anyone reading this has read Harry August and liked it, and by that I mean properly liked it enough to care, because shouldn’t really go there if you only feel mildly meh on the theme… and if anyone here is bored and feels like voting for the same, or merely having a look at the other titles on the list frankly and seeing if inspiration strikes, than that would either make me, or whoever else you vote for, incredibly happy.

Writers are very needy people.  We like affirmation, we like to feel that people are reading our books and enjoying them, we like to have something tangible we can hold close to ourselves with a cry of ‘look!  Proof that it’s all okay!’ because, frankly, we don’t necessarily break out of our bubbles enough to have anything else to measure ourselves by.  So, with all the humility of someone who knows that basically, this is insane, I’ll say again… if you wanna, if you feel it’s worth your time or have a book that excited you on the Goodreads list, any book, regardless of whether it’s one of mine… please go vote!