Any author that tells you that they don’t google their own name is probably lying. However, ego surfing can often turn up commentary and reviews of your work that you would otherwise be unaware of. I’ve been doing a bit of it, mainly through twitter searches and google alerts to find out about new reviews of the novel. However, it was only yesterday that I turned up something I can’t believe I missed.

It appears that my short story, Jetsam, was given an honourable mention in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year. Now, the year concerned was 2011 and the article I found it in, dated from April 2012 but none-the-less it’s a very nice accolade. An honourable mention in the list is considered a big accolade, if for no other reason than the fact that Ellen is one of genre’s top editors who really knows her stuff. So if she says a story is worth reading, you can bet it is.
Even though the accolade is almost a year old, it’s still a big deal for me. I am not, by nature, a short story writer. I struggle with short story endings and feel much more at home working on novel length stories. So getting such an accolade for a short story is twice as sweet seeing as it’s not one of my particular strengths as a writer.
It just adds to what has been an incredible 12 months for me. A year ago, I would have doubted whether I wrote well enough to even be deemed a ‘proper’ writer and now I have short stories that important people are saying are good, and a novel getting great reviews. I have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure it’s all still real. Even now, I found myself double checking the list to ensure I hadn’t misread it or somehow just imagined it.
If you’ve not read Jetsam, you can listen (for free) to an excellent audio version over at Dark Fiction Magazine.
The Best Horror of the Year: 4 is available from Amazon and other good book retailers.