When I finished my 2008 novel, Empire of Lies — a novel that features a sympathetic, though complex, portrait of a Christian conservative — I went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and said to my reflection: “You are never going to win another literary award. Are you okay with that?” Well, we writers do like awards, so of course I wasn’t, but I knew how good the book was, so there wasn’t much I could do but publish and be damned.
Since then, I have been nominated for an Edgar and an International Thrillers Award, and one or two others. I take these nominations as great compliments and am always delighted to get them.
The Horror Writers Association is the premiere writers organization in the dark fiction genre. Their Bram Stoker Award is a great honor. There are three stages in the giving of the award: 1. a preliminary ballot of a dozen books; 2. nomination and 3. the award itself.
I’m absolutely delighted that my novel Werewolf Cop has made the preliminary ballot. With Empire of Lies, and a couple of others, Werewolf is among my best novels and a piece of genre fiction writing of which I’m extremely proud. To find it on a list with books by some of the best horror writers alive is a genuine thrill.
You can buy the book here. And you should!
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