Jazz hands!

Just got in from the party for Creative Loafing's 2010 Fiction Contest at eyedrum gallery. I was one of the judges this year and had the honor of introducing first place winner Lucas Church. His story, "Clothes Lines," about a high school janitor with a fetish for silky slips, was excellent. Creative Loafing also kindly wrote up a short piece on me and also had me select my favorite books of 2009. Many thanks to Debi Michaud and to Joeff Davis for the funny photo of me doing my best jazz hands that accompanied my judge's bio.

Many thanks to all of you who voted for Conquering Venus in the Preditors & Editors Poll at the Critters Workshop site. The deadline to vote is Jan. 14, but you can only vote once, so if you haven't already, I really would appreciate it.

The Lambda Literary Foundation released its long list of nominees and Conquering Venus is there for debut fiction. Fingers crossed that it becomes a finalist. The announcement will be made by March 15.