Tag Archive for Finn Fancy

Important Update: All the Awards I’m Going to Win in 2016!

It’s award nomination time!  AND THANK GAWD, I don’t need to ask you fine folks to nominate or vote for me or anything, because I already know all the awards I’m going to win this year.  The people behind the people behind the scenes have told me I’m a shoe-in.  So here’s the list.  Don’t be jealous.

 

2016 Locus Award for “Best Use of Magical 80’s Tech versus PTA Blood Witches”: (magical Casio calculator watch) from Finn Fancy Necromancy, by Randy Henderson.

2016 Locus Awardish Finn Fancy Necromancy

 

 

2016 Ricky for Best Line to Read in an Alan Rickman Voice*: “Bloody Mary, and make it as spicy as Shakira shaking her hips in a jalapeño field, please.” From Finn Fancy Necromancy, by Randy Henderson.

2016 Ricky Award

 

2016 Nebula for: Depiction of Gnomes Almost Awesome Enough to Make Us Forget the Travesty that was Gnomeo and Juliet:  Finn Fancy Necromancy, by Randy Henderson.

2016 Nebula Award Finn Fancy Necromancy

 

The 2016 Ziggy Award for Four Completely Random Lines of Dialogue from a Novel Best Sung Together like a Ziggy Stardust Song:

“Feet too, Stormer,” I said.  “You’re a loner, a rebel.”

“He drew me close and snuffled my head, surrounding me with his musky cedar scent.”

“I like that you look at me like I’m still that girl who didn’t know The Clash from The Cure.”

And Petey said,

“I took your Pacman watch.”

All lines from: Finn Fancy Necromancy by Randy Henderson

2016 Ziggy Award for Best Novel Lines

 

2016 Hugo for Best Novel Idea about Use of a Hugo: “Condom demonstration prop in sexual education class for cyborgs“, submitted by Randy Henderson, author of Finn Fancy Necromancy.**

2016 Hugo

 

Now I suppose if you have an empty slot after you realize that City of Stairs was 2014, and All the Birds in the Sky is 2016, you can actually add Finn Fancy Necromancy to your nomination ballot.  Not that I have any expectation of winning but oh boy could I have some fun pretending like I might for that brief month or so.

 

Or if not me, you can add your deserving-writer-friend-whose-book-you-haven’t-read-yet-because-let’s-face-it-it-just-isn’t-your-thing-and-you-have-so-much-to-read-already-but-you’re-sure-they-are-a-great-writer-and-wonderful-human-being.  That’s cool too.  That’s what I’ll probably do with that last slot on my own ballots.

(On a completely unrelated note, I define “deserving-writer-friends…” as folks who have eligible works for award nomination and happen to take me to a delicious meal and/ or offer a really good neck and shoulder massage.  Just saying.  No reason.)

 

There.  Done.  Phew.  Now I don’t have to do all that uncomfortable promotiony stuff about awards for the next several months.

 

PS:  All joking and Finn Fancy aside, you really should nominate the stuff you read and liked in 2015.  Those folks worked hard, are no doubt mired in Imposter Syndrome, and it really makes them feel good to have that work validated by nominations.

 

Ending Soonish Nomination details:

If you are a SFWA member, you can nominate for the Nebula Award until February 15th. Note the word-counts when nominating.  And you can also nominate for the Andre Norton award for YA books as well.

If you’re a member of the 2015, 2016, or 2017 WorldCons, you can nominate for the Hugo awards.  You’ll need your membership number (emailed to you by MidAmeriCon if you’re registered for 2016, or by Sasquan if you went 2015 but not going 2016).  And you’ll need a PIN, emailed to you by MidAmeriCon (and if you haven’t received it by Feb 5th you’re supposed to email them at hugopin@midamericon2.org).

 

Have fun!  And good luck to all the amazing authors who really do deserve an award.  I’ll probably list a few suggestions when I find the time again.

 

Cheers!

 

*You know you tried it.

**EDIT NOTE: I realized upon re-reading my post that the Hugo bit may be seen as me devaluing or desecrating the Hugo, a sensitive topic after last year.  Just wanted to say that’s not the case, I think the Hugos are awesome, and hope truly great works and good folks win the awards this year.  Left the joke though.  🙂

Share

Some Finn Fancy Love Time

“So, this is your apartment?  Nice.  Where can I slip into something more comfortable?”

“Right over there, in the door past that copy of Finn Fancy Necromancy.  Oh my gosh, have you read it?  It’s REALLY exciting and funny an — uh, like you.  I’ll get the wine.”

 

Why do I give this fine example of Finn Fancy love?  Well, let’s play a quick Choose Your Own Finnventure:

Read more

Share

The Fate of Grimdark the Grimdarian and the Rise of Shiny Fantasy

Like most people I think, I read by both taste and mood.  Sort of like how I eat.  Or make lo — uh, make the food I eat.

 

While I enjoy dark fantasy and so-called “grimdark” (official term and sponsor of the 2000’s Stuff Nobody Agrees What the Official Term Should Be For-athon), it feels like heavy lifting to me, as it is often filled with a sense of hopelessness, of fear, of pain, etc. that, even when cut with the occasional moment of joy, can still feel draining to read (at least for me).   I have to take my dark in small doses, like absinthe, or Carrot Top, or the awareness of my inevitable death.

Grimdark Hamlet

Swallow My Darkness!!!

 

Don’t get me wrong.  I think that Shakespeare guy has a real future with those crazy dark tragedies of his.  And when done well, “grimdark” can be satisfying reading in the sense that you feel these complex and sometimes uncomfortable emotions evoked by the work, and feel rewarded for that heavy lifting.  It also is able to explore deep and difficult themes and subjects in a more focused way than other fantasy, topics such as the darker side of human nature, moral ambiguity, torture, the origins of cruelty, etc.

 

In the words of that wise bard Trent Reznor, “I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel.”

Read more

Share

Finn Fancy Trade in the Wild!

TODAY IS TRADE PAPERBACK DAY!  Finn Fancy Necromancy is being released in Trade Paperback today, January 5th!

So if you’re in your local bookstore and spot Finn Fancy Necromancy (US paperback version) on the shelf, do me a huge favor and snap a photo and post it to Facebook or Twitter and tag me, or send me an email and let me know?  Or if you want to be fancy, you can post it in the comments below using a basic IMG tag: <img src=”url of your image here“>

I’ll send an Advanced Reader Copy of book 2: Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free, to the first two people to post pics of FFN trade edition in the wild. 🙂

Bigfootloose comes out officially on February 16th 🙂

Finn Fancy Tor Cover

Here are just some of the bookstores where you might spot it:

University Bookstore

Powell’s

Borderlands

Mysterious Galaxy

Liberty Bay Bookstore

Barnes & Noble

 

Share

Why Your Book Club (or you) Should Read Finn Fancy in January

While I hate promoting myself, I just have to mention that January 2016 is the absolute perfectest month to read my “dark and funny” contemporary fantasy novel from Tor Books​, FINN FANCY NECROMANCY.
Why?

* Reviews describe it as a fast paced and fun read full of laughs, laughs and more laughs — a great way to stave off those post-holiday winter blues!

* It comes out in paperback January 5th, and you will have all those gift cards to spend!  Or you can get the Hardback for nearly the same price earlier.

* The sequel, BIGFOOTLOOSE AND FINN FANCY FREE, comes out in February!

* If your book club is within reasonable driving distance, I’ll happily come join your discussion of the book if you’d like, and answer any questions you have!

* If your book club is in distant lands, or is online, I will happily participate in any online Ask Me Anything-style discussion you set up.

So when you all go to vote for what to read in January, might I humbly suggest that Finn Fancy Necromancy is, if not the best choice, then the even besterest choice!

Finn Fancy Tor Cover

Finn Fancy Tor Cover

 

Bigfootloose Cover

Share

Write-a-Thon and Sammy Story Excerpt

All, I have been shamefully neglectful in asking for donation to the Clarion West write-a-thon. Please, go to the website and donate a little something. It supports the creation of a wonderful diversity of amazing future authors. And I’m offering a prize. And now, a snippet from a Finn Fancy-related short story I’ve been writing during the write-a-thon, featuring Finn’s sister Sammy and set in 2003:

Sammy paced the small waiting room between the small sofa and the wall-mounted television, less than eager to confront Bishop Freedom. A unicorn posing as a televangelist. What a frakked up world she lived in.

Of course they had the TV going full volume, the power cord inaccessible and the control panel apparently super-glued shut. Sammy watched Freedom strutting about on stage with his white hair helmet and perfectly even smile.

“… again, what is the greater sin?” Bishop Freedom demanded. “To allow a condom, or to allow easily preventable disease and death? What is the greater sin, to …”

It annoyed Sammy to the point of pissed-offedness that Bishop Freedom used arguments she actually agreed with, given that his true motives were hardly noble.
Sammy pulled out her Palm Pilot, slid an infrared beamer into the SD slot, programmed the PDA as a remote and shut the damn TV off.

It wasn’t that she disagreed with his message, but rather his motives. Unicorns, witches and several other feybloods were well known for feeding somehow on virgins, but less known was that women who’d simply never gotten preggers served them nearly as well. Something about conception, not to mention STDs, changed whatever energy in a woman such creatures fed upon. And two things that had been proven to cause a hell of a lot of pregnancy and disease were bans on contraception, and telling a bunch of horny teenagers to “just say no”. So of course Bishop Freedom condemned the religions and politics that promoted such frakked up policies, but he didn’t do so because they were morally wrong or bass-ackwards in their thinking, and certainly not out of concern for the women; he did so because they screwed with his food source.

Share

Finn Fancy Book Tour Wrap Up

Here finally is a wrap up of my book tour experience for Finn Fancy Necromancy — the good, the awesome, and some lessons learned — not only to say thank you to everyone who helped or attended, but also to maybe help those who are trying to plan their own book tour.  This is way overdue, I know.  And I’ll do a separate post about promotion in general.

Randy at Gatsby Books

Randy at Gatsby Books, LA

I figured I’d talk about how I set up the tour, how I promoted it, then share some pics, and a list of the bookstores.

Read more

Share

Finn Fancy Duran Durancy

I am pleased and excited to announce that FINN FANCY NECROMANCY will also be published in the UK!!! By Titan! I will, of course, need to brush up on my UnitedKingdomish so that I can read the translation, but I am pretty dang chuffed! And I think their cover is awesome, a perfect balance to Tor’s.

Titan's UK Cover for Finn Fancy Necromancy
Share

Audio Book Brilliance! (And Star Trek)

One more thing to be thankful for – Finn Fancy Necromancy will be recorded by Brilliance Audio. And the voice actor? Todd Haberkorn, who has done voices on Legend of Korra, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Dragon Ball Z, and a bunch of other awesome stuff, as well as plays Spock in the amazingly cool TOS fan webseries, Star Trek Continues.

Star Trek Continues

Share

Finn Fancy ARCs and Cover Reveal

Today was a good day.

A box arrived on my doorstep, and inside was a little piece of a dream come true.  15 pieces, actually, all smelling delicious and booky.

Finn Fancy Anticipancy

Finn Fancy Anticipancy

Finn Fancy Opened

Finn Fancy Happy Face

Finn Fancy Happy Face

Yay Finn Fancy Yay!

Finn Fancy Happy Dancy!

Finn Fancy Love

Reading Finn Fancy

Such a captivating read!

Finn Fancy Cover

The Cover Revealed!

Share