Born to Runner-Up
Glowing in the Dark didn’t win a Rondo Hatton Award.
Is this disappointing? Sure. But it isn’t surprising, and this truly is a case where it’s an honor just to be nominated. During the live chat where the award organizers announced the winners, they said that this was the best slate of books in the award’s 23-year history, and my little book was up against volumes covering everything from queer horror to vampires in silent cinema, Willis O’Brien to Ted Cassidy (the actor who played Lurch on The Addams Family), deep dives into both Bride of Frankenstein and Ghost of Frankenstein, books by the likes of Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Fred Olen Ray, and so many more.
Ultimately, Book of the Year (Nonfiction) went to Roberto Curti’s Midnight Movie Monograph from PS Publishing exploring the 1957 film I, Vampiri. There are much worse things to lose to. (If you want to read my altogether-too-brief thoughts on I, Vampiri, you can do so for free over at my Patreon.)
You can find the full list of winners here, which include a bunch of cool things I’m already familiar with, and a bunch of other cool things that I need to add to my list.
That’s some very impressive company to be in and while my little book didn’t take home a bust in the shape of Rondo Hatton, it’s still very much a culmination of a nearly lifelong dream to have been nominated at all – and you had better believe that “Rondo Award-nominee” is going to feature prominently in all my bios for the foreseeable future.
I still hope to win a Rondo someday – and I hope that, when I do, whatever book actually wins it gets one of those “Such-and-such Award Winner” stickers on the cover, and that it’s shaped like a bust of Rondo Hatton – but even if I never do, it was a genuine pleasure and honor to have been nominated. I met some nice folks among the other nominees and generally had a great time.
Good news for all of you reading along at home, this also means that I’m going to shut up about the Rondo Hatton Awards for at least a little while and focus on other things – like maybe Notes from Underground, my collection of Hollow Earth Cycle stories coming from Word Horde later this year!
Until then, thanks to everyone who voted in the Rondo Hatton Awards this year and congratulations to all the winners and all my fellow nominees! I hope to see you all there again someday soon!
