The Curious Case of the Totally Oblivious Author

Wow, was I late to this particular party.

The Steel Remains won the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for best novel – in 2010!

How the hell did I miss this?

I vaguely remember my US publicist mentioning way back at the beginning of 2009 that it might be worth putting Steel up for the Spectrum, but I never heard any more after that and promptly forgot all about it.  Then I was in Australia for two months, then I was in games for two years – Stockholm, Vancouver, Frankfurt, London, New York, a fast blur of studios, hotel rooms and airport lounges and whoooooosh; that’s the sound of my work-life picking up velocity like some bullet train I’d inadvertently stumbled aboard, and I barely got the chance to look out the windows until early 2011, by which time I was speeding rapidly towards impending fatherhood.  Then the fallout from that particular impact – sleepless nights, a ripped and torn set of new priorities, vaccinations and doctor’s visits, a move to Spain, a book tour for The Cold Commands, a houseful of Christmas guests in a house we barely knew, soul-searching about where to base ourselves for the next couple of years, research and local colour, a slow but steady flow of friends and family to check out the new circumstances, an eventual return home to water damaged ceilings and faulty central heating and the search for suitable bilingual nurseries/toddler groups and – oh look, it’s late 2012.

Well, that’s my excuse anyway, and I’m sticking to it.

So apologies to the Spectrum judging committee and award administrators for my utter fucking silence on this subject for the last two years.  I am, of course, honoured to have won.  The gay communities on both sides of the Atlantic were very supportive of what I was trying to achieve in Steel and gave me a great deal of good press and enthusiasm.  This is the veritable cherry on the top of that response.

Ehm……could I have my award trophy now, please?

Incidentally, The Cold Commands got short-listed for the very same award this year, so it seems no-one’s bearing a grudge.  Didn’t win this time around, of course, but can you really blame them?  The judges must have figured they’d give it to someone who’d get around to saying thank you a bit more promptly…….

Sigh.