Category Archives: Achievement Unlocked!

Published: January 22, 2009

Just to let you know….

Hello everyone,

This is just a quick note to let you know that I’m back from my trip to California and that the quiet here on my blog doesn’t stem from the fans out there killing me and selling my furry pelt on e-bay.

It was a great time. A lovely break from my current lonely snowbound writing existence. I played board games, hung out with rocket scientists, and got to have a Jamba Juice with Felicia Day.

Yes. That’s right. A Jamba Juice. I was pretty excited, let me tell you.

But before you go wishing you were me, be aware that I paid dearly for my decadent weekend. I was trapped in Minneapolis all Sunday due to Northwest Airline’s asshattery. Monday, hours after returning home, I was brought low by a terrible plague. Don’t ask for details, but know that I have only today recovered enough to crawl to my computer, check e-mail, and bask in the healing glow of Facebook.

More soon,

pat

Also posted in Felicia Day, my rockstar life | By Pat35 Responses
Published: February 14, 2008

Did I mention that I love librarians?

A while back, some helpful little elf sent me an e-mail telling me I’d made it onto a reading list. I took a quick peek at the link, thought “that’s cool,” then bookmarked it and wandered away to do other things. (I think it was a particularly heavy e-mail day.)

But today I went back and looked at it, and realized that it wasn’t just some list. In a lot of ways, it’s THE list. That’s right. It’s superlative.

The list is put out by “The Reading List Council” which “seeks to highlight outstanding genre fiction that merits special attention by general adult readers and the librarians who work with them.”

From what I hear, the Reading List Council is an elite branch of the American Library Association. In order to join their selection committee you have to be able to kill a man with paperback copy of Animal Farm book while wearing a blindfold, bend a spoon using only the power of your mind, then deal with ten obnoxious library patrons in a row while smiling and being polite the whole time.

Yeah. Like I said. These folks are badass. I hear Rupert Giles washed out with them and had to settle for joining some other council instead.

Anyway, it turns out that there’s just one reading list every year, and only one book from each genre gets selected. Stuff like Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, and, of course, Fantasy.

And I’m their fantasy pick for 2008. You can see the list HERE.

I thought this was plenty cool all by itself, until I scrolled down the page and saw some of the other fantasy titles that had been nominated. I recognized every name on the list: Jim Butcher,
Jacqueline Carey, Guy Gavriel Kay, Terry Pratchett. Rowling. Tolkien.

That’s right. Folks like Rowling and Tolkien tied for second place.

And who’s number one?

Me, baby.

Me.

Also posted in awards | By Pat32 Responses
Published: September 28, 2007

A quick answer about the quill award….

Normally if someone asks me a question over e-mail, I just answer it directly. But if I get the same question several times, it lets me know I should post up the answer in a blog for everyone to see.

Over the last week I’ve had five people send me e-mails similar to this one:

Hey Pat,

Yesterday my friend Jake who is also a big fan of your book asked me if I’d gone and voted for your book for the quill award. I explained to him that you’d already won the quill award. We argued for a while, then, since I was right here by the computer, I thought I’d ask you directly.

I’m right, aren’t I? You already won, didn’t you?

Suz

P.S. Congratulations, by the way. You rock.

Luckily Suz, this is one of those situations where everyone is right.

You’re right because I did win the Quill in the Science-Fiction/Fantasy category. I’ll be heading out to New York and you’ll be able to see me wearing a tux on NBC.

BUT, Jake is right too, because right now the voting is going on for the BIG quill award: the Book of the Year award.

You see, the winners for the individual categories (Romance, graphic novel, etc.) are voted on my a bunch of booksellers, librarians, and literati. But the Book of the Year is determined by popular vote. Which means you could go over there and vote for me, if you were so inclined.

And by over there I mean OVER HERE. (After you click, you need to click again on the link in that press release that says, “vote here.”)

I think a lot of the confusion has come from the fact that they aren’t running this award the way that we’re used to seeing it. It’s not like the Oscars where all the nominees show up and then the winner in each category is a big surprise. The only real surprise at the quills will be who wins Book of the Year.

Hope this clears things up for those of you who have been confused….

pat

Also posted in awards, Fanmail Q + A | By Pat60 Responses

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