One of the comics I have cut out and stuck on my board is a decade-old strip meant for kids, “Mudpie” drawn by Guy Gilchrist, who also does “Nancy.” I’m one of those who reads the whole comics page, whether I like the strip or not. The “Mudpie” strip shows the two kitten characters playing and talking about what they’ll do with their allowances. Sister plans to spend hers. Brother is saving his to buy a circus.
A circus costs like a million dollars, she protests. Yeah, he says, “If I’m gonna dream, I’m gonna dream big–and with elephants!”
So when your book gets picked up by a New York publisher, you can’t help but dream a few of those big dreams. And why not throw in some elephants? You know what I’m talking about. . . NYT best-seller list. USA Today, maybe? I’ll settle for the extended lists. And some great reviews–starred, of course.
Then the awards. There is, of course, the venerable and still lovely Hugo award rocket ship, and the enigmatic Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award. If you are a fantasy writer, like me, you have probably coveted what has to be the ugliest awards ever: shown here, at the top of winner Nnedi Okorafor’s blog. This is a post about H. P. Lovecraft (whose face the award represents), his racism and Nnedi’s mixed feelings about receiving such an image. It’s a great blog about how to approach the creators of works we enjoy, yet whose beliefs are repugnant to us.
But now, thanks to Pat Rothfuss’s blog, I have a new award to covet: the David Gemmell Legend Award. Which is an actual, honest-to-goodness ax. As an award for fantasy, this is made of awesome. I can use it to cleave the skulls of evildoers, ignorant reviewers, and internet trolls! Or at least, to imagine that I might. The Gemmell ax = Made of Awesome.
Let the dreaming begin!
E. C. Ambrose 