A Year of Award Nominations, New Book Deals, Short Fiction, Book Events, and New Projects
Sometimes it can seem like nothing is happening in the writing world. Other times, it feels like everything happens all at once. So far, in 2024, it’s been the case of the latter. That doesn’t mean it’s all been going as I’d planned or hoped, but sometimes the unplanned can transcend our hopes.
Award Nominations
Some of 2024’s biggest news for me has been my four award nominations.
Early on, I was longlisted for three titles for the BSFA Awards: The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern, The Shadow Galaxy, and my short story “Copper” in Interzone issue 295. Then came the day in which I learned I was, for the first time, a shortlisted finalist for the BSFA Awards, for “Copper” (written as Jendia Gammon) and for The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern (written as J. Dianne Dotson). That was an incredibly surprising and thrilling day, as I had never been shortlisted for any writing awards before, let alone twice. Read about how that affected me in a dedicated post.
That was on the heels of having made a difficult career decision that had me questioning whether I should be writing at all. Well, the signs clearly pointed to should.
Then came the bolt from the blue a few days later, that I was a finalist in the Nebula Awards! This was for The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern, for the Andre Norton Nebula Award for middle grade and young adult fiction. Lantern is young adult. Read all about that nomination on my blog.
While I remained a finalist for these awards, I lauded the winners, and count myself has having achieved something amazing: my 2023 traditionally published debut books had garnered award nominations, and my short fiction had found solid footing. These are all great honors that I’ll cherish forever.
Here is my Nebula Awards finalist certificate, pin, and badge, along with my little book that could, The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern. Order in from Mysterious Galaxy, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite bookseller.
Breaking news on June 14, 2024: I’m twice longlisted for the British Fantasy Awards!! Wow!
Thank you to everyone who has read my works and nominated them for these awards. I appreciate it more than I can possibly say.
I have been longlisted for another prestigious award, but am not sure when I’ll be able to talk about that. Even if I’m not shortlisted, I’m over the moon about it!
New Book Deals!
Thrilling news followed thrilling news in rapid succession. Within a month’s span, I had two new book deals to my name. One for my thriller/horror/sci-fi novel Atacama (out May 13, 2025, from Sley House Publishing) and the other for Doomflower, my campy horror novel (out April 8, 2025, from Encyclopocalypse Publications). Read about Atacama here and about Doomflower here. I’m thrilled about these two books and happy they have homes.
Of note, I also worked on 36 illustrations for Atacama‘s chapter headers, an idea I proposed and which was embraced by the publisher. This will be the first time anyone has seen my art inside one of my books. For those who don’t know, I’m also an artist. I won art scholarships for university, and several art awards in high school, but chose to seek a science degree instead (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology). I make art on the side, and sell commissions. I’ve made artwork my whole life, just as I’ve written my whole life. It’s fun to see the intersection of those two things.
New Short Fiction!
My love for short fiction knows no bounds. I love experimenting with the quite short and the quite long story structures, and every form in between. So far in 2024, I have several short stories on submission, and a number are slated for publication.
The first for 2024 is already available. You can read “The Theseus Stone,” a near-future science fiction story about an aging woman grieving her parents, who faces a medical choice. It’s in the CyberSalon Press anthology All Tomorrow’s Futures: Fictions That Disrupt. Here’s a good review of this anthology featuring several authors’ stories.
In July, Seaside Gothic will publish my magical realism seaside ghost story “Upon the Gloaming Hour” in their 11th issue. This is not yet ready for ordering, so do check back on their website. (I also have a story in their 8th issue which was published in 2023.)
Next up, I pounced on the submission call for the anthology by Air & Nothingness Press titled Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea. This features short stories with a fascinating structure: enormously long titles, and a story with footnotes! I decided to lean into humor for mine, with a sci-fi tale in the vein of Douglas Adams, perhaps. My story’s title is too long to paste here (!) but it starts with “Splendid Though I Realize the Conception…” and it was a blast to write. There are only 200 copies of this book being made, and it’s out in July. So if you want one, you’d better order it soon!
The third anthology I’m part of this year includes my creepy seaside horror tale, “Protista,” and you will find it along others’ tales just in time for Halloween with Tales of Sley House 2024 from Sley House Publishing. (It was this story acceptance that led to my sending Atacama to the publisher, and they bought it! The rest is history.)
I’m waiting to hear back about several other short stories, across speculative fiction genres. I’ll submit more the rest of this year. And, in the background, I’m building two short story collections: one lighter, with sci-fi and fantasy tales, and additionally a horror collection. I do not know where I will submit these books yet.
Book Events
This year has been dizzying as far as book events go, and it’s continuing into summer. This was my first year at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, and even though I was only there one day, it was fantastic. I was with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI, of which I’m a member) and sold many copies of The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern alongside several SoCal children’s book authors. I’ll definitely return to the festival in 2025!
My StokerCon (Horror Writers Association conference) appearance was likewise only one day, but what an astoundingly fantastic experience it was! I met many of my horror writer friends, some in person for the first time, as well as two of my publishers: Android Press and Sley House Publishing. We had a great time and I sold several books.
I also made probably lifelong new connections with the horror writing community. Stay tuned for announcements related to that. I decided that this con was so great, I needed to go for the full experience in 2025, so I’ve booked tickets for that: a first, and it’ll be in New England…my first visit there! I’m stoked for StokerCon! Meanwhile, the 2024 event in San Diego was so well done, and some of my friends helped make it a success. Kudos to them and to the HWA! Images of my StokerCon experience can be found here, here, and here.
And most recently, in fact a week after StokerCon, of course I was at the Nebula Conference (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association conference) as a Nebula Award finalist. Again, I met several people I’d only known from social media or heard about from the science fiction and fantasy writing realms. It was great fun to see some overlap from StokerCon, with some of the editors and writers at one attending the other. The awards ceremony was most touching, and emotional for us all. Sarah Gailey gave many amazing and rousing speeches as Toastmaster. Many thanks to SFWA for organizing. Photos of my Nebula Awards experience can be found on my Instagram (here is one batch).
The latter half of 2024 promises to be busy; I have a San Diego Comic-Con panel in late July on writing, and potential book festivals through autumn, should I wish to participate.
Other Projects
I’ve not sat still in between all these things, which is very on brand for me! As you may know, I’ve started a new speculative fiction publishing imprint with my husband, Gareth L. Powell, and we’ve recruited outstanding authors from the genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction to be part of our first book, a cross-genre anthology.
We are crowdfunding this book and our imprint to get it up and running. Head here to see the tiers available (as well as the authors listed!) and the benefits you’ll receive from your donation. We’re having the company website built right now, and the cover art for this first anthology is nearly finished. We will showcase these in mid July of this year. The anthology itself is slated for publication in early 2025.
In writing, I’ve got novels and a novella underway spanning my cross-genre interests, but all of them are speculative fiction, whether in space or on Earth. I should finish the novella soon, and then finish each novel according to its progress in succession over the remaining course of the year. I’ve got a book on submission I’m waiting to hear back about, and another contract for a different book hopefully headed my way soon. I don’t announce things officially until contracts are signed and publishers give the go-ahead.
So…if you’ve made it reading this far, I thank you. It’s been a wild year. I’m probably leaving something out! But I hope, for the remainder of the year, things are quieter, so that I can write. Because 2025 will be nonstop, with book releases, travel, conventions, and more news to come. Head to my books page to find all my current and upcoming works and find additional links on my LinkTree.
Write on!
Jendia