The BSFA’s Short Story Club has ended, and they are in the post-mortem phase now.  My “Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory” got some of the harsh treatment I expected, but it looks like my story polarized the group more than most, and the discussion also included a few comments from people who thought it worked.  Even the criticism was generally thoughtful, helpful feedback, and I was glad to have it (with the possible exception of the one that suggested people only liked my story because they had been fooled into it by the cool title).

This process was made a lot more bearable by the fact that halfway through the week, while those comments were still coming in, I was notified that Rich Horton had picked the story for inclusion in his The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011.  I got the email while I was sitting in a reading at the KGB Fantastic Fiction series, so I was able to turn around and share the news with my friends and several big-shot pro writers and editors.  To make the evening even more surreal, that day was my birthday, and the co-host of the series, my buddy Matt Kressel, led the audience in singing “Happy Birthday.”

Prime Books announced the TOC for the anthology today.

That’s me down at the bottom:  “And More.”

There are several names that mean a lot to me in this list (including Neil Gaiman, whom I was fortunate to have as a Clarion instructor), and I am floored to be sharing a book with them.

Here’s the whole TOC: