It looks like it’s time for spec-fic writers to start thinking about award nominations, and I want to point out my short story “Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory,” which appeared in Fantasy Magazine in June 2010.

I think it’s worth some attention.  When it was published, Rich Horton wrote in Locus, “I was impressed last year by Paul M. Berger’s Interzone piece ‘Home Again’.  Now he contributes a brilliant story to Fantasy, one of the stories of the year so far, ‘Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of her Glory’…”  Horton is also including it in his Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2011.

(In his blog this month, Horton called it, “in my opinion of the very top stories of the year” — as long as the missing word is something along the lines of “one,” it works out to be an absurdly flattering compliment.)

The British Science Fiction Association discussed the story as part of their on-line Short Story Club in November, and the comments were strongly mixed, which in that type of forum, is largely a good thing.

It’s 5,500 words, which puts it in the Short Story category.  Please keep it in mind when you’re making your picks for the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy awards!