“Baptism of Fire” is a nominee for the 2018 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Award

The nominations for the 2018 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards, which are run by the small press Bards & Sages, were announced today.

I was going to put the link to the announcement into the weekly link round-ups at the Speculative Fiction Showcase and the Indie Crime Scene respectively, but first I took a gander at the list of nominees and all but fell from my chair, because there, a bit down the page, was my name. For it turns out that “Baptism of Fire”, my contribution to the science fiction anthology The Guardian, edited by Alasdair Shaw, has been nominated in the “Best short story” category. I had absolutely no idea about this, until I saw the nominee list.

“Baptism of Fire” is a prequel story to my In Love and War series and features Anjali on her first very mission with the Shakyri Corps. The story was originally written during the 2017 July short story challenge. You can either get it as part of The Guardian, together with ten other great science fiction stories, or as a standalone edition for series completists.

I’m really happy about this nomination and thrilled to be in the company of so many other great books and stories by indie and small press authors, so many congratulations to my fellow nominees and thank you to everybody who nominated me.