It's aliiiiiive!!! (For relative values thereof....)

[djonn]

[blowing dust off furniture]

Yeesh, you would think whoever was living here would dust more often....

I really, really need to start posting more than once every year and a half. Let's call that a New Year's resolution and see where it gets me.

 ////

So, the Very Very Short Status Report for anyone still hovering in the gallery:

I remain comfortably ensconced in the southwestern quadrant of Darkest Suburbia™, amid entirely too much clutter and too many unsorted boxes (but am verrry slowwwwly working through both these).  I still have a day job in grocery retail, which is highly useful where things like regular income and decent health coverage are concerned. At present the paid writing career is almost entirely dormant, although I am doing a fair amount of purely-for-fun writing under another hat, and I keep meaning to regenerate the more profitable side of things.

On the family front: the Kid Brother and family are busily enduring the current dystopia in Southern California (both he and my sister-in-law teach in the LAUSD system). My niece and nephew are occupied in various parts of the (virtual) collegiate universe, while Mother is in memory care - but otherwise mostly excellent health for almost-90 - just down the street and around the corner from here as I type. I am two weeks or so past a Milestone Birthday, and have been playing "Just No Time At All" from Pippin on my various music-generating devices in nominal protest. ["I believe if I refuse to grow old, I can stay young till I die!"]

One part of the enormous supply of unsorted boxes consists of manuscripts comprising a great variety of short memoirs my father wrote over a period of years; there's a lot of good stuff in there, and another of my long-term projects will involve consolidating and editing that material. Much of it will likely remain within the family, but there's also some potentially publishable work in there. There are also additional manuscripts from *his* father (who published a book of native Northwest legends 90-odd years ago), and there may be hidden gems there to evaluate.

And that's the general state of the universe in this corner of Darkest Suburbia just now.

Comments

[jreynoldsward]

Oh dear, you've figured out My Evil Plan.....

Looks like Endeavour is in hiatus for this year as is the Neukom. But The Heritage of Michael Martiniere is in a different award year so I'm hoping (I've got some real hopes for Heritage and the Neukom).

I did get Inheritance sent to the Oregon Book Awards and applied for a fellowship or whatever. Heritage will be going next year. It's the one I'm polishing for that purpose. But I'm also looking for awards for Inheritance this year as well. I've been getting told by Fishtrap workshop instructors that I write well (including some NYT bestsellers). It's...time.

[djonn]

Sounds like you have your ducks largely in line.

One thought not specifically award-related: you might look into the Oregon Historical Society's "Holiday Cheer" author event, which normally goes off the first Sunday of December in Portland (but was, obviously, cancelled this year). They have, however, opened the applications for the 2021 event on the OHS Web site, and that's one that would be wise to lock in early if you're at all interested. [They have in recent years become much more open to indie authors; there's not generally been much SF, but mystery and lit-fic are common, the event is always packed, and it's an affluent, potentially influential readership.]

As to other awards...hmm. Two you've probably thought of already would be the Philip K. Dick and the Pacific NW Booksellers' Association. If I were casting my net wider (and without being sure of the application processes), I think the two biggies I'd be most inclined to look into would be PEN America's and the Andrew Carnegie Medals (awarded by the American Library Association). One other thought, depending on specifics of setting: the Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America are, from what I gather, very much *not* limited to category-Westerns of the old sort (and seem to be pretty well respected nowadays). If any of your current cluster qualify, that might be one to check out.

[jreynoldsward]

This is really helpful, thanks! The biggest challenge I have with the Philip K. Dick is figuring out who the judges are. Did not know about the Pacific NW Booksellers' Association. I looked at the Spur and for some reason I can't now remember decided that I didn't qualify. But I may take another look.