If you’re a fan of scifi, fantasy, horror, mystery, or any other corner of speculative fiction/genre fiction, don’ forget to vote in the annual Critters Readers Poll – a reckoning from fandom of the most interesting, most exciting, or just plain best offering from indie publishers during calendar year 2023.

VOTING ENDS 6:00 a.m. (Eastern USA time) MONDAY, JANUARY 15. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

I’m a little sad that, because of publishing schedules, I didn’t have any eligible titles come out in 2023 (hold on to your proverbial hats, 2024 should more than make up for that). My successes in the Critters’ Poll over the years have been very important for establishing my career as a writer, both critically and commercially. But, even without yours truly, some amazing works have received nominations this year.

As a way to get really easy blog content, I thought I’d talk about some of the nominees I vote for (and why).

For Best Mystery Novel: Radcliffe by Madeleine D’Este, from Deadset Press. If you’re someone I talk about books with or if you follow my blog (where she’s a regular guest poster, including the excellent “official playlists” for her titles), you’re already familiar with Madeleine. She writes Australian-focused fiction, often with a supernatural element, and has true gift for stories exploring the intersection of quirky personalities and bizarre locations. Radcliffe, the story of eccentric residents of a lonely apartment on the outskirts of Melbourne, is her superlative work in that regard. (She’s also an upcoming 18thWall Productions author!)

For Best Steampunk Short Story: “The Falcon and The Goose” by David Lee Summers, in the anthology Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk from eSpec Books. Summers is southwestern author whose work does several things I adore: including weaving historical events into his fiction and using historical figures in cameos or even not-so-cameos. “The Falcon & The Goose” pits one of the turn-of-the-last-century’s greatest rail engineers against two of its most notorious outlaws in a life-or-death rail vs. airship race.

For Best Anthology: the aforementioned Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk from eSpec Books. Among all the various [x]punk genres, Cyberpunk and steampunk are favorites (and I may have some interesting things to say about clockpunk in a year or two), but Dieselpunk has a special place in my heart. But, like all the other [x]punks, Dieselpunk has style-over-substance problem. By focusing on the folks who make the technology go, “Grease Monkeys” sidesteps that problem and delivers an anthology of solid stories about the nuts, bolts, and grease of a different reality.

Additionally, all other things being equal, anything from Third Flatiron Publishing is usually going to have both the quality and the spin to get my vote.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Go vote! And I’ll see you on the nomination list next year. 😉