The Rondo Awards, named after Rondo Hatton, an obscure B-movie villain of the 1940s, honor the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation.
The voting public submitted more than 6,500 ballots arrived, shattering previous records. A Rondo Awards Ceremony will be held June 1 at the WonderFest Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.
This year’s Rondo Awards memorialized horror historian David J. Skal, who died in January, by creating a new award in his name. The David J. Skal Horror Research Award recognizes “revelatory examinations of horror history.” The first Skal Award was given to Jim Coughlin, who examined the largely unknown career of Ted Billings, who had a minor role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), but appeared unbilled in hundreds of other films.
In individual categories, Sam Irvin, author of The Epic Saga Behind Frankenstein The True Story, an NBC TV movie, was voted Best Writer, Mark Maddox was voted Best Artist, Lee Hartnup was voted Best Fan Artist, and Tim Lucas was tagged as Best Blu-Ray commentator.
Three Special Recognition Rondos were awarded: To the late Ned Comstock, a USC Film Archivist who helped horror historians for decades; to Vanessa Harryhausen, daughter of pioneering stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen; and to Chris Endicott, who helped finish the late Dave Allen’s stop-motion film, The Primevals. Bobby Zier, a young online influencer who uses TikTok and YouTube to explain classic horror films to his followers, was named Monster Kid of the Year.
Inductees to Rondo’s Monster Kid Hall of Fame were convention organizer Anthony Taylor, Don and Vicki Smeraldi, editors of several monster magazines, actress and writer Barbara Crampton, film historians Walt Lee and Donald C. Willis, and writer David J. Schow.
The Filk Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to filk over the years as performers, organizers, and facilitators. New inductees are announced annually during FilKONtario.
The inductees for 2024 are:
Rand Bellavia and Adam English
Seanan McGuire
Eric and Jen Distad
The website will soon be adding citations and photos.
Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang is the champion of Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #9 sponsored by Mark Lawrence. In 11 months of hard work by ten blogs, 300 books were whittled down to 10 finalists, and then to today’s winner. Click to see the finalists scoreboard.
What is Murder at Spindle Manor about?
For Huntress Isabeau Agarwal, the countryside inn is the last stop in a deadly hunt. Armed with gaslamp and guns, she tracks an insidious beast that wears the skin of its victims, mimicking them perfectly. Ten guests reside within Spindle Manor tonight, and the creature could be any one of them. Confined by a torrential thunderstorm and running out of time, Isabeau has until morning to discover the liar, or none of them—including her—will make it out alive.
But her inhuman quarry isn’t the only threat residing in Spindle Manor….
…Someone has been killed, and a hunt turns into a murder investigation. Now with two mysteries at her feet and more piling up, Isabeau must navigate a night filled with lies and deception. In a world of seances and specters, mesmers and monsters, the unexpected is hiding around every corner, and every move may be her last.
SPFBO 10 COMPETITION. SPFBO 10 (SPFBOX) will open to entries on Friday, May 10 at 1:00 p.m. GMT. The link will be posted here.
Mark Lawrence says, “Since SPFBO 9 filled its 300 slots in ~40 minutes, a different system will be used this year so that people in some time zones don’t have to get up in the middle of the night. The entry form will stay open for 24 hours. After it’s closed 300, manuscripts will be randomly selected from the pool of those who have signed up….”
Mary Keenan The Canadians (Killin’ Time in San Diego), Down & Out Books
donalee Moulton, Troubled Water, Black Cat Weekly (Wildside Press)
Zandra Renwick, American Night, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
The Best French Language Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)
Jean-Philippe Bernié, La punition, Glénat Québec
Chrystine Brouillet,Le mois des morts, Éditions Druide
Catherine Lafrance, Le dernier souffle est le plus lourd, Éditions Druide
André Marois, La sainte paix, Héliotrope
Jean-Jacques Pelletier, Rien, Alire
Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book
sponsored by Shaftesbury Films with a $500 prize (Fiction and Nonfiction)
Kelley Armstrong, Someone is Always Watching, Tundra Books
Cherie Dimaline, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Tundra Books
Rachelle Delaney, The Big Sting, Tundra Books
Clara Kumagai, Catfish Rolling, Penguin Teen Canada
Kevin Sands, Champions of the Fox, Puffin Canada
The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book
sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton), with a $300 prize
Josef Lewkowicz and Michael Calvin, The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Michael Lista, The Human Scale, Véhicule Press
David Rabinovitch, Jukebox Empire, Rowman & Littlefield
Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen, Cheated, ECW Press
Carolyn Whitzman, Clara at the Door with a Revolver, UBC Press, On Point Press
Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished author
Tom Blackwell, The Patient
Craig H. Bowlsby, Requiem for a Lotus
Sheilla Jones and James Burns, Murder on Richmond Road: An Enquiry Bureau Mystery
Nora Sellers, The Forest Beyond
William Wodhams, Thirty Feet Under
2024 Grand Master Award
Maureen Jennings
Established in 2014, the Grand Master (GM) Award recognizes a Canadian crime writer with a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.
Maureen Jennings, a long-time Crime Writers of Canada member, is a prolific author of non-fiction, short stories and book series featuring Christine Morris, Detective Murdoch, and D.I. Tom Tyler. The Detective William Murdoch television series, set in Victorian era Toronto, was optioned in 2003 by Shaftesbury Films. Murdoch Mysteries are shown in over 120 countries and feature innovative crime-solving techniques, social justice subplots and surprise guest appearances.
SPOTTED OWL
Friends of Mystery logo
The winner of the 2024 Spotted Owl Award was announced on March 28 by the Friends of Mystery. The award is for a mystery published during the previous calendar year by an author whose primary residence is Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho or the Province of British Columbia. The winner is:
Breakneck by Marc Cameron
The runners-up were:
2. Dana Stabenow for Not the Ones Dead 3. Dana Haynes for The Saint of Thieves 4. Sam Wiebe for Sunset and Jericho 5. Jon Talton for The Nurse Murders 6. James Bryne for Deadlock 7. Haris Orkin for License to Die 8. Frank Zafiro for Hope Dies Last 9 (tie). Orlando Davidson for Baseline Road and J.A. Jance for Collateral Damage
PINCKLEY PRIZES
The winners of the 2022 and 2023 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction, awarded by the Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans, honor three women writers. The winners receive a financial award of $2,500. This year the prize winners Douaihy and Rothchild participated at the 2024 Tennessee Williams Literary Festival.
2022 Pinckley Prize for Debut Fiction
Sascha Rothchild for Blood Sugar
2023 Pinckley Prize for Debut Fiction
Margot Douaihy for Scorched Grace
2023 Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work
Science fiction and fantasy series were well-represented when the BAFTA Television Craft Awards 2024 were announced on April 28 at a ceremony in London.
The winners of genre interest are listed below. The complete list of winners is in The Hollywood Reporter.
The BAFTA TV Awards will be held on Sunday, May 12 at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
BAFTA TELEVISION CRAFT AWARDS
DIRECTOR: FICTION
PETER HOAR The Last of Us – Sony Pictures Television Studios, PlayStation Productions, Naughty Dog, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, HBO / Sky Atlantic
Writers of the Future 40 Writer winner Jack Nash and Illustrator winner Tyler Vail.
Jack Nash from Arlington, VA, was named the 2024 Grand Prize Writer Winner and Tyler Vail from Bryan, TX was named the 2024 Illustrator Grand Prize Winner at an awards ceremony in Hollywood, CA on April 25.
The event commemorated the dual anniversaries of the 40th Annual Writers of the Future and the 35th Annual Illustrators of the Future L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards, with emcee Gunhild Jacobs, Executive Director of Author Services, Inc.
Winners from this year’s competitions hailed from all over the United States, as well as from Canada, China, Malaysia, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In the week before the Awards Gala, all the winners of the 2024 contests were mentored in seminars led by contest judges to prepare them for their respective professions.
Joni Labaqui, Director of the Contests for Author Services, Inc. who oversaw the presentations of the Grand Prize Awards, said, “The theme for our awards show this year is ‘Shaman Dreams,’ as depicted on the cover of the Volume 40 anthology created by Illustrators of the Future judge, Dan dos Santos, to which Writers of the Future judge S.M. Sterling has crafted a story about a young woman shaman, a Starcatcher, with magical powers.”
The event was streamed live via the website, www.writersofthefuture.com. John Goodwin, President of Galaxy Press, added: “According to United Public Radio Network, this year’s awards show was seen by 50,000 viewers on Roku, 10,000 on Amazon and was heard by 1.2 million listeners via the livestream broadcast.”
Writer’s Contest Coordinating Judge Jody Lynn Nye and Oson Scott Card announced writer Jack Nash as the 2024 Golden Pen Award winner, presenting him a trophy and check for $5,000 for his story, “Son, Spirit, Snake,” which was illustrated by Pedro N.
Coordinating Illustrator Contest Judge Echo Chernik and Bob Eggleton announced illustrator Tyler Vail as the 2024 Golden Brush Award winner presenting him a trophy and a check for $5,000. Tyler Vail illustrated writer John Eric Schleicher’s story, “Squiddy.”
The 12 Quarterly Winners who were presented with trophies and cash prizes included: Stephannie Tallent of Hermosa Beach, CA; Galen Westlake of Ontario, Canada; John Eric Schleicher of Missoula, MT; Rosalyn Robilliard (Rose Robilliard of Tameside, UK and Alice Robilliard of Norwich, UK); Sky McKinnon of Seattle, WA; James Davies of Mount Airy, MD; Lance Robinson of Ontario, Canada; Kal M of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Lisa Silverthorne of Las Vegas, NV; Jack Nash of Arlington, VA; Tom Vandermolen of Seattle, WA and Amir Agoora of Southington, CT.
The 12 Quarterly Winners of the 2024 Illustrator’s Contests who were presented with trophies and cash prizes, and one 2023 Quarterly Illustrator Winner included: Selena Meraki of Limburg, Netherlands; Carina Zhang of Providence, RI; Arthur Haywood of Tulsa, OK; May Zheng of Belle Mead, NJ; Tyler Vail of Bryan, TX; Ashley Cassaday of Trophy Club, TX; Jennifer Mellen of Layton, UT; Gigi Hooper of Newberg, OR; Pedro N. of Porto, Portugal; Guelly Rivera of Lemoore, CA; Steven Bentley of Portland, OR; and Connor Chamberlain of Corstophine, Dunedin, New Zealand. Additionally, Chris Arias of Cartago, Costa Rica, a 2023 Fourth Quarter Illustrator Winner and Guest Artist in Volume 40, received his awards, as he wasn’t able to attend last year’s awards ceremony.
Distinguished and renowned Writer Contest Judges in attendance included: Kevin J. Anderson, Dr. Gregory Benford, Orson Scott Card, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Katherine Kurtz, Todd McCaffrey, Rebecca Moesta, Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Larry Niven, Jody Lynn Nye, Dr. Nnedi Okorafor, Timothy Thomas “Tim” Powers, Dr. Robert J. Sawyer, S.M. Stirling and Dean Wesley Smith.
Distinguished and renowned Illustrator Contest Judges in attendance included: Echo Chernik, Lazarus Chernik, Bob Eggleton, Craig Elliott, Brian C. Hailes, Brittany “Bea” Jackson, and Rob Prior.
The annual Contests draw entrants from around the globe and are free to enter. Winners retain full rights to their work, and each is given cash awards.
The Agatha Awards honor the “traditional mystery,” books typified by the works of Agatha Christie and others. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore or gratuitous violence, and are not classified as “hard-boiled.”
BEST CONTEMPORARY MYSTERY NOVEL
Tara Laskowski. The Weekend Retreat
BEST HISTORICAL MYSTERY NOVEL
Sujata Massey. The Mistress of Bhatia House
DEBUT
Daphne Silver. Crime and Parchment
NONFICTION
Anjili Babbar. Finders: Justice, Faith, and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction
CHILDREN | YOUNG ADULT
Kate Jackson. The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary
SHORT STORY
Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski. “Ticket to Ride” in Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Beatles
Nominees for the 55th Seiun Awards, the Japanese speculative fiction award honoring the best works of the previous calendar year, were announced April 24. The winners will be announced July 6 at Yanecon, the 62nd Japan Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Nagano Prefecture.
The award has nine categories. The full list of finalists in Japanese is here. Below are the items shortlisted in the categories for translated works.
BEST TRANSLATED LONG WORK
Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji. Translated by Tsukasa Kaneko
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. Translated by Naoya Nakahara
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Translated by Masayuki Uchida
Civilizations by Laurent Binet. Translated by Akemi Tachibana
The Greenhouse at the End of the World by Kim Cho-yeop. Translated by Kang Bang-hwa
Drunk on All Your Strange New Worlds by Eddie Robinson. Translated by Ken Mogi
Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. Translated by Mayumi Otani
BEST TRANSLATED SHORT WORK
“Solidity” by Greg Egan. Translated by Makoto Yamagishi
“Six Months with Only One Elbow” by Jaroslav Weiss. Translated by Kiyomi Hirano
“Sleepover” by Alastair Reynolds. Translated by Naoya Nakahara
“The Long Way Home” by Fred Saberhagen. Translated by Toru Nakamura
“Exo-Skeleton Town” by Jeffrey Ford. Edited and Translated by: Akemi Tanigaki
The Tomorrow Prize and The Green Feather Award: Celebrity Readings & Honors will take place May 11. The Omega Sci-Fi Project’s culminating event recognizes outstanding new works of science fiction written by Los Angeles County high school students, as well as this year’s winning ecology-themed sf story.
The 2024 finalists’ stories will be read by celebrity guests on Sunday, May 11 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Pacific at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, CA. Register to attend the free event at Brownpapertickets.com.
The winners will receive cash prizes.
First, Second, and Third place Tomorrow Prize winners will receive $250, $150, and $100 USD cash prizes.
The First place Tomorrow Prize winner will be published in L.A. Parent Magazine.
The Green Feather Award is an additional special prize category for an environmentally focused sci-fi story. The winner will receive $250 and online publication by the Nature Nexus Institute.
The top five nominated works were selected. Additional works were included where there was a tie for fifth place. An online awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, August 11, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, with hosts Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson. Details at www.csffa.ca
Best Novel
Bad Cree, Jessica Johns, HarperCollins Canada
The Marigold, Andrew F. Sullivan, ECW Press
Moon of the Turning Leaves, Waubgeshig Rice, Random House Canada
Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Del Rey
The Valkyrie, Kate Heartfield, HarperVoyager
Best Young Adult Novel
The Crystal Key: The Dream Rider Saga, Book 2, Douglas Smith, Spiral Path Books
Flower and Thorn, Rati Mehrotra, Wednesday Books
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Cherie Dimaline, Tundra Books
The Grimmer, Naben Ruthnum, ECW Press
The Stars of Mount Quixx, S.M. Beiko, ECW Press
Best Novelette/Novella
Green Fuse Burning, Tiffany Morris, Stelliform Press
I AM AI, Ai Jiang, Shortwave Media
“The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World”, Nalo Hopkinson,
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, Random House
Pluralities, Avi Silver, Atthis Arts
Untethered Sky, Fonda Lee, Tordotcom
Best Short Story
“At Every Door A Ghost”, Premee Mohamed, Communications Breakdown, MIT Press
“The Dust Bowl Café”, Justin Dill, Augur Magazine, Issue 6.1
“If I Should Fall Behind”, Douglas Smith, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Sept/Oct Issue
“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont”, P.A. Cornell, Fantasy Magazine, Issue 96
“Sink Your Sorrows to the Sea”, Chandra Fisher, Saltwater Sorrows, Tyche Books
Best Graphic Novel/Comic
Atana and the Firebird, Vivian Zhou, HarperCollins
A Call to Cthulhu, Norm Konyu, Titan Nova
Carson of Venus, Ronn Sutton (artist), Martin Powell (writer), and Maggie Lopez (colourist), webcomic
Cosmic Detective, Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt, art by David Rubin, Image Comics
It Never Rains, Kari Maaren, webcomic
The Secret of the Ravens, written and illustrated by Joanna Cacao, with lettering by Kyla Aiko, Clarion Books
Wychwood, Ally Rom Colthoff, webcomic
Best Poem/Song
“As a, I want to, so I can”, Kelley Tai, Heartlines Spec, Issue 2, Spring/Summer 2023
